Jurnal JOEPALLT Volume 9 Number 02 September 2021 ISSN 2338-3739 (Print) ISSN 2614-8099 (online) https://jurnal.unsur.ac.id/jeopallt Authors: Itha Priyastiti Copyright ©2021 JOEPALLT Journal of English Pedagogy, Linguistics, Literature, and Teaching 1 THE USE OF FIRST LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS Itha Priyastiti ipriyastiti@unkriswina.ac.id Universitas Kristen Wira Wacana Sumba ABSTRACT Discussions of the second language (L2) pedagogy have been studied not only in the language and education fields. Experts working in the psychology field also propose theories on applied linguistics because L2 acquisitions involve external and internal processes. However, despite numerous studies on the field, it appears that an issue regarding the use of first language (L1) still creates continuous debates. Although arguments opposing the use of first L1 present compelling theories as to their rationale, they appear to overlook the context in which teaching and learning process takes place. The studies were either conducted in English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL), where teachers are native speakers who do not share the same L1 with students. Considering the uniqueness in classroom contexts, this paper is not going to argue or take sides on the conflicting views on the use of L1. Instead, it attempts to acknowledge the gap of the context in language teaching used in previous studies. Using a sociocultural theory, this article will describe the beneficial use of L1 with a focus on its use by teachers in an EFL context where teachers share the same L1 with students. Keywords: first language, English as a Foreign Language, sociocultural theory INTRODUCTION Speaking of teaching and learning approaches, the use of first language (L1) in English classrooms has created rooms for debates in the second language acquisition discussions. It is believed that when individuals learn a new language, they follow the same process as the first language acquisition. Unfortunately, perceived from the view, it is argued that L1 carries potential errors because it may initiate language transfer (Selinker & Lakshmanan, 1993). Departed from the argument, teachers need to minimize any possible errors during the second language learning process to maximize the mastery of the new language. Another notion opposing the use of L1 relates to students’ motivation. It is argued that giving maximum exposure to TL will send a message on the language importance. Therefore, it will encourage positive ambiance, enhance learners’ motivation as they see the importance of the language, and eventually, provide learners with greater opportunity to learn (Turnbull, 2001; Turnbull & Arnett, 2002). In other words, the use of L1 is prone to major risks to learners’ language development; and hence, the use of exclusive target language (TL) is perceived as more plausible. Despite numerous writings showing strong support for the monolingual way of teaching English as the target language, there are some gaps in the context of discussion. Firstly, most articles underlined their points of support to the use of maximum TL, appear to heavily rely on second language acquisition (SLA) theories. An article by Derakhshan and Karimi (2015), which