Trying to get a deeper picture of my research, I'll try to tell what I have
already found out. The research is a case study involving the
teacher-researcher (me) and an adolescent student (my daughter), in the
context of individual English classes, mostly conversation classes as
requested by the student, even though she is in the beginning level. She
uses the L1:
1. as a means to construct 'sentences' in the L2; that is, she uses her
knowledge of grammar in L1 to construct sentences in the L2 (translation).
2. She uses mimes or gestures when she doesn't have the lexical item in the
L2.
3. She uses 'code-switching' and 'code-mixing' when she has trouble
expressing herself in the L2.
4. to ask the teacher for lexical items.
5. when the teacher cannot grasp what she meant, that is, to clarify.
6. to confirm her hypothesis.
7. to explain how she formulated a hypothesis (here I can further elaborate
based on your contributions)
8. to direct the teacher's attention to something
9. when an L1 item can better express affective factors (for her)
10. to check teacher's understanding: "entendeu?" (did you get it?)
11. to abandon her line of thought when she realizes it was inadequate.
12. she uses word coinage or 'invents' a term
13. as a tool to retrieve an item in the L2
14. to say something more 'contundently'
15. for metalinguistic analysis
16. to ask for what I have called "emotional help". This use is quite
interesting, IMHO :-) When she is under 'stress'; when she has trouble to
express her ideas and gets anxious or impatient she expresses this using
some L1 phrases even when she knows those in the L2: "nao sei mais o que
falar" (I don't know what to say); "confundiu tudo" (I'm confused); "esqueci
o nome em Portugues ate" (I've forgotten the name even in Portuguese).
In this case I used Verity's account (in Lantolf, 2000) to relate
cognitive processes to emotional states.
Well, as for inner speech and some other instances of L1 use, I'll need some
more time :-)
Thanks again,
Karin
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