Abstract:

In some countries such as Turkey students are taught L3 (English) through L2 (Turkish) but not through L1 (their native language -Kurdish). Do we face any obstacles while the language we are trying to teach our students is not their second language (L2) yet our students’ third language (L3)? Learning L3 could be difficult trough L2 without any reference of these students’ native language. During the course of my ten years of teaching at multiple levels, I realized that the failure rate for my Kurdish students was far higher than the general failure rate for other students who are Turkish or originally Kurdish but cannot speak Kurdish. After realizing this high failure such as low comprehension of reading, grammar, and even vocabulary among these students, I have decided to do a classroom research about this problem. This study aims to find out that students’ opinions of the use of L2 instead of L1 in teaching and learning L3 in order to figure out whether this method is feasible or not. The research has suggested that there is a close relation between the students’ failure and their tendency of learning English through Kurdish rather than Turkish

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