A study on the use of mother tongue intervention in the teaching of reading comprehension in the ESL rural primary schools / Stephen Johing Mupok

The students in SK Siburan (a rural primary school) have difficulties in learning English. This make them fail in their English test. They could not comprehend their reading. They do not understand the meaning of English words especially the new words, new terms and phrases. This affects their oral communication and writing. To help the students understand English during the instructions, teachers in the school use the students’ mother tongue. How important is the alternative approach, besides using teaching aids, authentic materials and body language, the researcher conducted a study on it to find out its effectiveness on the students’ English comprehension skills. For this, the researcher constructed 22 questions under four research questions; 1. Why do teachers prefer to use the students’ mother tongue intervention in English lesson? 2. To what extent do the teachers use the students’ mother tongue intervention in English lesson?