After having looked at the teacher attitudes towards L1 use it seemed only logical to look at the attitudes of the students as they are the ones who have the use of multiple languages.
A study has been conducted by Schweers Jr. (1999) in an English Foreign Language classroom in Puerto Rico. The study focused on four teachers at a University level. The data was collected by “recording a 35 minute sample from three classes at the beginning middle and end of the semester” (Schweers Jr, 2003) in order to determine how and why the used their L1. The teachers and students in these sessions were also asked to answer a questionnaire about their own attitudes towards L1 in the classroom. Schweers Jr.(2003) found that the students in these groups felt that Spanish should be used during their lessons to which the teachers specified that they all used Spanish during their classes. The students also felt that by using Spanish during their English lessons it helped to facilitate their learning. In addition to Schweer’s Jr’s research on Spanish and English bilinguals, Du (2016) also focused on L1 Spanish use in an L2 English foreign language classroom. His study consisted of five learner’s of Spanish found that the L1 can be beneficial when learning an additional language as it acts as a “psychological tool that allows leaner’s to collaborate with others in order to complete meaning based language tasks” (Du, 2016). Expanding on this research, another study was conducted which focused on “Spanish student’s (L1) who were learning to write in English (L2) found that the L1 was essential for making meaning out the text, retrieving language from memory, exploring and expanding content, guiding their action through tasks and maintaining dialogue” (Du, 2016: p.27)
Huang, as cited in Carless (2008) conducted a study on a writing class in a Taiwan University in order to gauge the students attitudes towards the use of their L1. It was found that the students felt that “L1 use should not exceed no more than 25% of class time” whilst also emphasising that they preferred the use of the L1 when “brainstorming ideas and explaining difficult ideas and concepts” (Careless, 2008).
In many cases a lot of the students are resistant towards leaning an additional language (Osswald, 2010) as they feel that they are going to loose their identity and culture if they assimilate to the use of the L2 as their main language. However, by incorporating the use of the L1 into these classrooms it shows the students that can maintain their cultural identity and in the future it may increase the number of students who choose to take on an additional language.
Therefore, students views should be taken into consideration more as they are the ones that are ultimately affected by either implementing or excluding the use of their L1 in the foreign language classroom.