'New wine in an old bottle' is a literal translation of a Chinese adage, which means applying new concepts to an old framework. In this paper, I use this adage to describe the revitalization of an old teaching method in the English language classrooms in China.

In recent years, certain unconventional EFL classrooms employing Dodson's (1963) bilingual method have appeared to be popular in China. Initiated in England in the 1960s, Dodson's bilingual method advocates teachers' using learners' mother tongue (L1) in the initial phases of foreign language instruction (L2). Developed on the basis of Dodson's model, the bilingual method practised in early EFL classrooms in China is notably different from its prototype in the use of bilingual English-Chinese textbooks, as, in the original model, teaching materials are monolingual in the foreign language (L2) only. This unique combination of both an old teaching methodology of the bilingual method together with the use of the bilingual English-Chinese text seems to fit very well within China's EFL situation and at the same time, echoes the increasingly positive research reports in the literature on using mother tongue (L1) in second/foreign language (L2) classrooms.

New trend in L2 teaching: Using L1 in L2 classrooms

In recent decades, one of the most salient issues in the Western educational studies is bilingual education, which subscribes to the belief that the learner's native language or mother tongue (L1) can be used to facilitate the teaching of a second or foreign language (L2). The large quantity of research in the field as well as the flourishing of various forms of bilingual education programs has opened the way to the development of a whole new area of language teaching methodology, and pointed to the positive role of the learner's native language in teaching him/her a new language. In this scenario, language teachers and researchers alike have started to re-evaluate the role of the mother tongue (L1) in second/foreign language (L2) classrooms, and to develop ways to best incorporate the mother tongue into the L2 language teaching so as to benefit the L2 learners (see Rinvolucri, 2001: 44).

Innovative EFL classrooms

In line with the new trend, many fresh innovative EFL teaching approaches have emerged in China, one of which is the bilingual method. In the early innovative EFL classrooms in China, L1 is used in two ways: one is in oral interpretation of meaning during the teacher's instruction, and the other is in the written text as parallel translation for English, the foreign language (L2). It is the use of L1 in the written text as the bilingual text that makes these foreign language classrooms notably different from Dodson's (1963) bilingual method prototype and that makes such EFL classrooms stand out as innovative.

Unlike traditional EFL teaching, where teachers resort to the use of Chinese when they need to explain meaning, or clarify instructions or grammatical points, teachers of the bilingual method use Chinese to stimulate the English equivalents from pupils. In fact, they switch between Chinese and English in almost everything they say not for the purpose of translation but to reinforce the formation of a bilingual situation. In conjunction with the new bilingual teaching method, bilingually presented textbooks with parallel presentation of both Chinese (character) and English are employed in such early innovative EFL classrooms to intentionally create a bilingual environment for children along with the aid of pictures, songs, rhymes, games, storytelling and play-acting (Zhao & Dai, 1994), and to foster a bilingual-like competence in the long run.

As a comprehension-based language teaching method, the new bilingual approach moves teachers away from the grammatical syllabus that focused on instruction of the formal structure of language such as grammar and mechanics, and directs them towards a learner-oriented language teaching that centres on meaning and understanding. After years of trial in some Chinese kindergartens and primary schools, the innovative bilingual teaching method seems to be as good as, if not better than, form-focused instruction in building children's English competence in listening, speaking, and reading by providing young learners with comprehensible language input (Luo et al., 1995; Zhao, 1998; Zhao & Dai, 1994).

Advantages of the innovative bilingual teaching method

The early innovative EFL classrooms which feature the combined use of Chinese, the mother tongue, in both the teacher's oral instruction and the textbook's written presentation seem to have several advantages. Firstly, the availability of the meaning of the foreign language could prevent the learner's wasteful guessing for meaning, and realize Krashen's advocacy of 'comprehensible input' in the real sense. By using the mother tongue, meaning is established immediately with the foreign language in the initial phases of foreign language instruction and this guarantees that the learning of EFL takes place on the premise of good understanding.

Secondly, the innovative bilingual teaching method intentionally creates a bilingual environment during the language class and facilitates a somewhat balanced development in both the learner's L1 and L2. In the early innovative EFL classrooms, the visual support of the written presentation through the bilingually presented English-Chinese text plays a supplementary role in the bilingual method of teaching in facilitating young EFL beginners' comprehension and is thus supportive of foreign language learning. The bilingual text establishes meaning immediately through the availability of the L1 equivalent in the text, and together with the teacher's bilingual instruction, a conceptual link between the form and the meaning of the L2 version gets doubly enforced through both audio and visual channels of the learner, thus considerably improving compre-hension and learning. The constant comparison and contrast of both the pronunciation and written forms between the two languages not only reinforces the internalization of new words and basic structures of the foreign language, but also helps the formation of the conceptual link between the foreign language and the concept embodied. In the long run, the children could be helped to achieve automatic control of correct forms of both languages, as true bilinguals.

Finally, the use of L1 in the innovative bilingual method complies with a natural tendency to acquire meaning in the early stages of L2 learning. Since child beginners are immature, they may well turn away from the monolingual text in the foreign language only, which is unfamiliar to them. Under the innovative bilingual method, however, the bilingual textbook in both the mother tongue (L1) and the foreign language (L2) gives the young L2 learners certain insurance that the availability of the mother tongue equivalent is something they can always turn to, and they are in no risk of being nowhere in the meaning searching process of the EFL learning. In this sense, the L1 translation of the bilingual text helps to facilitate learning by removing affective barriers that are common among early-stage L2 learners, and by offering a feeling of security for the young learners as well. As a result, the use of L1 in the innovative bilingual teaching method could enhance the young L2 learners' confidence about their ability to learn the L2 and their learning motivation. Besides, since no elaborate equipment is demanded, the method is deemed to be particularly suitable for adoption in even the most poorly equipped schools.

Conclusion

With the development of modern science and technology, the world is becoming smaller and smaller with nations drawing closer together both politically and economically. Under such circumstances, the need for individuals to develop multilingual competence is greater than ever. It has even been assumed that individual bilingualism in the form of a widespread command of a world language in addition to one's own vernacular is bound to be a common situation throughout the world (Hammarberg, 2001). Thus, an imperative demand on language teachers is to develop programs that promote higher levels of bilingual proficiency than those offered by traditional foreign language models.

Now that English has been functioning more or less as the tacitly agreed world language, the challenge faced by those language teachers who teach English as a foreign language (EFL) are greater. In countries like China, the dominant language viz. Chinese, is typologically remote from and genetically unrelated to English, and there is practically no English reinforcement from the outside (primarily Chinese-speaking) environment. Besides, most of the English teaching studies to date have taken place in an ESL context, which is quite different from the EFL one, and are therefore not always applicable to the EFL classroom. Accordingly, the EFL teachers have to explore ways that fit in with their own teaching environment to nurture the bilingual development of the learners to become truly competent bilinguals. As one of such endeavors, the bilingual method currently promoted in China unfolds possible new avenues in EFL teaching.

References

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Hammarberg B (2001) Roles of L1 and L2 in L3 production and acquisition. In J Cenoz, B Hufeisen & U Jessner (Eds.), Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition: Psychological Perspectives, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Luo Y, Zhao H, Wu G & Dai S (1995) Theoretical foundations for 'happy bilingual' teaching methodology. Research on Educational Science, 4, 37-39

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Zhao H (1998) A probe into children's bilingual acquisition. In T Zhu (Ed.), Collected papers on foreign-language teaching research, China: Sichuan University Press

Zhao H & Dai S (Dec. 2, 1994) A probe into 'bilingual' education. Educational Leader