The use of the mother tongue in teaching English and FrenchĆorković, Dijana (Avtor) Skela, Janez (Mentor) Lah, Meta (Mentor) In general it was believed that there was little or no place for the mother tongue in the foreign-language learning and teaching, because it was perceived as an obstacle. There are no existent researches that would support that belief, but there are researches that show how students and teachers can make use of the mother tongue in such a way that they can benefit from it if they avoid the dangers of its overuse. Considering the amount of the mother tongue used in teaching, we distinguish between two opposite poles: between the grammar-translation method on one side and the linguistic bath on the other (complete absence of the mother tongue). If the teacher knows how to use the mother tongue effectively, it speeds up the learning process and enables the students to learn the foreign language by the help of concepts with which they are already familiar. Foreign language acquisition is complex, thus the need for knowing the different approaches. The majority of today's national curricula in the world, including Slovenia, are based on the communicative language teaching. That approach was adopted by the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR) for a more practical language teaching. The empirical part showed that the mother tongue was present and used by the students and the teachers. They agreed that its use in English was inevitable and useful. The results were similar in French, which is far less present in Slovenia than English.[D. Ćorković]20162018-05-31 11:47:36Magistrsko delo/naloga101387UDK: 81'243.37.091.3(043.2)COBISS_ID: 60931426sl