Sociolinguistics, mother tongue and the choice of a methodology in English language teaching

Abstract

Based on a sociolinguistic approach - the science that studies change and linguistic variation correlated to social factors, whose research methodology was established in Labov’s (2008 [1972]) classic study - different methodologies of English language teaching were analyzed in order to see if these factors may or may not interfere in the students' learning. It can be concluded that, following a "needs analysis" of students, it is possible to create lesson plans that are relevant to their world reality. In this way, the use of the students' mother tongue in the classroom can help to understand the target language (the English language) and the mother tongue (the Portuguese language). This process is accomplished by comparing the similarities and differences between the two languages, enriching the students' learning – as seen in Krulatz et al. (2016). This process also helps to combat the linguistic prejudice existing in the two languages (both foreign and mother tongue).