The use of the mother tongue in the foreign language classroom has often been officially discouraged; however, many teachers have recognised that in practice using one's own language to learn a foreign language is natural, necessary and efficient.

Using the Mother Tongue offers a variety of practical ways to make use of what is a very valuable resource by
providing ideas and guidelines on when and how to use the mother tongue
encouraging teachers to use the mother tongue selectively and effectively
raising awareness of the similarities and differences between languages
building links between the mother tongue and the foreign language through comparison and translation