INTRODUCTION

The contemporary learning / teaching of languages is based on the communicative method which highlights the teaching English through English (Willis, 1981). However, the idea of abandoning the native language is too stressful to many learners, who need a sense of security in the experience of learning a foreign language. In the past, the prevalence of grammar-translation method led to the extraordinary phenomenon: students were unable to speak fluently after having studied the language for a long time. For this reason, translation was defined as uncommunicative, boring, pointless, difficult and irrelevant (Duff, 1994). A revival of interest to using a native tongue in the English classroom is caused by the necessity to improve language accuracy, fluency and flexibility. One reason for using the mother tongue in class is that learners are linguistically incapable of activating vocabulary. Another reason is that translation is a natural thing to do in language learning. Moreover, translation can serve as a tool for improving language skills.