[clivehawkins]

Hi Bagga,
I agree with using 'classroom English' from day 1, and insisting it is used from then on.

I also agree that dancing around an item of vocab for 10 minutes is counter-productive and I too will either tell them in L1 (occasionally) or get them to use one of the numerous bilingual dictionaries we have in class. (asking me in the first place is just laziness - taking the time to use a dictionary is also good practice)

However, I don't quite agree with insisting on English only (or almost) as a bad thing. They come to me to learn the language. They are exposed to very little English as it is (3 hours a week in most cases) and those three hours should be in English. They don't pay good money to hear me speak bad Italian or to chat in Italian with their classmates. It goes back to the point of insisting on classroom English - it's easier for them to ask me in L1 what something means, and often easier for me to answer in their language. It's human nature to take the easy option, but at the end of the day have I done the most I could for these students? Personally I'd say no. From personal experience, the classes where I let them get away with the easy option have a noticeably inferior level to those where we suffer a bit at the start but then move on at a much greater pace further down the line.

Anyway, it's just opinion at the end of the day. It's nice to hear other points of view.