Trying the new wine Zosia Zosia Grudzin^～ska reflects on her changing attitudes to the role of the mother tongue in the classroom

They say the best lesson in swimming is to be thrown into the deep end and told to fend for yourself. The ‘sink or swim‘ technique, they call it. A tad callous, if you imagine the tears of all the mothers of learners who regrettably did not make it.And there is a question arising: is the harsh pedagogy not a result of the teachers‘ own lamentable experiences as learners?Were tbey once kicked off the safe edge to splutter and thrash around, feeling panic lest they sink irrevocably to the bottom?