Bensalah, MeriemMaamouri, Hanane2018-06-272018-06-272016http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/3626Teachers often use the group work strategy for its facilitating role forboth students and teachers. However, it is noticed that the majority of university students use their MT during the group work instead of the target language.This study aimsat investigating teachers'and students' attitudes towardsthe influence of EFL students' use of theirmother tongue ingroup work discussions on their oral performance.Hence, we hypothesized that the use ofthe mother tongue in group work has a negative effect on EFL students' oral performance.In order tocheck this correlation, a descriptive method is applied.The chosen populationto carry out this research represents all teachers and third year LMDstudents of english as a foreign language (EFL) at the english department,Larbi Ben M'Hidi university,Oum-El-Bouaghi, during the academic year 2015-2016.Two questionnaires were distributed toa sample of30 students and 20 teachers from the selected population.The interpretation and analysis of the results of both questionnaires demonstrated that the EFL students' use of the mother tongue in group work discussions influences their oralperformance negatively. That is tosay, the correlation between the two variables (mothertongue and oral performance) showed that there is a negative relationship. On the basis ofthese findings, our hypothesis isconfirmed.Moreover, the reasons behind using MT by EFL learners during the group work were stated.enOral performonce : group workOther