[eaturcheese]

In Japan at private conversation schools, they discourage native English teachers from using any Japanese. Some schools will have Japanese teachers who teach grammar.

Currently I'm teaching at public elementary schools and kindergartens. I'm not supposed to use Japanese, but I will ask the students how to say the target sentence in Japanese after I give a lot of examples and context. The brighter kids understand, and I know if their translation is accurate. Those students are also a huge help when I demonstrate an activity, and then they can explain it in Japanese to the rest of the class. Sometimes I will let the kids ask me questions in Japanese, and I answer in English. My formal lessons are 45 minutes once a week, so I will occaisionally use a Japanese word or sentence to fill the knowledge gap or explain a concept in a game.

Learning Japanese, I find that I've reached the level where translating everything back and forth isn't helping me improve, and I learn things best in the target language. For students who are just starting out or are low level, using their native language can be helpful. In my adult classes, I even try to teach grammar only in English, and most of the time they have no trouble understanding.

As a general rule, I would avoid using the students' native language unless a moment arises when you need to explain a concept or idea that they are having difficulty grasping.