Abstract：Abstract: There exist in fact two kinds of “Foreign Language Teaching and Learning”, with one laying more emphasis on “teaching” and the other on “learning”. The former tends to exclude students’ mother-tongue in foreign language teaching whereas the latter utilizes it as a means to promote learning. This article holds that mother-tongue proficiency is the cornerstone for foreign language study and calls for the strengthening of contrastive linguistics to meet the growing needs of foreign language study facing China now.
Key words: foreign language teaching and learning; mother-tongue; contrastive study
