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A Multidimensional Study on Teachers’ Code-switching in EFL College English Classes

Author: YanYan
Tutor: HuangChongZhen
School: Central South University for Nationalities
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: code-switching sociolinguistics syntax psycholinguistics pragmatics conversational analysis
CLC: H319
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 113
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Abstract

Code-switching has been an important research topic in many disciplines: sociology, psychology, linguistics and so on, where there are diversified approaches to code switching. Generally speaking, code switching, a common phenomenon in language contact, permeates bilingual and multilingual society. It refers to circumstances in which a speaker uses two or more than two language varieties. With the year of 1968 witnessed the Bilingual Education Act approved by Congress in the U.S.A., which has aroused numerous studies of code-switching in language classrooms where the term came to refer to the use of two or more languages in foreign language instruction. However, very little research, domestic or foreign, has been made on this prevailing question in university EFL (English as a foreign language) classrooms, especially for non-English majors, a language learning context which has barely received attention from educators and applied linguists.This study aims to explore teachers’code-switching in English classrooms at a university, so as to find Whether teachers switch codes in English classes, what attitudes students and teachers have toward teachers’code-switching, how the Chinese code is employed in classroom interaction, and what factors influence teachers’code-switching. It is intended to present an overall review of studies on code switching, focusing on sociolinguistics, syntax, psycholinguistics, pragmatics and conversational analysis. It has every reason to exist and plays a positive role in foreign language learning.The data of the study came from questionnaires, classroom audio-recordings, and interviews, with classroom recordings serving as the main source of data. The audio recordings of the teacher talk were transcribed to examine the existence of teachers’code-switching, calculate the amount and frequency of the Chinese code, and analyze the functions of the Chinese code in the process of alternation. The subjects of the survey, 120 non-English majors of South-Central University for Nationalities, are selected to be respondents to a questionnaire designed after that of Duff & Polio(1990,p.165)and the one used by Chen Liping(2004),with slight modifications, and altogether 6 teachers of English from School of Foreign Language Education of the same university are recorded when actually giving lectures and interviewed after that recording. The questionnaires and the teacher interviews served to provide basic information of code-switching, including the amount and frequency of the Chinese use, attitudes of students and teachers toward code-switching, students, expectations of the contexts of code-switching, teachers, philosophy of language teaching, and the factors leading to teachers’code-switching.This study sets out to prove the following hypotheses: 1)male students ask for more Chinese used by their teachers than female students; 2) the ideal frequency of teachers’Chinese usage correlate negatively; 3)teachers code-switch in accordance with their philosophy of teaching and perceptions of students’ability, the linguistic reality, etc.; 4)teachers use more inter-sentential code-switching and code-switch more in the direction of English to Chinese; 5)students think positively about teachers’code-switching from English to Chinese no matter whether they actually approve of it or not.The findings fall into several aspects. Teachers’code-switching was still prevalent in university EFL classrooms. It was found that the demographic variables of students’majors and education levels were significantly associated with their requirements for teachers’Chinese usage while there existed variation in the relationship between their genders and the ideal frequency of teachers’Chinese usage. The results also revealed that the vast majority of students believed teachers use Chinese to facilitate their comprehension and thus they welcomed teachers’Chinese usage in grammar instruction, language skills enhancement and culture introduction most.

A Multidimensional Study on Teachers’ Code-switching in EFL College English Classes

Abstract

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