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Motivation Research on Chinese-English Code-switching on Campus

Author: ChenHaiYan
Tutor: ZhangXiuMing
School: Xiamen University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: Chinese-English Code-switching Motivation Campus Empirical Study
CLC: H319
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 266
Quote: 2
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Abstract

Code-switching refers to the phenomenon of switching from one language or linguistic variety to another in the same conversation or interaction.Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in China,the communication between China and other countries is becoming more and more frequent.English,as a universal language, places a very important role.Therefore,the Chinese authority attaches great importance to English teaching and more and more people in China have grasped English,especially those college students.Most of them can use both Chinese and English,and it is not rare to see them use Chinese-English code-switching in their daily life on campus.In this thesis,the author has probed into this phenomenon with an aim to find out the students’ motivations for the use of Chinese-English code-switching and has made some discoveries.This thesis consists of five chapters,including introduction of Chapter 1 and conclusion of Chapter 5.Chapter 2 is the literature review,which can be divided into three parts.The first part is the introduction of the terminology adopted in this thesis,including code, code-switching,motivation and code-switching motivation.Besides,the differences between code-switching and code-mixing,code-switching and borrowing are clearly stated.The second part is the introduction of the four theories on code-switching motivations formed home and abroad,including Gumperz’s Situational Code-switching and Metaphorical Code-switching,Myers-Scotton’s Markedness Model,Giles’s Accommodation Theory and Yu Guodong’s Adaptation Model.The last part is about the situation of domestic studies on code-switching motivations, especially those done on campus,and their limitations are pointed out.Basing on these theories,the author decides to conduct the present study with a combination of qualitative and quantitative designs.Chapter 3 focuses on the qualitative research,including its data collection method and major findings.After three months’ careful observation,note-taking and interviews, the author collected 97 examples of the students’ Chinese-English code-switching on campus.Through the analysis of these examples and interviews,altogether 13 motivations are discovered and they are grouped into the three categories proposed by Yu Guodong in his Adaptation Model.The first category is adaptation to the linguistic reality,which contains two main motivations,lexical-gap filling and brain-effort saving.The second category is adaptation to the social conventions,which serves as the third motivation.These three motivations belong to extrinsic motivations.The last category is adaptation to the psychological motivations,which embraces altogether 10 motivations,namely "authenticity keeping","convenience seeking","humor creating", "mitigation","addressee specification","convergence & divergence","explaining", "emphasis","fashion showing" and "English practicing".They are all intrinsic motivations.Chapter 4 describes the quantitative research,involving its purpose,subjects, instrument,data collection,and statistical techniques for data analysis as well as findings and discussions.Through the analysis of the questionnaires completed by 200 postgraduates living on campus,the findings are as follows.Firstly,this research shows that Chinese-English code-switching is a common and popular phenomenon on campus and indicates that it will become more common and popular in the future, which serves as a good proof of the significance of the present study.Secondly,this research shows that college students use Chinese-English code-switching out of extrinsic motivations much more often than intrinsic motivations.Besides,gender differences in the students’ motivations for Chinese-English code-switching are also discovered.Generally speaking,males use Chinese-English code-switching out of intrinsic motivations more often than females,while females use Chinese-English code-switching out of extrinsic motivations more frequently than males.Thirdly,this research shows that there are many differences between English majors and non-English majors in the phenomenon of Chinese-English code-switching.On the whole,English majors not only have more favor toward Chinese-English code-switching,but also conduct this behavior more often than non-English majors.

Motivation Research on Chinese-English Code-switching on Campus

Abstract

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