Code switching in student-student interaction; functions and reasons!

Authors

  • Rita Amorim Centro de Administração e Politicas Públicas; Universidade Técnica de Lisboa

Abstract

Today’s students of English will communicate mostly with non-native speakers, in predominantly non-native speaking environments. English teachers know that if they are to realistically prepare students for international communication, they must focus on speaking activities that promote communicative competence and fluency. Presence of mother tongue in communicative exchanges is frequently detected by teachers in EFL classrooms. This study analyses student-student interaction during a group-work speaking activity, to uncover some of the reasons for code switching (CS). It also presents participants’ perspectives revealing mixed feelings towards this linguistic behaviour, which is sometimes intentional and sometimes unconscious. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how EFL students alternate between foreign language and native language to perform certain pragmatic functions and counter-balance for language deficiencies. It also considers the relationship between students’ language level and the functional character of their switches.

References

Aldendorf, R. 1996. The functions of code switching among high school teachers and students in Kwazulu-Natal and implications for teacher education. In: Bailey, K. & D. Nunan (Eds.) Voices from the Language Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press, 388-406.

Auer, P. 1998. Code-Switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and identity. London: Routledge.

Bailey, M.K. & Nunan, D. 1996. Voices from the Language Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Cook, V. 2002. Portraits of the L2 user. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Eldridge, J. 1996. Code-Switching in a Turkish Secondary School. ELT Journal 50 (4) 303-311.

Gumperz, J. 1982. Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hancock, M. 1997. Behindclassroom code-switching. Layering and language choice in L2 learner interaction. TESOL Quarterly 31 (2): 217-235.

Heller, M. (Ed.) 1988. Code-switching: Anthropological and sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Jenkins, J. 2006. Points of View and blind spots: ELF and SLA. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 16 (2): 137-162.

Jenkins, J. 2009. World Englishes. New York: Routledge.

Martin- Jones, M. 1995. Code switching in the classroom: two decades of research. In: Milroy, L. & P. Muysken (Eds.) One speaker, two languages, cross disciplinary perspectives on code-switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 90-111.

McKay, S. L. & Hornberger, N. H. 1996. Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Milroy, L. & Muysken. P. 1995. (Eds.) One speaker, two languages, cross disciplinary perspectives on code-switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Myers-Scotton, C. & Jake, J. L. 2001. Explaining Aspects of Code-Switching and Their Implications. In: Janet Nichol (Ed.) One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing. Oxford: Blackwell, 84-116.

Nunan, D. & Carter, D. 2001. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Seidlhofer, B. 2001. Closing a conceptual gap: the case for a description of English as a lingua franca. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 11 (2): 133-158.

Sert, Olcay. 2005. The Functions of Code Switching in ELT Classrooms. The internet TESL Journal XI, 8, http://iteslj.org/Articles/Sert-CodeSwitching.html (last accessed on June 23, 2012).

Sridhar, Kamal. 1996. Societal multilingualism.In: Mc Kay, Sandra, Lee & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.) Sociolinguistics and Language teaching. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 47-70.

Published

2017-07-17