Teacher Code-Switching in Senior High School Classrooms: A Case Study

• Main Authors: Ying-chih Lai, 賴盈志
• Other Authors: David S. D. Tseng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/39046944299498545998

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 87 === Codes-switching (CS), an inevitable phenomenon in multi-lingual community, occurs frequently in the language classrooms in Taiwan. It is closely related to language teaching since it can not only help the teachers express themselves clearly and understandably but also provide students more target language input.The present study aimed to investigate senior high school English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ CS, and explored how, when, and where senior high school EFL teachers switched their codes in the classroom. Data were collected through classroom observation, unstructured interviews and questionnaires. Three teachers were observed and their instruction of two lesson units in the same classes were audiotaped. Each tape was transcribed, and then analyzed in terms of CS types and functions. Besides, issues such as when and where teachers switched their codes were also discussed. Comparisons were made between each teacher participants’ CS patterns. Major findings were:First, the teachers most frequently switched between Mandarin and English, especially from Mandarin to English. Most CS cases were continual in terms of meaning continuity, and the linguistic elements of both source and goal languages were usually not complete sentences, but phrases instead.Second, when switching from Mandarin to English, the teachers usually cited references from the teaching materials. On the other hand, they switched from English to Mandarin in order to elaborate their speech.Third, the teachers tended to modify their use of CS as the instructional phases or episodes changed.Fourth, after comparing the three teachers’ use of CS, it was found that their CS patterns were generally the same. However, their CS patterns would change due to various factors such as teaching methods and students’ learning attitudes.Suggestions for English teaching were also made to build up the portfolio of students’ language background and their need on the timing of using CS, and to avoid citing references directly but transform them in the way that was more comprehensible to the students and to look for the optimal CS, which could not only take care of students’ comprehension but increase the chances to get access to the target language input. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future studies were also provided.