CC BY
50PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
INFLUENCE OF CODE-SWITCHING IN ENGLISH MEDIUM INSTRUCTION ON MOTIVATION
OF STUDENTS
Meruyert A.
Bachelor of Two Foreign Languages - Suleyman Demirel University Master of Two Foreign Languages University of International Business (current) Almaty High School For Gifted Girls - English Teacher
Almaty city
ABSTRACT
In foreign language teaching there are many linguistic elements that influence the performance of both teachers and learners. Shifting from one language to another during the conversation is considered as one of those factors which is known as Code-switching. This language switching might not be the whole sentence, but also can occur in brief phrases or words. Therefore, in this study, using Code-switching as a medium of instruction was focused on. This investigation is intended to show an analysis of the role that code-switching plays in EFL learners and teachers, especially on motivation of students towards learning the English as it is language of instruction. There were always contradictory opinions about using first language of learners or other languages than English in EFL classroom. This paper has investigated if code-switching is beneficial for learners in educational context and whether or not their motivations or desires towards learning language are affected. A total student sample was 38. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used to collect data.
Keywords: Code-switching, Motivation, Language-in-education, Multilingualism, Bilingualism.
Introduction
It is very important to be able to connect our thoughts and to perform them in a proper way in order to be understood by other people and to be communicatively competent. The person, who knows more than one language, may have difficulties with producing an appropriate language use. He/she might confuse words and their meanings during conversation. So, mixing languages in oral communication is called code-switching.
It is well- known that there is one language is selected as a language of instruction for academic process and it totally affects teachers and learners in the class, and it may influence students' academic performance. If classroom is bilingual or multilingual, it certainly leads to presence of code-switching in learning or instructing process. The regular usage of code-switching can be a blockage for development of learners' motivation towards learning language of instruction. Since code-switching is used too much, learners can be affected and start code-switching too as they get used to it. As teachers instruct the students, mostly learners' opinions and believes aren't considered related to teachers' usage of language, and it is not known how much they are affected by their code-switch or what are their attitudes towards teachers' language mix during the lessons.
So, the goal of this study is to understand the perceptions of students and their opinion on instructors' code- switching from one language into another in educational context.
What if teachers code-switch in EFL classroom? What would be the purposes? What would be the reactions of learners? More important, how their motivations would be affected? This is what researcher's aim is - to find out answers to these questions by investigating on this issue and conducting questionnaires with learners.
Aim: to understand the impact of teachers' codeswitch during the lessons on oral communication skills of students.
Design: Quantitative and Qualitative approach
Participants: Students of Two Foreign Languages Department of Philology Faculty.
Research questions:
1. What are the attitudes of students towards code-switching of teachers in English medium instruction class ?
2. How students' motivation towards learning language is affected by code-switching of teachers ?
Research tools: Questionnaire and (Open-ended Questions)
Literature review
In 1977, Carol Myers-Scotton and William Ury identified code-switching as the "use of two or more linguistic varieties in the same conversation or interaction." [1;p.20] In case of this research education is key environment for determination of functions of code-switching. The focus is language of teaching and learning in EFL classroom.
In 2000, Peter Trudgill examined code-switching in natural environment in terms of multilingual individuals. "Speakers switch to manipulate or influence or define the situation as they wish and to convey nuances of meaning and personal intention". [2] Drawing upon this quotation, we can say that code-switching is used for self-expression and is dynamic depending on an individual's preference. Also, code-switching is used for building personal relationships among members of multilingual or bilingual community. Therefore, code-switching is a tool for showing linguistic solidarity to those individuals who share the same ethno-cultural identity. These functions are applicable for language classrooms, since classroom is a small society where students are connected as in natural settings. Functions
of teachers' code switching are also taken into consideration, since topic of research is based on language-in-education.
Functions of teacher's code-switching were investigated by Mattsson, A & Burenhult-Mattsson, N. in 1999: "Code-switching necessarily serves some basic functions which may be beneficial in language learning environments. These functions are listed as topic switch, affective functions, and repetitive functions." [3; p.59] Milroy and Myusken (1995) classify the habit of code-switching into three different types: Inter-sentential, Intra-sentential and Tag-switching. [4] Each of these cases of code-switching has its own explanations according to various situations. Most of the studies primarily focus on intra-sentential switching, because while producing intra-sentential switching emerges
new type of grammar, which is created by combination of two or more grammar structures.
The first one is known as inter-utterance or (inter-sentential) code-switching, and it refers to language switching which occurs between utterances said by the same speaker. Then, there is inter or intra-sentential codeswitching, which takes place within a sentence. In this case, embedded words, phrases and even sentences may be found across or within sentences [4; p. 33]. The third type is supra-sentential or unitary code-switching, which occurs when speakers switch either a segment or a single item of the utterance. Poplack (1980) identifies one more type of code-switching —ungrammatical code-switching — which refers to the mixing of the structure of both languages to create new words [5; p.29].
Table 1
Some examples of code-switching (taken from Greer, 2007). [6; p.28]
Type Example
Inter-sentential I know. Sore wa iya da ne ('I hate that, don't you?').
Intra-sentential When I was in the Japanese school and we were learning English, when you read, I was better than anyone else and it was like 'gaijin dakara.' ('That's because you're foreign').
Supra-sentential Sore ne, ('That's...') That's not because, nan dakke ('what would you say'), you look like an American or anything.
What does the code-switch in educational environment mean? Before examining code-switching in educational environment, it would be appropriate to start with functions of code-switching in natural environment in terms of multilingual individuals. "Speakers switch to manipulate or influence or define the situation as they wish and to convey nuances of meaning and personal intention." [6; p.28] Drawing upon this quotation, it can be said that code-switching is used for self-expression and is dynamic depending on intentions of an individual. Also, code-switching can be used for building interpersonal relationships among members of multilingual or bilingual community. In this respect, it is a tool for creating linguistic solidarity between individuals who share the same ethno-cultural identity. These functions have potential to be applicable for language classrooms, since classroom is also a society where students are correlated as in natural settings. Functions of teachers' code switching are also taken into consideration, since topic of research is based on language-in-education. Code-switching necessarily serves some basic functions which may be beneficial in language learning environments. These functions are listed as topic switch, affective functions, and repetitive functions.
Code-switching is a phenomenon that exists in bilingual societies where people have the opportunity to use two or more languages to communicate. Being able to speak more than one language, bilinguals can codeswitch and use their languages as resources to find better ways to convey meaning. There are several functions of code-switching such as filling linguistic gaps, expressing ethnic identity and achieving particular discursive aims (Bullock & Toribio, 2009). [7]
Methodology
In order to study the extent to which teachers' code-switch in the classroom and learners' attitudes towards it, students were consulted. This research paper is based on anonymous questionnaire study.
Design of the Study
A qualitative research has been conducted in the present study. Since the researcher tries to depict the perspective of the learners and understand the impact of code-switch on learning process, not give numerical evidences., descriptive research has been utilized. It is also interpretivistic approach as it integrates human interest into a study and emphasizes qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis. In addition, even questionnaires mainly designed in multiple choice forms, it involves open-ended questions.
Participants
Participants are 3rd year students (n=38) from Two Foreign Languages Department of Suleyman Demirel University. This institution was chosen since the university itself is in Kazakhstan, multinational country with Kazakh and Russian languages being dominant. Moreover, the university staff consists of mostly foreign teachers, especially Turkish, and the lessons are provided in English language which might be the other reason of teachers' code-switch, because it is always difficult to remain using only one language, when you can speak all four languages (in TFL department, even five as chosen additional second language can be considered too). Moreover, students also learn Turkish language and understand while teachers use it.
Instrument (research tool)
Students were given questionnaires which consist of several questions about their knowledge of code-switching and their attitudes towards it. They were allowed to give their own answers for some questions, if
they don't see necessary variant sections. The questionnaire comprised both structured (closed) and unstructured (open ended) questions. The questionnaire was administered to the students after a brief introductory talk in which the completion procedure was explained to the students. Questionnaire questions were designed and conducted by the researcher.
Data analysis and results
Outcomes of collected questionnaire are given in percentage. The questionnaire is multiple choices, but also with additional spaces for students' own responses. The style of questionnaire is itself has some code-switching elements, which could make students somehow relaxed while answering. First question was how often the teachers code-switch during the lesson, 92% of participants replied that teachers code-switch only sometimes while 8% answered that they do it often. However, nobody among the respondents selected "all the time" variant which means that teachers don't always mix different languages during the lessons.
The next question was why teachers code-switch during the lesson. Variant "for fun" means that teachers, in order to make classes more interesting, might tell some jokes in students' native language or in some cases the jokes which sound funny in Kazakh might not sound funny in English. "To attract attention" - to say some words that students do not expect to hear. It helps to grab attention and to save students from getting bored. "To give instructions" - translating instructions into learners' native language. In this section of questionnaire, participants were allowed to choose more than one option, so 74% responded that teachers codeswitch for fun or to tell some jokes while 42% of participants consider that they do it to attract attention of students during the lesson. 16% of respondents think that teachers may not know translations of some words in English that's why use other languages, 10% replied that it is because of habitual expressions, relatively the highest percentage ( 76%) was shown in "to support instructions, to clarify" variant.
Then, the following inquiry intended to investigate attitudes of students towards teachers' code-switching during lessons. 53% of respondents answered positively which means they like it and perceive as fun, however, 32% are neutral towards code-switching of teachers and they don't mostly care about it. Only 5% answered negatively, other 10% has written their own opinions on it which mostly refers to the responses like "it depends on situation; if it is for fun that's okay; if teacher doesn't know the word in English, so it is not preferable", "if sometimes it is totally fine, but not always".
The last question is about influence of code-switching on motivation of students for learning language of instruction . 21% of participants answered that there is no any influence while 32% replied that code-
switching affects their motivation. Relatively the majority of participants (55%) showed neutrality and it doesn't make any sense for them.
Conclusion
From the findings some conclusions can be drawn based on the objectives of the study. From the students' perspective, the reasons of teachers' code-switch mostly occur to support instruction or clarify and then for fun or to tell some jokes in the original language. Learners' attitudes towards CS are mostly positive if it concerns only these kinds of reasons and not so often used in learning process. If teachers use it all the time and with other reasons like forgetting the translation of the words/phrases or don't know how to use them in the language of instruction, students affected negatively and relatively show dislikes towards it. So, it is very important for students with what kind of aim teachers code switch. Moreover, it is seen from the results that CS of teachers during the lessons affect motivation of students even it regards only 1/3 of participants but most of them has shown neutral perceptions. However, it can be drawn out that if code-switching occur very often during the class, it may affect majority's motivation towards learning language. As this university's students don't have problem with the proficiency of language of instruction and teachers as well, they don't face it as a huge difficulty or obstacle. To explore the full impact of CS on motivation of learners, further experimental research is required to be conducted among different population which concerns teachers and students who aren't fluent in English or recently started learning the language of instruction.
References
1. Myers-Scotton, C. &. (1977). "Bilingual Strategies: The Social Functions of Codeswitching.". Journal of the Sociology of Language, 5-20.
2. Trudgill, P. (2000.). Sociolinguistics. London: "Penguin".
3. Mattsson, A. &.-M. (1999). Code-switching in second language teaching of French. Working Papers 47, 59-72.
4. Milroy, L. &. (1995). One speaker, two languages cross disciplinary perpectives on code-switching. New York: Cambridge University Press.
5. Becker, K. (1997). Spanish/English bilingual code switching. A syncretic model. Bilingual Review, 1-36.
6. Greer, T. (2007). Accomplishing identity in bilingual interaction: Codeswitching practices among a group of multiethnic Japanese teenagers. Unpublished (p. 28). University of Southern Queesnland: Australia.
7. Bullock, B.E. (2009). The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching. New York: Cambridge University Press.
