Teachers’ code switching in ELT classrooms: Functions, types and frequencies

The phenomenon of CS in multilingual and bilingual communities became the focus of interest in recent researches. Investigations on classroom CS have been carried out in a broader variety of language environment, from bilingual classrooms, to second language learning classroom. Although much attention has been paid to the functions and reasons of CS in bilingual context, the importance of CS in ELT classroom and its effect on learning is somehow ignored. In the present study, the functions of CS from teacher perspectives through two different levels of proficiency are investigated. In doing so, two females Iranian EFL teachers teaching general English courses (at two different levels of proficiency) in an institutional program in Oil Ministry center of Isfahan were selected as participant of this study. By looking at two teachers L1 use over the course of an entire semester, the present study provides a longitudinal perspective. A coding scheme was developed for classifying students’ instances of CS into relevant functions. The data were tabulated, and frequencies and percentages were conducted by SPSS program. The findings indicate that the majority of CS in the classroom is highly purposeful, and related to pedagogical goals. Also, the research found that pedagogical functions were more frequently fulfilled through CS compared to social functions. The findings of this research suggest that code switching is a necessary tool for teachers due to a number of pedagogical considerations in ET classrooms and can give teachers a clue to have a better understanding of student code switching in ELT classrooms and use CS in the direction of teaching and effective learning.

Keywords:

Functions of Code switching , Teacher Code switching , Types of Code switching