A Contrastive Study Of The Effect Of Teacher Code-switching With L2 Explanations On Students’ Incidental Vocabulary Learning In Junior High English Listening Classes

Code-switching and L2 explanations are two types of teacher instructions in the practice of L2 classroom.However,it remains controversial whether code-switching should be used in the L2 classroom.Meanwhile,vocabulary incidental learning is an applicable way of supplementary methods to promote efficient teaching in classroom.This study investigates the effect of teacher code-switching on English vocabulary incidental learning during listening comprehension of Junior High School in China.It aims at making contribution to empirical evidence of incidental vocabulary learning through listening lessons by two kinds of language explanations of English teachers in class.To date,there have been researches on functions of first language（L1）among Senior High School and university learners in China,but few focuses on EFL learners of Junior High School level.Previous researches have shown that English vocabulary incidental learning under teacher code-switching to be effective,but whether the effect for the learner level of Junior High School is significant has not yet been supported by quantitative data.Previous studies have been lack of attention to teacher’s view of incidental vocabulary learning through the qualitative method in daily teaching.In this study,three research questions are raised as following:1.What is the impact of teachers’ code-switching and L2 explanations in listening classes on the short-and long-term incidental vocabulary learning of Junior High students?2.What is the extent of “learners’ notice” factor affecting incidental vocabulary learning of teacher code-switching and L2 explanations through listening for Junior High School learners?3.What are the opinions from an experienced teacher on incidental vocabulary learning of teacher code-switching and L2 explanations through listening for Junior High School learners?There is a combination of three instruments in this study,i.e.the English experimental lessons,the questionnaires and the interviews.Eighty-six eighth-grade students of English as an L2,from two regular classes in a China Junior High School,were allocated to a code-switching condition or L2 condition.The students were tested by vocabulary immediate tests and vocabulary delayed tests during the experimental lessons.The tests measured the learning effect of vocabulary in experimental lessons in a quantitative way.The students answered questionnaires of attention respectively before and after the lessons.An experienced teacher of Junior High School has been interviewed respectively before and after the experimental lessons.Results from experimental lessons showed that teacher code-switching led to better vocabulary incidental learning than L2 explanations in short-and long-term effect.However,the long-term effect was not stable for Junior High School learners.Results from questionnaires showed that learners’ attention did not have significant difference in classroom before and after the lessons.Results from the interview of a qualitative way showed that vocabulary incidental learning through listening took place and the effect of code-switching outperformed L2 explanations.From experienced teacher’s perspective,teacher code-switching has significant assistance for learners of low level.Consequently,it is worth promoting English vocabulary incidental learning through listening to Junior High School learners by teacher code-switching.There are two experimental lessons in this study,suggestion for future study is that the quantity of experimental lessons may be increased in order to obtain more rigorous data.For the optimizing of the interview,the interviewees may be increased to three or four experienced teachers.