An Analysis Of The Use Of Teachers' Code Switching In College EFL Classroom

We live in a multiracial and multilingual world. It is universal that speakers use two or more languages to communicate with each other. Code switching has become a widespread phenomenon of social language when people use it to intercommunicate. The research on code switching has been drawing worldwide attention from linguists in a multidimensional view of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, grammar, conversational analysis, etc. Therefore, code switching has been an important research topic in linguistic circle.For years, linguists have a heated and long standing debate on the question of whether code switching can be used in foreign language classroom. Recently, code switching in foreign language classroom has become an area of special focus and investigation in China. How to use code switching as a teaching strategy has been a topic much worthy of discussion.This paper starts with an analysis of the functions and motivations of teachers' code switching, and then intends to illustrate that code switching is a good assistance and strategy for teachers to teach English and it can improve teaching quality. A survey has been carried out with the aim to investigate the necessity of teachers' code switching in the classroom and to analyze the appropriateness of teachers' code switching through qualitative and quantitative research methods by using questionnaires, classroom recordings and interviews. The result of the survey indicates that teachers should use code switching in appropriate time, appropriate amount and appropriate degree in college EFL classroom. The research is designed with the guidance of Giles' Accommodation Theory. It is hoped that the present study would shed light on the future researches on college English teaching and learning.