The Adaptation Of Teachers' Code-switching In EFL Classroom

Code-switching in the second language classroom is an issue which has drawn critical debates among researchers in the area of language teaching. Since the 1960s, many foreign scholars have conducted empirical studies to explore whether it's appropriate to switch codes in the second language teaching. Some researchers think that the target language should be the only medium of instruction in the second language teaching and the use of the native language might deprive students of valuable target language input. However, the related empirical studies in China are rather less and most of the studies adopt students from the EFL classrooms in secondary schools or universities as the subjects. Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run school is a new education form and the code-switching in EFL classroom of this form has not been studied till now. In view of its fast development in both size and amount, Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run school has begun to play an important role in Chinese tertiary education and the research on its EFL classrooms is also significant.Based on Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory (1999) and Yu Guodong's theoretical framework of Adaptation Model (2001), the study investigates teachers" code-switching in EFL classrooms of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools. It aims to analyze the teachers' English/Chinese code-switching in EFL classroom from the perspective of pragmatics. The author analyzes teachers'code-switching by adopting both qualitative and quantitative research methods. All the data is collected from the English classes in the Sino-Australian Cooperation Program in Zhengzhou Electric Power College. Through the investigation, it is found that teachers switch codes mainly as an adaptation to the linguistic reality, teacher's roles and psychological intentions.The reasons why teachers switch codes can be classified into the followings:Better Expression, Translation and Explanation, Emphasis, Higher Efficiency, Cheering up the Atmosphere, Attracting students' attention and Limitation of Teachers" English Proficiency, among which better expression and explanation are the most important reasons that triggers teachers' code-switching. The result also reveals that teachers'code-switching is mainly influenced by students' English proficiency, situational factors(such as class atmosphere), teachers' teaching ideas, attitudes towards the code-switching and psychological intentions, the cross linguistic differences and teaching materials.