An Empirical Study On EFL Teachers’ Code-Switching In County Senior High School Classrooms

Code-switching, as a kind of sociolinguistic phenomenon, has been an importantquestion for research. It exists not only in the daily communication, but also in thespecial area of EFL classrooms. As for whether code-switching should exist in theEFL classrooms and whether it should be advocated as a kind of effective teachingstrategies, scholars in China and abroad hold different viewpoints. With the furtherdevelopment of sociolinguistic research, more and more scholars support theviewpoints for using code-switching in EFL classrooms and believe that appropriateuse of code-switching will facilitate the language teaching efficiently. However, atpresent in China, the view of using English exclusively in the class is accepted, and itis even accepted by the local educational institutions in some provinces. Yet, manypractical studies show that code-switching does exist in most of the EFL classroomsand is used to assist the classroom teaching. In view of the subjects of most previousstudies on code-switching are teachers in college or city high schools, this paperintends to take the teacher from county high school as the subject, with the purposesof exploring the general situation of teachers’ code-switching in county high schoolsand finding out the types and functions of code-switching and the factors thatinfluence it.The linguistic data of this study came from two ways: the classroomaudio-recordings and interview. The classroom audio-recordings are the main sourceof data which are transcribed into written texts according to which the currentsituation, the types and functions of teachers’ code-switching are studied. Theteachers’ interview is mainly used to know what the teachers’ attitudes towardcode-switching is and what the factors they think that affect their code-switching are.The research findings show that code-switching are commonly used in thecounty EFL classrooms. It has mainly two aspects of functions: mental function andinstructional function. Most of the teachers consider code-switching as a helpfulteaching strategy and think that the students’ English proficiency are the major factorthat initiate teachers’ code-switching. Other factors that influence teachers’code-switching are traditional teaching model, the local institutional policy, theincomplete reciprocity of Chinese and English and the limited time in class.According to the analysis of data, the author concludes that teachers’ code-switching in EFL classroom has a positive effect on English teaching, especiallyin the aspects of explaining grammar, relieving the tense atmosphere in the classroomand maintaining disciplines. Therefore, instead of advocating the ‘English exclusive’policy, code-switching can be regarded as an effective teaching strategy which shouldbe made good use of in the EFL classrooms of middle school. However, there is onepoint that should be born in mind, the code-switching should not be overused, or itwill bring in some negative effects.This study also gives some implications for the English teachers in countymiddle school and department administrators: with the wide spread and developmentof English teaching in China, the standard for English teaching in counties is alsohigher and higher, so the teachers’ responsibility is also greater. Teachers should oftenmake self-reflection about their teaching, make use of teaching strategies flexiblybased on students’ practical English proficiency and through learning improve theirabilities of teaching and research. In addition, the education department should makeout a rational institution according to the teaching reality so that the English teachingcan have a greater improvement.This study has limitations in many aspects such as collecting data and makinganalysis, therefore, there are still many problems which need further discussion.