A Study On The Motivations For English Teachers’ Code-switching In A Senior High School

Code-switching in English classrooms is one switch in a special languageenvironment, and also it is a teaching strategy which improves teachers’ teaching andadjusts the relationship between teachers and students. As its name suggests, teachers’code-switching means the constant alternation of two languages within one dialogueor between communications in foreign language teaching classes. In the late1960s,code-switching in English classrooms began to attract the attention of linguisticscholars. Nowadays teachers’ code-switching is one phenomenon that really exists.However, some teachers who always use this strategy don’t really understand it andsometimes they even use it unconsciously. Therefore, in order to help teachers to havea better understanding of code-switching in English classrooms and to use it moreefficiently, this paper makes a preliminary exploration to find out the current situationof code-switching in English classes. In this paper, different kinds of motivations forEnglish teachers’ code-switching are investigated.On the basis of Jef Verschueren’ Adaptation Theory, this thesis analyzesteachers’ motivations mainly according to the classification put forward by ProfessorYu. In addition, the Face Theory of Brown&Levinson is also used to further analyzesome motivations. This study uses the English teachers in NO.6Middle School as thesubjects. In addition, it also uses three different methods to collect data: classroomobservations, questionnaires and interviews for the teachers, and then does bothqualitative and quantitative analysis of the collected data. During the process ofcollecting data, by using classroom observation, teachers’ uses of code-switching arerecorded by a recording pen. And this data will provide examples for the author toanalyze teachers’ motivations for code-switching. This paper uses questionnaires toinvestigate teachers’ actual uses of code-switching in classroom teaching and alsotheir attitude towards it is included. Interviews of teachers are mainly used to find outteachers’ motivations for using this strategy.The findings of this study show that teachers’ code-switching in Englishclassrooms is prevalent in senior high school. About the motivations of teachers’ use of code-switching in class, they relate to the adaptation to linguistic reality, socialconventions and psychological motivation. Besides those kinds of motivations whichare put forward by Professor Yu, this thesis also considers the motivations from theaspect of teachers’ macro-role and micro-role.On the basis of those findings, it is obvious that even though many scholarspropose that teachers should only use the target language in class, it is also importantand useful to utilize code-switching in the process of teaching. Teachers should beaware of the use of code-switching and learn to use it properly and efficiently.