On Teachers’ Code-switching: An Adaptation Model Account

Code-switching, a common practice in foreign or second language classrooms, has gone through a controversial stage, with some arguing that foreign language teachers are supposed to adopt the English-only class to allow the students to get sufficient language input while others claiming that for various reasons mother tongue deserves a legal stance in foreign language classrooms to fulfill its functions.This paper firstly classifies and reviews the previous studies according to frequency, functions and reasons. Based on the relevant theories of Poplack (1980), Myers-Scotton (1993), Verschueren (1987) and Yu (2001), the current study combines the three types and influences of students’feedbacks on their teachers and then puts forward our own theoretical framework to explore the amounts/frequency, attitudes, types, motives and factors of teachers’English/Chinese code-switching.By taking two teachers and seventy-four students as subjects from two Chinese universities, this study firstly focuses on data collection, including questionnaire designed for students, classroom recording of both teachers and students, and interviews with the two teachers. Detailed data analyses show both these two teachers adopt inter-sentential CS, intra-sentential CS and tag switching which is consistent with Poplack’s classification out of the motives to adapt to linguistic reality, teachers’roles and psychological intentions. Students’attitudes, perceptions and influences on their teachers’code-switching are also focused on as students are the other key factor in classroom teaching. Such a perspective has rarely been explored in previous studies.Findings are as follows:(1) both the two teachers’speech production consists of English and Chinese with different percentage, the proportion of English is81%and71%respectively;(2) students hold positive attitude towards their teachers’proper English/Chinese code-switching with94%students in TA’s class and98%in TB’s class;(3) with different types of class materials, teachers will choose different types of code-switching, for example, they favor intra-sentential code-switching in vocabulary teaching (52%) and inter-sentential code-switching in textual structure analysis (70%);(4) the motives driving teachers to switch codes are summarized as adaptation to linguistic reality (47%), adaptation to teachers’roles (81%), and adaptation to psychological intentions (92%);(5) students’language proficiency and the particular types of the class materials are primary factors in deciding teachers’ linguistic choice.The findings prove the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical framework, that is, teachers fulfill adaptations to linguistic reality, teachers’roles, and psychological intentions by means of inter-sentential, intra-sentential, and tag switching. In turn, students’feedbacks have a positive effect on teachers’linguistic choice.