A Study On Teachers’ Code-switching In High School English Class

Code-switching usually refers to “the phenomenon of language varieties whenusing two or more languages to communicate”. Researches on classroomcode-switching originated from the enactment of “bilingual education policy” in1970sin America. From then on, code-switching became a subject of great attention forlinguists all over the world. However, a survey on literature shows that researches onclassroom code-switching at home largely focus on the English class in universities,comparatively much less in English classes at senior high schools. Considering thissituation, the author of this thesis tries to explore the present situation of code-switchingin senior high schools through an empirical study and then put forward some effectiveguidance and suggestions for high school teachers to use code-switching in Englishclass.This thesis adopts quantitative and qualitative methods, using classroomobservation, classroom recordings and questionnaires as the main research instrumentsto solve the following three questions:①What is the frequency of using classroomcode-switching in high school? It includes the frequency of code-switching in differentvariables, such as, students’ language proficiency and lesson types.②What attitudes students and teachers hold towards code-switching in English class? It contains theirattitudes towards the frequency, the amount, the effects of it and the situations when itshould be increased.③What are the problems existing in teachers’ code-switching insenior high school?The results show that code-switching in English classroom in senior high schoolsis a common phenomenon. And both the teachers and students hold a positive viewtowards code-switching and think that the proper use of it can produce a positiveinfluence on English learning through the investigation of the questionnaire. Thefrequency of using code-switching differs a lot between different teachers due to variousreasons, such as, the English level of different students or different lesson types. Inaddition, some problems which exist in teachers’ code-switching are also found. First,some teachers attach too much importance to the positive effects of using mother tonguein class; second, use code-switching in an unmarked way; third, inappropriate use ofcode-switching in the respect of structures, occasions and quantities.Some principles that teachers should obey are put forward on the basis of theabove research findings. First, English has a priority and should be used as much aspossible. Second, code-switching should be used consciously by teachers. Third,code-switching should be used at appropriate time and quantities; at last, the use ofcode-switching should follow the adaptation theory.