A Study Of English Teachers’ Code-switching In Middle School Classroom

Theoretically, target language is advocated to be used in English teaching classroom. However, practically, it is popular that mother tongue is used in middle school classroom. In other words, both English and Chinese are used in English teaching for various reasons such as promoting the understanding of language teaching and adjusting teachers’ and students’ relationship. Many people consider code-switching as a useful cognitive and communicative strategy in language teaching while some suggest learners should be exposed to target language as much as possible. Therefore, it is a hot issue for teachers whether to use target language or mother tongue in English teaching classrooms.Based on the above situation, this study aims to investigate the types of English teachers’ code-switching and tries to find out the factors affecting English teachers’ code-switching in middle school classroom. To be specific, two major research questions are proposed:1. What are differences about types of English teachers’ code-switching in middle school classroom between eastern region and western region?2. What are differences about factors influencing English teachers’ code-switching in middle school classroom between eastern region and western region?To answer these questions, a study was conducted in two middle schools. One was Daqiao Middle School in Nanjing Country, Jiangsu Province, in the east of China. The other was Hexi Boarding School in Guide Country, Qinghai Province, in the west of China. Twelve English teachers from these two schools were involved in this study as research subjects. Six English teachers were selected from each school. Twelve reading lessons were recorded, transcribed and analyzed to identify the differences of types of teachers’ code-switching in middle schools between East China and West China. Interviews with twelve English teachers were conducted to elicit the differences of factors affecting application of English teachers’ code-switching between eastern and western regions.The major findings generated from this study showed that four major types of code-switching were used by teachers in both east and west middle schools, namely, tag-switching, inter-sentential, intra-sentential and repetitive code-switching. Teachers in the western middle school tended to use code-switching more frequently than teachers from the eastern middle school, mainly because of different English proficiency levels of students from different regions.. As for differences of types of teachers’ code-switching between eastern middle school and western middle schools, inter-sentential code-switching was used more frequently in the eastern middle school, while intra-sentential code-switching was used more frequently in the western middle school. Simultaneously, teachers in the eastern middle school adopted tag-switching less frequently compared with teachers from the western middle school. However, repetitive code-switching was used more frequently by teachers from the eastern middle school than those from the western middle school.In addition, factors, including students’ English proficiency, teachers’ teaching beliefs, limited class time, teacher’s evaluation system and cultural differences, had influence on English teachers’code-switching in middle school classroom. Among them, students’ English proficiency was identified as the most important factor. Teachers in the western region gave priority to students’ English proficiency compared with teachers in the eastern region because their students’ English proficiency was much poorer than students from the eastern middle school. Not only can code-switching help teachers express the teaching content more clearly, but also it can promote the communication and interaction between teachers and students. For teachers from the western middle school, cultural influence couldn’t be ignored regarding the use of code-switching. Of course, there are also other factors affecting the use of code-switching, such as teachers’different teaching beliefs, the demand of teachers’evaluation system and so on. Teachers hold positive attitudes towards the application of code-switching. During their classes, they try to use target language as much as possible. If necessary, teachers use mother tongue to explain teaching content to save time.