On The Use Of Codeswitching In University Efl Reading Classes: A Case Study

The study aims to explore how teachers of Comprehensive English use code-switching(CS in short)in EFL classroom of Chinese universities especially in terms of its quantity and functions.By adopting both quantitative and qualitative research methods,this study mainly focused on three EFL university Comprehensive English courses with students of different linguistic proficiencies.All the courses were audiotaped and observed.Based on the analysis of transcription and data codification,the study mainly has the following findings:(1)Great variations of CS use were discovered among different teachers,as well as different pedagogical activities in terms of the quantity.In addition,teachers had their own individual preferences in CS using in each pedagogical activity.(2)CS is used by university EFL teachers for a variety of functions.It can be used for instruction,elicitation and information giving etc.It can also be used as translation from either English to Chinese or vice versa.The distributions of each function varied too among teachers with students of different proficiencies and among different pedagogical activities.The study offers better understanding of CS use in the context of Chinese university EFL classrooms,which is quite insightful for future pedagogical practices.