Pedagogic code-switching: A case study of the language practices of three bilingual content teachers

The New York City Department of Education's Language Allocation Policy of 2004 outlines three possible programs for the education of English language learners: freestanding English as a second language, dual language, and transitional bilingual education. Within transitional bilingual education (TBE) programs, teachers are asked to use the native language for content-area instruction while incorporating English through ESL methodology and scaffolding. The pressure to use English during time that traditionally has been used for monolingual delivery of a subject in the student's first language, combined with an ideological conflict between ESL/bilingual methodologies promoting language distribution and necessity-based mixed-language practices, has left many bilingual teachers uncertain as to how to use language to scaffold the information provided by English-only textbooks so that it is accessible to a recently arrived Chinese immigrant population.;This qualitative case study was carried out in a New York City alternative Mandarin/English bilingual high school operating within the parameters established for TBE programs. Making use of the theoretical and methodological framework of ethnography of communication, this study views language use as an instructional strategy. Data were collected from the classrooms of three bilingual teachers as they taught a science unit. The analysis focuses on (1) the ways in which these teachers utilized the codes (Mandarin Chinese and English) in their teaching practice, (2) the pedagogic purposes for their code-switching, (3) their perceptions regarding their switches, and (4) their perceptions regarding the inclusion of English during instructional time. The findings show that all three teachers code-switch in their instructional practices. However, the frequency, sentence condition, and pedagogic function of the switches varied, depending on the teachers' perceptions of students' present and future needs, their chosen pedagogic style, and their perceptions regarding their role as a bilingual teacher working within a transitional program. The categories that emerged from the data on the pedagogic functions of code-switching demonstrate its pedagogic value and show how it can be used as a scaffolding device by other bilingual teachers faced with including two languages in content-area instruction.