Teachers' Code-Switching In University EFL Classrooms: An Empirical Study

The argument on the use of the first language (L1) in the ESL/EFL classroom has never stopped all over the world since the advent of the natural method. Opponents of English-only policy believe that code-switching will result in negative transfer. In contrast, advocators of L1 use in foreign language teaching argue that L1 can promote L2 learning. Stimulated by approaches in sociolinguistics, more and more researchers (e.g., Auerbach 1993; Belz 2003; Cook 2001; Guthrie 1984; Macaro 2001; Phillipson 1992; Widdowson 1979) in applied linguistics, after extensive investigation of teachers' language use, have come to recognize that L1 still plays an important part in ESL/EFL classrooms. In Chinese EFL classes, the English-only policy has been advocated owing to the improvement of teachers' English proficiency. Furthermore, with the popularity of Communicative Language Teaching, the voices of avoiding L1 use are going up from strength to strength. However, many class observations and studies (e.g., Chen 2004; Wang 2003) show that many teachers have been found to switch to the mother tongue (MT) frequently for the sake of efficiency in EFL classrooms. Therefore, to enrich the relevant literature, this study aims to explore teachers' code-switching in English classrooms at a university, so as to find whether teachers switch codes in English classes, what attitudes students and teachers have toward teachers' code-switching, how the Chinese code is employed in classroom interaction, and what factors influence teachers' code-switching.The data of the study came from questionnaires, classroom audio-recordings, and interviews, with classroom recordings serving as the main source of data. The audio recordings of the teacher talk were transcribed to examine the existence of teachers' code-switching, calculate the amount and frequency of the Chinese code, and analyze the functions (three main divisions and some subdivisions) of the Chinese code in the process of alternation, based on the coding scheme by Rolin-Ianziti & Brownlie (2002). The two questionnaires and the teacher interviews served to provide basic information of code-switching, including the amount and frequency of the Chinese use, attitudes of students and teachers toward code-switching, students' expectations of the contexts of code-switching, teachers' philosophy of language teaching, and the factors leading to teachers' code-switching.The findings fall into several aspects. First, teachers' code-switching was still prevalent in university EFL classrooms, 60 times and 28% of Chinese use on average in a 50-minute class. Second, teachers resorted to Chinese mainly for translation, meta-linguistic uses, and communicative uses. Third, most students and teachers held a positive view toward teachers' appropriate code-switching, which, according to them, could help students learn English well. Fourth, in terms of the factors influencing their code-switching, teachers shared similar views on students' language proficiency, cross-linguistic difference and teachers' beliefs of code-switching. Finally, many teachers seemed unconscious of their code-switching, which, to some extent, led to the overuse of the Chinese code in practice.Based on the analysis of the data, this study concludes that the Chinese code plays a complementary and facilitative part in FL classrooms. It is necessary to switch from English to Chinese to explain grammar and usage of words, and to manage the class. Teachers' code-switching should not be totally prohibited. Teachers in practice need to regulate the amount, frequency and the contexts of code-switching in good time to meet the needs of students, avoiding the overuse of Chinese.Owing to the dynamics of classroom teaching, no final conclusion has been reached in terms of the amount, the frequency and the contexts in code-switching. The present study has important practical implications for English teachers as well as departmental administrators: teachers are advised to survey students' needs of the mother tongue (MT) support, to make conscious, judicious and marked use of Chinese code; departmental administrators are advised to conduct teacher development programs so as to deepen teachers' understanding of learning process, to increase their awareness of what is going on in the classroom, and to improve their competence in regulating instructional behavior. Some limitations are pointed out in terms of the sample and the data.collection, which shed light on future research.