The Empirical Study Of Teachers' Code-Switching Between English And Chinese In English Language Classrooms In Senior High School

Whether the first language should be used in the foreign language classroom has been the focus of controversy since the natural method was introduced to foreign language teaching in the 19th century. Many scholars didn't advocate code-switching between the target language and the native language, as they thought that code-switching in the foreign language classroom hindered effective teaching. The advent of audio-lingual method and later on the communicative language teaching furthermore advocate the use of target language in language classroom. As to the issue on the use of the native language in the foreign language classroom, language scholars stick to their own view, and foreign language teachers often face a difficult dilemma of language choice in their teaching practice. In recent years, with the development of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, a number of scholars have done investigations as to which language should be used in the foreign language classroom. They found most language teachers would turn to the mother tongue in order to ensure the smooth classroom instruction in teaching. In view of this, this paper studies teacher's code-switching in the English classroom of senior high school, trying to find out the current situations of teacher's code-switching by probing into the functions of the use of Chinese and possible factors influencing teachers'code-switching in English teaching in China.We collect the language data through three kinds of ways, teachers' classroom audio-recordings, the questionnaire investigations of teachers and students, and interviews with English teachers. The lesson type of the audio-recording is text teaching. The teachers'classroom audio recordings were transcribed, which provided some basic information for analyses. Quantitative analysis was conducted, counting the data from questionnaires and teachers'audio-recording, to find the existence of teachers' code-switching and how many English or Chinese words come out in teachers' talk, frequency of teachers' Chinese code, teachers' and students' attitudes towards teachers' code-switching, students'feedback and expectations towards code-switching of their English teachers, teachers' opinions on factors influencing code-switching, frequency on three major functions and every subdivision. Based on examples in the text data and interviews, qualitative analysis mainly concerns the functions of Chinese code in code-switching according to Rolin-Ianziti and Brownlie's code scheme, possible factors leading to teachers' code-switching, and appropriateness of teachers' code-switching in the English classroom.The results of this study indicate that teachers'code-switching extensively exist in the English classroom of senior high school. Teachers and students hold positive attitudes towards it, believing Chinese can facilitate students' understanding and learning in the classroom. Teachers and students think code-switching is mainly used to explain grammar, vocabulary and exercises, to translate difficult sentences. Fundamental functions of the use of Chinese are translation, communication and meta-linguistic use. In the teachers' opinion, the main factors influencing teachers' language choose are students' English level, cognitive level of the teachers and students, limited teaching time and the teacher's target language competence. The study also indicates there is an overuse of Chinese in the English language classrooms.From this paper, we can draw the following conclusions:the use of Chinese has positive function in foreign language study. Therefore, instead of discourage the use of mother tongue in teaching of English, we should use English in maximum, and create a good environment for students benefiting the target language input. At the same time, we should use Chinese at right amount in right time in the English classroom, so as to promote students'intelligibility of input in the important or difficult parts in the learning.This will require teachers to constantly improve language selective ability and consciousness in the English classroom practice, to use code-switching purposefully, consciously and controllably, and to adjust the language code in time according to students'responses and demands in the classroom. Therefore, code-switching is a teaching strategy of in English classroom instruction.