初中英语教师语码转换个案研究(2)

菜单

4.1.2 Inter-unit Code-switching 11

4.1.3 Tag-unit Code-switching 11

4.2 The teacher's feedback 12

4.3 The students' attitudes towards code-switching 12

4.4 Functions of code-switching 13

4.5 Factors influencing teacher's code-switching 18

5. Conclusion 20

5.1 Major findings 20

5.2 Pedagogical implications 21

5.3 Limitations and future research 21

References 23

Appendix 1 25

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

China is a multi-dialectal country, but mandarin is the standard variety of Chinese which is the educational medium in most of the schools. The status of English in China is that of a foreign language. The majority of secondary schools in China choose English as an obligatory subject. However, in Junior English classroom, students' L2 proficiency has not reached the certain level to comprehend all of the teachers' discourse. Therefore, teachers have been widely observed to use L1 to assist students in grasping specific terms and abstract concepts.

In this paper, code refers to language used in EFL classroom. Code-switching (CS) is regarded as the seemingly random alternation of two languages between and within sentences (Poplack, 1980). It refers to the combination of several languages or dialects in the same conversation or sentence by bilingual people (Gardner-Chloros, 2009).

Code-switching is defined from different approaches as structural, functional or psycholinguistic approaches. It has been widely studied from a pedagogical aspect to a neurolinguistics aspect (Macizo, Bajo & Paolieri, 2012).

Their analysis of CS is critical in two terms: linguistically and methodologically. Numerous research studies have focused on the question of how much code-switching occurs in classrooms based on different methodological aspects such as purposes and needs, classroom roles of teachers and on some linguistic aspects such as discourse functions, sentential levels, perceptions of the code-switchers, pedagogical aspects, and so on.

CS is argued to be a realistic approach to the learning problems caused by students' limited L2 proficiency, particularly in English-as-a-foreign-language contexts. Researchers have also warranted principled use of L1 so that both content and language learning are facilitated.

This study aims to contribute to the field with a combination of some of these aspects such as discourse functions, CS levels, teacher uses, and perceptions of the speakers. Besides, only a few researchers are concerned with the institutional discourse in language classroom in Chinese context. Classrooms in Chinese context do have their own rules of conduct, standards and norms. A systematic description of code-switching in Chinese context will help better understand the mechanism of classroom code-switching in China.

1.2 Purpose and significance of the research

This study looks at classroom code-switching conducted by teachers in the EFL classroom. It follows the definition of code-switching from the functional perspective. That is, code-witching in language classroom refers to any alternate use of two codes or languages either within one utterance or between one utterance and the next in an interactional discourse.

The purpose of this case study is to explore the language use (code-switching) of a secondary EFL teacher in Chinese contexts. In particular, this research will investigate the teacher and students' attitudes to code-switching in EFL classes and then describe and analyze the functions of code-switching. Some related social variables that influence teachers' code-switching will also be explored and compared.