MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY --------- NGUYEN THI THANH THANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO CODE-SWITCHING BY EFL STUDENTS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CLASSES AT PHU XUAN UNIVERSITY, HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------- NGUYEN THI THANH THANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO CODE-SWITCHING BY EFL STUDENTS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CLASSES AT PHU XUAN UNIVERSITY, HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: DR. PHAN THI THANH THAO HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------- NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THANH NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHUYỂN NGỮ CỦA SINH VIÊN CÁC LỚP CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC PHÚ XUÂN, THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHAN THỊ THANH THẢO HUE, 2019 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed: Nguyen Thi Thanh Thanh Date: 20th November 2019 i ABSTRACT Code-switching is a very common and popular language technique, especially in teaching and learning English speaking skills. This research paper is an investigation into the use of code-switching in learning English by Information Technology students at Phu Xuan University. First of all, it explores the students’ perceptions of the use of code-switching in English classes. This study’s instruments including questionnaires, interview and observation were used to find out the types and functions of code- switching, reasons and benefits, as well as challenges of using code-switching for IT students in vocational English classes.
The study findings show that most of IT students are aware of the benefits of using code-switching, thus they often do code-switching in vocational English classes to explain some IT specialized terms, talk about some particular topics, emphasize, make interjection, and repeat words/phrases to clarify them. From the results obtained, we might confirm that code-switching is an effective approach to improve students’ English communication skills, which should be used as an integral part of EFL lessons. Key words: code-switching, English, speaking skill ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing this research paper, I have received a great deal of helps, guidance and encouragements from teachers and friends. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Phan Thi Thanh Thao who gave me suggestions on how to shape the study and has always been most willing and ready to give me valuable advice, helpful comments as well as correction of my research paper. My second round of thanks is to the students at Phu Xuan University who were willing to help me with questionnaires, interview, observation, and provided me with useful information and valuable comments during the time I carried out the research. Next, I am grateful to my close friends who have supportively shared most of the ups and downs of this project and aided in certain parts of the draft analysis. Finally, my warmest and profound thanks will be shown directly to my dear parents and sibling for their great encouragement, assistance during the time I conducted this research.
Hue, November 2019 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of authorship. iii Table of contents. iv List of tables. vi List of figures.
vii List of abbreviations. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .2 Aims of the study .3 Scope of the study .5 Organization of the study. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Code-switching definition .2 Code-switching and code-mixing .3 Code-switching in ELT Classrooms .1 Students’ perceptions of code-switching .2 The functions of students’ code-switching .3 Types of code-switching .4 The impact of code-switching in learning and teaching English .5 Previous studies on code-switching. 19 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .1 Students’ perceptions and attitudes towards code-switching in learning vocational English .2 Reasons for IT students using code-switching in vocational classes .3 Benefits of using code-switching in vocational English classes .4 Drawbacks of using code-switching in vocational English classes.
42 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Overview of the study and conclusion .1 For English teachers .2 For IT students .4 Suggestion for further studies. 48 APPENDICES v LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Purposes of using code-switching in vocational English classes for IT students.2: Student’s reaction to teachers’ only use of English in vocational English classes .3: Students’ reaction of teachers’ use of code-switching in general .4: The most common types of code-switching in learning vocational English .5: Reasons for IT student using Inter-sentential switching .6: Reasons for IT students using Tag-switching .7: Reasons for IT student using Intra-sentential switching .8: Benefits of using code-switching in vocational English classes .9: Drawbacks of using code switching in vocational English classes. 40 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: Students’ perceptions of helpfulness in using code-switching in vocational classes .2: People with whom students often do code-switching when talking in vocational English classes.
26 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ADJ : Adjective CS : Code-switching IT : Information Technology EFL : English as a Foreign Language ELT : English Language Teaching L1 : First Language L2 : Second Language N : Number NP : Noun Phrase PP : Prepositional Phrase PXU : Phu Xuan University VP : Verb Phrase viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study Working as an English teacher at Phu Xuan University, I often encounter many problems of the department regulations on the fact that teachers should only use English in classrooms when giving English courses. In reality, Vietnamese teachers feel unconfident using the target language when explaining the complicated contents as well as difficult terms in the textbook. Besides, students also get frustrated when they cannot understand what their teachers say, and then they feel bored. In order to find the solutions for this issue, all teachers in English department of Phu Xuan University agree to arouse students’ interests in learning English by maximizing the use of English and minimizing the use of local languages in classroom.
Recently, many researchers have studied the use of more than one language in EFL classrooms. Lai (1996) conducted research on teacher’s code-switching in Senior High School classroom in Taiwan for his Master degree. In addition to his focus on the types and functions of switching code, the questions of how, when and why English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers used code- switching in English classes were raised and examined in his study. Lin (1990) carried out the research in Hong Kong to examine teaching in two languages.
She particularly looked at the language alternation in twenty-four junior form English lessons of four teachers from different secondary schools. In fact, code-switching has intrigued significant interests among many scholars for the past several decades. However, few studies have been done to analyze the use of code- switching by students in Vietnam, especially in the Information Technology major. Therefore, the present study has attempted to bridge the gap by examining the code-switching occurrences of EFL students in IT classes when English is their foreign language and Vietnamese is their mother tongue.
According to Reyes, I. and Ervin-Tripp, S. (2002), CS is a specific type of strategy for discourse organization in the use of bilingual languages in a conversational. Besides code-switching, we also borrow lexical single items or words in bilingual interaction, which is found out in a variety of styles among bilingual speech communities.
However, little attention has been given to the way how the use of lexical borrowing has an effect on the development of communicative competence in young children who are still learning an L2 and achieving bilingual competence. As pointed out by Poplack (1980), code- switching seems to be used by those individuals whose language skills in both 1 languages are balanced. Therefore, code-switching might be a good indicator of bilingual fluency in children who are still learning English as their second language. Code switching in the sociolinguistic field of foreign language teaching studies was a major subject of scientific studies in the past.
Recently, code- switching has again attracted a considerable amount of researchers’ attention. It has become an interesting phenomenon to study in particular the usage of language in society because it is part of the development processes and the use of multiple languages (i. bilingualism and multilingualism), the use of code switching usually occurs during foreign language teaching-learning processes especially when studying English based on the different backgrounds and reasons (Yusuf, 2009). 1) states “in ELT classrooms, code switching comes into use either in the teachers” or the students’ discourse”.
Code switching exists in English classrooms and has many code variations. 217) further stresses “to promote communicative competence, learners must get practice in communicative exchanges in the classroom”. Hence, in order to improve communication competence in English, i., students could speak English as fluently as possible; they should do more exercises in English in the classroom. In reality, both teachers and students still perform code switching or code mixing even at the highest levels of education for various needs and objectives.
Various researchers studied code switching in a bilingual classroom over the last two decades. The study of Eva Fachriyah about “The Functions of Code Switching in an English Language Classroom” began with educational research into the classroom interaction styles of language teachers. This study of code switching has generally been done within a sociolinguistic framework where researchers and linguists study the communications symptoms that occur in bilingual and multilingual societies. Code switching can be examined from various viewpoints such as the form, location, patterns, and functions of code switching and code mixing itself.
According to Enama (2016), the target language learning should be accompanied by L1 as in one framework, so there is no burden of employing L1 because it serves the precise function in classroom to students. As EFL classroom demands a whole English classroom situation, the use of L1 is also encouraged because it will activate the prior knowledge of target language (Paradowski, 2008). Furthermore, Peregoy & Boyle (2013) propose that L1 facilitates both teaching and learning such as confidence, security, motivation and friendship. The use of L1 in EFL classroom gives students more comfortable setting in which they are able to speak freely with 2 no strict rule of English-only policy.
This situation has motivated the affirmative to believe that code-switching is very helpful for both teachers and students in classroom. 43) considers code-switching as an effective tool for the “management of learning”.2 Reasons for the study Code-switching (CS) occurs commonly in language classrooms around the world and that is why Vietnamese context is no exception. Code-switching has attracted more and more educational researchers because of its benefits. They investigate in different types of code-switching, its functions, effect and the reasons why code-switching are used in the classroom.
As many researchers support that the use of the learners’ L1 can help them to achieve the pedagogic aims of the L2 classroom and the communicative goals of language learners (Atkinson, 1987; Macaro, 2001). Upton & Lee- Thompson (2001, p. 149) believe that L2 learners often use their expertise and knowledge of the L1 to “mediate comprehension”. Last but not least, code switching allows learners to focus their attention to processing larger chunks of input, without the need to worry about the source of communication breakdown and at the same time, it allows learners to form associations of the relevant L1 and L2 forms which in turn may increase their linguistic awareness (Cook, 1995; Moore, 2002).