Abstract This study explores the practice, including the forms and functions, and beliefs of code-switching practiced by EFL teachers in classroom instruction in the Vietnamese University context. Some research in this field conducted around the world highlighted some noticeable theories. In the education context, many techniques, conclusions, and ideas of Vietnamese University professors' code- switching practice have been contributed by various significant research. Furthermore, there have been few studies in the Vietnamese setting that compare the similarities and differences between instructors' views on code-switching and their actual practice of code-switching in teaching, research on the practice of code-switching should be done at every school and university with various external components.
For the context, this study was conducted at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University (BVU) with the participation of 9 EFL teachers and 59 students in teacher participants’ classes. Data collecting stages were conducted using four major sources of data: classroom observations, questionnaires for both teachers and students, and interviews with the observed teachers. The Findings show that teachers practiced codeswitching very often in their teaching process for 19 different functions. Among the functions found in the study, several appeared more or less than other previous ones.
Codeswitching was also presented under 4 forms in this study. Three forms found in the previous studies, including inter-sentential, intra-sentential, and tag/fill/extra-sentential, appeared in this study and one new form of codeswitching named ‘Single Switching’ by the researcher also found in this study. Also shown in the findings for the similarity and differences between teachers’ beliefs and practice of codeswitching, teachers’ belief have influenced significantly their practice of codeswitching. Teachers with positive support toward employing codeswitching had most times practice codeswitching in their teaching process and vice versa.
However, several teachers with unsupportive attitudes toward codeswitching, in some teaching stages or skills, employed more codeswitching than they thought with pedagogy purpose or unintentional. Keywords: codeswitching, forms, functions, teacher, attitude, belief, non- English major students, BVU EFL teacher, Error! No text of specified style in document. i Table of Contents Abstract. i Table of Contents.
ii List of Figures. iv List of Tables .v List of Abbreviations. vi Statement of Original Authorship. viii Chapter 1: Introduction .4 Significance, scope, and definitions .6 Chapter 2: Literature Review .1 Definitions of key terms .1 Bilingualism and code-switching.2 Definition of Codeswitching: .2 The practice of codeswitching in language teaching: .1 Functions of codeswitching: .2 Types of codeswitching:.3 Teacher’s perceptions and beliefs of code-switching in the language teaching context.4 Status of code-switching research in Vietnam:.4 Summary of Research Tools: .5 Procedure and timeline .2 Data Collecting Procedure:.1 Data from Observation: .36 ii Error! No text of specified style in document.2 Data from Questionnaire: .3 Data from Interview .4 Summary of data analysis.7 Ethics and limitations .38 Chapter 4: Data Analysis Results and Discussions .1 Analysis of data .1 What teachers understanding of codeswitching and their opinion toward using codeswitching in EFL classrooms .2 When and how teachers use codeswitching .1 functions of codeswitching used by BVU EFL teachers .2 Forms of code-switching used by BVU EFL teachers.3 How teachers’ attitude and belief in using codeswitching .1 Teachers’ belief in the functions of codeswitching .2 Teachers’ attitude toward using codeswitching .2 discussion of result .1 BVU EFL teachers’ practice of codeswitching in terms of functions and forms.2 BVU EFL Teachers’ attitude and belief in using codeswitching .3 The similarities and differences between the teachers’ opinions about and their actual practice of code-switching .1 Similarities between teachers’ opinions and their practice of code- switching.2 Differences between teachers’ opinions and their practice of code- switching.1 Summary of results and findings .1 Major finding for BVU EFL teachers’ practice of codeswitching in terms of functions and forms.2 Major finding for BVU EFL teachers’ belief and attitude toward using codeswitching .3 Major finding for the similarities and differences between the BVU EFL teachers’ opinions about and their actual practice of code-switching .2 Implications for EFL teachers .3 Limitations and further directions.
78 Error! No text of specified style in document. iii List of Figures [The List of Figures can be created automatically and updated with the F9 key – refer to Thesis PAM.1 Conceptual Framework of the current study.1 Research and data collecting procedure .1 The total times teachers switched code .2 The number of codeswitching by function by each teacher.3 Forms of codeswitching. 45 iv Error! No text of specified style in document. List of Tables [The List of Tables can be created automatically and updated with the F9 key – refer to Thesis PAM.1 Summary of Hypothetical Codeswitching Identification .1 Summary for the time and length of observations .2 Summary of the questionnaire .3 Summary of the research tools .4 Summary of the revisions for research tools .1 The total times teachers switched code .2 The number of codeswitching by function by each teacher.
Forms of codeswitching. Students’ answers for functions of codeswitching. Teachers’ answers for functions of codeswitching .6 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes to code-switching in teachers’ persona. Teachers’ and students’ attitudes to code-switching to subject access.
Teachers’ and students’ attitudes to code-switching to classroom management .9 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes to code-switching to interpersonal relations .10 Number of codeswitching times at different skills. The percentage and frequency of teachers’ codeswitching by function.1: Summary of major findings from the current research .2 Summary of implications based on the major findings. 73 Error! No text of specified style in document. v List of Abbreviations If appropriate, list any abbreviations used in the thesis.
BVU Ba Ria Vung Tau University CS Code-switching CM Code-mixing EFL English as Foreign Language L1 Language 1 L2 Language 2 TL Target Language SL Second Language T Teacher S Student Q Question vi Error! No text of specified style in document. Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: _________________________ Date: _________________________ Error! No text of specified style in document.
vii Acknowledgments I owe a great debt of gratitude to the dearest individuals who were willing to support me and provide their priceless assistance during the research process for me to complete this M. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le Hoang Dung, for his encouragement, guidance, and support during my study. I am very grateful for being his student in this MA program and I highly appreciate his enthusiasm and patient in instructing me and giving suggestions throughout the long process of conducting the research and writing this thesis.
In addition, I would like to thank all my professors for their helpful instructions, as well as all my classmates in MTESOL 2017 for their friendship and invaluable suggestions during the Master's course at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University. I would like to send my sincere thanks to the teacher and student participants and all of my colleagues at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University. I could not have finished my data collecting stages as well as the research without their precious support. Finally, I would be remiss If I did not send my most sincere thanks to all my family members who always encouraged and supported me a lot during my research.
viii Error! No text of specified style in document. Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter outlines the background of the research, its purposes describe the significance and scope of this research, and provide definitions of terms used. Including an outline of the remaining chapters of the thesis.1 Background Code-switching (CS) is a phenomenon that exists in the community of people who are bilingual or multilingual, or who command over more than one variety of languages. People equally aware that in some contexts, one language serves their needs better than the other and switch their language use (Meyerhoff, 2006).
According to Myers (2008), Code-switching is referred to as a linguistic term when the user of a second language adds their first language in their speech. In a globalized society, codeswitching becomes popular and affects many aspects of life. Researchers around the world often study codeswitching from linguistic and social perspectives, which lead to different definitions. From a social setting, many researchers study the types and functions of the phenomenon of codeswitching (Poplack, 1980; Gumperz, 1982; Myers-Scotton, 1993) and in an education setting, many other researchers study types and functions of code-switching based on the previous background (e., Macaro, 2001; Liu, 2004; Kim & Elder, 2008; Kang, 2013).
There are more and more educational researchers place their focus on studying codeswitching in language classroom context around the world for different types of codeswitching, reasons for using codeswitching, the attitude of using codeswitching from teachers and learners, and the effects on the users. Within the background, Vietnamese education of language is also a part of a broader picture in studying codeswitching in the classroom context. The use of mother language (L1) in L2 learning (ESL, EFL) has been always a contentious issue causing considerable controversy between SLA researchers and education policymakers. Employing codeswitching often appears in a classroom where teachers share the same L1 as students to ensure the smooth delivery of class instruction, especially with low proficiency students (Selamat, 2014).
On one hand, the practice of using L1 in the learning and teaching process is considered as the deficit and incompetence of linguistic, supported by the Reform Movement and the Direct Method (Milroy & Muysken, 1995; Boztepe, 2005; Probyn, 2009). According to the Chapter 1: Introduction 1 researches, The act of overused Code-switching may affect the development of competence in L2 and the acquisition of the target language since the learner should be exposed to as much L2 input as possible. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the role of L1 in the learning process is considered as significant importance, especially for low-level students. Numerous researchers argued that L1 should be employed to facilitate the L2 learning process (Addendorff, 1993; Cook, 2001; Willans, 2011 as cited in Nguyen Thi Hang, 2013).
The controversy about the practice of code-switching with mixed opinions, therefore, has yet to conclude and a final published policy for teachers and learners.2 Context In Vietnam, the education system has been through a long time under the feudal influence which has a high opinion of a teacher in teaching and learning relationship. Teachers were moral leaders and students should follow some rules in the class and only speak when were asked by their teachers. The opinion still affects on teaching and learning process in nowadays education which is students tend to be affected by teachers’ choice of code used in classrooms (Nguyen Thi Hang, 2013). In 1986, Vietnam started to renovate, and English became the main language to be educated in the education system and be examined in level-changing examinations.
Then in 1995, Vietnam officially became a member of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and also ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). The opportunities require English, as an international language, to become popular in Vietnam to communicate and collaborate with people from other countries. English then has become the number one choice of a foreign language to be learned in Vietnam. However, the effect of the language teaching and learning process was not as expected.
Students have considered English as a subject to pass the exam, not a language to use. For the above reasons, in 2008, the Government of Vietnam perform a national project entitled “Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national educational system from 2008 to 2020” which contains a general objective that students graduating from Universities should be able to communicate and work in an international environment. Teaching and learning a foreign language have become a movement 2 Chapter 1: Introduction throughout the country.