Research Paper- Code-Switching(Ms. Dianave Tangog)
The question of when did code-switching in language classroom begin seems to be impossible to determine though there are studies dated on the sass’s about code-switching (e. G. McClure, E. And Went, J. 1975). Baronage (2009) analyzed the recorded and transcribed discourses of a total of 14 English language classes in Metro Manila and figured out the frequency and forms of code-switching that they uttered. Her study revealed that most of the English language teachers committed code-switching and the students also have their share of code-switching.
There are a total of 2, 367 switching’s utterances among students and teachers of five classes including three break periods in the research study of Metal (2009). She grouped her frequency count according to Pollack’s (1980) code-switching types. Metal (2009) diverge her findings that interstitially code-switching got the most frequent utterance among all types of code-switches from an observation (Beer-Gilson) that interstitial most often accounts 63% or the highest percentage of utterances of all the switches.
Occurrence of code-switching could have a positive effect to student’s learning and comprehension in the lass. One of the reasons why teachers code-switch in classroom is to help the students understand their lessons. Code-switching fosters a positive learning ambiance, makes challenging subject matter comprehensible to students, and it may remedy the poor language competence of interlocutors (Metal, 2009). Romaine (1999) States the function Of code-switching is to clarify a message. Some do not agree with the use of “English only” as a medium of instruction.
Some teachers feel that they could have a better discussion if they will be fully understood by their students because the use f English only in their class has not been effective and productive in the long term (Eviction, 2006). However, there are some arguments on whether this code switching can facilitate or hinder the learning of students inside the classroom and their fluency in speaking one language. One study, for an instance, implies that the students in classes where there are minimal usage of code alteration by their teachers had better performance on tests (Gabriel- Flyaway and Otter, 2006, in Metal, 2009).
In this research paper, we will try to figure out the frequency of code-switch ins uttered by the students and heir teachers during class discussion and the forms that are present. The Research Problem This research answered two questions. These are: 1 . What are the forms of code-switching in English language classroom? 2. How often do the teachers and students code-switch in English language classroom? Theoretical Framework The analysis of this research was guided by Pollack and Sendoffs (1988) typology which are smooth switching, constituent insertion, nonce borrowing, and non-smooth switching.
Pollack and Sendoff (1998) defined the following forms of code switching as: Smooth Switching Changing the language of the sentence only at syntactic boundaries which occur in both languages Non- smooth Switching Switching marked by hesitation, metasyntactic commentary, or pauses to call attention to the code-switch Constituent Insertion Insert[ins] a grammatical constituent in one language at an appropriate point, for that type Of constituent, in a sentence Of the other language Nonce Borrowing Borrowing for the time being or for the occasion, which differs from borrowing in the traditional sense only but not qualitatively I.
METHODOLOGY We are aware that code-switching is really happening in an educational intent. This mode of discourse has been a part of not only in the social community but also in the academic environment. There are several researchers that are pro-code-switching( e. G. Bad, 2005 and Inductive, 1994) and some are anti- code-switching ( Changers, 1 993 and Myers-Cotton, 1993). 1. SOURCES OF DATA This research paper aimed to find out how frequent does the teachers and students in a language classroom code-switch and the forms of code- switching that they used.
To obtain the corresponding answers in the research problems, we, the researchers, observed the classroom proceedings f two classes in Cavity State University-Rosaries Campus wherein the language for instruction must be in English. Participants were the DORM 1 02 students under the instruction of Ms. Sharron Ann Medina on their subject Oral Communication and the BPCS 102 students under Ms. Emollient Ass on their subject Philippine Literature. 2. DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE The researchers randomly chose two language classes in Cavity State university- Rosaries, Rosaries, Cavity.
In order to gather data, the researchers placed three recording gadgets while the classroom discussion is on-going. A allophone with its video mode on was placed on the teachers table. A digital camera was placed at the center of the classroom between the two separate columns of students’ chairs. The last recording gadget was handed by one of the researchers at the back of the classroom. The researchers recorded the classroom discussion and transcribed the conversations starting to 15 minutes after the class has started up to 45 minutes before the end of the one and a half hour class.
The transcribed discourses were then analyzed and the sentences with a trace of code-switching were singled-out from the transcriptions. . DATA ANALYSIS The frequency of code-switching utterances of students and teachers were counted and placed in a tabular form. The researchers picked some excerpts of the code-switches and analyzed the forms of code-switching by using Pollack and Sendoffs typology which falls under smooth switching, constituent insertion, non-smooth switching, and nonce borrowing.
The educational attainment of the two teachers was gathered for reference of their qualification in teaching subjects in English language. 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION It has been proven that code-switching has been a part of pedagogical intent not only in the Philippines but also in the other countries. Teachers and students have traces of code-switching in their formal discussions most especially in their informal discussions.
In Honking, the study of Lie (2008) on understanding mixed code and classroom code-switching: myths and realities revealed that educated Hangovers find it hard to resist mixing English in their discourses with others in Cantonese, therefore, resulting to code-mixing. In America, Arkansas in particular, Vista’s (2010) survey about the factors of code-switching among bilingual English students in the university classroom showed that the primary factor of code-switching in international classroom is the incompetence in the second language.
In Kuwait, the exploratory study of Aliened (2010) indicates that the students prefer the use of Arabic and English code-switching as the medium of instruction. In the Philippines, the study of Metal (2009) on the functions of code-switching in the classroom showed that forty-four percent of the 34 student respondents viewed code-switching as natural and acceptable while fifty percent do not accept code-switching. Valentine Gasbags, in her Code-
Switching Uses: The Focus on the Teacher Applied Analysis on a High School Context, stated that “In relation to what has been said until now, even though many teachers still show a slight suspiciousness towards the benefits of code- alternation in teaching a foreign language, code-switching may be considered as a useful strategy’ in classroom interaction, especially if the aim is to make meanings clear and to transfer the knowledge to students in an efficient way. ” Forms of Toga-English Code-switching in Two Language Classes Below are some excerpts from the classroom observation transcripts where code- witching are present.
The analyses Of forms Of code-switching in the transcripts were based on the typology of Pollack and Sendoff, 1988. In Baronage (2009), the researcher also used the typology of Pollock and Sendoff which are Smooth switching, Non-smooth switching, Constituent insertion, and Nonce borrowing. She analyzed a total of 14 language classes in Metro Manila whose discourse had been transcribed and analyzed to distinguish the frequency and forms of code-switching. The samples of forms of code-switches found in the discourses are in italicized form.
Here are some examples of her analyses: She identified these examples as smooth switches because the sentences in Toga from the first word down to the last word were all counted as smooth switches. Baronage (2009) explained that even if there is a Toga-only utterance, it is also considered a code- switch since the context is English. 17. Teacher: Okay. Paul mops the floor during Saturday. Who else? Merrill. Student: Teacher, may nag-away pop. “Teacher, someone got caught in a fight. ” 18. Student 1: Among color? “What student 2: Blue. 19.
Teacher: Mark Anthony. Mom. Alright. Very good. Next, next. Ma’am, “did pa aka antenatal. “Ma’am, have not been called yet. ” Student: In her example of Constituent Insertion, Baronage (2009) stated that her first examples also parallel some of the examples in Baptist’s (AAA) paper though the third example is a unique case because the English free translation already has a subject. 26. Okay… Now… Siege… Please be the next… ‘Okay… Now… Go… Be the next.. ‘ 27. Just raise your hand Lang. ‘Just raise your hand only’. 28. Icy! Sit down nag eh. ‘Hey!
The teacher said sit down’. The two least frequent strategies in the study of Baronage (2009) are nonce borrowing and non-smooth switches. Here are some of her examples: In nonce borrowing, she gave two reasons on why a teacher and students borrowed words from Toga: the first reason is because the word being borrowed has no equivalent in English and the speaker wants to achieve some pragmatic and stylistic effect to which only the Toga word could bring out. 30. Students: Good morning, visitor! Teacher and Students:Welcome… Students: And mayhap! Toga welcome greeting with no English translation] 31 -Okay, you are going to write the correct answer. Number one. Read first the sentence before answering. Read first the sentence. Answer number one. Will you take your seat? Just raise your hand. Jasper. Yes, hajji? Read the first sentence. Hem. Read. [An affectionate term (originally from Spanish) to refer to a girl] Here is her example of Non-smooth switching where a speaker experiences hesitation to proceed talking or at some time pauses because of sudden errors that they want to correct: 33. Okay, whom like to pick one? May I call on?
Yes, Kyle, come here. You pick one word inside the box and you do the action. Do not show your anon, okay? O, take a look at Kyle. Okay, who’d like to pick one? May I call on? Yes, Kyle, mom here. You pick one word inside the box and you do the action. Do not show your what, okay? O, take a look at Kyle 34. Young anon, young book with this drawing. Its on page 172. This book, with this kind Of drawing. O, you look at the drawing ha. It is on page 172. N The what, the book with this drawing. Its on page 172. This book, with this kind of drawing. Okay, you look at the drawing. It is on page 172. The research study of Baronage shows that most of the Toga-English code-switching are in the form of smooth switching and are almost four-fifth of the total number of code-switching in the data. Constituent insertion follows while nonce borrowing and non-smooth switches are very few. This current research will show the difference on the amount of percentage that each forms of code-switching have compared to Baronage’s (2009). Next page has a table that shows the forms of Toga-English code- switching in the data following the typology of Pollack and Sendoff (1988) that was also used by Baronage (2009) in her study.
Table 1 . Forms of Toga-English Code-switching of Two Language Classes Forms Of Code-switching Class Smooth-code-switching Non-smooth switches Nonce borrowings Total 34 74 2. 17 11 57. 90 10. 52 5. 26 26. 32 45 69. 23 13. 85 5 7. 69 6 9. 23 65 Average 23 3 6. 98 14. 24 Table 1 presents the counted forms of code-switching that were present in the two language classes that were observed. It is seen in the table that smooth code-switching are of the most number. A total of 45 smooth switches had been counted and reached 69. 23 % among the forms of code- switching.
The second most frequent form that was counted is non-smooth switches that got a total of 9 instances or 13. 85 Nonce-borrowing went to the third spot having only 6 instances or 9. 23 %. The least among the four forms of code-switching is constituent insertion that has only 5 instances or 7. 69 %. As can be seen in the table, the first class got the most number of smooth switches that scoped 34 out of the 45 combined number of smooth switches of both class. Class number one also has the most number of instances in the form Of Nan-smooth switches and constituent insertion.
The second class got the most instances of nonce borrowing which got 5 compared to the one instance that the first class got. This current study analyzed the discourses from two randomly-picked language classes. Some of the code-switches showed repetition. The speaker would speak in one straight English or Toga sentence and they would repeat the sentence in reverse. Here are some samples that were transcribed by the researchers. These sample falls under smooth switches because as Baronage (2009) cited in her study, even a Toga-only utterance is considered code-switch because the context is English.
The code-switches are in italicized form. 1 . Teacher: San MO nailing? Where did you place it? 2. Teacher: Do you have the sample? May dalai baa kayoing sample? In sample number 1, the teacher started with a Toga sentence and allowed by an English sentence which is the English translation of the first Toga sentence that the teacher uttered. The second sample, on the other hand, started with an English sentence followed by its Toga translation. These samples were also present in Baronage (2009).
Next to the most frequent form of code-switching found in the English language classes’ transcription is non-smooth switches or the switching that is marked by hesitation (Battista, 1998). 3. He became more capable, mum, anon, ah… He developed his writing skills, and one of his great works is ‘My Father’s Tragedy. When a speaker could not easily recall what he would say, he would use ‘fillers. Using these fillers could fill in the gap until the speaker finally recalled what he is about to say. This could happen for just two seconds or so. Fillers like ah and mum are mostly used by the speakers.
According to Session (2011), the use of ‘anon’ maybe a sign of an identity of Filipinos as far as conversations are concerned. She also stated in her study that a characteristic of a natural talk includes the use of fillers and it can support shared knowledge, indicate hesitation, and express irritation. The third most frequent form found in the transcribed data is nonce borrowing. As stated by Pollack and Sendoff (1988) in Baronage (2009), nonce borrowing is single lexical item, syntactically and morphologically integrated into the recipient language.
Here is an example: 4. Student: Ma’am prang ongoing.. 5. Teacher: Yes, according to you it’s ‘ongoing’. The student spoke in pure Toga but the teacher answered in English though kept the Toga word ‘ongoing’ because the student said it that way. The teacher did not bother to translate ‘ongoing’ into English for some reasons that only the teacher could tell. It could be possible that the teacher forgot the English translation of ‘ongoing’ or the teacher just want to retain what the student said and still used that Toga term.
Sometimes, we commit code-switching because of direct quotation or reported speech. This function of code-switching is also called direct quotation (Gummers, 1982 in Battista, 1998). Here is another example nonce borrowing by the teacher’s imitation of the speech of a local personality: 6. Don’t like Mike Energize’ tone, “As sounds”. The least form of code-switching found in this data is constituent insertion. Here is an example of constituent insertion uttered by the teacher: 7. Carols Boolean died, Yuan nag… Bronco pneumonia. The teacher made use of the adverbial particle nag.
According to Data (personal communication, 2008) in Baronage’s Toga English Code- Switching in English Language Classes: Frequency and Forms (2009), one of the use of the use of nag is being a part of reiteration. By putting the Toga word Yuan before nag, it gave an impression that there is a confirmation. The teacher is confirming that the cause of death of Carols Boolean was bronco pneumonia. Another example of constituent insertion of the teacher is this: . Pasta, you have to contact eh. In this sentence, pasta, in English, is must.
