Code Switching In Classroom Discourse: A Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

This research attempts to find out the most frequently used type and the function of codeswitching, also the implication of code-switching towards the teaching and learning situation in two classrooms of the fourth semester at English Education Department, University of Mataram. The descriptive qualitative method was adopted in conducting this method. The data collection was done through observation, recording and interview. The results of this study showed that three are types of code-switching are found in 129 utterances which contain code-switching in the classrooms. The most frequently used type was Intra-sentential switching, which appeared in 70,5% of the utterances, followed by tag switching (16,2%) and inter-sentential switching (13,1%). There were two functions of code-switching found in this study, they ware translation and communicative function which included motivating, giving feedback, checking comprehension, joking, and expressing state of mind. The implication of code-switching in teaching and learning situation was considered as one of the good strategies to built an efficient and conducive teaching and learning situation in the classrooms, as it is necessary in certain condition and still hard to avoid since it is helpful for material explanation as well as an ice breaker.

Code-Switching Practices in Multilingual Classrooms: Exploring Pedagogical Functions

“…The other example of code-switching is done from English to Arabic sometimes. It refers to the translation required by the students to understand the sentence's meaning (Yulandari et al, 2018). It is conducted by considering the language used to facilitate the students to have expanded knowledge about language and to make it grow together.…”

“…The use of Code-switching in the classroom is to preserve interpersonal relationships between teachers and students and humanize the classroom such as joking, humor, giving motivation, and praise to reduce students' anxiety. This function is to construct a supportive classroom climate and to appreciate the students as human (Rolin-Ianziti & Brownlie, 2002;Yulandari et al, 2018). According to Cahyani et al, (2018), they reported where teachers of tertiary level in Indonesian context found that teachers commonly gave praise in English because they thought English is expressive with various forms of utterances.…”

“…Joke is often characterized by interpersonal relations, and frequently requires teachers to do it with familiar language. They do it commonly as a result of pedagogical decisions, in which they wanted to construct a comfortable atmosphere with an ice breaking and to treat the students with informal interaction in the classroom (Yulandari et al 2018).…”

“…c) For interpersonal relation, it means to humanize the classroom atmosphere, make negotiation identities. According to Yulandari et al, (2018) and Rolin-Ianziti & Brownlie (2002), they have found three functions integrated in the classroom activity, those are translation, meta-linguistic use, and communicative use. They include the classroom management and also the reaction of teachers when the students ask it during the class activity.…”

“…Thirdly, extra-sentential or tag is a tag phrase in one language that is inserted into another language within such utterances "you should pay attention dong!" (Yulandari et al, 2018). This type includes fillers, quotation, tag, interjection, and so on.…”