The advisability of using English-Arabic code switching as a teaching strategy in EFL university classroom : a case study

Abstract EN

This paper addresses the issue of English-Arabic code-switching (henceforth CS) in the university classroom and how the use of alternative codes might serve the learning and teaching processes.

The study is based on analyzing 20 in-class audio-recorded lectures presented by the researcher along a whole semester1.

The study aims to investigate the teachers’ awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of their actual use of code switching in EFL classroom when the teacher shares the same native language with his students.

It provides a detailed analysis of the linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic considerations of this phenomenon and the reasons of its occurrence.

The first two parts of the study provides a theoretical background starting from the traditional perspective of code switching which considered it a random mixture of two languages (Legenhausen : 1991), passing through a considerable bulk of research which analyzed many audio-recordings of classroom interactions (Martin-Jones : 2000).

On the other hand, the first two parts talk about the various reasons of university classroom code switching, such as the ease of exposition and expression, the translation of particular unfamiliar terms, some socializing functions, maintaining classroom order etc.

The third part discusses the various functions of using the L1 in the university classroom on the basis of 20 excerpts randomly selected from the data of the study.

The data analysis is followed by a discussion to the findings of the study in comparison to those illustrated in similar studies.