Functions and reasons for code switching to Arabic in EFL classes : a case study of ENSC students

Abstract EN

Code switching is a whispered phenomenon that results from languages in contact and in which the juxtaposition of these languages is intentional and purposeful.

Generally speaking, code switching refers to the alternate use of more than two languages by speakers in a discourse and it concerns only bilingual and multilingual societies.

The phenomenon of code switching has undoubtedly attracted the attention of many writers, linguists and researchers in the field and various studies have been made to investigate and scrutinize the occurrence, the reasons and the functions of code switching.

This work aims at scrutinizing the reasons for code switching to Arabic in EFL classes as perceived by students and data is analyzed based on an integration of Appel and Muysken’s (2006) six functions of code switching and Malik’s (1994) ten reasons for code-switching.

The study is conducted at the department of English, ENSC (école nationale supérieure) in Constantine and it involves 50 speaking students taken at random from the first, second, third, fourth and fifth years.

Finding and results of this study showed that code switching occurs in EFL classes mainly to serve referential, expressive, directive and poetic functions.