INTRODUCTION
Rationale of the study
Rapid globalization in several aspects of life in the past few decades has strengthened the dominant role of English as the most important foreign language in Vietnam, traditionally a monolingual country As a result, it is common to find an increasing number of bilinguals speaking Vietnamese and English at the same time here That is, they use a mixed language and also switch back and forth between two languages while conversing or lecturing This phenomenon, defined by linguists as code-switching (code-switching) or code-mixing, is “a well-known trait in the speech pattern of the average bilingual in any human society the world over”
(Ayeomoni, 2006) Unlike other sociolinguistic phenomena such as pidgins and creoles where speakers in contact only need to have knowledge of the common language that is used to communicate with speakers of other languages, code- switching requires its speakers to know at least two or more varieties, making it an activity exclusive to only bilinguals Therefore, studying code-switching in the area of bilingualism is central to gaining a better insight into bilinguals‟ process of utterances
Code-switching is a widespread phenomenon in “bilingual communities where speakers use their native tongue (L1) and their second language (L2) in different domains” (Kim, 2006) Among these communities, that of teachers teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) are believed to be a group where code-switching is used frequently, especially when these teachers communicate with people working in the same field Indeed, the alternate use of Vietnamese and English at work, to a certain extent, is an integral part of their communication with each other This is understandable, considering the fact that EFL teachers, while living in their first language environment, are constantly exposed to English in their work and studies
In the researcher‟s initial observation, code-switching is most pronounced in conversations between EFL teachers teaching English skills in tertiary level Since the researcher is a member of this bilingual community in a university in Vietnam, she has been captivated by code-switching used among her colleagues, and therefore decided to investigate this phenomenon
Quite a number of research studies have been written on this code-switching phenomenon in recent years In addition to early works that concentrate on linguistic aspects of code-switching (Gumperz 1976; Poplack 1980), much of recent research, which was conducted in countries other than Vietnam, has been concerned with the use of code-switching in the foreign and second language classroom (Moore 2002; Celik 2003; Dailey-O‟Cain & Liebscher 2005), in Internet chatting (Cardenas-Claros & Isharyanti 2009), in advertising (Chen 2006, Leung 2010) and in conversations between fellow expatriates (Ho-Dac 2003; Jalil 2009) However, so far very little research has dealt with code-switching in Vietnam as well as of Vietnamese –English bilinguals, a linguistic phenomenon which has become common in their daily speech Obviously, research on code-switching is still in its infancy in Vietnam and therefore leaves many gaps for those who are interested in this topic to investigate This study aims at filling this gap It illustrates the patterns and finds out the reasons for code-switching among Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU)
In a word, keen interest in bilinguals‟ process of utterances in general and code- switching used by her colleagues in particular, and the need to examine unanswered questions left in the field have been key motivations for the researcher to conduct this study.
Aims and research questions of the study
The first objective set out in this study is to review existing literature published by influential scholars on this topic Next, the study purports to investigate the types of code-switching among Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU, using the theories proposed by Poplack (1980), Malik (1994), and Appel and Mu ysken (2006) as principles of classification and analysis The final aim of this research is to explore the reasons for code-switching among this bilingual community
In short, the study aims to answer the two following research questions:
1 What are the types of code-switching found in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU?
2 What are the reasons for the use of code-switching in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU?
Scope of the study
This is a case study that only examines the phenomenon of code-switching among Vietnamese EFL teachers at English 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU The use of code-switching by teachers in other divisions, albeit equally frequent, is not within the scope of this study
This work also focuses on patterns of code-switching found in conversations among the participants, though code-switching can appear in written form Added to this, the settings of these conversations are limited to places on campus only, most of which are teacher‟s break rooms or conference halls during break times More importantly, the conversations under investigation in this study are informal ones covering daily spontaneous topics, which means discussions of issues in scheduled meetings or conferences are excluded.
Methods of the study
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in order to find answers to the research questions First, natural conversations between participants were audio recorded and transcribed to identify instances of code-switching, which then were grouped according to Poplack‟s theory (1980) This qualitative method was used to draw findings to the first research question concerning types of Vietnamese-English code-switching found in the recorded conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers
Next, transcripts of conversations along with a short teacher‟s self-report form were delivered to participants in order to obtain their reflection on what caused them to code-switch Collected data were then calculated and grouped Employing the quantitative method at this stage, the researcher sought to find out the answers to the second research questions on reasons for the participants‟ code-switching.
Significance of the study
As one of the few studies conducted on the topic of code-switching, this research is expected to shed some light on the understanding of this phenomenon among EFL teachers in general and Vietnamese EFL teachers in particular, thereby encouraging more researchers to look into this topic Also, with the findings of the study, the researcher wishes to raise sociolinguistic-related issues for other studies to discuss, such as attitudes towards this phenomenon, or its development in the coming years
The completion of this paper may make other possible contributions to conversation analysis as a means of ethnographic methodology, and to discourse analysis from a sociolinguistic perspective Additionally, this paper is expected to contribute to studies of speech community of this particular population in the specified setting
Lastly, this research is supposed to lay the foundation for the researcher‟s future studies on bilingualism and code-switching.
Overview of the rest of the study
The rest of the study is comprised of four chapters which are as follows
Chapter two, Theoretical Background, reviews prominent literature directly relevant to the topic being discussed
Chapter three, Methodology, presents the methods used for data collection and data analysis as well as justification for these methods
Chapter three is followed by the fourth chapter, Results and Discussion, in which the findings of the study are discussed to answer the research questions
Finally in chapter five, recapitulation of the whole study is presented before suggestions for further studies and a conclusion are given.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Introduction
This chapter provides definitions and background of the theories and concepts related to the topic investigated in this research paper More importantly, different systems of classifying code-switching as well as reasons for code-switching will be discussed in detail
Since the study is concerned with the phenomenon of code-switching in conversations, this chapter only reviews studies conducted on code-switching in daily communication between speakers, and excludes those on code-switching used in other contexts such as advertising, chat rooms, or language learning classrooms.
Bilingualism
As code-switching is “the inevitable consequence of bilingualism” (Hudson, 1996, p 51), it is necessary to discuss bilingualism in the review of literature related to code-switching
Numerous attempts have been made by linguists to describe and fully understand the concept of bilingualism One of the earliest studies carried out by Bloomfield
(1933, p 56) broadly defines bilingualism as the “native-like control of two languages.” The definition raised some questions on the degree of mastery or competency of a speaker in the languages in order to be considered to have native- like control Haugen (1953, p 7) further explains that bilingualism only exists when a speaker of one language “has the ability to produce complete meaningful utterances in another language.”
According to Spolsky (1998, p 45), when people “develop some knowledge and ability in a second language”, they become bilingual He continues defining a bilingual:
The simplest definition of a bilingual is a person who has some functional ability in second language This may vary from a limited ability in one or more domains, to very strong command of both languages (which is sometimes called balanced bilingualism)
In Spolsky‟s view, as long as a person can communicate in a second language, he or she is considered “bilingual”, regardless of his or her proficiency level in that language While this definition proposed by Spolsky tends to rest on social- communicative dimension of bilingualism, that by Grosjean is more concerned with this phenomenon as one that involves “the regular use of two or more languages”
(Grosjean, 1982, p 1) within a certain speech community In his later work, Grosjean defines a bilingual speaker as more than the sum of two monolinguals in the sense that the bilingual has also developed some unique language behavior (Grosjean, 1985a, as cited in Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p 7) The focus on the frequency of language use and language-related behavior in Grosjean definition makes it more convincing and therefore better accepted than Spolsky‟s theory, since one with a limited functional ability in the second language should not be called a bilingual if one rarely uses that language
Weinrich‟s (1953) famous typology distinguishes three types of bilingualism based on the environment(s) where a speaker learns the two languages, and on the cognitive organization of words in a bilingual‟s mind They are compound bilingualism, coordinate bilingualism, and subordinate bilingualism
First, compound bilingualism refers to the type of bilingualism where both first and second languages are acquired by a speaker concurrently under the same environment in early childhood The speaker assigns identical meanings for equivalent words as the two languages merge at the conceptual level of the brain
Hence, two language systems are developed and maintained by the speaker, both similarly available in speaker‟s linguistic repertoire (Nomura, 2003) This can be seen in speakers with bilingual parents or those growing up with different linguistic backgrounds
The second type is coordinate bilingualism, which occurs when a speaker learns two languages under separate environments This results in speaker having distinctive conceptual representations for translation equivalents in the languages (Archibald,
2000) The speaker may establish the first language in early age followed by a second language much later, such as through formal education or in adulthood
Finally, subordinate bilingualism is a type of mediated bilingualism where the lexical and conceptual representations of a speaker‟s first language play a role in facilitating the lexical representations of the speaker‟s second language Dominant in the first language, meanings and concepts in the second language are understood with the help of words from the first language Thus, one of the characteristic of subordinate bilingualism is low level proficiency in the second language (Archibald,
2000) Following Weinreich‟s (1953) typology, many theories for bilingualism have been proposed with most focusing on compound and coordinate bilingualism as they are regarded as “true” bilingualism
On the basis of this typology by Weinreich, the participants in this study can be considered to have coordinate bilingualism
Once bilingualism is established in a speech community, language choice patterns become a trait in bilingual behavior Members of the community have to decide on what language to use in certain contexts to certain interlocutors In Holmes‟ words
(2008, p 21), “Certain social factors- who you are talking to, the social context of the talk, the function and topic of the discussion- turn out to be important in accounting for language choice in many different kinds of speech community.” The factor of participants in a conversation can exemplifies this claim If a bilingual individual is talking to a monolingual individual, both speakers tend to communicate in the monolingual‟s language, with variation possibly occurring in style or degree of formality However, if this is a conversation between bilinguals who share the same linguistic background, the phenomenon becomes far more complex and involves more than language choice only; it may involve aspects like code-switching and borrowing (Grosjean, 1982) Therefore, according to Grosjean‟s approach to bilinguals‟ decision-making process, a bilingual speaker bases his or her language choice for the conversation first on the linguistic background of his or her interlocutor Both speakers will agree on the language to be used, with or without code-switching.
Code, code-switching, code-mixing, lexical borrowing, and interference
While studies on code-switching have been increasing in the past decades, a considerable degree of confusion still exists as to what constitutes and accounts for examples of code-switching Apart from attempting to define the phenomenon, researchers also encounter the problem of distinguishing code-switching from code- mixing, or from its closed counterpart, which is lexical borrowing
In this section, the concepts to be defined are code and code-switching The term
“code-switching” is then compared and contrasted with other two confusing ones mentioned above, namely “code-mixing” and “borrowing” The distinction between
CS and interference, albeit not always puzzling, is also relevant in this literature and therefore will be briefly discussed in this section
As code-switching is being discussed, first it is important to understand what is meant by “code” The term “code” is used by sociolinguists as a less popular name for “variety of language”, or just “variety” for short, which can be defined as “a set of linguistic items with similar social distribution”(Hudson, 1996, p 22) The very general notion “variety” includes languages, dialects and registers (Hudson, 1996)
Sharing this view, Holmes (2008, p 7) concedes that:
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances, i.e., with a distinctive social distribution…which includes different accents, different linguistic styles, different dialects and even different languages which contrast with each other for social reasons
The definitions by both authors show an emphasis on the speech community in which a variety is used, and on the linguistic items as components In the context of this study, the term “code” or “variety” will be taken as the first language used by speakers of a country
Among the first researchers trying to define code-switching, Hasselmo (1961, 1970, as cited in Ho-Dac, 2003, p 6) points out that:
Code-switching consists of the use of distinct successive stretches of two languages, and depending on the interlocutors‟ degree of proficiency in both languages, the switch may be “clean”, that is, the switch involves a complete phonological change, or “ragged”, that is, the change is grammatical and lexical, but not phonological
It can be seen from the definition that Hasselmo looks at code-switching as distinct switches from one language to the other and how these switches can change phonologically, grammatically or lexically depending on the interlocutors‟ language proficiency level
Another influential author of many studies on code-switching, Shana Poplack
(1980), simply defines code-switching as “the alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or constituent”, often with no change of interlocutor or topic Simple as it may seem, this definition lists in descending order the possible places at which code-switching may occur, namely discourses, sentences, and constituents This definition is later favored by many other linguists, such as Hudson (1996), Spolsky (1998), Ho-Dac (2003), and Holmes (2008)
Gumperz (1982, p 59) offers a more general way of understanding code-switching, which is “the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or sub-systems.” With this theory, Gumperz has placed emphasis on the superficial position of stretches of two languages in a specific condition, which is “the same speech exchange”
Though several definitions of code-switching have been proposed, the most general and accepted one seems to be that by Poplack (1980) The type of switching mentioned in this definition may be thought of as forming a continuum ranging from whole sentences to single words However, a common question still remains as to what should be considered code-switching and what should be not, mainly because this phenomenon is often confused with code-mixing and lexical borrowing
2.3.3 Code-switching and code-mixing
The distinction between code-switching and code-mixing is one of the most intriguing issues in the study of code alternation Clyne (1991, p 161) argues that code-switching and code-mixing refer to the same phenomena in which “speaker stops using language „A‟ and employs language „B‟” Other researchers, however, attempt to distinguish between code-switching and code-mixing One approach investigating this issue from a grammatical perspective is to base on the place where the alternation takes place According to Wei (1998), if code alternation occurs at or above clause level, it is considered code-switching, but if it occurs below clause level then it is called code-mixing
Following the same approach, Muysken (2000) uses the term “code-mixing” to refer to “all cases where lexical items and grammatical features from two languages appear in one sentence” (p 1), which he calls “intra-sentential code-mixing” He reserves the term “code-switching” for “the rapid succession of several languages in a single speech event” Similarly, Bhatia and Ritchie (2004) concedes that code- mixing refers to the mixing of various linguistic units (morphemes, words, modifiers, phrases, clauses and sentences) primarily from two participating grammatical systems within a sentence It can be inferred from the similarity in the three definitions by Wei, Muysken and Bhatia and Ritchie that the phenomenon of code-mixing occurs within a sentence, which leaves the inter-sentential places for code-switching
The view of Poplack (1979/1981) bears little resemblance to the above-mentioned ones Poplack only uses the term “code-switching” for all cases of code alternation, which can exist below, at, or above sentence level More about this idea shall be discussed in the next section
While the first approach rests on the point of code alternation as a criterion to distinguish between code-switching and code-mixing, the second one viewing this from a sociolinguistic perspective is more concerned with extra-linguistic factors
For example, Hudson (1996, p 53) says that in code-switching, “the point at which the languages change corresponds to a point where the situation changes, either on its own or precisely because the language changes.” Conversely, he views code- mixing as a case “where a fluent bilingual talking to another fluent bilingual changes language without any change at all in the situation.”, and gives it the name of “conversational code-switching”, which he finds “a rather unhelpful name”
Obviously, Hudson bases his distinction on the speakers‟ code choice according to changes in situation, which sounds fairly abstract, since the notion of “situation” and “situational changes” need further clarification What are factors determining a situation and what are possible situational changes that may affect one bilingual‟s code choice?
Another extra-linguistic factor used to differentiate code-switching from code- mixing is suggested by Holmes (2008, p 43) She argues that code-mixing suggests
Linguistic constraints on code-switching
A growing number of code-switching studies have dealt with the linguistic factors that operate to constraint code-switching (Gumperz 1976; Plaff 1976, 1979; Poplack
1980, 1981) From these studies, some general linguistic constraints have emerged, which have been explained as follows
The first one called equivalence constraint and suggested by Poplack (1980) can be stated most simply in this way: “Surface structures common to both languages are favoured for switches” (Plaff, 1979, p 314) The principle is explained more comprehensively by Poplack (1980, p 586):
Code-switches will tend to occur at points in discourse where juxtaposition of L1 and L2 elements does not violate a syntactic rule of either language, i.e., at points around which the surface structures of the two languages map onto each other According to this simple constraint, a switch is inhibited from occurring within a constituent generated by a rule from one language which is not shared by the other
In other words, in the case of intra-sentential code-switching, switches only occur within sentences at points where the grammars of both languages match each other
Therefore, you may switch between an adjective and a noun, or between a verb and an object, if both languages use the same order for these elements, as illustrated in the example below
Vietnamese English Possible switch point nhà đẹp nice house NO xem phim hoạt hình watch cartoons YES: i.e „xem cartoons‟ or „watch phim hoạt hình‟
Table 1 Example of equivalence of constraint Next, the size-of-constituent constraint says that higher-level constituents like sentences or clauses tend to be switched more frequently than lower-level ones, which are one-word categories such as nouns, verbs, determiners, adverbs, adjectives) (Gumperz & Hemrnndez-Chaivez 1975; Poplack 1980) The one regularly found exception to this constraint is the category of noun Below the sentence level, nouns consistently have been found to account for the greatest number of switches (Pfaff 1979; Poplack 1980, 1981)
The third linguistic constraint on code-switching, the free morpheme constraint, states that code-switching is prohibited between a free and a bound morpheme In Poplack‟s (1980) terms, “Codes may be switched after any constituent in discourse provided that constituent is not a bound morpheme.” To be more specific, an item such as *EAT-iendo „eating, which consists of a Spanish bound morpheme –iendo
„ing‟ affixed onto an English root „eat‟, could not occur in the speech of a Spanish/English bilingual (Berk-Seligson, 1986), “unless one of the morphemes has been integrated phonologically into the language of the other” (Poplack, 1980), that is, unless the word has attained the status of a borrowing In a word, the free- morpheme constraint would be best defined as the “impossibility of code-switching at a point of morpheme binding” (Berk-Seligson, 1986)
However, from sociolinguistic point of view, many scholars claim that it is unlikely that there are universal and absolute rules as such It is more likely that these rules simply reflect the limited data which have been examined so far These sociolinguists argue for greater attention to social, stylistic and contextual factors
The points at which people switch codes are likely to vary according to many different factors such as which codes are involved, the functions of the particular switch, and the level of proficiency in each code of the people switching Thus, it is suggested that intra-sentential code-switching will only occur among very proficient bilinguals, whereas inter-sentential switching, short fixed phrases or tags in one language at sentence-ends in the other language tend to be used more frequently by less proficient ones (Holmes, 2008)
Controversial as these issues may seem, it is generally acknowledged that the linguistic constraints on code-switching discussed above have provided a conceptual framework for studies in language mixing, especially for those aiming to find out tokens of code-switching in conversations Therefore, this research paper also makes full use of these constraints to determine switches and non-switches among the speech data.
Typologies of code-switching
On the basis of the findings of some studies on code-switching that led to the proposal of constraints on code-switching sites, many scholars have suggested their own typologies of code-switching In this section, three most noticeable systems of classifying code-switching will be reviewed
2.5.1 Poplack’s typology of code-switching
According to Poplack‟s (1980, as cited in Hamers and Blanc, 2000, p 259) study on English-Spanish/ Spanish-English code-switching, there are three types of code- switching:
(1) extra-sentential code-switching, or the insertion of a tag, e.g “you know”, “I mean” from one language into an utterance which is entirely in another language
This type of code-switching is very simple and does not require a great command of both languages, since there is a minimum risk of violation of grammatical rules
(2) inter-sentential code-switching, or switch at clause/sentence boundary, one clause being in one language, the other clause in the other, e.g “Sometimes I‟ll start a sentence in English y termino en espanol” (“Sometimes I‟ll start a sentence in English and finish in Spanish”) (Spanish-English bilingual recorded by Poplack
(1980) in the Puerto Rican community of New York city)
(3) intra-sentential code-switching, where switches of different types occur within the clause boundary, including within the word boundary (i.e loan blend, e.g checker (English verb check + French infinitive morpheme –er) This is the most complex type of code-switching, mainly because of the high probability of violation of syntactic rules, as well as the requirement of a great knowledge of both languages and how they can map onto each other
Muysken (2000) proposed a typology of code-switching which is also relevant in this overview of literature (Note that Muysken (2000, p 1) uses the term “code- mixing” to refer to instances “where lexical items and grammatical features of two languages appear in one sentence”.) The first type, insertion, is characterized by the insertion of a constituent from language B into a construction in language A, where
A is the matrix language (Muysken, 2000, p 60-62) This type of code switching is illustrated in the following example taken from Nortier‟s (1990) Moroccan Arabic- Dutch code switching data
Example 1: Žib li-ya een glas water of zo
(Get me a glass of water or something.)
(Nortier, 1990, p 131, as cited in Muysken, 2000, p 62) The second type of code-switching described by Muysken (2000, p 96) is termed
“alternation”, and occurs where the two languages “remain relatively separate”, for example, when the switch is at the periphery of the clause (Muysken, 2000, p
121) The following example, taken from Treffers-Daller‟s (1994) French-Dutch corpus, illustrates this type of code-switching
Example 2: Je dois je dois glisser daan vinger hier
(I have to insert my finger here.) (Treffers-Daller 1994, p 213, as cited in Muysken, 2000, p 96) The final type of code-switching suggested by Muysken (2000, p 122) is called
“congruent lexicalization”, which occurs where the two languages share the grammatical structure of the sentence, either partially or fully According to Muysken (2000, p 132, 151), this includes instances of switching back and forth between the two languages, and is most common between “related languages”
Congruent lexicalization is illustrated by the Sranan-Dutch example below, taken from Bolle (1994)
Wan heri gedeelte de ondro beheer fu gewapende machten
(One whole part is under the control of armed forces.)
(Bolle 1994, p 75, as cited in Muysken, 2000, p 139)
2.5.3 Bloom and Gumperz’s typology of code-switching
While Poplack (1980) and Muysken (2000) classifies code-switching from a grammatical point of view, Bloom and Gumperz (1972) distinguishes two types of code-switching, namely situational code-switching and metaphorical code- switching, on the basis of sociolinguistic factors In Bloom and Gumperz‟s (1972, p
424-425) view, situational switching refers to cases where speakers switch languages due to a change in the situation, such as a change in participant, topic or setting In other words, situational code-switching occurs when the choice of language depends on the situation On the other hand, metaphorical switching takes place in cases where it is the choice of language that determines the situation,
“because the speaker decides to ignore the observable external situation and focus instead on less observable characteristics of code-switching of the people concerned” (Hudson, 1996, p 53) Metaphorical code-switching can be employed as a conversational strategy to assist conversational acts such as apologizing or requesting
When three important typologies of code-switching proposed by different researchers have been discussed, it is now necessary to evaluate each typology It seems that Bloom and Gumperz‟s view, which attempts to classify code-switching from a sociolinguistic point of view, has not taken into consideration the fact that in many cases, changes in situational factors also coincide with changes in the bilingual‟s speaker‟s intention to perform certain acts In this case, does the dividing line between situational code-switching and metaphorical code-switching remain clear-cut? In terms of Muysken‟s system of classification, which is quite comprehensive, some researchers, especially novice ones, may have difficulty distinguishing between the first type, insertion, and the third one, congruent lexicalization When a lexical item from language B is inserted into language A, classifying the instance as insertion or congruent lexicalization may be more complicated than it actually seems Finally, the application of the typology proposed by Poplack in classifying tokens in oral corpus, in which incomplete clauses/sentences tend to predominate, may be limited However, so far this typology has been regarded as the most transparent and comprehensive one that covers all cases of code-switching without causing much confusion Therefore, it will be used as the conceptual framework to classify types of code-switching found in recorded conversations in this study.
Communicative functions of and reasons for code-switching
The communicative functions of and motivations for code-switching have been studied extensively from various linguistic perspectives by a multitude of researchers
Grosjean (1982) suggests some reasons for code-switching For example, some bilinguals switch back and forth between languages when they cannot find proper words or expressions, or when there is no appropriate translation for the language being used Also, their interlocutors, situations, messages, attitudes, and emotions trigger code-switching Other reasons may include quoting what someone has said (and thereby emphasizing one‟s group identity), specifying the addressee (switching to the usual language of a particular person in a group will show that one is addressing that person), or qualifying what has been said In other words, on the basis of a number of factors such as with whom (participants, their backgrounds and relationships), about what (topic, content), and when and where a speech act occurs, bilinguals make their language choice (Bhatia and Ritchie, 2004)
Looking at these issues from a functional point of view, Appel and Muysken (2006) suggest that code-switching perform six main functions, some of which overlap with some reasons in Grosjean‟s above-mentioned proposal:
1 Referential function: code-switching involves lack of knowledge or facility in a language Thus, bilingual speakers switch code when they do not know the word or when a certain concept is not available in that language
2 Directive function: This participant-related function of code-switching aims to include or exclude a person from part of a conversation such as by using a familiar or foreign language to that person
3 Expressive function: Speakers use more than one language to stress their self- identity or feelings to others in the conversation
4 Phatic function: code-switching is used to show a change in tone and emphasize important parts of a conversation
5 Metalinguistic function: Bilinguals sometimes code-switch in order to comment on another language In other words, this function is most marked when the speaker or writer quotes words, phrases or sentences in another language in order to preserve the original meanings and senses of the quotations
6 Poetic function: Words, puns, and jokes in one language are switched to another language for the purpose of amusement or entertainment
Seeking reasons for code-switching from a sociolinguistic approach, Gumperz
(1982, p 144) lists examples of situations created to convey meaning as given below:
- to appeal to the literate
- to appeal to the illiterate
- to ease communication, i.e., utilizing the shortest and the easiest route
- to negotiate with greater authority
- to capture attention, i.e stylistic, emphatic, emotional
- to identify with a particular group
- to close the status gap However, the ten reasons described by Malik (1994) appear to be most succinct yet comprehensive Those reasons are listed and explained as given below:
1 Lack of facility: According to Malik (1994), bilinguals or multilinguals often code-switch when they cannot find an appropriate expression or vocabulary item, or when the language of conversation does not have the particular word needed to carry on the conversation smoothly
2 Lack of register: Code-switching also occurs when speakers are not equally competent in two languages and when they do not know the terms in two languages
This reason often applies to cases of terminology For example, Vietnamese students studying English Language Teaching often use English terminology discussed in the course when they talk to each other about it in Vietnamese, owing to the fact that proper terms in Vietnamese may not be available to them
3 Mood of the speaker: Malik (1994) claims that usually when bilinguals are tired or angry, code-switching takes place with a new dimension This means, when the speaker is in the right state of mind, he or she can find the appropriate word or expression in the first language He or she may know exactly the word in both languages but the second language may be more available at the point of time when the speaker has a disturbed mind Cases like this are also described by Holmes
(2008, p 39-40) as “switching for affective functions”
4 To amplify and emphasize a point: Switching is also used to emphasize a point
David (2003) uses the courtroom environment to show how a defending lawyer uses dominant Bahasa Malaysia to start with and shifts to English to emphasize an important point to the judge that the accused had not committed any crime for ten years The example is as follows
Example: “Sebelum ini OKT pernah ditangkap pada tahun 1975 dan 1986 There has been a 10 years gap since the last offence Semenjak itu OKT telah berumahtangga, mempunyai kerja tetap dan insaf.”
(“Before this, OKT was caught in 1975 and 1986… since then OKT has married and has held a steady job”)
5 Habitual experience: Malik (1994) stresses the fact that code-switching often occurs in fixed phrases or getting and parting, commands and request, invitation, expressions of gratitude and discourse markers Examples in Vietnamese-English code-switching may include “Thanks em/ anh! (Cám ơn em/anh!)” when the speaker wants to express gratitude
6 Semantic significance: Malik (1994) notes that switching at a particular moment can be used as an effective tool to convey appropriate linguistic and social information such as the speaker‟s attitudes, communicative intents or emotions
7 To show identity with a group: code-switching is used to signify shared values and experiences by people of a same group or culture, and to represent a sense of belonging and familiarity to the group This view by Malik is also shared by Holmes (2008, p 35-36)
8 To address a different audience: Malik (1994) states that code-switching is also used when the speaker intends to address people coming from various linguistic backgrounds He takes the example of India where the television announcer often uses Hindi as it is the national language, but also switches to English
9 Pragmatic reasons: Sometimes the alternation between two languages is highly meaningful in terms of the conversational context This means code-switching is dependent on the context of a conversation or other factors such as formality, participants and location where a conversation is taking place Therefore, code- switching may portray a varying degree of speaker‟s involvement
10 To attract attention: Malik (1994) shows that in advertisements (both written and spoken) in India, code-switching is used to attract the attention of readers/ listeners In English newspaper when readers come across non-English, the reader‟s attention is automatically drawn to depend on the language background he or she originates from A similar situation prevails in advertisements that involve audio and video output
Previous studies on Vietnamese – English code-switching and in Vietnamese
As has been mentioned, few studies have been done on Vietnamese – English code- switching and in Vietnamese context One notable work attempting to deal with this phenomenon exhaustively is that by Ho-Dac Tuc (2003) on patterns of code- switching in Vietnamese – English bilingualism By studying recordings of natural speeches of sixty Vietnamese immigrants residing in Melbourne, Australia from both structural and contextual perspectives, Ho-Dac found that single words are switched more often than entire clauses Specifically, the results showed that different syntactic word classes switch at different rates, with nouns being the most common and articles being the least Another finding suggested a correlation between code-switching patterns and specific topics being talked about Also, it was discovered that sixty informants divided into three sub-groups according to their residential areas all make use of similar types of code-switching
Two other studies on code-switching conducted in Vietnam that the researcher could find include one by Nguyen (2007) on the use of code-switching as a translation technique, and the other by Giap (2009) on language mixing phenomena in verbal communicative process between Vietnamese and English While the former focuses on code-switching used in the context of translation, the latter only views code-switching as one among language mixing phenomena in verbal communication, which bears little relevance to the topic in question
In short, except for the work by Ho-Dac that holds major significance in laying the empirical foundation for other studies on Vietnamese –English bilingualism, papers on this topic of code-switching in Vietnam have been very limited in number This reality, as clarified in the introduction, has constituted a good reason for the conduct of this study.
Chapter summary
So far this chapter has reviewed existing literature relevant to the topic in question
General definitions of key concepts and distinctions between frequently confused language contacts have been presented, followed by discussions on linguistic constraints on code-switching, different typologies of code-switching, and motivations for this phenomenon
It can be concluded from the review of literature that little consensus is reached when it comes to the issues related to phenomenon of code-switching such as typology and linguistic constraints Influential linguists‟ views differ greatly even in defining code-switching, which leaves laymen with the flexibility to approach the problem from their own chosen perspective However, having looked at and evaluated different proposed theories, the researcher has decided to take Poplack‟s
(1980) typology of code-switching and Malik‟s (1994) and Appel and Muysken‟s
(2006) suggested reasons for code-switching as theoretical frameworks for this study, mainly because of their general coverage of most cases and intelligibility to readers
In the next chapter, details on how this study was conducted will be presented.
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter gives an overall account of the Vietnamese EFL teacher group from which the data were drawn, and presents the methods of data collection and data analysis
This chapter consists of three sections In the first section, a general description of the context and participants is given The second section presents the methods of gathering data and the rationale for adopting these data collection methods, followed by procedure of data collection Finally, data analysis methods will be described.
Description of the context and participants
University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) is one of the leading universities in Vietnam that provide a favorable and high-quality environment for language teaching, language learning, language teacher education, and International Studies Of the ten faculties in the university, the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE) is the biggest in size, with roughly 150 teachers and 2,000 students every academic year
FELTE is divided into six Divisions, namely English 1, English 2, English 3, Translation and Interpretation, English for Specific Purposes, and English Language Teaching The case under investigation in this study is English 1, which is responsible for teaching English skills for first year students majoring in English Language Teaching, Translation and Interpretation, and Business
For collecting primary data 20 Vietnamese teachers at English 1, including 18 females and two males, were chosen to be the participants of the study Their age varied from 22 to 35 at the time of the study, with the youngest having one-year teaching experience and the others more than one year All of them have been using English on a regular basis for at least ten years and majored either in TESOL or translation when they were undergraduates They graduated from their universities with Distinction or Honour degrees and are currently teaching four English skills to first-year students of FELTE
The EFL teachers in English 1, FELTE were chosen as participants for this case study for two reasons First, the researcher has worked in the Division for almost three years and found access to the group fairly easy due to her participation in both professional and entertainment activities organized by the Division, through which she has had informal contact with all the teachers of English 1 In other words, the researcher‟s membership in the sample group and her familiarity with the setting and participants allowed her to enter the studied conversations and turn on the voice recorder As this case study is ethnographic to some extent, the role of the researcher as a participant helps to ensure the internal validity of the research by providing “opportunities for continual data analysis … to ensure the match between scientific categories and participant reality” (Lecompte and Goetz, 1982, as cited in Nunan, 1992, p 62) Second, the researcher‟s initial observation revealed that the teachers in English 1 frequently conversed with each other during lesson breaks in the teacher‟s room to chitchat and share teaching experience Such intra-group conversations like these produced a range of code-switching instances that are worth examining
The reason for adopting the methods of data collection including recording of natural speech and delivering teacher‟s self-reports are indicated in the following section.
Data collection method
To illustrate the types and to find out the causes of code-switching in the target group, two data collection instruments were employed, namely recording of natural speech and teacher‟s self-reports
The spontaneous nature of real life speech is said to be particularly important for the study of linguistic behavior, specifically of code-switching, as code-switching tends to occur in informal situations (Poplack, 1980) Therefore, this audio recording method was used as part of many researchers‟ methodology to obtain speech data (Labov 1981; Milroy 1987, as cited in Ho-Dac, 2003, p 33) In this study, recording natural speech provided authentic data for the examination of types of code- switching found in the conversations, as well as for the participants‟ later retrospective accounts
During the course of collection, the researcher was able to collect several recordings of 20 informants in order to obtain samples of speech in a wide range of situations
These recordings consisted mainly of informal conversations between the informants in the teacher‟s room during lesson break times, in which there were two or more speakers In no case were these conversations arranged for the recordings
Having regard to possible ethical concerns, an email from the researcher had been sent to the participants asking for their approval of having their speech recorded for this study Only when permission of all the participants was granted did the researcher start the recording job
However, one problem remains, as is suggested in literature Informants who were aware of the recording might behave untypically in comparison to their speech behavior in daily conversations (Gardner-Chloros, 1991, as cited in Poplack, 1980)
This problem was minimized in this study by the researcher‟s techniques in discreetly keeping the voice recorder out of the informants‟ sight and participating in some conversations in a natural manner
Ten conversations with the voices of all the participants were recorded, lasting three hours and twenty two minutes in total The shortest recording was about three minutes and the longest one roughly one hour Instances of code-switching were detected in all these conversations
Sample transcripts of recorded conversations are provided in Appendix B
In order to find out the reasons for the informants‟ code-switching during the recorded conversations, a teacher‟s self-report form was developed and sent to the informants to ask for their retrospective account This instrument bears much resemblance to what Nunan (1989, p 94) terms “stimulated recall” used in classroom research, a technique “in which the researcher records and transcribes parts of a lesson and then gets the teacher (and where possible, the learners) to comment on what was happening at the time that the teaching and learning took place.” In this case study, the informants were asked to comment on what had triggered them to code-switch while conversing, using the transcripts of their recorded conversations
The self-report form was designed on the assumption that different respondents would think of different situations and therefore give different reasons for their choice of code-switches if they were merely asked to list the reasons themselves
Therefore, the self-report form enabled the informants to think about the actual reason for their context-specific code-switching instances while listening to the recorded conversations and reading the transcripts Possible reasons for code- switching were provided for the respondents‟ convenience and for the convenience of data analysis
Apart from the title, introduction and definition of key term, the main part of the teacher‟s self-report form consists of two sections A and B Section A provides the transcript of the recorded conversation in which the recipient of the form participated as an interlocutor In this transcript, instances of code-switching that the recipient made during the conversation are italicized, underlined and numbered in order of appearance from one (01) Section B presents a table divided into two columns, with one including eleven reasons for code-switching proposed by Malik
(1994) and Appel and Muysken (2006) and the other left blank for the respondents‟ answers In this section, informants are asked to insert in the right column a number representing the token of code-switching in the transcript in part A which illustrates the relevant reason for their code-switching If there is any other reason for the informants code-switching which is not mentioned in this table, they could specify in another table that follows, which has the same format and headings as the preceding one but is left blank The form ends with a final thank-you
The teacher‟s self-report form is provided in Appendix A
The process of data collection consisted of four main steps
Step 1: Designing the teacher’s self-report form
The teacher‟s self-report form was designed with a view to collecting the participants‟ retrospective accounts of the reasons for their code-switching during the conversations under investigation The reasons provided beforehand in the form consist of ten reasons suggested by Malik (1994) and one by Appel and Mu ysken
(2006) Some space is reserved for the informants to specify any other reasons not belonging to the eleven ones
First, an email was sent to all informants asking for their permission for the recording of their conversations with each other When their approval had been granted, the researcher started to discreetly record the natural conversations between the informants Most of the conversations took place in the Faculty teacher‟s room and some in front of the conference room Ten conversations with the voices of all the participants were recorded, lasting three hours and twenty two minutes in total
The shortest recording was about three minutes and the longest one roughly one hour
Transcription of the data was carried out as soon as one conversation had been recorded In each transcript, instances of code-switching occurring during the conversation were italicized, underlined and numbered in order of appearance from one (01) The transcripts were then copied to section A in self-report forms
Step 4: Sending the audio files and teacher’s self-report forms to participants
Coding and data analysis procedure
Three hours and twenty two minutes of recorded speech in which all the informants participated provided 213 instances of code-switching, which served as qualitative data for the research In order to answer the first research question, these code- switching instances were categorized into three types suggested by Poplack (1980), namely extra-sentential switching (or tag switching), intra-sentential switching and inter-sentential switching Also, each instance of a switch was coded as to its syntactic function in the utterance Breakdown of switching according to Poplack‟s typology and by word classes were then tabulated
Responses obtained from the participants‟ self-report were processed in the same way in order to find the answer to the second research question Instances of code- switching were calculated according to the reasons for which they were uttered and subsequently presented in tables in descending percentage order
The names of twenty participants were also coded into letters from A to T to guarantee the confidentiality of their identities and personal information
Examples from the transcripts were used for the discussion of results, each of which was followed by an English translation while switched words and phrases were indicated with underlining.
Conclusion
This chapter has elaborated on how data for the study were collected and analyzed in fulfilling the research objectives In the next chapter, findings and discussion of results of the research will be presented.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Introduction
The focus of this chapter is on the nature and frequency of code-switching in the corpus The chapter will be divided into five main sections Apart from the chapter introduction, the second and third sections serve to present the findings of data analysis to find the answers to the two research questions The fourth section provides a thorough discussion of the results Finally, a brief chapter summary will be given.
Research question 1: What are the types of code-switching found in
4.2.1 Categorization of detected instances of code-switching according to Poplack’s (1980) typology
Based on the definition of code-switching proposed for this study, there are 213 code-switches in the corpus This number was obtained after borrowings such as
“CD” or “mail (“meo”)” were excluded
The detected code-switches were divided into three types according to Poplack‟s
(1980) typology, namely extra-sentential code-switching (or tag switching), inter- sentential code-switching, and intra-sentential code-switching which can be seen in table 2 below:
Type Number of instances Percentage
Table 2 Breakdown of detected code-switching instances according to Poplack‟s
Table 2 shows that intra-sentential code-switching accounts for nearly all cases of code-switching, which serves to reinforce the common viewpoint that only very proficient bilinguals will switch within sentences (Holmes, 2008, p 46) Also, linguists agree that people who are less bilingual will tend to switch at sentence boundaries (inter-sentential code-switching) (Holmes, 2008, p 46), which may account for the absolute lack of this type of code-switching in the corpus Only two extra-sentential instances of code-switching in the conversations were recorded, both of which are injections, namely “No” and “No thanks”
Another noteworthy point here is that among the 211 tokens of intra-sentential code-switching found, 210 ones comply with the “equivalence constraint” and “free morpheme constraint” suggested by Poplack (1980), and one does not follow the
“equivalence constraint” This constraint, as discussed in the chapter two, broadly states that in the case of intra-sentential code-switching, switches only occur within sentences at points where the grammars of both languages match each other This violation can be observed from the example below
Example 1: “…Tức là họ lập luận là tất cả các thang đánh giá đo đếm đều có thể convert lẫn nhau và họ chỉ nói là bởi vì đây là convert chuẩn nên là họ tự, giống như kiểu là “Đầu Ngô mình Sở” đúng ko?”
(“…So they argue we can convert one assessment scale into another and they just say since this is standard convert, they have the right to decide, like an inconsistent style, right?”)
As can be seen from the example, the syntactic category of the switched word should have been a noun acting as a complement and derived from the verb
“convert”, which is “conversion”, not the verb itself
Having classifying tokens of code-switching found in the recorded conversations using Poplack‟s proposed system, this chapter will now look at intra-sentential code-switching in detail in terms of word classes
4.2.2 Quantification of instances of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category
Table 3 displays the distribution of the syntactic category of the 213 intra-sentential tokens of code-switching
Syntactic category of code-switching Number Percentage
Table 3 Break down of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category
According to Table 3, the most frequent syntactic category of intra-sentential code- switches is the noun, with 50.24 percent of the total switches This finding is relatively compatible with that of other studies with regard to the switching of nouns Poplack (1980), for instance, reports in her study on Spanish-English code- switching that single nouns were most likely to be switched than other word classes
Another study with the same finding is that by Ho-Dac (2003) on Vietnamese- English code-switching Moreover, when added together, switched nouns and noun phrases in this study make up nearly 70 percent of the total switches, revealing their dominant occurrence in the participants‟ code-switching
Another word class that is frequently involved in code-switching is the verb with 23.22% of the total switches, followed by adjectives with 6.16% Verb phrases and prepositional phrases occur with almost the same frequency, accounting for four and three cases of the total switches in the corpus, respectively Constituting less than one percent, sentences are the least common in the detected cases of intra-sentential code-switching
The following sections describe switching by syntactic category found in the recorded conversation in order of frequency
4.2.3 Overview description of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category
It should be noted here that the examples given below are extracted from the recorded conversations, and therefore they will serve as example only
In the quantification of switched nouns and noun phrases, it is apparent from Table 3 that the incidence of code-switching to English nouns and noun phrases, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the total switches, is higher than that of any other syntactic categories The majority of nouns and noun phrases switched are words which refer to concepts commonly mentioned in the English language teaching profession The detected switched nouns and nouns can be generally grouped according to the same semantic categories as specified in the following table
English language teaching listening, speaking, reading, writing, scanning, vocab test, midterm, skill, vocab, tip, test, observation, answer sheet, answer key, key, glossary, discussion, language, tapescript, idea, course work, thesis, homework, course outline, academic writing, supplementary, follow-up, paragraph, ELT, orientation, case study, Double Degrees, participation, vocabulary activity file English standardized tests
TOEFL, TOEIC, PET, IELTS, BEC
Book titles College Writing, IELTS Foundation, Objective IELTS
Intermediate, Market Leader, Great Paragraphs Lesson topics and subtopics conflicts, new business, names, common names, nicknames, adaptor, innovator, adapting, meeting, google
Work-related form, deadline, full time, pay Clothes size, free size, free style Others image, positive feeling, negative feeling, permanent residence, quality of assessment and e-learning in Vietnam Table 4 Switched nouns and noun phrases by semantic category
Other semantic categories include words and phrases related to family issues, studying abroad and conferences
English verbs and verb phrases comprise roughly a quarter of the total of 211 intra- sentential switches Except for the case of “coaching” in present participle form in the following example, all the other switched verbs and verb phrases were in invariable forms (infinitive without “to” instead of third-person singular, past or past participle form)
Example 2: “…Thì đấy, vậy chị chọn ra một cái nào là typical của B1, sau đó chị dành ra một khoảng thời gian 15 tuần, 3 tuần cuối, vì lúc ấy học sinh đã quen…,thì lúc ấy 3 tuần cuối chị chỉ dạy chúng nó về paragraph thôi, gần như kiểu là coaching chúng nó…”
( So that’s how You choose one typical type of B1 and then spend the last 3 weeks of the whole 15 weeks, when students have been familiar with…, so in these last 2 weeks you only teach them about paragraphs, like coaching them…”
The detected verbs and verb phrases can be generally classified into different semantic categories as in Table 5
Semantic category Verbs and verb phrases
English language teaching and learning activities revise, comment, scan, time, check, note, summarize, discuss, role-play, practice, manage time, preview the unit
Summary
In this chapter, we have seen that among the total 213 switches, there are only two cases of extra-sentential code-switching, and the rest are intra-sentential code- switching Interestingly enough, no cases of inter-sentential code-switching were detected A possible explanation for the dominance of intra-sentential code-switches can be that it is the type favored by proficient bilinguals, as conceded by a number of linguists (Poplack 1980, Grosjean 1982, Holmes 2008) Another finding emerging from the corpus is that among the 211 instances of intra-sentential code- switching, single words comprise the majority of the switches According to Muysken (1991, 1995, as cited in Ho-Dac, 2003, p 85), this may be because “single words such as nouns, verbs or adjectives exist in both languages, and more importantly, are considered as „categorical equivalent‟” Generally, given the surface similarities between the word order in both languages, most switches occur at points around which the word order of the two languages corresponds, as explained in the “equivalence constraint” proposed by Poplack (1980)
It was also found out in this chapter that different syntactic word classes switch at different rates For example, switches of nouns are most common, followed by those of verbs and adjectives, which corresponds with the finding of studies by Poplack (1980) or Ho-Dac (2003)
As regards reasons for code-switching, the data analysis process has also revealed that habitual expression, which is related to psychological aspect of behavior, and the quotation function of code-switching were given by informants as the main factors for their code-switching Another contributing factor is the purpose to amplify and emphasize a point As the informants were proficient in both languages, few cases of code-switching resulting from lack of facility or registers were detected An informant added a reason not included in the provided list of reasons, which was “to save time” No instances were cited as a result of the intention of attracting attention, which may be explained by the shared linguistic background between the interlocutors
In the next chapter, a brief summary of what has been done in this research papers will be presented, followed by limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.
CONCLUSION
Recapitulation
This study has attempted to present the phenomenon of code-switching conversations among Vietnamese EFL teachers in English 1, FELTE, ULIS, VNU
It has an explorative character since this is among the few studies concerning the phenomenon of code-switching between the Vietnamese language and another language
Specifically, the study first aims at finding out the types of code-switching found in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers, using the typology suggested by Poplack (1980) Another aim of the study is to investigate the reasons of code- switching among the sample For these purposes, twenty Vietnamese EFL teachers at English 1, FELTE, ULIS were chosen as participants
After the introductory chapter, chapter two in this study focuses on reviewing literature directly relevant for the topic being investigated The concept of code- switching is first defined, then compared and contrasted with other concepts of linguistic contact, namely code-mixing, lexical borrowing, and interference After that, three most accepted linguistic constraints on code-switching are presented, which are equivalence constraint, free morpheme constraint, and size-of-constituent constraint (Poplack 1980) A major part of this chapter is saved for discussing the typologies of code-switching proposed by Poplack (1980), Muysken (2000), and Bloom and Gumperz (1972) The discussion results in the adoption of Poplack‟s typology as the theoretical framework in this study, which classifies code-switching into extra-sentential code-switching, inter-sentential code-switching, and intra- sentential code-switching Finally in this chapter, reasons for code-switching suggested by different linguists are reviewed Ten reasons proposed by Malik
(1994) and one by Appel and Muysken (2006) are chosen to be the theoretical framework used in this study
In terms of methodology, this study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods First, to find out the types of code-switching in the conversations between the participants, the researcher recorded ten conversations and transcribed them
Instances of code-switching were identified in the transcript and categorized into three types suggested by Poplack (1980) Then the transcripts along with teacher‟s self-report forms were sent to the informants, asking them to identify the reasons for their code-switching in the recorded conversations By so doing, the researcher was able to find out the actual reasons for the participants‟ code-switching, based on the suggested ones by Malik (1994) and Appel and Muysken (2006)
The results show that nearly all detected instances of code-switching are intra- sentential code-switching and two are extra-sentential code-switching No instances of inter-sentential code-switching were found in the recorded conversations
Regarding the reasons for the participants‟ code-switching, the most common one is habitual expression, followed by the need to quote book titles or from books and to convey semantic significance None of the respondents code-switched to address a different audience.
Limitations of the study
As stated in the introductory chapter, this is a case study that only examines the phenomenon of code-switching in conversations among Vietnamese EFL teachers at English 1, FELTE, ULIS, VNU Therefore, the initial findings of this study apply only to this population The use of code-switching by Vietnamese EFL teachers in other divisions of the Faculty, albeit equally marked and frequent, may not be compatible with these findings
Also, all the conversations under investigation in this study are limited to natural and informal ones, most of which took place in the teacher‟s break rooms Thus, speech of the same participants recorded in formal settings such as meetings or conferences may not produce the same types of code-switching as found out in this study
Finally, as this study looks at the types of and reasons for code-switching in conversations from grammatical and sociolinguistic points of view, only literature relevant to these questions is covered Existing literature on the topic of code- switching is abundant and needs more examination.
Suggestions for further studies
The general approach in this case study may be useful in carrying on further research in areas which the present work has not included One such area is the description of how code-switching can be exploited in Vietnamese EFL classrooms, both by teachers and learners, to facilitate the teaching and learning process, such as in the acquisition of vocabulary
This study has focused on code-switching in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers working at tertiary level In the researcher‟s initial observation, code- switching occur most frequently among this population Therefore, it would be desirable for other researchers to conduct studies on other populations, such as teachers working at primary or secondary level Since the degree of their exposure to the English language and their English proficiency vary, more new findings are expected to emerge from studying these populations
The final suggestion is for research on this phenomenon in formal settings or in written discourses to be conducted Different levels of formality may imply different choices of language and different frequencies of code-switching Also, the cognitive process involved in producing written discourses is likely to offer other types of and reasons for code-switching
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APPENDIX A TEACHER’S SELF-REPORT FORM Reasons for Code-switching among Vietnamese EFL Teachers at English
This self-report form for teachers is designed to collect data for the study “Vietnamese- English code-switching in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers: A case study” The aim of this survey is to collect your reflection on reasons for your code- switching from Vietnamese to English in conversations recorded between you and other Vietnamese EFL teachers at English 1, ULIS, VNU Your assistance in completing the report is highly appreciated You can be confident that your personal information will not be identified in any discussion of the data
Code-switching (CS) refers to “the alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or constituent” (Poplack, 1980)
A First, please kindly listen to the conversation between you and your colleague(s) recorded on…(date)… in/ at the …(place)… during the break time/ after a session end, and read the transcript of the conversation at the same time In this transcript, all the tokens of your code-switching are numbered from 1 to …
B Below are ten common reasons for code-switching proposed by Malik (1994) and Appel and Muysken (2006) Please kindly insert in the appropriate column a number representing the token of code-switching in the transcript in part A which illustrates the relevant reason for your code-switching
Reasons for code-switching (based on Malik, 1994 and Appel and Muysken,
Reasons Token number from part A
1 Lack of facility (inability to find appropriate expression and vocabulary item, or lack of that expression or item)
2 Lack of register (you do not know the terms in your first language)
3 Mood of the speaker (e.g.: you are angry, upset or excited, etc.)
4 To amplify and emphasize a point
6 Semantic significance (to convey appropriate linguistic and social information, such as attitudes, communicative intents, emotions, etc.)
7 To show identity with a group
8 To address a different audience (i.e people coming from various linguistic backgrounds)
9 Pragmatic reasons (conversational context such as formality, participants, location of the conversation)
Did you code-switch for any other reasons? If you did, please specify in the following table
Reasons Token number from part A
Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Due to the matters of confidentiality and delicacy, only the transcripts of the recorded conversations approved by the informants to be published are provided in this appendix
D:…sau đấy chuyển sang phần vocabulary ở phần cuối ấy, cho cả lớp đọc thì tức là cả lớp đọc một lượt, sau đấy thì chia ra làm 5 nhóm…cái phần cuối sách ấy, có cái phần glossary của cả bài ấy… Xong rồi chia thành 5 nhóm, chia cho mỗi đội 20 điểm
L: Chị cũng cho chúng nó thế đấy…
D: Các đội đọc lên, cứ sai mất 1 từ thì bị mất 1 điểm Đội nào còn thừa nhiều điểm nhất thì thắng Tóm lại là như thế để đọc đi đọc lại cho nhớ…
I: Cái đấy có mất hai tiết không cậu?
L: Buồn cười hôm nay lớp chị có đứa đọc là “con-su-mờ”
D: Uh đấy quên mất là chưa sửa được cái đấy Có 1 thằng nó đọc là “ta-ghét” hay cái gì đấy Em đọc xong em note vào mà em quên mất ko sửa ”sum” mà, “sờ” mà
D : /’kənsju:mə/ hoặc /’kənsu:mə/ đều được L: Chị ờ lớp chị (???)
D: Hôm nay thì chỉ cho listening , listening thì nhẽ ra cho nghe phần bài của Hoa, nhưng mà
I: Hôm nay cho chúng nó nghe bài về ông nuôi sâu ấy, có nhiều ideas phết nhá Sâu để câu cá ngâm rượu làm thuốc cho gà cho chim cho người Nó biết rất nhiều idea nhá
L: Thế chị bảo chúng nó ko phải là sâu mà là giun đấy Chị bảo đấy là trang trại nuôi giun
D: Nghe cái phần trên ấy, sau đó cho bọn nó summarize lại cái phần đó, sau đó ngồi theo bàn, summarize lại trong 5 câu
I: Cái gì, innovator đấy hả?
I: Lớp tớ hôm nay tớ cũng bắt summarize , tớ bắt đứng lên nói, xong rồi nói mình là adaptor hay innovator
D: Đấy, summarize lại trong 5 câu xong nói rõ là bài ấy (unclear) để cho bọn nó nhớ
Xong là sau cái đó xong thì mọi người đều creative xong dẫn đến cái phần discussion ở bên trên là “ there are no new ideas” với la ̣i “ the best way to kill an idea is to throw it to a meeting” Xong là discuss cái đấy, discuss cái ấy xong thì dẫn đến meeting
D: Ờ I: Bạn dạy cái gì? Tớ cho nghe này, nói language cho practice nữa, D: Tớ thấy rất là happy ở một việc Đấy là sau khi cho bọn nó nghe hoặc là các cái phần ở trong meeting ở trong Market Leader ấy, sau đó tớ cho bọn nó giở tapescript ra rồi role play cái phần đấy đọc cái phần tapescript ấy xong sau đó mới bắt đầu cho role play thật
Tức là bây giờ mày có vai hết rồi, xong rồi cho mày (unclear) mới xong lắp cái language vào
I: Có smooth ko? Có nghĩa là đọc script ấy khi nó chưa ấy
L: Nhưng mà script đấy là của bài nghe nào?
I: Của bài mà google với (unclear)
D: cái free style gì đấy
L: Em dùng cái Market Leader với vocab activity file đấy…nhưng mà chị vẫn thấy nó boring , chị vẫn thấy nó…
A: Cái case study conflicts này hay này, chủ đề conflicts này hay này, chủ đề new business khó lắm
N: Ừ, hay thì cũng phải nghĩ mãi mới ra….cho nó cái case study này về xong…nó làm xong nó chẳng biết đường nào nó làm ấy
A: Vấn đề ăn nhau là nó còn phải có ideas một chút Cái new business ấy khó chết đi được ấy, năm thứ nhất thì nó đã biết là nó làm cái gì cái gì đâu…
N: Cái này thì em tự cũng được…bởi vì thực ra là chúng nó làm chúng nó tự tổng hợp tài liệu, chúng nó tự đánh giá bạn chúng nó diễn như thế nào, rồi chúng nó tự manage time
Trong khi đó (unclear) có 1 nhóm chuẩn bị, có 1 nhóm ghi cái biên bản, …
(unclear)…tức là cả lớp nó đều là…mình chỉ là người quan sát, cũng không can thiệp vào các giai đoạn…
N: Ôi giời ơi trông cái O nó ăn ngon nhờ!
(then N was offered a bite) N: No thanks ! Chị rất ít ăn vặt
N: Rất ít Bảo ko thích thì không phải
