Code-switching: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:24, 2 October 2024

Revision as of 18:28, 2 October 2024

Line 142:

Code-switching in the classroom can be challenging because it requires adapting to different languages ''and'' cultural norms. Students tend to assimilate into the new culture to fit in with other students.<ref name="Council of Europe" /> The way students talk, learn, and think begins to change because they start learning what is the "correct" way of speaking.<ref name="Council of Europe" /> The difficulty of adapting to a new language and culture with different rules and norms is often understated.<ref name="Council of Europe" />

Henry Lawert emphasizes how "an effective knowledge of English is not as universal as many of us would like to believe."<ref name="Poplack-2018" /> Teaching non-native speakers can be a challenge, especially when the classroom's primary language is a secondary language or the student isn't fluent. Many students speak other languages at home, making learning the primary classroom's primary language more challenging.<ref name="Darrin-2017" /> When switching languages, it can become difficult for a child to understand what is going on in the classroom, and might learn at a different pace than other students.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Salazar |first1=Danica |date=21 September 2020 |title=Switching gears: revising code-switching, n. |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/revising-code-switching/ |access-date=2 August 2021 |website=Oxford English Dictionary blog |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Teachers start to label children as "inadequate" or "behind".<ref name="Darrin-2017" /> As a result, children start feeling resentment towards their own culture and begin to think their native language is inferior or invalidedinvalidated. With an average classroom class being 30:1, it can be difficult to receive help from a teacher, and even more difficult when the student prefers to use a different language.<ref name="Council of Europe" />

This can discourage students, and it can become harmful to the long-term aptitude of students, even after they reach fluency.<ref name="Weinreich" />

Line 149:

Instead many prefer the alternative of code-meshing, where all languages and dialects are valued equally. This pedagogy celebrates and encourages students to use their primary language to diversify and improve their school work without limiting them to a singular language. It exposes students to more cultures in an unfiltered way.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Vershawn Ashanti |date=2009 |title="Nah, We Straight": An Argument Against Code Switching |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20866886 |journal=JAC |volume=29 |issue=1/2 |pages=49–76 |jstor=20866886 |issn=2162-5190}}</ref>

Some teachers consider code-switching useful in the classroom because it helps students who do not speak standard English as their first language feel more welcomed in the class and also learn the material more easily. It also helps with learning a new language since it allows students to guess what words in another language mean outoutside of the context that is given in their native language. One of the challenges with code-switching is that teachers have to consider that if they code-switch or otherwise use more than one language in their classroom, they have to ensure that the students truly understand what the the content in the different language. To do so, teachers often lessen the amount of material that they cover, teaching their students only the basics and allowing them to learn the rest by themselves.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nurhamidah |url=http://usnsj.com/index.php/JEE |title=Code-Switching in EFL Classroom: Is It Good or Bad |last2=Fauziati |first2=Endang |last3=Supriyadi |first3=Salmet |publisher=Journal of English Education |year=2018 |pages=81 |language=English |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812082847/http://usnsj.com/index.php/JEE |archive-date=12 August 2022}}</ref>

Code-switching can pressure students to conform to one language over another.<ref name="Goldstein-2005" /> For some students it can lead to a feeling of disconnection to their own culture, and that those students are betraying their culture by learning English over their mother- tongue. Being a non-native speaker in a foreign country can lead to total isolation due to the inability to communicate. There is this sense of feeling lost and feelingmany feel the need to hide one'stheir cultural identity.<ref name="Weinreich" /> Many educators have argued that in a classroom, all cultures should be celebrated and students should feel like they are fully accepted and valued for who they are.<ref name="Goldstein-2005" />

Code-switching is very common in classrooms of multiple languages for many different purposes. <ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nguyen |first1=Nhan Trong |last2=Grainger |first2=Peter |last3=Carey |first3=Michael |date=2016-07-01 |title=Code-switching in English language education: Voices from Vietnam |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&issn=17992591&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA461970608&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Theory and Practice in Language Studies |language=English |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=1333–1341|doi=10.17507/tpls.0607.01|s2cid=53352987}}</ref>