Code-switching in the English Second Language classroom: a case study of four rural high school teachers in uMbumbulu, KwaZulu-Natal.
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Date
2019
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Abstract
Due to the multicultural setting of South Africa, eleven languages, which include
English, Afrikaans and nine indigenous languages including Xhosa, Zulu, Swati and
Ndebele, Southern and Northern Sotho, Tswana, Venda and Tsonga, have been
awarded equal status as official languages. Despite the continued support for English
as the prestigious language of wealth and success from Black parents, English
Second Language (ESL) learners are often found to struggle in developing the
expected competency in the language both inside and outside the classroom. The
Department of Education expects teachers to be skilled in assisting learners who
experience a barrier to learning and understanding English in the ESL classroom. This
study argues that teacher’s Code Switching (CS) provides solace for learners who
struggle to understand what is taught in class. Despite the feeling of justification for
CS use in ESL classrooms, teachers feel they are not only breaching the official
language policy but, also, what is presented to them as best classroom practice. In
this thesis, I attempt to show the necessity and value of CS in such circumstances.
Although a large body of research has been done on ESL classroom codeswitching,
there is a shortage of such studies in Black rural high schools. This study aimed to
explore where, when and how instances of teacher CS occur in four rural high school
ESL classrooms, the attitudes teachers have towards it, as well as, their experiences
of using it in the classroom. Through utilizing three research instruments, namely,
concepts maps, open-ended questionnaires and open-ended audio-recorded
telephone interviews, data was collected over a period of six months. Findings in this
study indicate that CS is still widely used by ESL teachers and considered successful
in clarifying difficult concepts in Literature and Comprehension. Learners were found
to enjoy lessons and were actively involved throughout the activities that were
performed in class. On the other hand, teachers expressed feelings of resentment
towards CS use in ESL classrooms maintaining that it makes learners lazy to
independently learn the new vocabulary necessary to develop their competency in
English language.
Description
Doctoral Degrees. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.