Code-Switching Practices of Bilingual Teachers in Classroom Settings: A Case Study of University of Swabi

Abstract

This paper aims at finding the reasons of code-switching practices by bilingual speakers in the classroom settings at a government university in KPK, and to generalize the results based on the findings of a small-scale study of codeswitching between Urdu and English. It discusses how code-switching manifests itself in diverse ways and achieves different purposes. The data is taken from six recorded lectures and interviews with the lecturers in the department of English who were teaching to the students of first semester. This study aimed at finding the reasons of code-switching, the perceptions of teachers about their code-switching practices, and the functions of code-switching. The primary objective of this study is to find out, explain, record and analyze the reasons of code-switching that bilingual teachers use during lectures. Communication Accommodation Theory facilitated this study. The findings of this study revealed that lecturers used code-switching to engage with students, to translate difficult concepts, to describe, to control the classroom environment and students’ behavior, and to advise or encourage students.