Code-switching in Vietnamese university EFL teachers’ classroom instruction: a pedagogical focus

ABSTRACT

This study examines the under-explored phenomenon in Vietnamese tertiary settings of code-switching practised by EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers in classroom instruction, as well as their awareness of this practice. Among the foreign languages taught and learned in Vietnamese universities, English is the most popular. The research design involved data-driven analysis of 12 teachers’ code-switching behaviour in the EFL classroom from four different main sources of information: classroom observations, class recordings, interviews with the observed teachers, and field notes. The findings show that teachers practised code-switching very commonly in their English instruction, for both pedagogical and affective reasons. Code-switching, when done deliberately and selectively, can be a positive strategy to use in the EFL classroom, but not if done habitually and automatically. Since code-switching is a natural occurrence amongst bilingual speakers, teacher training programs may need to include code-switching as a deliberate teaching strategy. In addition, before any government policy or guidelines on code-switching are introduced, teachers need specific training on strategies for its effect use. The interviews with the Vietnamese university EFL teachers revealed key reasons for their code-switching in the EFL classroom, which are similar to those found in other studies. These are examined with a pedagogical and affective focus.

KEYWORDS:

• Code-switching
• teachers
• affect
• pedagogy
• policy

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Vietnamese teachers who participated in this study, as well as the reviewers who gave valuable feedback which led to improvements in the article.

Disclosure statement

No personal conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lynn E. Grant

Lynn Grant is a senior lecturer at AUT. She has been teaching English as an additional language (EAL) students in New Zealand for more than 30 years, as well as previously to students in Canada, Nigeria and Spain. Her research interests lie in the areas of academic English, idiomatic language and corpus linguistics.

Thi Hang Nguyen

Hang Nguyen is employed as Deputy Director at the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry in Vietnam. Her research interests lie in the area of code-switching and how it affects learning.