Code-switching by primary school bilingual EFL learners: a study on the effect of proficiency and modality of interaction

ABSTRACT

This study sets out to explore the effect of proficiency and modality of interaction on code-switching (CS) amongst two groups of Spanish-Catalan learners acquiring English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Primary school (grade 3, n = 24 and grade 6, n = 21). Data was retrieved from audio-taped oral activities (peer interaction and learner-teacher interaction) in real class situations and analysed for the number of switches, their types and functions, as well as for the source language of the switch. Results show differences in the total number of instances of CS and their types and functions according to both proficiency and modality of interaction, although with no statistically significant differences between the groups. As to the source language, Spanish was found to be the preferred language for students when working in groups, whereas Catalan was used to interact with the teacher. Results are discussed in the light of the new plurilingual approach recently proposed for the teaching of additional languages in the school curriculum and some pedagogical implications are drawn as to the need to redefine teaching methodologies and adapt them to current trends in education.

KEYWORDS:

• Code-switching
• EFL
• immersion bilingual education
• language proficiency
• plurilingualism

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the head teacher of the school where data collection took place for granting permission to carry out the study, and to the first author’s colleagues at this school for their constant support. We want to specially thank the students and their families for their collaboration. Since the present study is based on the first author’s MA thesis (University of Barcelona), we also acknowledge the feedback from the MA examining board. Finally, our most sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewer for her/his insightful revision. Any mistakes remain our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 To prevent participants in the pilot groups from telling their classmates about the tasks, the images included in the flashcards were not related to animals or food but to other topics students had dealt with during the course.

2 The first author of the study was also the EFL teacher of both groups.