Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis No 3998
Anglica Wratislaviensia LVIII, Wrocław 2020
https://doi.org/10.19195/0301-7966.58.9
Danuta Gabryś-Barker
ORCID: 0000-0003-0626-0703
University of Silesia
danuta.gabrys-barker@us.edu.pl
The Practice of Classroom Code-Switching,
Translanguaging or Simply Alternating
Languages in FL Teacher Talk
Abstract: Alternating between languages in an FL classroom is frst of all observed in teacher
talk which is an important dimension of FL teachers’ discourse. (Tsui 2008). The empirical study
presented here focuses on the language choices made between the L1 and FL(s) by both in-service
teachers (group 1) and pre-service trainees (group 2) during English lessons—but it is not meant
to be an in-depth debate on L1/FL use in a language classroom. It is a small-scale diagnostic study
of a FL classroom and TT behaviour of the subjects. The text starts with a brief presentation of the
concepts of code-switching and translanguaging, as applied in educational contexts and here oper-
ationalized for the purposes of a pilot study on language choices in teacher talk. The observations
of EFL lessons focus on the purpose(s) language alterations are made by the teachers and seek to
refect on the extent to which these purposes refer to clearly-defned instructional functions—cogni-
tive but also afective ones. These language choices made also constitute an important pedagogical
dimension beyond language instruction itself. The results of the study show that both experienced
and trainee teachers switch languages consciously during the lesson at similar stages and for similar
purposes, however some diferences are also observed and discussed in the text. The major focus
of discussion is on the pre-service teachers, as the study is part of awareness raising, and thus re-
fectivity enhancement of trainees participating in their teacher training at the undergraduate level
(BA) but who are already active teachers in the period of their school placement.
Keywords: code-switching, translanguaging, teacher talk, teacher talk functions, pre-service teach-
ers, school placement
Introduction: Code-switching and translanguaging
The topic of the article comes from a strong belief of the author that formerly em-
ployed foreign language teaching approaches that have tried to eliminate the use
of mother tongue in the foreign language classroom at the same time have not only
Anglica Wratislaviensia 58, 2020
© for this edition by CNS