Code switching in communication of esl students at a university in vietnam

Today, Vietnamese students are using code sswitching and switching from Vietnamese to English as a way of as an indispensable natural way of communicating in daily life and the use of co

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English linguistics Code :8220201.01

Hanoi - 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

MA.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English linguistics Code :8220201.01

Supervisor : Dr Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà

Hanoi - 2018

The deepest gratitude approves to my parents who with their endless love and care have most assistance and motivation me for the whole of my life I also would like to express my thanks to my own family for their support and care me all the time

As last, I would like to send my deeply thanks to all my friends who kindly helped and cared and gave me the best motication and lift me up all the trouble for the rest of my life

Thanks to all of you

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ABSTRACT

One of the most important functions of language is communication People use languages to exchange information, express feelings and emotions etc In other words, people use languages to communication with with each Language develops and diversifies over times with the developments of society, especially the development of human thinking Thus, with time, the use of language of peole, especially today teenagers has lots of changes, among which “ code switching” is considered a special and interesting phenomenon The change from Vietnamese to English or code switching has been widespreading among the youth and the most popular times is in 2000s when English was put in to the throne and regarded as a second important and indispensable language for Asian youth in general and Vietnam in particular Today, Vietnamese students are using code sswitching and switching from Vietnamese to English as a way of as an indispensable natural way

of communicating in daily life and the use of code switching is not restricted or obeyed with any language structures or rules Thus, the purpose of this research is

to identify the frequecy, reason as well as the type for using code switching Data used for the research is from daily conversation of ESL students Based on the theories of Malik and Poplack, and quantiative and qualitative methods, the result

of the research shows that code switching is a very common phenomenon in everyday communication of ESL students The type of code switching used by conversationers is varied, most commonly is intra-sentential switching And the most reasons explaining why ESL students switch everyday are that sometimes they lack of facility and sometimes they as all the sudden forget the topics related

to the topics speaking However, using CS does not affect their communicationg skill Instead, it builds the strength and confidence in their speaking skill

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 The aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Significance of the study 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Bilingualism 4

2.1.1 Definition of bilingualism 4

2.1.2 Type of bilingualism 5

2.2.Borrowing and switching 6

2.3 Code and code switching 7

2.3.1 Code 7

2.3.2 Code switching 7

CHAPTER III: RESEACH METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Method of the study 15

3.2 Setting of the study 15

3.3 Participants of the study 16

3.4 Data collection 16

3.4.1 Observation 16

3.4.2 Recording 16

3.4.3 Questionnaires 17

3.5 Procedures 18

CHAPTER IV: FINDING 19

4.1 Result of question one: How often do ESL students use code switching in communication? 19

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4.2 Result of question two: Which topic do ESL students switch? 20

4.3 Results of question three: What is the most common reason for code switching in communication among ESL students? 21

4.3.1 Lack of register 22

4.3.2 Lack of facility 23

4.3.3 Habitual expression 24

4.3.4 Mood of the speaker 25

4.3.5 To emphasize a point: 26

4.3.6 To show identity with a group 27

4.3.7 Forget Vietnamese as a sudden 29

4.3.8 It’s easier and saves time to use English sometimes 30

4.3.9 A way of expressing your high education and my style 30

4.3.10 Feeling like native speakers 31

4.4 Result of question four: Does code switching facilitate interpersonal communication for students participating in the study? 32

4.5 Result of question five: What type of code switching often occurs in ESL students’ communication? 34

4.5.1 Intra-sentential 36

4.5.2 Inter-sentential 36

4.5.3 Tag switching 37

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 38

5.1 Recapitulation 38

5.2 Limitaion 39

5.3 Recommendation for further studies 39

REFERENCE 40

APPENDIX 1: RECORDING TRANSCRIPTS 42

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRES 50

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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LIST OF FINGURES

Figure 1: frequency of using code switching in conversation 20

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Topics for switching from Vietnamese to English 21

Table 2: Reasons for code-switching (proposed by Malik, 1994) 22

Table 3: Other reasons for code-switching (proposed by the respondents ) 28

Table 4: The affect of code switching on language capability 33

Table 5: Types of code switching used in conversation of participants 35

it is also frequently used in all important meetings among the nations as well as economies of many countries around the world That is also the reason why English has become a compulsory language in many countries Thanks to languages, especially English, many people in the world can exchange information and communicate with each other Communicating effectively in English helps us to learn and access new social, political enviroments, so learning English is also a must and necessity for all students in all over the world In Vietnam, after integrating into the world economy as well as creating new opportunities for other countries to invest and develop in Vietnam, English has become an indispensable language of communication and English is introduced into the curriculum as a compulsory subject in all schools, colleges and universities, even in Vietnamese organizations Students who can speak Engish are always able to get a good job with very high wages In fact, Vietnamese students have been investing time, money and energy in learning English Today,

in the community of English speakers and learners, the language exchange styles such as “ Tớ rất sorry cậu, nhưng tớ không thể come” or “ Tớ được có 4 điểm và tớ thật sự không understand lắm” or “ Mai có bài speaking test đấy, cậu đã làm exercise chưa?” are very common in conversations This phenomenon-code switching is really widespread in bilingual speech, especially in communication of English as Second Language or ESL students and considered one of the most intringuing linguistic phenomena in multilingual communities Bilinguals will

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switch or mix between languages that they are familiar with while communicating They do not choose which language to use but select portions of one language and then of the other, alternating back and forth (Coulmas 2005) Billock and Toribio, 2009 showed that many bilinguals often utilize their ability to shift from one language to another to make conversation with each others in an unchanged setting and within the same utterance in order to achieve their communicative goals These objectives could be: to show courtesy and respect in communication with their teachers or professors, or to express their personal feelings or maybe it’s a habitual expression that people coincidentally use while communicating or hopping to get attention from other friends in the class… Based

on the data collected from conversations of 50 ESL students, this study helps readers have a deep and better understanding about code switching, the reason of using it as well as show what type of code switching is widely available in today ESL students’ communication and also whether code switching is facilitating their

conversation

1.2 The aims of the study

The aims, therefore of this study are to

- Examine the frequency of using code switching in communication among ESL students

- Determine the topics of conversation in which code switching exists

- Determine the main reasons for ESL students to switch when communicate

- Identify the type of code switching that often occurs in the communication of ESL students

- Determine whether code switch facilitates interpersonal communication for students participating in the study

1.3 Research questions

Particularly, the research will answer the following questions:

1 How often do ESL students use code switching in communication

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2 Which topic do ESL students switch?

3 What is the most common reason for code-switching in communication among ESL students?

4 Does code switching facilitate interpersonal communication for students participating in the study?

5 What type of code switching often occurs in ESL students’ communication?

1.4 Significance of the study

Since the rise of English and since it has become an indispensable language in the life of modern Vietnamese, the phenomenon of insertion English into Vietnamese communication occurs quite commonly in the communication style

of young people, especial teenagers today The increasing in frequency of using English in Vietnamese students' conversations makes the writer want to know the reasons why teenagers or students today would like to speak English sometimes while communicating in Vietnamese and whether using English affects their mother language or Vietnamese and what types of switching they are used to speaking So the findings of this paper will help researcher to achieve a better understanding of the reasons that govern code-switching in conversation and the types of switching that bilingual’s use in their daily speaking It also answer the writer concerns about whether using English while speakings helps ESL students learn the language better

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

Language is a system of signs which we use to communicate with each other and since English has become an international language, it is now one of the most important tools for every student to have a bright future That’s also the reason explaining why a thousand of Vietnamese students are spending money and time learning English and how to communicate in English and they utilize and practice their English skills every time when they have a chance Nowadays, we see that English is used and spoken in television, social networking sites, and newspapers

or in schools or at classes People who have learned two languages also demonstrate an interesting phenomenon by mixing words or phrases from two languages Vietnamese and English together during conversations with their family, friends or classmates This phenomenon is called code switching and the students who use two languages: Vietnamese and English while communicating is called bilingualism The purpose of this literature review is to explore studies previously done on the chosen topic so this literature review will focus on the definitions of bilingualism, concepts of code switching, types of code switching and reasons of code switching used in conversations mentioned by previous linguists

2.1 Bilingualism

2.1.1 Definition of bilingualism

One of the earliest studies about bilingualism was carried by Bloomfield in

1933 Bloomfield (1933.56) defined bilingualism as the native who likes to control of two languages However, his definition raised so many questions on the word “control” because lots of linguistics wondered how master the speaker must

be in order to control a language like a native speaker In 1953, Haugen, an American linguist stated that bilingualism phenomenon exists when one speaker speaking one language can produce complete meaningful utterances in other

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language (Haugen 1953:7) In early work (1950a: 211) Haugen also said that a reference to switch rapidly from one language to another but at any given moment they are speaking only one, even when they resort to the other for assistant The same view of language switching behavior is expressed in Weinreich (1953:73) when he defined bilingualism as the ability to use more than one language and in Mackey as the practice of alternately using two languages (1962: 66-68) Diebold

in 1964 used the term “incipient bilingualism” to describe the stages of language contact leaving open the quest on the minimum proficiency to be considered bilingual Uriel Weinreich, the author of “language in contact” simply defined that the person that involve in the practice of alternately using two languages is called bilingualism Hockett (1958: 16) used the term “semi bilingualism” to define bilingualism when he said that a person might have no productive control over a language but be able to understand utterances in it The definition of bilingualism

is given more generally when MacNamara defined a bilingual as anyone who possesses a minimal competence in only one of the four language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing in another language besides his mother tongue Then MacNamara’s difinition is recalled by Grosjean who asserted that the bilingual is not just someone who speaks two languages but he possesses the language and communicative skills in two languages at different level

There are so many definitions about bilingualism mentioned by linguists, however, broadly, Bilingualism is a phenomenon in which a person can speak more than one language In other words, a bilingual speaker is a person who is able to perform more than one language

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functions According to Archibald (2000), this happens when the speakers have distinctive conceptual representation for translation equivalents in the language Such people have separate systems for each language in their minds, so the words and concepts of each language will be kept in the mind separately

Compound bilinguals are people who have learned both languages from the same environment The language would not have separate systems in the mind but they will have one system The concepts would be kept in their mind while the words will be different from both languages Thus, the two language systems are developed and maintained by the speaker, both similarly available in speakers’ linguistic repertoire (Nomura, 2003)

Subordinate bilinguals are people who have learned second language but cannot understand it without the help of their first language so they will translate the words of second language in the mother language to be able to understand them It means that people borrow the second language to express their ideas

2.2.Borrowing and switching

Baker ( 1980: 4) mentioned that when two languages are in contact, individuals with specific communicate needs try to make the languages “ more alike, so to speak, by filling in what is lacking in each one with constructions from the other, i.e, by linguistic borrowing Haugen (1969.383) mentioned that linguistic or lexical borrowing is considered in its origin to be a process that takes place in each individual before it is projected as group behavior at large So borrowing can be defined as single item term that are proper nouns or names of particular places or things, items that cannot be translated (Baker 1980:6) Therefore, the criteria for distinguishing borrowings from code switching are related to the recognition of the usage on a community wise basis and intransslatability

on any occasions.”(p 101) Therefore people are usually required to select a particular code when they speak, which means that the speakers switch code while speaking so codes here can be understood as the languages used in the conversation that maybe words, phrases, clauses or sentences switching back and ford in two langauges or more Code switching is the alternation in using two codes by people who share those particular codes

2.3.2 Code switching

2.3.2.1 Definitions of code switching

The term code switching is broadly discussed and used by a lot of linguists in linguistics and a variety of related field from many perspectives, so there are also lots of definitions of this term Perhaps, it is because scholars do not seem to share

a definition of the term The first explicit mention of code switching is found in Vogt in 1954 when he stated that code switching in itself is perhaps not a linguistic phenomenon, but rather a psychological one and its causes are obviously extra-linguistic” ( 1954-368) Haugen also refers to the code switching which occurs when a bilingual introduces a completely unasssimilated word from another language into his speech (1956: 40) and characterizes the phenomenon as one of the three stages in diffusion, together with interference and integration Wei Martin (2009-117) mentioned code switching is the most common, unremarkable

Gumperz (pp 59 -82 1982) had another view on code switching when he said that conversation code switching can be defined as the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to different grammatical systems or subsystems and most frequently the alternation takes the form of two subsequences, as when a speaker uses a second language either to reiterate his message or to reply to someone else’s statements

Gumperz also stated that the speakers do understand each other when they code and situational code switching can be considered as the changes in language choice because of the situation where the speakers exists and the situational switching might take place at school, work, public and etc…where the situation demands

Cook came up with the notion that code-switching is the process of holding from one language to the other in the mid-speech when both speakers know the same language (p.83) Lightbown defined code switching as the systematic alternating use of two languages or language varieties within a single conversation

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it simply refers to the alternating use of two or more codes According to him, people who participate in the conversations should be able to understand codes used

Poplack S (2001) mentioned code switching as the mixing, by bilinguals (or multi-linguals) of two or more languages in discourse, often with no change of interlocutor or topic

To summarize, code switching is simply a shift from one language to another within utterance or communication It refers to the alternate use of one language to another target language as a mean of communication by language speakers

2.3.2.2 Types of code switching

There are several categorizations of code switching types Gumperz in 1982 distinguishes two kinds: situational and metaphorical code switching

According to Gumpez, situational code switching occurs when the languages used change because of the extra-linguistic reasons like in situations, interlocutors, or type of activity undertake, etc while the change of language in metaphorical code switching is the change of topic in the ongoing discourse Auer (1984) differentiates between participant-related and discourse related code switching The participant related code switching is used to negotiate the proper language in terms of the preference or competence of the individual who performs the switching or those of co participants in the conversation Discourse related code switching, however is used to organize conversation by contributing

to the interactional meaning of a particular utterance

Poplack (1980) stated that there are 3 types of code switching such as Tag switching, inter-sentential switching and intra-sentential switching

- Tag switching is considered as an insertion of a tag in one language into an utterance which is entirely in another language

“Hey, hi! Các cậu đi đâu đấy?”

The type of code switching used in the sentence above is classified into tag

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switching “Hey, hi” is an expression of saying hello to all members

- Inter-sentential switching is a “switch at a clause or sentence boundary” which means it occurs outside the sentence or the clause level

The example of inter-sentential switching is as below

“ Tớ không biết chuyện đâu, nhưng what happened really?”

- Intra-sentential switching could be used in the middle of sentences or clauses

or even words The example of this code switching can be seen as follow

“tớ đang cố gắng dành scholarship tại trường đó vì nó là một trường nổi tiếng ”

2.3.2.3 Reasons for code switching

Myers-Scottons (1993) says that code switching serves social functions so its motivations, functions and reasons have been studies by lots of linguists The views of Appel and Muysken (2006), Malik (1994), Gumpers ( 1982) and Baker and García (1993) would be mentioned in this study

Baker and García, in their book (1993)- foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism mentioned that there are 13 basic types of reasons for using code switching, which may vary according to the speakers, the context and the topic of the conversation According to Baker and García, the reasons for speakers

to switch from one language to another language may be

- to emphasize a certain word or a particular point in the conversation

- to substitute a word in one language which is not known to the bilingual in the other language

- to introduce a certain topic related to experiences in a second language that particular language might be used

- to have an equivalence when the words, phrases or concepts are not always expressed in the same way or do no have their equivalents in the other language

- to reinforce a request when the speakers command or ask someone to do something for them

- to repeat or clarify a point or make the contents understandable or clear

- to reinforce the closeness of the relationship in society This view of Baker

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and García is very close to the one of Harding and Riley According to Harding and Riley (2003: 65), children are also skilful in using switching as a marker of solidarity with the person they are talking to so using the change of language to reinforce the closeness of relationship

- To quote something relating to a conversation held previously

- To share communicating common identify According to Gal (1988-p247), code switching is a communicating strategy used to cross, destroy or establish group boundaries or to create, change or evoke relations with their right and obligations And Nwoye (1993-p371) mentioned that code switching may occur in

an interaction between two speakers who share a same language because they want to make their shared common identity mangiest

- To exclude people from a conversation Gal also stated that code switching may be used to create or establish relations but also used to isolate and exclude

others who do not share the same codes

- To change mood In other word, code switching may be used to ease tension

and inject humor Ex: Ôi, tớ xin lỗi nhé

Okay, no problem đâu nhé

- Code switching may be used to change to attitude

Other reasons also mentioned by Baker and Garcia such as topic change, addressing oneself, arousing attention, expressing opposition, hedging and showing respect toward others

However, According to Gumperz (1982) the reasons for communicator to switch is

- To appeal to the literate

- To appeal to the illiterate

- To convey precise meaning

- To ease communication, i.e., utilizing the shortest and the easiest route

- To negotiate with greater authority

- To capture attention, i.e stylistic, emphatic, emotional

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- To emphasize a point

- To communicate more effectively

- To identify with a particular group

- To close the status gap

- To establish goodwill and support

And Malik listed ten reasons for using code switching in communication (1994) The reasons that Malik (1994) mentions

- Lack of facility, lack of competence

- Semantic significance

- To address different audience

- To show identity with a group

- To amplify and emphasize a point

- Mood of the speaker

- Lack of facility:

According to Malik (1994), bilinguals or multi-linguals often code switch when they cannot find an appropriate expression or suitable words to carry on the conversation and the code switching used may be culturally conditioned

“Cậu đã hoàn thành xong chiến lược marketing của tuần này chưa?”

- Lack of Register

This happens when, according to Malik (1994), speakers are not equally competent in two languages and when the speakers do not know the terms in two languages, then code-switching occurs This reason always appears in some

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occupation such as in the speech of doctors, lawyers, engineers owing to the fact that proper terms in their mother language or in any other language other than English may not be available to them, as the result they utilize English terminology that they are familiar with This can be identified as a great deal of lexical code mixing The example of this type can be seen as below:

“Bệnh nhân đã chụp X-Quang chưa?”

Rồi, và ông doctor đã kê cho anh ta 3 viên paradol uống.”

- Mood of the Speaker

Malik (1994) says that when bilinguals are tired or angry, code switching takes place although the speaker can find the appropriate words to express his mind in both Vietnamese and English but the native language is still commonly used when the speaker has a disturbed mind

“Đừng có hỏi tớ dồn dập như thế vì tớ đang exhausted lắm đây!”

“Cô ta là kẻ annoying và insane nhất mà tớ từng gặp”

- Habitual Expression

Malik.(1994) stresses the fact that code switching often occurs in fixed phrases of greeting and parting, commands and request, invitation, expressions of gratitude and discourse markers such as O, yes (listen) and You know, etc

“Nghe nói cậu đỗ đại học rồi à?! Congratulation nhé!”

“ohhh hi, long time! Dạo này thế nào rồi?”

- To Emphasize a Point

Switching is also used to emphasize a point The example of this reason can be seen as bellow:

Tớ thật sự không muốn nhắc đến nó, chỉ là nó đã over, over rồi

In above example, the speakers switch to English at the end of the statement just to express his point that he didn’t want to mention the past issues because it’s just in the past like it was over

- Semantic Significance

Malik (1994) claims that code switching used as a verbal strategy at a particular moment can convey semantically significant information

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- To Show Identity with a Group

People of the same group or culture often use code switching to share value and experiences When they code switch, the original words and phrases used are maintained to represent a sense of belonging and familiarity to the group

- To Address a Different Audience

Malik (1994) states that code switching is also used to convey messages when the speaker intends to address people coming from various linguistic backgrounds

- Pragmatic Reasons

According to Malik (1994), sometimes, the alternation between two languages

is dependent on the conversational context so code switching may present a different degree of speaker involvement

Gumperz (1982) also has the same idea when he notes that switching may emphasize varying degrees of speaker’s involvement

- To Attract Attention

When two languages or more are used, people are often attracted by the language that they are familiar with In the media, code-switching is used to attract the attention of audiences For example, in the English newspaper, the readers always focus on the language background that they originate from when they come across their first language

There are so many other reasons for communicators to use code switching in their daily conversation however for the purpose of this study, the writer will base

on Malik’s ten functions of code switching to give a clearer view on why ESL students used to use code switching in their conversations These classifications of reasons will be the basic theoretical frameworks in collecting and analyzing the collected data

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CHAPTER III: RESEACH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methods applied in the study to get the data and data analysis like contexts, respondents, instruments to collect data and data processing

3.1 Method of the study

Quantilative and qualitative method will be used in this research to analyze the data in number and descriptive way With qualitative method, the researcher will collect the data through careful analysis and based on what the research observed, heard from conversations made by participants Qualitative approach is used because the result of the data analyzed is in descriptive phenomenon such as word, sentence and utterance Quantitative data is also used because it refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomenon via statistical, mathematical or numerical data or computational techniques (Babbies-2010) so the data collect will be in numerical form such as statistics and percentages With all these method, the writer will describe in percentage the reasons of code switching of each statement as utterance in conversation and explain the motive in order to know the reason why code switching occur in communication of participants

3.2 Setting of the study

The setting of this study was at the English language department and international law at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam The study focused on the English language and international law departments because the English is used daily as a conversational tool in communication of students in the departments since the students at department of English language daily learn and make conversation to each other in English and the students at international law are

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taught and learn their lessons in English, so the intensity to do code switching is much higher than others so students may often use code switching between their mother tongue and foreign language in communicating to each other

3.3 Participants of the study

This study carried out with about 80 Vietnamese students from the age of 18 to

22 years old who are attending at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and who are majoring in English and international law The researcher will observe and focus

on evaluating and analyzing conversations of participants To protect participant’s privacy, the writer explained about the purpose of this research to all participants and also got the permission from them

3.4 Data collection

3.4.1 Observation

Observation is considered a very good option for writer to collect data and information natually Matthews &Ross (2010:255) mentions observation as the act of watching social phenomena in the real world and recording events as they happen To learn the use of code switching of students learning English as a second language, the writer conducted observations at their classes then recorded their conversation when they discuss or interacting with one another during lessons and at break time or out of class All students at the classes were informed about the observations but they do not know anything about the purposes of the observation The observations included students’ discussions about their class and lessons as well as conversations These observations provided the writer with an opportunity to determine the reasons and topic used for code switching in the class and it clarified why and when student switch codes

3.4.2 Recording

In addition to observations, audio recordings were used in the classroom to record interactions between the students’ speaking Similarly, when the focus group discussions were on going, the conversations were recorded In other

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words, in order to describe the patterns and the motivation of code switching in language varieties, data was gathered through a large sample of daily conversations which was collected through audio recording and observation during their class time and break time at lessons and even in their dormitory rooms During the time of recording, most of the participants were aware that they were not being recorded The length of the recording time and the number of participants were varied in each conversation, then the recorded conversations among subjects were transcribed and code switching utterances were identified They were occured when the language shift in the conversation happened

3.4.3 Questionnaires

Questionnaire has become one of the most popular research instruments applied in the social sciences because of the essence of scientific research that is to find the answers for the questions in a systematic manner ( Dorneyi,2003:3) The main attraction of questionnaires is their unprecedented efficiency in terms of researcher’s time, effort, and financial resources By administering a questionnaire to a group of people, one can collect a huge amount of information

in less than an hour and processing to collect data can be also fast if the questionnaire is well constructed, therefore, with the aim of investigate the opinions of one hundred responded for this study, the writer chooses survey questionnaire as the best approach

The questionnaires were made based on the identified code switching occurred in the recorded conversations There are 3 parts of questionnaires The first one is to figure out the frequency of using code switching in daily life of ESL students and whether it does facilitate interpersonal communication for students participating in the study This is also to suport the third question about “How often do ESL students use code switching between Vietnamese and English” and fourth one “Does code switching facilitate interpersonal communication for students participating in the study” The second section of the questionnaires is to

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find out the main reasons explaining for why the ESL students use code switching

in their conversation based on the theory of Malik and other reasons mentioned by the participants To be more convenient and easier for the participants to understand the main reasons mentioned by Malik (1990), the writers converted the explanations of reasons mentioned by into other easier understandable sentential reasons The last section is to figure out the type of code switching used by speakers in their conversation based on the theory of Poplack

The questionnaires then were distributed to 100 students learning at English and International law departments of Diplomatic Academy, however I only received about 78 responses including 58 responses from female and 20 responses from male participants Age and the number of years the participants have been learning English is different from 2 years to 5 years The writer analyzed the function of code switching by using the data collected from the students’ questionnaires and the observations as well as recording

3.5 Procedures

Based on the questions raised earlier of the study, the research procedures are carried out by collecting data from observations and recording the discussions and conversations of students learning English as a second language at Diplomatic Academy After getting the agreement of teachers and students, recordings their conversation at discussions, break time, in their dormitory were carried out naturally The contents of the conversation were transcribed and numbered into written form as example for illustrating After getting the responses from the respondents, data would be collected and analyzed by combination of qualitative and quantitative method with the help of a system of Tables and Figures

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CHAPTER IV: FINDING

This chapter is to report the findings of five questions raised by the study The questions are:

1 How often do ESL students use code switching in communication?

2 Which topic do ESL students switch?

3 What is the most common reason for code switching in communication among ESL students?

4 Does code switching facilitate interpersonal communication for students participating in the study?

5 What type of code switching often occurs in ESL students’ communication? The findings of the questionnaires are described, illustrated and narrated in the figures and tables and the results are found as follow:

4.1 Result of question one: How often do ESL students use code switching in communication?

The data collected from the questionnaires and observations shows that the frequency of using code switching is really alot in a conversation Code switching exist minimum once or twice in a short sentence and it exits over 10 times in a long sentences Obviously, the speaker does have a habbit of using code switching

in their daily conversation

The survey stated that the frequency of participants using English in Vietnamese communication is also the same 98% of participants does switch Vietnamese to English while making conversations, however only 67,5% of participants sometimes speak English or switch some English words into their speaking, which means that they do use code switching in their conversation and 27,3% of them often use English in conversation and only 2,6% always speak English most of their time Only 2.6% of respondents or 2 participants among 78 people taking part in the survey answered that they never use or speak other language in their daily communication

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Figure 1: Frequency of using code switching in conversation

Figure 1 shows that the frequency of using code switching or switching from Vietnamese to English is quite popular among respondents Although it is quite different, it may be said that English is used quite alot in communication among participants

4.2 Result of question two: Which topic do ESL students switch?

Futhermore, the topics for communicating of participants are very diffirent It can be seen from the survery’s results that chat-chit is the main topic where code switching mostly exist In group of 78 people, only 46 people chose chat chit as the subject that they always switch from Vietnamese to English 29 participants (37,2% of participants) always use code switching when they mention about educational issues and only 26 people or 33,3% indicated that they often use English when they claim about personal issues in life The percentage of people who use code switching in conversation to talk about issues arising at work or social issues is very small Only 20 people or 25,6% of participants use English when they mention about personal issues at part time workplace and only 14,1% switch Vietnamese to English when social issues are their topics Emotional issues are the lowest when only 9 people or 11.5% of respondents considered that they only switch when they would like to express their emotions in communication

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workplace

music, movies, cultures etc

Table 1: Topics for switching from Vietnamese to English

In conclusion, the main topics that code switching phenomenon appears in the conversation of ESL students are when they chat chit to each other and when they want to share problems or issues they meet in education

4.3 Results of question three: What is the most common reason for code switching in communication among ESL students?

Switching from Vietnamese to English appears quite common in speaking about education issues and when they chat to each other so the reasons why the participants often switch from Vietnamese to English when speaking is reallly concerned by the writer Through the research process, the results are found as follow

I switch I can’t find or think of any

Vietnamese words to express my mind

I use it because it’s a Latin word and

everybody is getting used to it so I am used

In the communications of students taken part in the research, there are a lot of specific words used and they code switch them back and forth regularly because

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they maybe forget the words while speaking or they would like to have a clear explanation about the them There are 35 (45,5%) respondents used code switching in the conversations because of this reason

Example 1:

A : Rep tour đấy, đi tour đấy

B : Người ta là nhân viên của marketing

A : Người ta gọi là tour guide

A : Người ta gọi là gì nhỉ, tour agency !

Example 2:

Huyền: Chị không học theo các tips đâu Chị toàn làm theo cảm tính

Tuấn: Lạy hồn

Huyền: Đâu, có thấy tag gì đâu

Tuấn: Chị đăng nhập lại, xong chị out ra Thôi tý em tag vào cho

Huyền: Con Joe đâu? Thế cái booklist em bảo thế nào rồi? Đi đâu mất rồi?

4.3.2 Lack of facility

Lack of facility or the speaker cannot find appropriate expression or suitable word so code switching happens It can be seen from the above table 2, only 35 among 78 participants claimed that they switch from Vietnamese to English because they cannot find any similar Vietnamese words to express their ideas From the conversations the writer collected, cases like “lack of facility” are kinda popular such as “facebook, PDF, torrent, gene, TOEIC, IELTs, tag, find, gửi link, shut down, logo ”

Example 1:

A : Đây là hai cái link… 1 là làm form đơn giống cái em gửi này, form đơn này sẽ bao gồm… form đơn chung, xong tách ra kiểu mọi người apply vào đe ban hậu cần hay ban design hay ban gì đấy.Đấy thì toàn bộ câu hỏi phải xong hết rồi, vấn

đề bây giờ là đưa bản để design làm thôi Okie chưa ?

B : Okie