Research on Chinese College English Teachers’ Classroom Code-switching: Beliefs and Attitudes

Abstract

This article documents the beliefs and attitudes of Chinese college English teachers towards classroom code-switching. The findings suggest that teachers' code-switching is commonplace in class, although most of them still hold negative attitude toward it. Besides, students' ability is regarded as the most significant factor affecting teachers' code-switching, and the first language (L1) is mainly used to teach grammar and abstract words. The conclusion is that, in Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) context, classroom code-switching should be conducted on the basis of maximal use of the target language, and the L1 can only be judiciously employed to serve difficult and abstruse subject matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]