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Trinh Cam Lan, Assoc. professor, PhD., Vietnam National University, University of Social Sciences and Humanities E-mail: [email protected]
ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE CODE SWITCHING IN TEACHING AND
LEARNING ENGLISH IN VIETNAM (Case study on some English classes in USSH, VNU)
Abstract: With Sociolinguistics methods, through the case study in the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, some different issues in terms of English-Vietnamese code switching in teaching and learning English in Vietnam are given by quantitative evidences. In which, code switched activities, the reasons of codeswitching and the attitude of teachers and students to the alternative code switching are mentioned detailly.
Keywords: code switching, English-Vietnamese code switching, language attitude.
1. Theoritical foundation students. It is rooted in Krashen's input hypothesis
In teaching and learning foreign languages, there that the precondition for the acquisition is that the
are two class models are considered parallel to exist:
1) Bilingual class (with native-foreign language code switching) and;
2) Monolingual class (with no native-foreign language code switching).
At the present, the second model is considered ideal. But in fact, in many places, the first model still prevails because teachers and learners have the same native language, because of on-site and economic. In fact, there are very different attitudes towards code switching between native and foreign languages in the classroom. There are three different attitudes towards this [10]. First, code switching must be excluded from the 'almost all' ('virtually all' view); Second, code switching should be excluded at the 'maximal' level ('maximal' view); and third, code switching should be used as an 'optimal' device ('optimal' view). The first two views are based on the opinion that the acquisition of foreign languages is the same as that of a native language that can be practiced in monolingual [2]. The third view comes from the recognition of the role of code switching as a device for understanding between teachers and
input language is guaranteed to allow the learners are able to comprehend the lecture in a maximum level. That view is supposed to have deep root in linguistic theories and cognitive theory [2]. From a linguistic perspective, the phenomenon of code switching in foreign language classes is quite common when teachers and learners share the same native language [13]. It supports quite well for effective communication. From a cognitive perspective, there is a vocabulary that exists in the subconscious mind, which is a potential language and it will become a real language when activated. In the foreign language classes, the stimuli arising from the code switching behavior of the teachers, the potential language will be activated, becoming the language in use [2].
In addition to the theoretical foundations, many studies that compare the effectiveness of no code switching or code switching as a rational strategy in the classroom have shown that in the early stages, bilingual model is more effective than monolingual model. At this stage, strategic use of language is a factor that improves learning results [4; 7]. The remediation of native language can also
help to achieve success but does not mean that it can succeed in every classroom and every stage, especially when the input language becomes unintelligible with students.
2. Research question
Observing the situation of teaching and learning English in an artificial language environment in Vietnam, it is not difficult to see the problems that arise in strategies to regulate and use languages as codes (both lecturers and students), which is English - Vietnamese code switching often as a common way in teaching and learning activities. It can be seen clearly behind the code switching behavior is the habit of using the mother tongue in thinking before "reacting" or practicing in foreign language due to the weak language competence. It is common to say that when language competence is weak, language thinking and communicative practicing through the translation method is a habit that is easy to obtain. This habit greatly hinders the implementation of the direction of teaching and learning foreign languages from the communicative approach. However, for various reasons, both from lecturers and students, this habit is still very powerful in the classroom. Although both theoretical and practical, people are aware of the obvious limitations of this habit. The problem is that, although recognizing the limitations of language learning in the artificial environment, although the model of monolingual classroom is supposedly encouraging, why code switching is still happening. That problem should be investigated and answered in a scientific way.
To answer this question, we have studied the situation of English-Vietnamese code switching in teaching and learning English in Vietnam in order to answer the following questions:
1) In the artificial language environment of English classes in Vietnam, how does English-Vietnamese code switching express?
2) What are the causes of the code switching?
3) How is code switching seen from the perspective of both the lecturers and the learner?
3. Materials and Methods
The study is carried out on 6 English classes at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities for 2 years (A part of materials of the first year research was used and published in the paper "Native language in teaching and learning foreign languages", published in Language Journal (in Vietnam), No. 11. 2014. ISSN: 0866-7519). The method is participant observation 45 class hours, questionnaire survey of 167 students and 22 lecturers. Besides, we discussed with 5 lecturers and 6 students from the 6 classes.
Materials obtained include:
1) 45 recordings;
2) 167 questionnaires of students, 22 of lecturers on the role of Vietnamese in the English class, attitudes towards the use ofVietnamese in the teaching and learning process and;
3) notes from some discussions with lecturers and students.
The study uses qualitative and quantitative methods.
4. Findings and discussions
4.1. The reality of English-Vietnamese code switching in teaching and learning activities
Observation of the 45 lessons, we found that although English is the target language and the English competence of the lecturers are high compared to non-native speakers (The standard requirement for English language proficiency of the National University of Hanoi (in which the University of Social Sciences and Humanities is one of the members) is 7.0 IELTS according to international standards), in the classroom, they still codeswitch the language quite dense in teaching activities. The evidence is that when calculating the level of use of the Vietnamese word and the English word in some classes of basic English level (equivalent to the A2 level in the European reference frame) are randomly selected, we found that 61.2% of Vietnamese words, 38.8% of English words. In the teacher's lecture, there are only 32.1% of English words, 67.9% of Vietnamese words. In the student's discourse, 41.5% of English words, 58.5% ofVietnamese words. Thus, even if the
English competence of students is not too poor, the language balance still tends to deviate significantly to Vietnamese. This evidence shows the role of English-Vietnamese code switching as a device of teaching primarily in English classes.
These quantitative data are reinforced by qualitative descriptions through activities that use Vietnamese-English code switching. For lecturers, there are 9 main code switched activities: interpreting new words, explaining grammars, making requests, repeating requests, showing empathy, emphasizing, changing topics, making comments, giving game instructions. In these 9 activities, interpreting new words, explaining grammars, showing empathy, and game instructions are activities with the highest percentage of Vietnamese words used. For students, there are 5 main code switched activities: answering, discussing with friends, suggesting (with lecturer), interpreting new words, playing games. In which, activities as discussing with friends, suggesting (with lecturer) are activities that use the most Vietnamese words. This result is shared by many researches in the world. Studying the function of code switching between native and foreign languages, many researchers have found many regular and popular activities that use native language [1; 2; 3; 11, 12]. Some of the most popular special activities include interpreting new words, explaining grammar, making request, creating a friendly classroom environment, showing empathy, changing topics. Our results also share many of the findings. This shows the similarity and popularity of code switched activities in foreign language classes in many parts of the world.
In addition to the activities of the lecturers, student's activities such as answering, discussing with friends, suggesting (with lecturers), translating and playing games also provide strong evidences. Thus, not only lecturers but also students are influenced by the habit of using Vietnamese, even if the acquisition of the target language is the most important. Here, the following definition of the role of the native language is relevant: 'Teachers may try to prevent students from using the native
language in the classroom but can not be able to prevent students from thinking in their native language' [8].
From the perspective of practicing communication skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in foreign languages, it can be seen that the process of interaction through the teaching and learning activities we observe is mainly expressed the first two skills (listening and speaking), especially speaking skills. And the code switching behavior here is identified primarily through the speaking activity of the lecturers and, correspondingly, the student's listening activity and vice versa. Reading activities are mainly done on English text printed in the textbook. Written activity is done through exercises in the form of sentence completion, sentence formulation and essay writing. These two activities have no sign of code switching behavior. However, we pay attention to the student's record ofwhat was learned in the notebook. Indeed, the observed results show that the notebook is a place to store a lot of evidences of thinking in the native language. With the advice of the lecturers, we have borrowed and examined 6 notebooks from 6 of the best students in each class. The results show that all 6 notebooks use Vietnamese to record two main contents of interpreting new words and explaining grammars. In which, approximately 90% of the grammatical explanatory items are written in Vietnamese, more than 70% of words are annotated in Vietnamese, nearly 30% of words are annotated in English synonyms. This data strongly supports for the survey results on code switched activities. They suggests two things. The first is the level of code switching in the teacher's lecture, which is very high in the two activities mentioned above, and students are the "secretary" who records that in their notebooks. The second is the habit of thinking in the mother tongue that is still very deep not only in students but also in teachers who have good English proficiency.
Obviously, the artificial language environment with teachers and learners who have English as a foreign language that strengthens and facilitates the habit of thinking in the native language. The foreign
language practice is subj ect to a great restriction ofthe habit. This situation further motivates the researcher to find out the answer to the question: what has led to those dense code switching behaviours.
4.2. Reason for English-Vietnamese code switching in English classes
The above results are obtained from observations in classrooms. They are objective reality beyond the
Table 1. - Reasons for
subjective will of both lecturers and learners. That fact needs to be answered because it goes against the theoretical guidelines on how to effectively practice communication in foreign language classrooms. The following reasons for code switching are derived from the subjective will of both lecturers and learners. For lecturers, there are seven main reasons ranked from high to low:
iturer's code switching
STT Reasons Frequency Ratio (%)
1 The English competence of students is limited 22/22 100
2 Create understanding with students 16 72.7
3 Create a close and friendly relationship 15 68.2
4 Students are more interested and focused on lecture 9 40.9
5 Easier to convey knowledge 7 31.9
6 Easier to manage and organize classes 6 27.3
7 The habit of using Vietnamese 6 27.3
Obviously, the two most common reasons for lecturer's code switching are the English competence of students is limited (100% of responses) and to create understanding with students (72,7%). Both reasons are related, direct or indirect, to the learner's English competence. Through discussions, some lecturers said that if English competence of students is good enough, they would be much more restrictive of using Vietnamese. However, due to student's limited English proficiency, lecturers are constantly under pressure to ensure program progress, so they are almost obliged to use Vietnamese to meet knowledge and skill targets for each class hour, each lesson, and the curriculum. The third and fourth reasons conTable 2. - Reasons for
cern the psychological level and the interpersonal relationship between the teachers and the learners. Thus, following the English competence, the next issue of concern is to create friendly learning atmosphere. The reasons for the convenience of teachers are only small. Surprisingly, however, very few teachers (6/22) recognized the dominance of their mother tongue habits - a limitation of their own. Most of the reasons they choose to interpret their code switching behaviours are towards students, for students.
On the learner side, students also have their own reasons for code switching in the classroom, in addition to some of the reasons that lecturers share.
jdent's code switching
No Reasons Frequency Ratio (%)
1 The English competence of students is limited 148/167 88.6
2 Feeling the lack of confidence 123 73.7
3 The habit of thinking in Vietnamese 96 57.5
4 For general understanding 79 47.3
As noted by the lecturers, students also find promote decisive influence of the habit of thinking their English competence is limited and this thing in Vietnamese. It is easy to see that the reasons are
directly related to each other: weak language competence (1) lead to lack of confidence in communication (2), lack of confidence lead to be afraid to speak in foreign languages. This second reason lead to habit of thinking in Vietnamese (3) freedom to promote. Also, because of the weak language competence, students have not enough confidence to say, they use Vietnamese (code switching) to understand each other (4). Compared to English classes in many other countries, lack of confidence is a fairly shared reason. Beside, the habit of thinking and behaving in native language is also the reason all previous researchers have found in foreign language classes in many other countries [1; 2; 3; 8; 12]. The 'spiritual luggage' that students bring into the classroom on the one hand is a modest English competence, and on the other, mother tongue and a background of native language thinking have become flesh. Indeed, as suggested, lecturers can prevent students from speaking in native language, but can not prevent them from thinking in their native language. To say that all trips of any person have to start from their house, a trip to a second language must start from the native language [2]. Even lecturers are influenced by this, even though their English competence may be much better than students, but the greatest language asset, the most effective thinking tool they bring into the classroom may still be Vietnamese.
4.3. Attitude towards English-Vietnamese code switching in English classes
97.87% of students said that if teachers use Vietnamese, their understanding will be higher when the teachers use only English. But the student's expectations also have certain conditions. These conditions are reflected in the student's opinions of teacher's code switching in classroom. Students' expectations of code switching in the classroom as follows: 53.3% of students (89/167) expect English and Vietnamese are used equally, 34.1% (57/167) expect English is used more, Vietnamese only support when needed, only 0.9% (15/167) expect English is used only
throughout the class hour and 0.4% (6/167) expect English is used less but more Vietnamese.
The use of equivalents of Vietnamese and English supported over 50% of students. Here also, we find a meaningful relationship between the student's desire and their learning outcomes. The teachers are expected to use of equivalents of Vietnamese and English by the group of average learning outcomes. Using more English, Vietnamese only support when needed is desire of the group of good learning outcomes. 0.9% wishing to hear English throughout the lesson are students with excellent learning outcomes. Left, the students with the worst results (0.4%) want to hear the Vietnamese is mainly. This interesting correspondence allows for the seriousness and objectivity of students in answering the questionnaire. Because, the questionnaire of language attitude is a type of questionnaire that contains a lot of subjective and emotional informations. This result may be significant for lecturers in developing their strategies, in teaching and using language in classroom.
Share this result, some researches at English classes in Malaysia showing that the percentage of students who support code switching between Malayu and English is approximately 71%. In addition, 70% of students think that using Malayu helps them to understand the lesson better. This positive feeling led to a feeling of satisfaction after every lesson (68.5%), feelings of relieved pressure (64.6%), feelings of minimizing misunderstandings (62.1%) (Badrul Hisham Ahmad 2009). Schweers' study of English classes in Puerto Rican is even more impressive: 88.7% of students support teacher's code switching, which makes their learning English much easier [14].
From the lecturer's perspective, most lecturers think English-Vietnamese code switching is necessary. But if they abuse the Vietnamese, the learning outcomes will be negatively affected. As evidenced by the fact that, in four levels of English-Vietnamese code switching 100% of lecturers think that using more English, Vietnamese only support when needed is what they want. However, there is a difference
between their subjective will and what happens in reality because most teachers use the Vietnamese language more than English. The data presented in 3.1 are quantifiable evidence of this difference. The findings support Engku Haliza Ibrahim's conclusions that although many teachers do not support code switching and try to use foreign languages only (data from in-depth interviews), the real (in video), they still codeswitch in a dense way in many teaching activities [16]. That means, whether consciously or not, the code switching between native and foreign languages in the classroom is still going on for some certain reasons.
Conclution
It can be seen that the artificial language environment with both lecturers and students in the same mother tongue creates favorable "opportunities" for the habit of thinking in the mother tongue to maximum impact to all interactions in class. Accordingly, language code switching in this class model is a common behavior, not only in Vietnam but in many other countries in the world. It is worth mentioning that
although all lecturers understand that the monolingual classroom model is ideal, and the code switching into the mother tongue of students should not be encouraged due to it's negative effects, the fact that for different reasons, they are still code switch at high frequencies in the lecture. And as a response, the lecturer's code switching received a positive reception from the students due to the understanding that it brought. It is a matter of great concern and should be pondered is the distance between the desire to build an ideal learning environment where lecturers and students have the only common means (foreign language) and the reality of teaching and learning in all artificial environments where lecturers and students share both native and foreign languages. In these artificial language environments, the fact of teaching and learning with code switching behaviors is regular in the teacher's lecture and student interaction is a huge challenge, create a distance with the desire to build a ideal language environment for learning foreign languages when the learners, for some reasons, can not come to the natural language environment.
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