A DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH ON CODE SWITCHING IN GROUP DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR MAINSTREAM STUDENTS, FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI =

Abstract

Code switching is a popular language contact phenomena in English as a Foreign Language classroom contexts. Despite its complexity and its impacts on learners’ language practice, this topic is still under-researched in the Vietnamese EFL setting in general and in the context of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, Universities of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi in particular. Therefore, this paper expects to shed light on mainstream first year students’ code switching in group discussion activities in speaking lessons in this specific context concerning the frequency, patterns and reasons for using. Six mainstream first year students were chosen as the study sample. Through analyzing the data collected from class observations and interviews, this study shows an inverse ratio between learners’ proficiency and their frequency of code switching. The two types of code switching, namely inter-sentential code switching and intra-sentential code switching, were both used by learners; however, students of different levels have different preference for each of these two types. Finally, reasons for using code switching were also presented, suggesting that students mainly code switched due to their desire to facilitate group discussion, vocabulary insufficiency and the habit of thinking in their mother tongue. Based on these findings, the paper also offers some pedagogical implications for teachers’ adjustment to better management of group work in EFL speaking classes.