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This study contributes to the understanding of attitudes towards monolingual and code-switched varieties by examining the perceptions of 95 bilinguals towards Manitoban French, Canadian English and code-switching in Manitoba, a Canadian province where French is a minority language with official federal status. By means of a matched-guise test, we explore French-English bilinguals' social evaluations of the three linguistic varieties and examine how these social evaluations vary according to participant characteristics (i.e. age, gender, mother tongue, origin, and sociocultural identity). In our experiment, participants listened to a speaker using Manitoban French, Canadian English and code-switching and rated each guise on several solidarity and status traits. Results from the cumulative link mixed effects models reveal that French and English are rated similarly for status. Overall, both French and English elicit feelings of attachment, but a preference towards French emerges among participants born in Manitoba. Code-switching is rated lower than the monolingual varieties in most status and solidarity traits, which indicates that our participants implicitly value linguistic purism. However, results also show that participants born in Manitoba and those with French as their mother tongue ascribe covert prestige to code-switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although supported by different ideologies of language, code-switching and translanguaging are, surprisingly perhaps, united in some of the claims made in their names. In the literature on classroom practices, one shared claim is that content is simplified for students when the teacher uses features enregistered as the non-official classroom language/s in a way that overlaps with and/or complements features enregistered as the official classroom language. Functional allocation of languages/features, a corollary of this claim, arguably interpellates what may be termed diglossic cognition. The problem with this diglossic cognition is that it is largely knowledge-blind and equates cognition with the mere use of particular languages or features. This study finds that there are both language and knowledge variables in teacher multilingual-talk that explain students' enhanced cognition, and, therefore, invites a rethink of the unnuanced connections made between language (feature) choice and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the patterns and predictors of code-switching (CS) in Singapore preschoolers by analyzing the data elicited from an existing early childhood corpus. Altogether 943 cases of CS produced by 111 children aged 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6, respectively, were analyzed. The results indicated that: (1) 'insertion', 'intersentential', and 'backflagging' were identified as the most common types of CS, whereas'alternation' was rarely found; (2) there was a significant age-related increase in the production repertoire, the occurrence rate, the number of children producing CS, the frequency, and the type of CS, and age was confirmed the significant predictor; (3) children from the families with at least one bilingual parent produced the most CS, whereas those from the families without any bilingual parents produced the least; (4) parental bilingualism attitude, storytelling, and singing activities negatively predicted the CS frequency and type, whereas parental language input patterns positively predicted the frequency; and (5) children from the families with parents believing that bilingual education should start from kindergarten years (Ages 3-6) had the highest frequency of CS. These findings have added empirical evidence about CS in a multilingual Asian society and highlighted the impact of parent bilingual input patterns on CS in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through analysis of a video recording of two bilingual siblings playing with rubber ducks, this article explores the concept that imaginative play can serve as a potential site for language shift. The article argues that the siblings use English as a means to 'double voice' (Bakhtin, M. M. (1981[1963]). The Dialogic Imagination (C. Emerson and M. Holquist). Austin: University of Texas Press) their imaginary narrative, thus transmuting the adult world and demarcating their play from the ongoing interaction with their mother. By triangulating this microinteractional analysis with interviews with the siblings' mother and Irish immersion pre-school leader, the paper further argues that the dominance of English in imaginative play may relate in part to the pro-Irish Family Language Policy (FLP) enacted by their mother and the robust Irish language ethos of the pre-school; in other words, the siblings' sense of agency is heightened by using English, the language they are not 'supposed' to speak. The paper concludes by discussing the conundrum this explanation poses for language maintenance efforts, as it is only through initiatives such as pro-minority language FLPs and minority language immersion classrooms that children are able to acquire the minority language in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study expands the literature on the Foreign Language Effect by investigating differences in moral judgment for 280 English-Spanish late bilinguals when processing the button and bridge moral scenarios of the canonical trolley dilemma (Thomson, 1985) in an online questionnaire in either a native (NL), foreign (FL), or code-switched (CS) language environment. The study furthermore examines the effects of emotion on moral standards across these three language contexts, analysing self-reports of individuals' emotions following their moral decisions. Overall, moral judgments in the CS and NL conditions patterned similarly for both dilemmas, while, in line with previous studies, the FL condition elicited an increased percentage of utilitarian decisions in the high-conflict bridge scenario. Unique emotions did not vary significantly across language contexts in either scenario, and no reduction in emotion was seen in participants' FL. However, an interaction between language condition and emotion in the high-conflict dilemma suggests that the ratio and relative ranking of various emotions, and not just the degree of emotionality, may have an influence on moral evaluations. The present study elucidates the previously neglected variable of moral decision processing in the context of code-switching and discusses cognitive and emotional explanations for the Foreign Language Effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the ways students in a higher education setting engage in word searches. The investigation draws on 30-hour video recordings of content classes in an English as a medium of instruction university in Turkey. Using conversation analysis, the study focuses on the interactionally accomplished functions of vocal and visual practices deployed by the students in the course of a word search. We revealed that word searches are constructed through publicly visible resources (i.e. gaze, body orientation, gestures) and explicit formulaic expressions (i.e. how can I say it?), and accomplished via bilingual resources. It was also observed that the teacher does not orient to word searches when there is a need to interactionally monitor and manage the repairable content (i.e. pedagogical content, subject-specific word), thus prioritizing content over second language (i.e. English) use in the current content-oriented setting. The study contributes to our understanding of how the participants' situated roles as a student and teacher are contingently negotiated in the ongoing word search in bilingual classroom contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sets out to explore the effect of proficiency and modality of interaction on code-switching (CS) amongst two groups of Spanish-Catalan learners acquiring English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Primary school (grade 3, n = 24 and grade 6, n = 21). Data was retrieved from audio-taped oral activities (peer interaction and learner-teacher interaction) in real class situations and analysed for the number of switches, their types and functions, as well as for the source language of the switch. Results show differences in the total number of instances of CS and their types and functions according to both proficiency and modality of interaction, although with no statistically significant differences between the groups. As to the source language, Spanish was found to be the preferred language for students when working in groups, whereas Catalan was used to interact with the teacher. Results are discussed in the light of the new plurilingual approach recently proposed for the teaching of additional languages in the school curriculum and some pedagogical implications are drawn as to the need to redefine teaching methodologies and adapt them to current trends in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of code-switching in the narratives of dual-language Latino preschoolers, specifically by examining its incidence, types, functions, and grammaticality. Previous work has investigated code-switching in younger children and in older children and adults, but relatively little work has investigated code-switching during the preschool years, an important time for dual-language development. This study tracked the code-switching of 39 Latino DLL preschoolers over three time points: the end of each of their two preschool years, and the beginning of their kindergarten year. At each time point, children shared a wordless picture book narrative. Code-switching in their narratives was coded for incidence, type, function, and grammaticality. Results showed that the number of children who code-switched was relatively small and stable over time, and that most code-switches occurred from Spanish to English. One-word switches, mostly nouns, were the predominant type of code-switching across years. Children used code-switching to serve a variety of functions, and almost all switches adhered to grammatical rules. Results suggest that the preschool age is an important developmental period for code-switching, in which children's code-switches are simultaneously reflective of those of younger children and associated with more complexity in function and grammaticality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the social-cognitive interactions that occur in code-switching and integrates social and cognitive factors from a usage-based perspective. It investigates code-switching in two different interaction modes – speech and writing – to consider not only the influence of social factors (social networks and attitudes) but also the relative cognitive processing load. The data were gathered from 40 Chinese-English bilinguals in London, derived from interviews and written data on their most active social media site, SinaWeibo. Their socio-biographical data were collected via a questionnaire. A multivariate analysis shows that, rather than there being a simple dominance of either the social or the cognitive factors, there is an interplay between the two. A speaker's code-switching corresponds to his/her previous exposure through social networks, but personal attitudes, e.g. a positive view of English, can override network-based predictions of use. Crucially, however, we only see attitudes exerting this significant effect within the domain of contexts with low cognitive processing demand (e.g. asynchronous writing). The findings of this study show that personal preference can indeed override language usage in interactive networks, but such effect is constrained by individual differences in cognitive capacities of processing, which in turn relates back to the frequency of usage which automatizes processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the nature of language is represented in science lessons taught through English, and is part of a project investigating the challenges of bilingual education in Hong Kong's junior secondary classes. Educational linguistics, particularly work drawing on systemic functional linguistics, sees language as text and as dialectic. This understanding of language is contrasted with more atheoretical conceptualisations such as language as vocabulary and language as medium. Recordings of the secondary one (Grade 7) science classes, along with interviews with teachers and students and also student questionnaires, were mined for instances where language was foregrounded, for example by explicit reference or by use of L1 Cantonese. These instances were then considered in terms of the conceptualisations of language, and were found to tend towards a language as vocabulary and language as medium orientation. Sample extracts are used to illustrate these points. The disadvantages of these interpretations of the nature of language are discussed, and related to what is currently understood of the role of language in learning science in bilingual settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From Schieffelin's (1994) perspective on code-switching and language socialization, this study investigates how a Chinese child's code-switching between English and Chinese may have assisted his bilingual socialization in the United States, by focusing on the child's code-switching in diverse Chinese settings and with different interlocutors across nearly one year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first language (L1) of language learners is a rich source of language knowledge that bilingual teachers and learners can bring to classrooms to facilitate second-language (L2) acquisition. While previous research suggests that L1 can provide learners with cognitive, pedagogical, and psychological benefits, what functions that it performs and how it supports language learning has not been thoroughly explored. This study aims to investigate different functions of L1 use in a beginner English class for 17 adult migrants in Australia through analysing teacher-students and students-students classroom interactions. Data were collected from lesson recordings, classroom observations and two interviews with the English-Chinese bilingual teacher. This study provides a refined categorisation of L1 functions through speech data rather than teacher's self-reports. Results show that the L1 was frequently used by the teacher for pedagogical purposes, classroom environment control and social relationship building. In particular, the L1 was mainly used for eliciting answers, giving classroom instructions and explaining meanings, and it was employed by learners to ask questions, give responses when they lacked the necessary skills in the target language, and to offer peer assistance. This study has implications for bilingual language support and learning materials design for beginner adult learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a sociolinguistic analysis of a Korean-English bilingual child's code-switching practices from the perspective of language socialization. The ethnographic description and discourse analysis of a migrant Korean family's interaction in the US home shows how the social meanings of languages and language ideologies present within the family's language socialization context were brought into play through code-switching practices. This analysis illuminates the relation of the bilingual child's language socialization practices in his home to the shifts in tones of voice and speech acts in his code-switching, through which he evokes different stances and personae in English and Korean. In this regard, the code-switching practice is a creative linguistic performance co-constituted by the agency and language ideologies enacted in his home context. The language socialization framework in this study provides richer contextual information for the interpretation of complex social meanings of bilingual children's code-switching and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of the L1 in classes where English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL) has always provoked debate. As a result, the role of the L1 remains a matter of discussion in the bilingual education classroom. Moreover, the presence of both the L1 and a foreign language can be controversial in programmes where both the L1 and the foreign language are used as languages of instruction as part of the curriculum. The use of the L1 in bilingual environments has been identified as potentially logical instrument to scaffold content. In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) contexts, however, the situation may be different and there is a need to provide substantial empirical evidence of real classroom practices in order to support the idea that employment of the L1 may be an enriching force, especially with students exhibiting a low proficiency in the L2. In this study we have analysed the L1 strategies in CLIL classes regarding a) type of key strategies and techniques, and b) purpose. Results indicate that students exhibit a frequent, intuitive, non-systematic use of the L1, and that the lack of proficiency in the L2 is a decisive factor in explaining this overuse. In addition, students act with a clear purpose in the L1 but their behaviour is not systematic and well defined. Finally, the use of the L1 does not seem to affect the learning of content negatively, although it obviously reduces the time students devote to the use of the L2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translanguaging theories emphasize a fluid, dynamic view of language and differ from code-switching/mixing theories by de-centring the analytic focus from the language(s) being used in the interaction to the speakers who are making meaning and constructing original and complex discursive practices. Trans-semiotizing theories further broaden the focus to analyse language as entangled with many other semiotics (e.g. visuals, gestures, bodily movement) in meaning making. In this paper recent developments in trans/languaging and trans-semiotizing theories are discussed in conjunction with fine-grained classroom analyses to illustrate the key role played by trans/languaging and trans-semiotizing practices in the dialogic construal of content meaning in content-based education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pedagogical and sociocultural functions of teachers’ code-switching are an important factor in achieving the dual goals of content learning and language learning in bilingual programmes. This paper reports on an ethnographic case study investigating how and why teachers switched between languages in tertiary bilingual classrooms in Indonesia, where the main language of instruction was English. Data on code-switching were gathered in three classrooms over one semester, employing classroom observation with video and audio recording, semi-structured teacher interviews with some stimulated recall, and a focus group discussion. Transcripts of classroom interaction were examined using both an Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS) perspective and functional categories of code-switching. Teacher reflections were studied, and analysis indicated that teachers’ code-switching was frequently used to support students to gain understanding of unfamiliar concepts, where the pedagogical focus was on the subject matter more than on language. It also involved managing students’ behaviour and engaging in interpersonal and affective interactions with students. The teachers’ code-switching thus frequently functioned as translanguaging in that it occurred as an intentional strategy for teaching in these bilingual classrooms, integrating the two languages in order to achieve better communication and engagement in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interaction between learner-oriented codeswitching (CS) practices and the degree to which intermediate Chinese L2 learners of English engage in classroom interaction. The guiding questions are whether the teacher's CS use facilitates classroom interaction at moderate L2 proficiency, and if so, at which specific stages of the lesson, and to what extent. A systematic comparison of two classroom types was carried out in the same Chinese secondary school, with English-only instruction versus with English–Chinese CS. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses was based on class observations (two classes per type) and subsequent teacher interviews. CS behaviour was analysed in relation to the particular teaching focus of the task at hand. Interviews included a stimulated recall technique using selected CS extracts to enrich insights from the teachers' perspective. The results showed a higher student response frequency as well as a longer mean utterance length in CS classes. Overall, codeswitches were systematically distributed across lesson stages and were closely related to changes in the teaching focus. These findings call for an optimal use of CS in instructed environments so as to maximise its benefits via a sensitive adjustment to specific pedagogic aims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This pilot study identifies some lexical aspects of the emerging writing skills in Spanish among receptive English/Spanish bilingual students with little or no exposure to formal study of the home language upon entering a Spanish Heritage Language Program at a large public university in the Southwestern United States. The 200+ essays analyzed in the study are the last section of an online placement and credit exam that all incoming students take before enrolling in Spanish courses. The study focuses on lexical richness by analyzing lexical density, profile, and variation. It also measures transfer from English in the form of code-switches, borrowings, calques, and lexical creations. This exploratory study complements previous research and provides valuable information to the profession about the learning needs of this student population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how children exercise their agency vis-à-vis their mother’s beliefs and practices of bilingualism, especially code-switching, at home and elsewhere. The data were mainly collected through audio-recordings of family conversations both with and without the presence of the researcher and semi-structured interviews conducted during 19 visits to two families with Japanese-speaking mothers and 12-year-old English–Japanese bilingual children. An analysis of the data reveals that, despite there being a difference in language practices and backgrounds, both children discursively negotiate and construct their bilingual positions at home through their flexible use of the two languages. Furthermore, their language practices are not a passive response to their mothers’ beliefs, but an exercise of their agency through contestation, negotiation and redefinition of the mothers’ beliefs. In particular, this study has identified two types of agency: (1) construction of the positive self-image and negotiation of the parent–child relationship through the active use of English; and (2) resistance to the mother’s monolingual policy through a flexible use of the two languages. The data also provide insight into the situated and multidimensional nature of agency by showing changes in the children’s practices depending on the context, such as in conversations with the researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classrooms where students' L2 proficiency has not reached the threshold level, teachers have been observed to use L1 to assist students in grasping specific technical terms and abstract concepts. It is argued to be a ‘realistic’ approach to the learning problems caused by students' limited L2 proficiency, particularly in English-as-a-foreign-language contexts. Nonetheless, researchers have also warranted ‘judicious’ and ‘principled’ use of L1 so that both content and language learning are facilitated. The question thus remains is whether teachers can use L1 appropriately to suit their students' needs. This study seeks to address this question. It includes data from 30 Grade 10 lessons in Hong Kong CLIL classrooms, where students' L2 proficiency varied considerably. Using both quantitative and qualitative analyses, this study shows that when teaching students with limited L2 proficiency, teachers used a significant proportion of L1 in lessons to explain the subject content, interact with students and develop students' L2 metalinguistic awareness. In contrast, with students highly proficient in L2, teachers used little L1, mainly to provide translation equivalents for L2 subject-specific vocabulary items. This study thus shows that teachers seemed to be sensitive when making use of students' existing linguistic repertoires. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I review the four articles in this special issue, elucidate the main challenges faced by bilingual teachers when helping their Cantonese-dominant students learn both the content and target language (English) through content and language integrated learning-compatible pedagogies, and give a critical appraisal of their respective contributions to good practices and theory-building in research on translanguaging or classroom code-switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study further explores the theme of bilingual creativity with the present focus on code-switching. Specifically, it investigates whether code-switching practice has an impact on creativity. In line with the previous research, selective attention was proposed as a potential cognitive mechanism, which on the one hand would benefit from extensive code-switching, and on the other, facilitate creative performance. One hundred and fifty-seven multilingual college students completed a code-switching attitudes and behaviors questionnaire, which served to select habitual and non-habitual code-switchers. These respective groups were compared on creativity and selective attention tests. Habitual code-switchers demonstrated greater innovative capacity than their non-habitual counterparts. However, these groups revealed no difference in selective attention. Moreover, the relationship between selective attention and innovative capacity was found only among non-habitual code-switchers. Further, code-switching induced by a particular emotional state and by a lack of specific vocabulary in a target language appeared to relate to increase in innovative capacity. The discussion of these results lays foundation for further empirical research investigating the role of bilinguals' code-switching in their creative capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper discusses sequential language acquisition of the researcher's daughter Safa who transformed from a monolingual Bengali speaker to an almost monolingual English speaker in a few months after moving to the UK. Safa was born in Bangladesh and was a monolingual Bengali speaker until she was three years and nine months when the family moved to the UK. Unlike most research on sequential bilingualism, Safa's transition from Bengali to English went through a period of an invented language, which she developed and used for a few months. Safa then underwent language shift as Bengali became her passive language. Safa's loss of fluency in Bengali was mainly due to the absence of Bengali linguistic environment, because her family lived outside the community. Safa's mother's indifference to Bangladeshi ethnicity and her parents’ positive attitude towards Britishness meant that her decline in Bengali did not cause them much concern. Despite the lack of proficiency in Bengali, Safa still retains a strong ethnic Bangladeshi identity. Tabors and Snow’s four-stage developmental process of sequential second-language acquisition has been applied to find the similarities and differences in Safa's case, while language maintenance and shift theories have contributed to the analysis of the process of her language shift. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a case study of the life experiences of one exemplar adult second language Māori learner – Te Rita Papesch. Te Rita was one of 17 participants who were interviewed as a part of the first author's PhD study which sought to answer the question: what factors lead to the development of proficiency in te reo Māori amongst adult learners. We have chosen to focus on Te Rita's case because it illustrates four themes common across the cohort of 17. First, Te Rita was primarily motivated to learn te reo as a means to better understand her own identity as a Māori. Second, she was open to change. Third, she demonstrated a commitment to building strong relationships with her mentors and fellow speakers. Fourth, Te Rita was able to transfer skills from other parts of her life into the language-learning context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores language ideologies and language uses in a multilingual university in Hong Kong by exploring the voices and experiences of both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students. Drawing on the notions of language ideologies, separate multilingualism, and translanguaging, the research illustrates how students' linguistic ideologies are shaped by multilingual encounters in the educational setting and index broader institutional and ideological frameworks and examines the identity positions they construct and present and the social spaces they jointly establish. It also demonstrates that the multilingual university context provides students a site to establish a translanguaging space with hybrid language use in which linguistic resources are employed to perform a range of subject positions and to play a number of roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on a longitudinal study of the linguistic development among Turkish-speaking children in Denmark. A series of data were collected from a group of children attending a public school in Køge during the period 1989–1998 and from the same group – now in their 20s – in 2006–2007. The data set has been analyzed from a number of linguistic and educational perspectives (e.g. second language acquisition, code choice in interaction, language attitudes among teachers and students). In this paper we combine the main lines of the different analyses into a discussion of which terms to use when studying linguistic development in an increasingly diverse world. In particular, we focus on the theoretical distinction between deficit and resource-oriented views on minority children's language development, and we discuss the empirical underpinning of the so-called 4th grade slump which places school underachievement solidly within the children's mastery of specific features of academic majority language. In general, we argue that terms such as ‘bilingualism’ or ‘multilingualism’ are insufficient as descriptive tools. Instead we propose the term polylanguageing to account for our informants' language use in post-modern, superdiverse Danish society [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Code switching (CS) (or language mixing) generally takes place in bilingual children's utterances, even if their parents adhere to the ‘one parent – one language’ principle. The present case study of a Japanese–Chinese bilingual infant provides both quantitative and qualitative analyses on the impact of input on output, as manifested in CS. The database consists of the transcription of 12 hours of audio recordings, selected out of nearly 130 hours of recordings of an infant from the age of 2;1 to 3;0. The quantitative analysis exhibits some influence of parental input on the subject's output in regard to CS. In Qualitative Analysis A, the parental discourse strategy toward the child's CS does account for the overall high ratio of output CS. However, the parental adjustment of input strategies contradicts the present data of output. Qualitative Analysis B concerns the notion of language dominance in terms of intra-sentential CS. Our findings show that, in spite of the absolute Chinese dominance evident in the parental input, the child maintains a strong Japanese-dominant output. Hence, as far as CS is concerned, this study obtains little evidence of qualitative influence of parental input on the child's output. Instead of parental input, language dominance can better account for the increased trend of the child's output CS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates English–Japanese children's code-switching (CS) from the structural point of view. Muysken categorises it into three types, that is, insertion, alternation and congruent lexicalisation. Regarding insertion, using Myers- Scotton's matrix language frame (MLF) model, for example, the matrix language (ML) of a bilingual clause can be identified and items from the other language are considered embedded. In contrast, alternation does not distinguish between the matrix and embedded languages: the speaker makes a full change from using language A to using language B. In congruent lexicalisation, on the other hand, the ML consists of two or more languages. In this article, natural data from two English–Japanese bilingual children (5;9-9;3, 3;3-6;9) are analysed primarily using the MLF model, the insertion framework, but the ML cannot be identified in 41.8% of the data. These are examined with the alternation and congruent lexicalisation frameworks. Qualitative analyses show that psycholinguistic processes and pragmatic forces underlie those non-insertional types of CS. Psycholinguistic processes of triggering and formulaic language play important roles in alternation, whereas convergence, another psycholinguistic process, leads to congruent lexicalisation. From the pragmatic point of view, English makes a pragmatic/discourse frame and Japanese expresses propositional meanings. This finding suggests that bilingual children can attribute different functions to different languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to account for language choice and alternation phenomena we have observed in a French complementary school classroom in Scotland. In this classroom, talk can be conducted in French (the official medium of instruction), in English (the other language in contact) and in both French and English. A critical review of the literature has revealed that current studies of bilingual classroom talk are conducted either from a 'local order' perspective or from an 'overall order' perspective. While the local order perspective is indifferent towards the phenomena we have observed in the target classroom, the overall order perspective can account only for part of the data, namely, cases where talk is conducted in the medium of instruction. Therefore, drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this paper suggests an alternative view. Building on Gafaranga, we demonstrate that the notion of 'medium of classroom interaction' is a more appropriate 'scheme' for the interpretation of the bilingual practices we have observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of a study whose objective was to investigate whether there was a likelihood of a language shift (or loss) from Ikalanga (a minority language spoken in Botswana) to either Setswana or English. The focus of the investigation was 17-25 year olds. The findings indicate that although Ikalanga (unlike indigenous languages like Khoe and Shekgalagadi) is not under imminent threat of loss, there are, nevertheless, clear indications of a gradual shift to Setswana. This conclusion was reached based on informants' language use patterns and their attitudes towards using their mother tongue, particularly around people with a different mother tongue from them. The results show that informants use Setswana frequently, even in domains where they could use their mother tongue, e.g. when speaking to peers from the same mother tongue. In addition, the responses to a question which required them to indicate which language(s) they would use with their children show that the subjects embrace linguistic diversity (a large majority indicated they would teach their children Ikalanga, Setswana and English), showing no clear conviction to Ikalanga. Some of the subjects also expressed negative feelings towards using their mother tongue around non-native speakers of the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ideology of monolingualism prevails throughout society, including within minority ethnic communities who are bilingual and multilingual. Some minority ethnic communities in Britain believe that the response to the dominance of English language is to replace it with other languages. Complementary schools - language and culture calsses organised by minority ethnic communities - often impose a One Language Only (OLON) or One Language at a Time (OLAT) policy. There is still widespread fear of bilingual and multilingual practices such as codeswitching. Drawing on data from a large research project on multilingual practices in complementary schools, this paper examines the use of codeswitching by Chinese-English bilingual children as a symbolic and creative resource. A particular focus is on the tensions between the school ideologies and policies and the actual practices by the teachers and pupils, as well as the differences between the teachers and pupils' language proficiencies and preferences. Examples of codeswitching will be used to show how the pupils resist the OLON and OLAT policies; how they manipulate their language proficiency to undermine the teachers' authority and gain control of classroom interaction; and how they use codeswitching creatively and strategically to push and break the boundaries between the old and the new, the conventional and the original, and the acceptable and the challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some US researchers and practitioners are calling for the use of written codeswitching in mainstream college courses, despite a strong English-only sentiment among many teachers and the public. This paper describes the existing positions in this debate and presents findings from the author's research to shed light on the debate and make recommendations for the classroom. The research describes the functions of codeswitching found in 47 personal letters exchanged between two young adults. Findings indicate that there are many similarities between the functions of informal written and oral codeswitching. Also, not all bilinguals codeswitch or do so with the same frequency. In addition, bilinguals who codeswitch in writing are more likely to do so in informal situations among other codeswitching bilinguals than in formal school environments. Written codeswitching provides an unsurpassed opportunity for bilingual students to fully express themselves, but its use in the classroom runs counter to linguistic and cultural norms and must be guided by an informed and sensitive instructor in an appropriate context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses considerations on code switching in classroom environment. It mentions classroom code switching challenges and suggests for research and determination for language policy and classroom instruction with bilingualism. It argues for the necessity for good teaching practice in education that highlights the awareness for code switching. The three main functions of code switching are provided, which are for knowledge construction and transmission, classroom management, and international relations, along with suggestions pertaining to code switching research.

The concept of 'English only' as the best teaching-learning method in English as a foreign language classrooms has been promoted in Taiwan over the last decade. During that time, the concept has been queried and debated. Teachers and learners have come to realise that for beginners and slow language learners, the use of codeswitching in the classroom is both inevitable and necessary. This study examines the use of codeswitching in two freshman English classrooms in a university in southern Taiwan. The two primary aims of this study are: to explore the nature of classroom talk, focussing specifically on how teachers and learners use more than one language to talk around monolingual textbooks and thereby successfully accomplish lessons; and secondly to investigate the conflict and accommodation in the use of languages between teachers and learners in English classrooms. This microethnographic study utilised in-class observations, together with field notes and audio recordings. Additionally, three sets of group interviews were conducted at the end of the semester. The study has found that in order to arouse students' interest in learning English, teachers often choose to switch between English and Mandarin in classrooms. Even though many participants have expressed the view that using English only is the ideal teaching and learning method, the teachers commonly choose to switch codes to unlock the meanings from the monolingual English textbooks, for classroom management and to promote harmony in the classrooms. Students, too, were allowed to use Mandarin and Taiwanese in the classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Margie Probyn on classroom teaching challenges and code switching in schools in South Africa, another one by Caroline McGlyn and Peter Martin on language choice during classroom discussions in the Gambian schools, and another by Christine Raschka and colleagues on code switching in English as Foreign Language classroom in Taiwan.

In South Africa, as in many parts of postcolonial Africa, English dominates the political economy and as a result is the medium of instruction chosen by the majority of South African schools, despite the fact that most learners do not have the opportunity to acquire English to the levels necessary for effective engagement with the curriculum. Where teachers and learners share a common home language, there is frequently a gap between language policy and practice, and codeswitching by teachers and learners is a common strategy to achieve a range of social and pedagogical goals. However, in teachers' training the multilingual realities of the classroom have most often been framed in terms of a linguistic problem, with a deficit view of codeswitching. As a result, the potential to use two languages in the classroom in a structured and systematic way to support learning has not been generally recognised or developed. In addition, codeswitching practices are often covert with teachers 'smuggling the vernacular into the classroom' and adopting very different linguistic practices when observed, with serious implications for classroom-based research. This paper explores the conflicts and tensions in classroom codeswitching in the context of macrolevel contestations around language status and rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the small postcolonial country of the Gambia. As in other parts of postcolonial Africa, English plays a major role in the education system. The paper reports on the conflicts and tensions which are evident when 'vernacular' languages are used in the classroom. Although the study is based on substantial periods of fieldwork in primary school classrooms in the Gambia, the paper focuses on one particular lesson, in an urban primary school, in which the topic was sexual health. Within this lesson the teacher occasionally breaks the 'no vernacular' rule with switches into Mandinka and Wolof. Through an analysis of instances of codeswitching in the lesson, several underlying tensions and conflicts are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on codeswitching (CS) as a strategy employed by teachers in their EFL (English as a foreign language) classrooms in two commercial bushibans or cram schools in Taipei, Taiwan. More specifically, we are concerned with the perceived functions of CS in the EFL classroom context and the extent to which these constitute sources of conflict and tension. CS can be evaluated both positively and negatively. Policy makers, at both the national and school level, tend to view CS as undesirable within the language learning classroom, favouring an 'English-only' rule. However, the prevalence of CS among experienced teachers seems to suggest that it has some positive function in the educational process. Functional and temporal analysis of transcribed classroom interactions reveals the strategic ways in which the teachers use CS to shape and guide their classes. We conclude that 'English-only' is a lazy rule in that it means that we do not have to think about when and where CS is valid and useful and where and when it is pedagogically invalid and less than useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of codeswitching (CS) by isiZulu (Zulu) native language (NL) junior secondary learners in English first language (EL1) multilingual classrooms in South Africa. In spite of the educational transformation in South Africa, and the recognition of CS (by education policy documents) as a means of fulfilling pedagogical objectives, the use of CS in the classroom, more particularly in the EL1 classroom, is mostly prohibited. Nevertheless, the research, from which this paper is drawn, reveals that learners resort to English-NL CS when interacting among themselves, both in and outside the classroom. Using a qualitative study, I explore the language(s) of learners during group-work in the language, literacy and communication: English (LLCE) classroom, and show how their use of CS contributes to the achievement of the specific outcomes of this learning area within the outcomes-based education curriculum. I argue that even though CS is mostly prohibited in the classroom, its strategic use by learners serves as a means of fulfilling both social and pedagogical functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular and official description of the Gaeltacht as Irish-speaking rather than bilingual areas reflects the historically dominant discourse on language ideology in Ireland. While there is little evidence that the Gaeltacht people want to learn English at the expense of their Irish, as may have been the case throughout Ireland in the past, there is no doubt that all do want their children to be highly skilled, literate bilinguals. There is uncertainty in the language community as to which language or combination of languages to use when raising children to achieve this aim. This paper focuses on two aspects of public policy that encourage Gaeltacht Irish speakers to use only Irish with their children: Scéim Labhairt na Gaeilge and the principle of Irish-medium only schooling in the Gaeltacht for all pupils. Fieldwork carried out among Irish speakers in the West Cork Gaeltacht region of Múscraírevealed significant divergence of opinion on how much Irish should be used with children at home and at school to achieve IrishȔEnglish bilingualism, and also exposed how many in the community believe that they may have made an error in language choice with the benefit of hindsight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tells a tentative story from the preliminary findings of The Sociolinguistic Survey of Singapore, 2006 (SSS 2006). Though the main study reports on language use amongst Chinese, Malay and Indian communities, my focus is only on Indian homes. The paper reports results from five domains: school, family and friends, media, public space and religion. The emergent story is that Tamil/English-speaking Indians are a speech community which shows bilingualism without diglossia. The paper focuses on the Fishmanian compared to the Fergusonian type of diglossia. The mother tongue is maintained in some domains more than others; also, within domains, it shifts in some situations and is maintained in other situations. There is variability within domains for language use depending on role-relations, topic and institutional site. Anxiety created by the census and national newspaper on language shift of Tamil vis-a-vis English is not entirely in keeping with actual language use, which also shows language maintenance. The narrative of language shift in Singapore, from mother tongue to English, is no doubt true; however, the linguistic ecology of Singapore is more complex because SSS 2006 also shows findings leading to language maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses selected aspects of the codeswitching behaviour in a spoken corpus of the English of 326 people, all of them mother-tongue speakers of Xhosa (a local African language in South Africa), and all of whom would see themselves as Xhosa/English bilinguals. The corpus comprises approximately 550,000 transcribed words of spontaneous, relaxed, oral discourse in English between pairs of Xhosa-speaking interlocutors, discussing a wide range of topics. While the usual pattern in bilingual speech is to use the L1 as matrix language and the L2 as embedded language, in this corpus the opposite is the case, as interlocutors were interviewed in English (the L2). The corpus therefore offers a ‘mirror image’, in a sense, of normal codeswitching behaviour. Using Wordsmith (a concordancer programme), all incidences of codeswitching into Xhosa during these conversations were identified and analysed in an effort to reveal underlying patterns. Examination of the amount and nature of codeswitching in the corpus promised to throw some light on the extent to which participants are genuinely bilingual, in terms of their ability to converse comfortably in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of research considers the occurrence and function of Spanish discourse markers and other particles in indigenous speech. I discuss important research that has examined these phenomena and refer to studies of bilingual discourse markers in other non-indigenous language contact situations to address unresolved issues concerning the form and function of these particles in indigenous languages. Based on an analysis of this work, I conclude that the status of such markers in indigenous languages depends on the relationship between language dominance and the frequency and type of borrowing. I also assess that only time will determine whether or not the use of borrowed elements implies an eventual replacement of native language discourse markers or a coexistence of two systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines preliminary findings from an ongoing federally funded study of Native language shift and retention in the US Southwest, focusing on in-depth ethnographic interviews with Navajo youth. We begin with an overview of Native American linguistic ecologies, noting the dynamic, variegated and complex nature of language proficiencies and practices across a continuum of sociocultural settings. We then examine two pairs of youth discourses that illuminate social-psychological and macro-structural influences on language practices. These discourses juxtapose language identity with language endangerment, and language pride with language shame. As such, they expose the ways in which language allegiance is tied to the distribution of power and privilege in the larger society. Youth discourses, we argue, represent a powerful call to action for communities and schools serving Native American students. We conclude with the implications for future research and for language education planning in Indigenous and other endangered-language communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper illustrates how interaction operates in classes where there is no single shared common language between teachers and pupils. Samples from a European School primary class taken from 1669 extracts are given of teacher--pupil, pupil--teacher and pupil--pupil interaction. Goals of the programme investigated are to integrate heterogeneous groups while showing respect for language diversity, to encourage co-operation, to accustom pupils to a multilingual environment and to encourage development of multilingual skills. Communication strategies, both verbal and non-verbal, in a typical classroom sub-culture are shown. Results reveal how the strategies used by all involved enable them to cope with the unexpected, which is typical of a linguistically mixed class. Code-switching plays a significant and legitimate role in the coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]