Sooo toll war die Arbeit nicht. Ich war sehr zufrieden damit, es hat mir auch Spaß gemacht, sie zu schreiben, alleridngs fand mein Prof sie nicht sooo klasse... Eine 3... äußerst enttäuschend! Für mich der Rückschlag, dass mir Literatur doch mehr liegt als Sprachwissenschaft...



Table of Contents








1. List of Abbreviations 3
2. Introduction 4
3. Basic ideas about Code-Switching 5
4. Classroom orientated features of the MLF-model 7
5. Code-Switching in Second Language Acquisition 11
6. Conclusion 13
7. Appendix 15
8. References/Works Cited 18












1. List of Abbreviations







CS Code-Switching

L1 first language

L2 second language

L3 third language

L4 fourth language

ML Matrix Language

EL Embedded Language

MLF-model Matrix Language Frame Model

S1 Pupil 1








2. Introduction

This essay deals with the question whether Code-Switching (CS) can be found in classroom English. The idea of considering the topic came from two different areas. In the first place I had a seminar about bilingualism and thought it was an interesting topic to look at more closely. During the course of the seminar we also got some information about CS which was not very satisfying, though. The other area was the seminar “Applied Linguistics”, and my FSP. During the FSP I thought I was able to detect some CS when some of my fellow students and teacher talked. I kept considering these questions and decided to go back to school, to do another two-week work experience with the focus on detecting some more CS in classroom English. This essay is basically the result of my studies.
To be able to consider the question I will give some basic features of CS in the first place. I will bring some personal experiences, and additional definitions.
Since there are several models of how CS works, I chose the model by Carol Myers-Scotton and took some features of it to support the theory of actually having CS in classroom English. The main focus is set on defining the Matrix Language and speech errors.
Since classroom English is tightly connected to second language acquisition, I will also consider how CS may come into existence when a student learns a second language.
The appendix consists of notes that I took during my work experience. It was a sixth grade, Realschule. They were 26 pupils, 14 girls, 12 boys. Generally speaking, it was a challenging task to teach them but, surprisingly they were relatively competent of the language considering them only being sixth grade.





3. Basic ideas about Code-Switching

Code-switching (CS) is understood as a part of psycholinguistics, especially in the area of bilingualism. CS mainly happens when at least two different grammatical systems are opposing each other. When a student of a particular language uses his knowledge of that language to express himself, it happens that he forgets about certain words or specific grammatical structures. In that case, the student tends to simply use words or structures from his L1 lexicon or grammar.
CS on the other hand does not necessarily mean that a different language is used. It can also stand for the use of more than one dialect or variety of a language. That means that also monolingual speakers are capable of CS since they can switch between different situational factors throughout a conversation.
While talking about language use and CS, there is another detail one has to look out for; the difference between intrasentential and intersentential code-switching. To switch intrasententially means to switch codes within a sentence, e.g. das habe ich ganz smooth geregelt, der Computer hat sein Upgrade durch das neue Download bekommen, der Usus von Fremdwörtern sollte auf ein Minimum reduziert werden… The switched words are adapted to the grammatical structures of the language though the words keep their phonetic environment. Intersentential CS means that an entire sentence is spoken in the other language e.g. ich habe gerade gefrühstückt. But I am still hungry! Was gibt’s zum Mittag?
There are two different forms of CS: it can either be smooth, or flagged. The smooth switches are almost without transition, so the switching occurs almost natural. Flagged switches arise with hesitation and pauses. In earlier days, CS has been considered as the speaker’s incompetence of the language. Today, scientists know that CS obeys specific rules that demand a high competence of the language.
To understand why something like CS can occur at all and why it demands a high language competence, one has to think about how a bilingual speaker keeps his languages apart.
The “sub-set hypothesis” (Paradis, 1981) states that the grammatical, and lexical frame of a language forms a sub-set. A person can have several of these sub-sets. They can independently be activated. Two closely related languages sometimes may enclose similar words. Each sub-set is only activated within a certain environment. In cases of a large amount of the occurrence of CS, an extra sub-set can be developed.
In my opinion the idea of sub-sets is good and works with bilingual and multilingual speakers. If a person speaks several languages with different competences e.g. German very good (L1), English very good (L2), French good (L3), Spanish okay (L4), and Italian poor (L5) she tends to mix the languages to support the weaker language with another one that sounds alike. When this person speaks Spanish, she sometimes tends to use French words if she is not sure of the Spanish word. Naturally, she can switch from one language to the other and can activate the sub-set when addressed in one of her languages. This might be a proof for the “sub-set hypothesis”. Though, I rather believe that the speaker begins to switch because of the similarities, and overlapping of languages. She would never speak Italian and use a German word because of the missing similarities. In that case, she would rather tend to use a Spanish word since the languages have a closer relation. Personally, I do not agree with the extra sub-set for CS, except for if this sub-set is meant for borrowings only.
The more competent language will support the weaker language, or according to the surrounding, whichever sub-set has been activated.






4. Classroom orientated features of the MLF-model

The Matrix Language Frame model is an attempt to explain how CS operates. The name stresses the two most important aspects of the model: CS takes place within the restriction of a set frame which is the morphosyntactic frame set by the Matrix Language (ML). The ML can only be one specific language. The possibility of having more than one Embedded Language (EL) exists. It means that CS can involve more than two languages. The EL is the language that interrupts the fluency of the ML.
The ML sets the outline for the three components that build the MLF-model. It is the ML and the EL which morphemes are involved in speech production, ML islands components which consist entirely of morphemes etc. of the ML, and EL islands which are like ML islands but formed of morphemes etc in the EL.
It is an important feature to be able to identify the ML. According to examples by Carol Myers-Scotton, it is difficult to define the ML. In natural conversation in multilingual societies, the L1 is not necessarily the ML but any language that serves the two following criteria can become the ML. In natural conversation, the ML is defined by the “relative frequency of morphemes” (Myers-Scotton 1993:67) and the “relative proficiency” (Myers-Scotton 1993:67). The frequent use of the morphemes of a specific language is meant by the first definition. The second definition deals with the speaker’s competence of the language. Regularly, the speaker is more proficient in his L1. The L1 motivates the frame for the ML, especially when the speaker learns a second or third language. Myers-Scotton basically talks about communities in Africa that are multilingual. But the model also corresponds with classroom English. In class pupils with two or more languages, e.g. Turkish as L1, German as L2, and English is becoming L3, are common. Since Turkish is often neglected in its use, German becomes the ML around which the patterns of the other two languages evolve.
The MLF-model pursues two goals. The first goal is the ability to foresee an upcoming switch by specifying on well-formed and ill-formed utterances. A well-formed utterance applies to the rules of the grammar of the ML, as the sentence: “Polly wohnt in der Shrub End Road hundertzweiundachtzig, in Colchester.” The name of the street applies to the phonetic rules of English, as well as “Colchester”, and instead of saying “one hundred eighty two…” as it usual in English, the German grammar is used by placing the street number behind the name of the street. This example stands for possible and well-formed utterances. An ill-formed switch does not apply to any rules of any grammar of the languages a speaker is capable of. Even if a speaker mixes German with English grammar, or the other way around, it is still a form of CS that works well. That way, it is unfeasible to form an impossible utterance since a speaker can only use the grammar of a language he knows.
CS, especially if it has to do with little language competence, includes speech errors. A sentence like “I have yesterday a handy in the town bought.” is a form of CS, since German grammar is applied. It is difficult to identify the ML here. The relative frequency would identify English because of the use of English morphemes. The syntactic rule is set by German grammar, though. Concerning the relative proficiency of the speaker shows that he is no proficient speaker of the English language. This is an example that is more likely to occur in natural conversation. A non-proficient speaker tries to tell someone that he bought a cell phone yesterday.
In CS, the following speech errors are defined (Myers-Scotton 1993:53ff.):
• Sound mislocations
• Word blends
• Word substitutions
• Simple word exchanges
Sound mislocations are phonological mistakes that are concerned with wrong placements of sounds. It is a phenomenon that often happens during speech production. However, whether a pupil says “The erection to this…” (Target: The reaction to this…), or “The Pope is… was a very impotent person” (Target: The Pope was a very important person), or whether a teacher or a native speaker mixes up sounds, CS is not really concerned.
Myers-Scotton though quotes the idea of Garrett which states that errors in sound mislocation indicate that there are “multiple levels of processing intervene between M (message) and articulatory control.” (Myers-Scotton 1998:53)
Still, if a sound mislocation is realized while speaking, the speaker often corrects himself by saying e.g.: “Has… Have they talked about it yet?” This is a sign that there are different stages in speech production. At first the speaker is conceptualizing what he wants to say, searches for the fitting words, and is concerned about the grammatical and phonological encoding of the language. These four stages work parallel, and happen as fast as lightning. The last two stages, the articulation, and the self-monitoring take up the longest time. Self-monitoring is an important matter since the speaker is listening to what he actually says, and corrects himself when it is necessary.
Word blends mostly happen when the competent speaker cannot decide between two words that are related in meaning. An example would be “small” and “tiny” which would become “sminy”. Used in a sentence, it would sound like “What a… sminy kid!” Word blends, though, are creative processes in word formation that sometimes can become actual words in a language. Word blends can also be related to the “Freudian slip ”.
Word substitutions always happen when one cannot think of the correct term at once. Native speakers often use antonyms to convey they meaning of what they intend to say. A non-native speaker would rather tend to translate. A good example would be the translation of a saying from his native language into the target language, like “Nothing for ungood” (Target: “Nichts für ungut”), or “Time is running” (Target: “Die Zeit rennt”).
Simple word changes occur often and are very amusing. It means that the speaker simply changes two words, like “The meow is catting”, or “I like that eye’s person”. The interesting matter in this speech error is that the mixed words are always put in the correct form, set by the morphosyntactic frame.
Speech errors in CS are noteworthy since the words mostly come from the same syntactic category, even when the speaker uses two different languages. It is also interesting to see how the brain works with speech errors when dealing with two languages in class. During discussions in class a student suddenly shouts out: “No, keine newspaper!” (comp. Example 10) when he was really annoyed that the S1 has not found out the correct answer. By trying to convey most of the meaning in English, even though 6th grade English still obtains quite a low level of proficiency, English has turned out to be ML already.
Lexical errors are mostly found between phrases and clauses which show that the exchanged and switched words derive from the same grammatical category . If two words from two languages have the same meaning, they regularly differ in form (e.g. Pupil – Schüler). On the other hand, words that almost share a form, no matter whether it is a phonetical or formal likeness, are more likely to differ in meaning (e.g. Who – Wo, where – wer). Words with similarities in meaning are simply vocabulary that needs to be learned. The other category, however, consisting of homographs and homophones, needs more attention, especially when introducing these words in class. Pupils should be made aware of these false friends.
All of the described aspects of the MLF-model can be found in classroom English, and help to understand how CS and speech production in the human brain generally work.













5. Code-Switching in Second Language Acquisition

While learning a second language, the learner often translates the sentences from his first language (L1) into the studied language (L2, or up). The lack of proficiency in the L2 often leads to cases of CS.
CS is applied in classroom English when vocabulary or specific tasks need to be explained. It is important since the pupils have to understand more complex relations, like grammar. If described meanings of words are not understood, a direct translation is easier and better to comprehend. CS also plays an important role when learning vocabulary. Most vocabulary that students have to learn is directly translated from L1 to L2 or the other way around which seriously strengthens the issue of CS. Several examples from English classroom support this. Pupils are asked to d directly translate certain words (Example 5) or pupils ask for an unknown word and receive a German answer (Example 8). Even translation tasks in classroom English are common (Example 11).
In German English classes the English language normally serves as ML, and German as EL, though the teacher can decide which language has the role of ML. The decision of the language always depends on the content of the lesson. If the lesson entirely consists of grammatical explanations, worksheets, and comparison of the results, German and English are equal in use (Example 11). To find an English class where German is almost entirely used is very rare. (It once has happened on a Friday afternoon when the pupils have chosen the English lesson to discuss some topics concerning the entire class. But situations like that do not have much to do with an English class.) Teachers try to talk as much English as possible, and most pupils pick that behaviour up quickly (comp. Example 2, 3, 9, 10) and speak English in an English environment, just as young children acquire their L1. Children acquire their first language like the way they learn to walk. They do not need real instruction. All they need is being surrounded by the language and listen to it. They begin to imitate adults and figure out the grammatical rules by themselves.
That is something that pupils tend to do as well. One vast difference between L1 and L2 learning (considering the regular case, German as L1, English L2 in fourth or fifth grade) is that children are surrounded by German for at least nine years where they learn to use the German language correctly, they can read and write the language. They have a high competence of the language. The problem is that the pupils are confronted with a new, foreign language in which they are supposed to reach a high competence in by 10th grade, in about a period of six years. This is almost impossible in the German schooling system. Learners need to be surrounded by the language they are to learn. Pupils that are basically theoretically taught and will scarcely be able to use the language spontaneously (Monitor Theory). L2 should be acquired by being surrounded by the language and some instruction since it would increase the proficiency of a language immensely. Bilingual education at school would also help to have a higher competence in L2. Bilingual children have a larger lexicon than monolingual children. Every thing in the world of a bilingual child has at least two names. A tree is not only a tree but also “ein Baum” if the child has its competences in English and German. If a child grows up with English and German, it has twice as many words in its mental lexicon than a monolingual child the same age. Bilingual children encounter the phenomenon of CS far more often than monolingual children that learn English as L2 at school. Monolingual children experience CS as well, though mostly because of errors and a lack of language competence.











6. Conclusion

The question I considered was whether something like CS can actually occur in classroom English, and whether the MLF-model can be applied to that. Though I often tried to press a certain pattern on examples that I experienced in class, I found out that CS basically occurs in natural conversation. CS can only occur when the speaker is competent of both languages. Considering a sixth grade at a German school, something like competence can be experienced, even if it is not that sort of competence that is meant by talking about CS.
Several linguists that have studied CS so far, take their examples from natural conversations. Carol Myers-Scotton, for example, has studied CS in African countries where most people speak several languages. They have their tribal languages, a national language, and often English for intercultural communication. Children often begin to learn English at an early age, so that they grow up multilingual. Early studies of CS have dealt with “Tex-Mex” which is a dialect spoken by the borderline of Texas and Mexico. An example of Tex-Mex from a shopping centre: “Shopper: Donde está el thin sliced bread?
Clerk: Está en aisle three, sobre el second shelf, en el wrapping rojo” (Crystal 1992:60) The shopper asks where to find the thin sliced bread, and the clerk answers that it is in aisle three, on the second shelf, in the red wrapping. This example has been taken from a natural conversation, and compared to examples from classroom these two kinds of speech production have only few things in common. CS comes naturally, whereas the other one is forced. Natural CS is smooth. Classroom English is far more often flagged, and is rather comparable to acting than to a natural conversation.
CS surrounds the speakers naturally. Two Russian girls that have lived in Germany for a long time constantly switch codes. In their families they often speak Russian only, with their German friends they speak German, and with their Russian friends? Some sentences are in Russian, and some German words are embedded. Their explanation is that they have lived in Germany for a long period by now and that there are several things that are easier to say in German than in Russian.
In class, the students learn their foreign language in a fake environment with teachers who are non-native speakers. To the student this means that he is not forced to talk English but can ask his questions in German. It has advantages, as well as disadvantages concerning the fluency of language in class.
CS in class can happen to teachers (Example 7) but an unconscious switch made by a pupil is not likely. Pupil’s switches are speech errors and the missing knowledge of vocabulary.

























7. Appendix

Examples for Code-Switching in class

Example 1)
T: What do you find there?
S: Fische
T: Right. So what water is there?
S: Lake water?

Example 2)
T: What is on the photos?
S: Pupil play keyboard and computer.
T: What else?
S: They play computer.
T: But not everybody plays computer.
S: Was heißt “bauen”?
T: To make? To built?
S: They make a model train.

Example 3)
T: I can’t hear what you say. K, hältst du jetzt den Mund?
S: The “Schüler” can do the project.
T: Pupils. The pupils from Kingsway High can do the project.

Example 4)
T: There are different places.
S: Musikstudio
S: Lake District
S: In the school
S: The music studio in Chester
S: In a garden
T: So, they’re all in different places.
S: They are all at different pu… places.


Example 5)
T: The pupils choose from different projects […]. What does “choose” mean?
S: Aussuchen!
T: Ja, oder auswählen, gut!

Example 6)
T: What projects are there? (Writes on the board) A lot of different projects are there. What are “New Horizons”?
S: Horror…
T: […] So, jetzt ist es Zeit zum Abschreiben!

Example 7)
T: Where can I get info about the projects?
S: From the teacher.
T: Yes, you can get info from teachers.
S: From the paper.
T: Yes […]. What is that over there?
S: A pin board?
T: Yes, you can get info from a pin board.

Example 8)
S: What is [wildleif]?
T: It is [weildleif], “Wildleben”, when animals do not live in our homes but in wildlife.
S: Wildness!
T: Yes, good! Wildness!

Example 9)
T: What is a raft?
S: A board?
S: A surfboard?
T: No, it’s not a surfboard, it’s rather like…
S: A “Floß”?
S: Ja, ein Floß!
T: Right, it is a “Floß”.

Example 10)
S: He is cut the newpaper
T: No, […] use the Present Perfect!
S: ?!
T: How do you form the Present Perfect?
S: He has cut the newspaper?
S: No, keine newspaper!
S: His hair!
S: Seine Haare!
S: Oh! Ja, he has cut his hair!

Example 11)
T: Have you ever eaten crisps?
S: Hast du jemals Chips gegessen?
T: Right. Have you ever been to America?
S: Hast du… hm… Warst du in Amerika?
T: No, that’s Simple Past. How do you do it in Present Perfect?
S: Warst du jemals in Amerika?
T: No! How do you form the German Perfekt?
S: […]
[…]
S: Also, bist du jemals in Amerika gewesen?
T: Good! [...]




8. References/Works Cited


Breitsprecher, Roland; Calderwood-Schnorr, Veronika; Terrell, Peter; Morris, Wendy V.A. (1989) PONS-Globalwörterbuch English- Deutsch Stuttgart: Klett

Breitsprecher, Roland; Calderwood-Schnorr, Veronika; Terrell, Peter; Morris, Wendy V.A. (1989) PONS-Globalwörterbuch Deutsch- Englisch Stuttgart: Klett

Crystal, David (1999) The Penguin Dictionary of Language (Second Edition). London: Penguin Books

De Bot, Kees & Kroll, Judith F. (2002) “Psycholinguistics”. In: Schmitt, Norbert (Hrsg.) An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold, 135-144

Kirkpatrick, Betty (Editor) (2000) Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases London: Penguin Books

Myers-Scotton, Carol (1993) Duelling Languages, Grammatical Structure in Codeswitching Oxford: Oxford University Press

Myers-Scotton, Carol (1998) “A lexically based model of code-switching” In: Milroy, Lesley & Muysken, Pieter (Editors) One speaker, two languages: cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 233-254

Wahrig, Gerhard (1968) Deutsches Wörterbuch Einmalige Sonderausgabe - Ungekürzt -. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag