TRIGGERED CODE-SWITCHING: A BOTTOM-UP APPROACH TO CODE-SWITCHING AMONG L2 TEACHERS

Abstract

Classroom interaction in the second language (L2) is an important source of language input for students. Yet, code-switching from the target language to another language is commonplace in many L2 classrooms. Psycholinguistic studies have shown codeswitching happens through top-down and bottom-up processes during bilingual speech production. Triggering is a bottom-up process where code-switching is caused by words that are shared between different languages. To investigate if triggered code-switching takes place among secondary school ESL teachers in Malaysia, a study on teachers’ language use in class was conducted. A total of 111 minutes of interaction from two English lessons was audio recorded and 225 instances of teacher code-switching in the recordings were analysed. The analysis reveals that lexical transfers between English and Malay and selected discourse markers triggered instances of code-switching among the teachers. The findings suggest that teacher code-switching in L2 classrooms should be considered from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives. Based on these findings, suggestions for future studies on code-switching among L2 teachers were provided.