The third research question is to examine whether the EFL teacher’s teaching belief about code-switching was consistent with his actual practice in the classroom.
After analyzing the data, the consistencies between his teaching belief and his actual practice were found in two ways: the pattern and the functions of his code-switching.
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In this section, the teacher’s teaching belief and his actual practice in the aspect of pattern and functions of the teacher’s code-switching were discussed.
On the Pattern of Code-switching
The teacher claimed that he would adjust his code-switching according to students’ responses during the class. As he mentioned in the interview:
In the beginning of the semester, I will try my best to teach in English.
At that time, I can know their (students’) responses.
(我在學期的前幾週，我會盡量用英文來上，那前幾週就會發現說他 們的反應如何。)
No matter which classes I teach, I will use English as much as possible.
This is my trial period in the beginning weeks. If they (students) have no problems in understanding, this pattern (using much English) will be kept on. If problems are raised, I will adjust.
(無論是教哪班，一開始我會盡量用比較多的英文，前幾週一定是測 試期，如果他們理解方面沒有問題的話，基本上這個模式就會持 續；如果出現問題，其實我就會調整。)
Based on these two accounts, the teacher would lecture in as much English as possible in the beginning of the semester in order to check whether and how much the students understood what he taught in English. However, according to his teaching experience, teaching students mostly in English would lead to students’
incomprehension. Therefore, he would frequently code-switch from English to Chinese to give the lectures in the middle and end of the semester to save time, as he added. According to the teacher’s accounts, his belief about language use comes from his teaching experience, as Richards and Lockhart’s (1996) explained.
In his actual practice, the teacher indeed spoke much English in the classroom throughout the whole semester, as shown in Table 4 (p. 35). In addition, according
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to Table 5 (p. 36), the teacher increased the time for speaking Chinese. In the stimulated recall interview, the teacher expressed his rationale behind his adjustment of using Chinese in class.
Every semester is the same. Chinese will increase more and more toward the end of the semester. I think that is an adjustment. That is, when you lecture all in English in the beginning, there must be students saying that they cannot understand. There must be some. So, in this situation, I will make adjustments. As for the extent to which I adjust, it differs in every class.
(每一學期都是這個樣子，到最後中文會越來越多，那我覺得這個 都是在調整啦，就是說你一開始的時候你用全英文上課，那一定 會有同學反應就是他們會聽不懂，一定有。那所以在這個過程當 中，其實自己就會做一些調整，那至於調到什麼樣的程度呢，其 實每一班不同。)
Now that there are some students saying that they have a problem in listening comprehension, if the teacher lectures in English, every teacher will make a few adjustments. Even though there are few students (who have problems in comprehension), the adjustment will be made. This situation happens every year, every semester. So, it is common that the frequency of using Chinese is more and more increasing.
(既然有學生跟你反應說就是她們對上課用英文來上課的聽力理解 有問題，每個老師都會做一點調整，即使是少數的學生，也都必 須做這樣的調整，而這樣的情形每一年、每一學期都會發生，所 以使用中文的頻率越來越多，在正常不過。)
According to these two interview transcripts, the teacher’s code-switching increased because he felt that the students might not understand what he lectured mostly in English. Possibly due to the students’ English proficiency level, they could not easily comprehend the lesson if the class was mainly conducted in English.
As Ahmad and Jusoff (2009) proved, students’ language proficiency levels influenced the teachers’ code-switching. Moreover, Shih (2010) also indicated that teachers’
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adjustment of language based on students’ English proficiency level could help the students understand the knowledge the teachers conveyed. Therefore, the teacher adjusted his code-switching; that is, the frequency of the teacher’s use of Chinese increased gradually. Based on these findings, the teacher’s teaching belief matched closely with his actual practice on the pattern of his code-switching in the classroom.
On the Functions of Code-switching
In addition to the pattern of the teacher’s code-switching, the consistencies were found in the following four situations: talking about school policies, teaching
vocabulary, explaining grammar, and building rapport with students. But, he code-switched from English to Chinese for the other purposes of managing the class, and communicative uses, all of which were not mentioned in the interview. In the following sections, the four situations that the teacher’s teaching belief mentioned in the interview as well as his actual practice done in the class were discussed.
Talking about School Policies
The teacher claimed that he would code-switched to explain school policies, such as the class rule, graduation requirement, and midterm and final exams. In the interview, he explained,
If I have to explain something about the school regulation, such as taking English proficiency tests or others, I will use (Chinese). I will speak Chinese to ensure that they (the students) understand all the rules.
(如果我必須要解釋一些學校規則的時候，比如說他們考檢定或是怎 麼樣的，那些我會用…我會用中文來講，我要確定說他們聽懂了。)
As the teacher mentioned, he would switch from English to Chinese to explain the school regulation. For example, in NPTU, where the study was conducted,
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students are required to pass a specific level of English proficiency tests (e.g. GEPT) as a graduation requirement. In addition to the English proficiency tests, the teacher would also code-switched to explain the midterm or final exam. He mentioned that the students might be confused about the regulations if he explained it in English.
To help them fully understand the policies and class rules, he chose to code-switch from English to Chinese.
In his actual practices, he explained the class policies, talking about the final exam for students in Chinese (See Episode 17). Thus, there was a consistency between the teacher’s teaching belief and the actual practice.
Teaching Vocabulary
When teaching vocabulary, the teacher explained the meanings of words in many ways, such as paraphrasing and translating. The teacher explained that he would code-switch from English to Chinese during vocabulary instruction, as he explained,
Another case that I may use Chinese is when teaching vocabulary. If you paraphrase a difficult word in English, I am not sure that students can understand what the word means. In this case, in order not to waste time for explaining in English, it is the quickest for me to explain the word in Chinese.
(另外一個可能使用(中文)的情況可能是講單字的時候。一個困難的 單字，如果你要用英文去 paraphrase 它，你 paraphrase 完後，學生 也不一定會理解。那這個時候，為了不阻礙我上課的時間，其實講 中文是最快的。)
According to the teacher’s explanation, he usually taught vocabulary in different ways, such as paraphrasing in English or giving the equivalents of the word directly.
To provide students with adequate language input, he sometimes used his own words to explain the meaning of a specific word in English. For non-proficient students,
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however, if the teacher explained a difficult word only in English, there might be other words that the students did not know in the teacher’s explanation. Tian and Macaro (2012) indicated that if the teacher in their study taught vocabulary only in English, the students’ vocabulary performance would be much lower. So, the students could not understand what the teacher said and what the words meant. In addition, paraphrasing took much time for the teacher to explain a given word.
During the interview, he mentioned that to help students understand the meaning of the words, he might spend only a few seconds explaining vocabulary by translating directly, while it took a few minutes to use his own words to paraphrase what the words are. Hence, he would code-switch from English to Chinese for vocabulary instruction to save time.
In his actual practice in teaching vocabulary, he almost explained the words first in English, and then in Chinese, as exemplified in Episode 19.
Episode 19
T: “Obsessed” here simply means when you love something so much, you become crazy about it, okay? So “obsessed,” you can simply say like “crazy about something.” Okay, obsessed?
SS: (Silence)
T: When you love something so much, then you become crazy about it, 很著迷的。 [Obsessed]
(Extracted from Oct. 3rd, 2014)
Episode 19 took place when the teacher explained the meaning of the word, obsessed. At first, he explained it in English, crazy about something. Then, he
asked students the meaning of obsessed. However, the students still did not understand the meaning of obsessed. So, the teacher paraphrased the word and then switched from English to Chinese to give the equivalent, 很著迷的. In the
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stimulated recall interview, the teacher explained his viewpoint of this behavior,
When English words or phrases are too difficult for students to respond immediately, I will first paraphrase them to let the students know
possible meaning (of the word). According to this video clip, I may ask a few questions. If I am not wrong, no students did not respond to me at that time. For example, I asked them the meaning of the word. If the students did not respond to me, basically it showed that they might not know the Chinese equivalent of this word. Therefore, after I
paraphrased (the word), and the students did not have the answer, I gave them the (Chinese) meaning. If I continued to explain (in English), it wasted a lot of time.
(當英文字詞太難的時候，學生無法立即反應的時候，那當然先用 paraphrase 的方式讓他們知道大概可能的意思是什麼。其實從這一 段摘錄來看，我好像問了一些問題，如果我沒有記錯的話，當時 應該是沒有學生回應我。比如說我問他們這個字到底什麼意思，
在學生沒有回應我的情況下，基本上就表示說他們對這個單字可 能找不到中文的 equivalent，所以我就是 paraphrase 完，看學生沒 有答案之後，就直接給他們(中文)意思，因為在繼續講下去，會拖 太長時間。)
Based on the teacher’s explanation, he first asked students the meaning of the word. If the students did not know what the word meant, he tried to explain it in English. After paraphrasing the word, if the students still did not understand the meaning of it, he directly translated it into Chinese simply to save time. As Nunan and Lamb (1996) suggested, to shorten the process of explanation, the teachers were encouraged to translate the word directly in L1. Based on the teacher’s explanation in the interview, the stimulated recall interview, and the videotaped transcript, the teacher’s teaching belief and his code-switching practice in class matched quite well.
Explaining Grammar
The teacher also code-switched when explaining the grammar to the students.
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In the interview, he addressed:
When teaching grammar, I must use Chinese. If I teach grammatical points in Chinese, I think the students do not always understand what the grammar is. In this case, if I teach grammar only in English, there are some problems.
(教文法的時候，我一定會用中文講，因為文法概念有些時候用中文 講，他們都不一定懂，在這樣的情況下，你如果只用英文的話，它 其實會有問題。)
As a consequence, he chose explain grammar points first in English, and then in Chinese. Basically, students can learn grammar well with the assistance of L1 (Damra & Qudah, 2012). Only using English to learn grammar would raise some problems, such as incomprehension or misunderstanding. In addition, the teacher emphasized that in his teaching experience, even when he explained grammar in Chinese, some non-proficient students still had hard time understanding grammar, let alone only in English to explain. Therefore, when he instructed grammar, he first used English, and then code-switched to Chinese.
In his class, the teacher indeed taught grammar in English first, and then switched to Chinese, as illustrated in Episode 20.
Episode 20
T: So, the general rule is that noun plus “ly,” we get adjectives. 名詞加 ly [noun plus “ly”], we got adjectives.
(Extracted from Dem. 26th, 2014)
Episode 20 took place when the teacher talked about the rule of forming an adjective. At first, the teacher explained the grammar rule in English, and then, he switched from English to Chinese to explain the rule again. In all of the videotaped
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recordings, the teacher followed the pattern of first in English, and then in Chinese.
In the stimulated recall interview, he stated the reason why he first used English, and then Chinese when giving grammar instruction.
When Taiwanese students usually learn grammar, they do not use English to learn it. In my class, now that I decide that I will teach the class by providing a lot of English input, I think that all, grammar, vocabulary, and other aspects, I will teach them in as much English as possible.
However, if I teach grammar in English, they are not familiar with it. I think that I can teach grammar in English. In order to make sure that they (students) understand what I say, I will speak Chinese. It is like a double check.
(台灣的學生通常在學文法的時候，都不是用英文來學文法的，那 這堂課既然我決定要以大量英文 input 的方式去教這堂課，那我的 想法就是說，就是全部，無論文法、單字、其他各方面，我盡量 都用英文去講。但可是如果用英文講文法，其實是他們很不熟悉 的一種做法，那我的想法就是說，那我用英文講文法，可以；那 為了確定說他們會聽懂我在講什麼，那我後面使用中文，那像是 一個 double check。)
My way is that I speak English first, and then speak Chinese. The second time of using Chinese is the safety. If I use English (to explain grammar), some students may understand it, and still other students may not understand it. So, using Chinese is to let me make sure that
everyone can understand what I am talking about.
(那我的作法可能就是，我先用英文講一遍，再用中文講一遍，那 第二遍用中文的，它其實就是一個保險，用英文(講文法)，可能有 些同學會懂，那可能有些同學不會懂，那我用中文就是 make sure 每個人都會懂我在講什麼。)
According to the stimulated recall interview, the teacher preferred to teach grammar in English first, and then he switched from English to Chinese. The reason why he taught grammar in English was that he wanted to offer students a
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considerable number of English input. After explaining the grammar in English, he code-switched to explain the grammar again, so that he was able to confirm whether the students understood what the teacher said or not. As for students’ responses, after checking the videotaped recordings, I found that some students did not know the teacher’s lecture on grammar in English; instead, they finally understood what their teacher said after he explained grammar in Chinese. Hence, it was helpful for teachers to explain grammar by code-switching to students’ L1 (Polio & Duff, 1994).
This viewpoints of the teacher’s pattern of teaching grammar reflects his actual practice. That is, the teacher still taught grammar in English first, and then switched from English to Chinese to ensure students’ understanding. Thus, the teacher’s teaching belief about code-switching quite matched with his own actual behavior.
Building Rapport with Students
When building rapport with students, the teacher found different ways to make a good relationship with his students. In the interview, the teacher mentioned that he would code-switch from English to Chinese to build a good relationship with
students. For example, he would tell students a joke in Chinese to create a relaxing
students. For example, he would tell students a joke in Chinese to create a relaxing