CODE-SWITCHING IN NON-NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS’ DISCOURSE:A SOCIO-COGNITIVE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ TALK

Abstract

The discourse of non-native English teachers at the University of Sialkot is examined in this study. The study uses a socio-cognitive critical discourse analysis (SC-CDA). The current research has achievable research objectives, such as to explore the relationship between university teachers’ medium of instruction and their teaching creed and cognition, to investigate the use of code-switching to achieve communicative goals at the university level and to explore and analyze students’ perception towards code-switching by their teachers. This study examines how non-native English speakers manage multiple languages in real-time communication. This research is qualitative in nature. Semi-structured interviews (SSI) with 15 items are used in this research to explore the teachers’ language use, code-switching practices in the classrooms, and the reasons for their code-switching, as well as their perspective on their code-switching. Data has been collected in the form of audio recordings. Data analysis has revealed that the use of code-switching by teachers and students is done for specific purposes. The results also show that code-switching helps the students accomplish some functions, such as clarifying, exemplifying, and continuing with the flow of conversation. The examination reflects somewhat contradictory stances of the teachers and students on code-switching and its social role in the educational setting, and the cognitive mechanisms that underlie it. The teachers’ stances emerging through the themes basically help to answer the research questions and achieve the research objectives. The major finding regarding the teachers’ ideological stance is that the switches do not negatively affect the teaching/learning process. University of Sialkot teachers heavily use code switching in their classes to help reduce the other language anxiety and motivate learners towards learning. In a nutshell, the research has far-reaching implications for the key stakeholders in English language teaching, as it will help them make mindful and informed decisions about why, when and how of code-switching practices in the class, which will improve the scenario in Pakistan.