Saudi female bilingual EFL teachers’ code-switching: from beliefs to community of practice

Abstract

Although several studies on classroom code-switching exist in the global context, certain gaps in the literature in the Saudi context remain, particularly with respect to teachers’ identities and positioning in relation to code-switching. Additionally, there is a lack of discourse analysis-based studies in relation to this particular phenomenon in the Saudi EFL teaching context. Thus, the study was conducted to provide a more situated, discourse-based perspective for the understanding of the relationship between identity construction and code-switching practices and to further expand our knowledge of this phenomenon in relation to a myriad of aspects. The purpose of this study was to investigate how and why teachers use code-switching. It also investigated teachers’ awareness of their own code-switching and the multiple factors influencing language alternation, as well as seeking to uncover how teachers discursively construct their identities in relation to code-switching within a Community of Practice. The study adopted a constructivist and post-structuralist perspective on code-switching and identity which assumes that people construct meaning through social interaction and views identity as dynamic, multiple, shifting, and constructed through discourse. It followed an exploratory qualitative design, based on a combination of the thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2013) and discursive psychology approach (Wiggins, 2017). Informed by Wenger’s (1998) notion of Community of Practice, the study also explored how teachers’ knowledge-sharing contributed to their code-switching. The participants were Saudi bilingual EFL female teachers teaching in a Saudi University, and data was collected through observation, interviews, focus groups, and participant diaries. For the first level of analysis, thematic analysis was used to develop an overall descriptive overview of the phenomenon. However, interviews also revealed a number of tensions and contradictions which prompted the researcher to further investigate how teachers manage to resolve such issues; pointing towards an in-depth analysis of teachers’ discourse through the lens of discursive psychology. The findings from the thematic analysis revealed that teachers hold positive beliefs regarding code-switching, using it for various pedagogic, classroom management, social, affective, cultural, and repetitive purposes. However, the data also revealed various negative feelings that appear to accompany such beliefs in light of an institutional culture that discourages the use of code-switching. The findings from a discursive psychology analysis of interviews highlighted three dilemmas that teachers face: resisting institutional culture, the status of monolingual EL teachers, and negotiating bilingual identities. Examination of diaries also revealed further insights into the nature of this phenomenon. By using various discursive strategies of assigning value to code-switching, displaying knowledge and competency, and using subject positioning, teachers in this study appear to achieve not only their aim of presenting themselves as independently-minded professionals but also in achieving their interactional goal of supporting the legitimacy of code-switching within their Community of Practice. Findings from focus groups also suggest that teachers’ sense of membership and knowledge- sharing in their Community of Practice helps them legitimise and de-legitimise certain code-switching practices. This study thus has several implications in relation to policy and practice, methodology, and future research in this area.