Investigating Teachers’ Attitudes towards Using Code-switching between English and Arabic in EFL Classroom

Abstract

This empirical study conducts an investigation of an English department in one Saudi university to examine teachers’ attitudes towards code-switching between English and Arabic in EFL classrooms. This study focuses on revealing the teachers’ beliefs towards code-switching, their reasons for code-switching and the frequency of some common functions of code-switching. Mixed methods are used to elicit the data: questionnaire (quantitative research) and interview (qualitative research) in order to analyse teachers’ attitudes towards code-switching. A sample of 46 teachers completed an online survey and 6 of them were interviewed. The findings showed that teachers sometimes code-switch despite their beliefs that code-switching should not be used in the classroom. Despite some benefits of code-switching, teachers believe in reducing the amount of code-switching to a minimum level in classrooms.