Author: Meng, Yangu
Title: English-Mandarin code-switching of children in extracurricular online EFL classrooms
Advisors: Jenks, Christopher (ENGL)
Degree: M.A.
Year: 2020
Subject: English language -- Study and teaching -- China
Internet in education
Code switching (Linguistics)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations
Department: Department of English
Pages: 56 pages
Language: English
Abstract: With the online teaching becoming popular and there is a craze of learning English by children after school in China, it is necessary to have a study of investigating online English teaching for children. Besides, in accordance with the sociocultural theory, code-switching has a vital function in language learning process and is with high frequency applied by professors and learners in classrooms. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate the use of code-switching for children in extracurricular online EFL classrooms. Specifically, there are three research questions: 1) In what contexts do teachers use English-Mandarin code-switching in informal English classes? 2) In what contexts do students use English-Mandarin code-switching in informal English classes? 3) Is the frequency of using code-switching related to the context of using code-switching? For theory foundation, this study is grounded in four function theories of code-switching. These functions provide a useful perspective to find answers to the research question, that is the contexts of utilizing code-switching. After analyzing the communication between students and the teacher, this study revealed that the teacher loves to apply code-switching in the contexts of clarification, asking questions, shifting a topic, verification, closing signal, and interjection. For students, they tend to apply code-switching in the contexts of asking questions, answering questions, stressing an utterance, referential function, clarification, and a pause.
Rights: All rights reserved
Access: restricted access

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://theses.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/200/10703