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Code-Switching in Teachers' Verbal Communication: Teaching Strategy Or Avoidance Stratagem?

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Code-Switching in Teachers' Verbal Communication: Teaching Strategy Or Avoidance Stratagem? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VO`LUME 10, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2021 ISSN 2277-8616 Code-Switching In Teachers' Verbal Communication: Teaching Strategy Or Avoidance Stratagem? ER-RADI Hicham, BOUALI Rachida Abstract:- Code-switching is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that has become increasingly common in the language practices of some teachers of linguistic disciplines and non-linguistic disciplines in Morocco. The use of the learners' mother tongue in the different courses is justified for various reasons of a didactic, sociolinguistic, psycho-pedagogical or pragmatic nature. This article presents the results of a content analysis of the epilinguistic discourse of ten teachers from both disciplinary categories. The analysis reveals two tendencies in the reasons for the use of Arabic-French code- switching: either as a teaching strategy to or facilitate communication and understanding, or as an avoidance strategy to escape the feeling of linguistic insecurity strongly felt by some teachers. Index Terms:- Codes-witching, teaching strategy, avoidance strategy, contrastive strategy, support strategy. —————————— —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION Before presenting the results of the attitudinal analysis, the The analysis of Code-switching (CS) as a sociolinguistic first part will be reserved for the conceptual development of phenomenon observed very frequently in plurilingual societies, certain concepts whose definitions are likely to interfere, as is the case in Morocco, must take into consideration its although they are widely used in the sociolinguistic literature. complex and multifacetic nature. Like many sociolinguistic The second part of this article will present the corpus, the phenomena, CS is defined by at least three essential informants, the verbatim and the method of analysis. Finally, components, namely: the object, in this case the code (the the third part will be devoted to the results obtained. language), the subject (the speaker) and the context (the school). Thus, the relationships between these components 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS allow the description of the dynamics of the phenomenon at the formal, functional and attitudinal levels. However, the 2.1 From linguistic representations to linguistic attitudes code-code and code-context relationships, which aim to Attitude is one of the notions that are essential to debates that explain respectively how two languages with different take as their object the notion of representation. The structures can coexist within the same morphosyntactic relationship between the two notions is difficult to highlight and framework and what are the different ways in which the forms is taken by some authors as equivalent, while others propose and functions of CS are articulated, have been the subject of a distinction between the two. Indeed, Houdebine (1993) several studies (Causa, 1996 ; Ziamari, 2008 ; Anciaux, 2003), indiscriminately uses the notion of linguistic attitudes as while the third code-speaker relationship covering the equivalent to judgements, feelings or ideologies, without subjective dimension of the phenomenon has not been proposing a precise definition. However, she remains attentive sufficiently studied, at least in the school context. This is the to the distinction between linguistic attitudes and the linguistic aim of this analysis, which is based essentially on a corpus of behaviour of speakers: "studying attitudes, in relation to the interviews with teachers representing two categories, namely behaviour of speakers, should make it possible to identify french as foreign language (FFL) teachers representing whether they have an influence on linguistic dynamics, [...] and linguistic disciplines (LD) and physical education and sport to identify which speakers favour this or that phenomenon" (PES) teachers representing non-linguistic disciplines (NLD). (Houdbine, 1993, pp. 31-40). Attitudinal research has also The verbatims transcribed and analysed using an analysis grid made it possible to differentiate between linguistic behaviour provided us with the essential information to answer the as identified by speakers and the objective description of the following questions: linguistic practices of speaking subjects. Thus, the only How do teachers perceive the linguistic dynamics in the distinction that can be made between the notions of school environment? representation and attitude is to be found in the terminologies What are the motivations behind teachers' use of code- of related scientific fields, namely, on the one hand, switching? sociolinguistics, which opts for the term attitude, and on the How is manifested teachers' sense of linguistic other hand, social psychology, which adopts the term security/insecurity with regard to the use of French? representation. This lack of conceptual precision in Houdebine's work was openly denounced by Calvet: "as she did not at the time define the terms she used very precisely, it was hard to see the difference for her between attitude, _____________________________ representation and linguistic imagination" (Calvet & Moreau, 1998, p. 15). Similarly, C. Canut takes as equivalents the ER-RADI Hicham is currently pursuing a PhD program in Applied notions of representation, attitude and linguistic imagination; Linguistics, Communication and Didactics of FFL at Mohammed First all three notions refer to the "personal relationship that the University - Oujda-, Morocco. E-mail: [email protected] subject has with language" (Canut, 1995, pp. 41-42). Moore BOUALI Rachida is professor of higher education at the University Mohammed Premier - Oujda-, Morocco. E-mail: [email protected] uses the notions of attitudes and representations of languages without giving a clear account of the nature of the relationship 8 IJSTR©2021 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VO`LUME 10, ISSUE 04, APRIL 2021 ISSN 2277-8616 between them: "Attitude studies are developing in several 20), Petitjean for whom "the cognitive dimension concerns the directions, exploring representations of languages to explain traits that the subject attributes to the stimulus" (Cécile, 2009, linguistic behaviour, looking at the subjective values placed on p. 62) and, finally, who states that the conative aspect languages and their varieties, and the social evaluations they "determines the intentions of action and affects behaviour" make of speakers" (Moore, 2004, pp. 7-22). However, some (Moore, 2004, p. 13). In the end, as organising bodies for authors have committed themselves to uncovering the speaker behaviour, attitudes are not observable. distinctive elements that make it possible to grasp the Consequently, their evaluation must be based on the analysis conceptual nuances of the two notions. Indeed, Billiez and of the behaviours associated with them. Millet, without denying the difficulty of their task "it is not easy to distinguish and separate social representations from 2.2 From linguistic attitude to linguistic insecurity attitudes" (Billiez & Millet, 2001, pp. 32-49), have attempted to The feeling of linguistic insecurity refers to a complex reality uncover the gaps between the two notions in question, ranging and therefore makes it difficult to establish a unanimously from common features to distinctive elements. Thus, attitude accepted definition (Bretegnier, 1996). This state of affairs has and representation precede linguistic behaviour. However, paved the way for the different approaches that have taken their upstream placement with respect to language behaviour this concept as an object of study to contribute both to its differs, distinguishing them, in terms of their relative proximity conceptualisation and to the highlighting of its different to the latter, the attitude being intermediate "would manifestations. Generally, the various studies on linguistic nevertheless be more directly articulated with the behaviours it insecurity are essentially based on three types of surveys would direct or coordinate" (Billiez & Millet, 2001, pp. 32-49). It (Francard, Geron, & Wilmet, 1994): sociolinguistic surveys, would, in fact, exercise a sort of prescriptive influence and play analysis of epilinguistic discourse and conversational analysis. the role of an anticipatory authority on language behaviour. Its As a result, it naturally falls within the field of sociolinguistics. intermediate position between representations and behaviours Indeed, attitudes are at the origin of the value judgements enables it to be a "pivotal and dynamic element" endowed with made by speakers on linguistic varieties. These judgements the power to regulate relations between the two. Generally constitute what is called epilinguistic discourse. The study of speaking, research on the notion of attitude in the field of linguistic insecurity dates back to the 1960s. It has been the social psychology has gone through three periods which Doise subject of several studies, the main ones being those of W. (1989) distinguishes as follows: The first period (1920-1930) Labov, who understood it as a consequence of linguistic where the study was essentially oriented towards the variation. Such a conception reveals the close link between measurement of attitudes; the second period (1950-1960) variation in linguistic structures and variation in social where the work was more focused on transformational structures within a linguistic community. The first appearance processes related to the dynamics of attitudes and the third of the notion of linguistic
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