...discuss the current bill that would like to ban using the method of “code-switching” from the “home language” of AAE (African American Vernacular English) speakers. I have read a study conducted by a Umass professor regarding this issue, and I have read the bill thoroughly. My recommendation to you is to vote against the bill, and I have some very good reasons for it. Banning the AAE instruction will do more harm then good. Although the bill proposes some good reasons for needing to speak mainstream English, it misses a few key points. They claim that linguistic skills like writing and reading are necessary to an individuals success. They don’t realize however, that AAE is a structured language following rules and patterns. The “code-switching” can actually be a useful technique in teaching AAE speakers how to communicate “properly” in mainstream English. Proponents of the bill state that the primary purpose of the education system is to prepare students for success in their careers and to participate equally in society. I think that by banning the teaching of AAE to mainstream English will actually prevent children who speak AAE at home from having an equal opportunity in the first place. It is not separate but equal, since these children are starting from a different version of a language altogether. Their foundation in AAE would make normal English instruction worthless. Since AAE follows rules, “code-switching” is a totally viable option. The proponents are saying that teaching...
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...Code Meshing vs. Code Switching: Which One Should be Taught in Schools? In the article “Twitterish,” John McWhorter explains the need for different forms of literacy and multimodality – Standard English and new digital literacies. He also, in a way, talks about code switching and code meshing because he shows how people can switch between different literacies and how they can also incorporate both Standard English and digital literacies into speech and writing together. John White’s paper goes into much greater detail about what code switching is and how to teach it in schools. He says that code switching – the act of changing from a culturally imbued discourse to Standard English, but not necessarily vice versa – is a priority to teach to...
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...April 2011 On Attitudes to Teachers’ Code-switching in EFL Classes Mingfa Yao School of English Language and Culture, Zhejiang International Studies University 140 Wen San Avenue, Hangzhou 310012, China Tel: +86-571-8157-8296 E-mail: mingfayao@163.com Received: February 27, 2011 Abstract Code-switching is commonly viewed with suspicion in EFL classes. The present article is to investigate and show the teachers and students’ attitudes to code-switching (CS) used by teachers in EFL classes in China. A four-section 20-item questionnaire was developed and distributed to the students and teachers. The data from the questionnaire were tabulated, and frequencies and percentages were conducted by SPSS program. The results display that students have the similar opinions with the teachers in most of question items. This consistency suggests that teachers and students have a similar positive attitude to teachers’ code-switching in EFL classroom. However there are some discrepancies in attitudes between the two samples in some question items. These discrepancies suggest that the use of code-switching in EFL classroom should be adapting to the practical teaching. Keywords: Code-switching, Attitude, Investigation, EFL class 1. Introduction In many cases, code-switching is commonly viewed with suspicion in EFL classes. Teachers and researchers in English as a second or foreign language have, on the whole, been concerned to minimize code-switching in the classroom, taking it that the switches...
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...Before I started my research in Code-Switching, I had very little knowledge of what code switching actually was. Through my research, I came to find that code means language; switching means alternating between. Right as I started my research, I started to notice that authors spell “code switching” in different ways. For example, they use it as two words, with a hyphen between them, or as one word. The different ways to spell code switching is a perfect example of the meaning of the word/s itself. Switching languages can mean a variety of things. As the articles I annotate below indicate, language switching can occur without notice, between dialects of a language, between different languages, and so on. Due to its broadness, it is important to focus on a topic of interest when researching code switching. I decided to focus on the advantages and benefits that Code Switching provides. The articles I reviewed give reasons why code switching happens, and some articles present many explanations. However, the main reasons as put forth by Arnfast and Jorgensen (2003), imitate the three main reasons that code switchers give for using their skill. These reasons are: to fill in linguistic gaps for words, acquisition or maintenance of social power, and social acceptance. After much research and by reading several studies of these approaches, I came to the conclusion that code switching is used rarely for one purpose. It is also doubtful that the users are completely aware of all the reasons...
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...Obviously language plays a huge factor in bringing out a person’s individuality, as the way they use language allows them to socialize and build relationships in their community. For someone who is either a bilingual or multilingual, they are able do these functions using a phenomena called code switching or translanguaging. Code-switching takes place when a bilingual person begins an utterance in one language and then switches to the other language (De Jong, 2011;60). On a broader scale, this type of practice falls under the term translanguage because of its unique meaning-making dimension. It needs to be mentioned that code-switching isn’t a characteristic of bilingualism that’s done for convenience. It is also really beneficial in the classroom. It aids in both learning the English language and speaking it proficiently. Research shows that teachers who use code-switching as a way of establishing relations and affirming students identities (De Jong, 2011:61). Often when bilingual students get stuck trying to articulate an idea, they would switch to the native language and clear up any problems. Along with problem solving, code-switching functions aids in a way that helps students complete tasks efficiently. At the beginning of this chapter, Francois Grosjean states that “Bilinguals are not two monolinguals in one person. (De Jong, 2011;48)” I took this to mean that a bilingual person combines two languages in a very unique way. They are able to articulate the two languages...
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...DISCOVERING ONE’S TALENT: LEARNING FROM ACADEMIC SPECIALIZATION author OFER MALAMUD* The author examines an exogenous difference in the timing of academic Abstract specialization within the British system of higher education to test whether education yields information about one’s match quality in different fields of study. In distinguishing between systems requiring early and late specialization, he predicts the likelihood of an individual switching to an occupation unrelated to one’s field of study. If higher education serves mainly to provide specific skills, the model predicts more switching in a system requiring late specialization since the cost of switching is lower in terms of foregone skills. Using the Universities Statistical Record from 1972 to 1993 and the 1980 National Survey of Graduates and Diplomates, he finds that individuals who specialize early, as in the case of England, are more likely to switch to an unrelated occupation, implying that the benefits to increased match quality are sufficiently large to outweigh the greater loss in skills from specializing early. With regard to instruction, economists have made substantial progress in specifying and identifying the economic value of higher education, as it increases the value productivity of human agents as workers . . . the much neglected activity is that of discovering talent. It, too, can be approached by treating it as a process which provides students with opportunities to discover whether they have...
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...hardly understand to each other if every speaker uses their own language. Those reasons, above show that many people in many communities used more than one language. When the speaker who has one language and can speak other language, he may be consider as bilingualism or multilingualism depend on how many he mastering the language. It means that a person is bilingual because he can speak in two language, and multilingualism in the person who can speak in more than two languages. In the communication case people who is bilingualism or multilingualism some time they switch the code of language that they use in communication when the other speaker don’t understand what they said or their language. This kind of linguistic behavior of changing the one code to another code is called as code switching. In this case, it is assumed that the students of second grader of SMA 1 Doro sometime switch and mix the code when they speak in...
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...Code Switching Essay In 2013, A new language spoken only by people who were 35 years of age or younger was discovered in a remote community in northern australia(Shaw Alexis). The language was known as Light Warlpiri according to Carmel O’Shannessy, an assistant professor of linguistics at University of Michigan,Light Warlpiri is a melding of English,Kriol and Warlpiri.O’Shannessy said that while she worked at a school in Northern Australia,she realized that students would switch between the languages they spoke in the same conversation and sometimes even switched back and forth between languages within the same sentence. She then started to record and transcribe people speaking the language to try to identify the linguistic patterns...
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...Dissertation research: Ethnic identity switching among Latinos in Queens, NY H. Russell Bernard (PI) and Rosalyn Negron (Co-PI) Project summary Problem statement: As the nation’s ethnic diversity continues to grow, things like the distribution of resources, ethnic conflict, and assimilation can not be understood in terms of neatly packaged identities in competition. Today, an increasing number of people regularly switch from ethnicity to ethnicity in normal discourse, in an attempt to maximize their economic and political interests. I propose to examine ethnographically and in depth the process of identity switching – that is, how people negotiate between multiple ethnic identities in everyday contexts – among Latinos in Queens, NY. Methods and analysis: From January to July, I will collect ethnographic data about ethnic identity invocation trends in the research communities, train a research assistant, select twelve participants for continuous monitoring and work closely with them for two weeks each. From August to September, I will train the research assistant further and use the knowledge gained from the ethnographic data phase to design and pilot test a household survey. Between October and December, this survey will be administered to a representative sample of 200 respondents. Using the data collected from these surveys, inferential statistics –odds-ratios, chi-square, and logistic regression - will be used to test the hypotheses. Intellectual merit: While ethnic identity...
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...UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY: INVESTIGATING THE LANGUAGE PRACTICES OF MULTILINGUAL GRADE 9 LEARNERS AT A PRIVATE DESEGREGATED HIGH SCHOOL IN SOUTH AFRICA. Submitted by: Nomakhalipha Margaret Nongogo Student Number: 0309644N Supervised by Dr Carolyn McKinney Research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters of Arts in Applied English Language Studies. 2007 ABSTRACT This research report engages with the concern that African learners attending English medium, multiracial schools are losing their proficiency in African languages. In so doing, the report explores the language practices of four multilingual Grade 9 learners at a desegregated private high school in Gauteng. In a school environment that does not overtly support the use of African languages, I explore the extent to which multilingual learners use African languages in the school context, to position themselves and others, as an identity building resource, and the extent to which the use of African languages is implicated in their identities. I also explore the possible influence of the learners’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds on their language practices, and related to this, the expression of their identities. I look at how their language practices help them shift identities with space and purpose, and the contradictions therein. The study draws on poststructuralist theories of language and...
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...Code-switching as a Communication Device in Conversation Kamisah Ariffin Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia Shameem Rafik-Galea Universiti Putra Malaysia Abstract Like in other multilingual contexts, code-switching has gained a foothold as a verbal mode of communication among Malaysian bilingual speakers. It occurs in both formal and informal contexts of communication. Empirical research has shown that the practice of alternating or mixing languages is not only common, but serves important communication strategies (Heller, 1992; Myers-Scotton, 1992). This study examines the purposes of code-switching and how it is used to achieve the speakers’ communicative intents in Bahasa Melayu (BM)-English bilingual conversations Data were collected through audio-recording of speakers’ speech during organizational training sessions. The data were analyzed according to the situations that triggered the code-switching. The findings show that speakers employed code-switching to organize, enhance and enrich their speech. Keywords: code-switching, discourse functions, communication device Introduction Code-switching, which may be defined as the alternation between two or more languages in a speaker’s speech, occurs naturally in the scheme of bilinguality. Studies have reported that code-switching often happened subconsciously; ‘people may not be aware that they have switched, or be able to report, following a conversation, which code they used for a particular topic’...
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...What is Bilingualism and how do people communicate bilingually? A critical analysis of the topic in the book “Academic Writing: Making the transition” by Steve Marshall. The book has a number of definitions for the term Bilingual. Edwards (1994), states that virtually all people were bilingual in nature. He stated that anyone who can communicate few words of another language is bilingual. This is to say that for example, if someone went on holiday to another country and could exchange a simple greeting in the foreign language, then he would be considered to be bilingual. The writer of the article states that the definition by Edwards is far from what most people consider to be bilingual because most people define bilingualism as the ability to fluently speak two languages. The problem with the Marshall’s statement is that he has not explained how he found out that most people define Bilingualism to be the ability to speak two languages fluently. He simply assumes this without giving conclusive evidence. It would have been better if he would have conducted a research or had the opinions of people on what they considered to be bilingual and would conclude based on the response by the people. Edwards’s definition is also ambiguous because the assumption that simply speaking a word of a foreign language makes one bilingual makes almost all people of the world bilingual because most people know few words of a foreign language and this would mean that everyone is bilingual...
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...An Doan Ms. Valtinson ENGL 1113-08 May 1, 2015 Individuality through Transferability Writing is something that everyone does. Whether one likes it or not, they end up using their words. People tend to write about subjects that interest or relate to them. Everyone has their own way of writing, but their way was influenced by another source whether they know it or not. Individuality in writing is influenced through transferability. Technical writing is something that is learned. In school everyone was taught how to format an essay or different types of writing like poems or stories. Anything that I did in class I was always given a template of how the instructor wanted the paper to be written. This would have word count, the format, and what the paper should be about. All throughout school we learned the fundamentals of writing starting with letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, to structures of writing like essays and poems. The thing that is learned from writing is technical. As my English education grows the technical side is less focused on while the content is the most important thing. Content is the writing that I am doing now. The content portion of writing is not learned but influenced by others. My writing becomes influenced through examples like essays. In this English class, I believe that that’s how these three previous essays worked out. The Scholarly Discourse Unit paper was a paper that had us synthesize how we thought the writers Gee, Swales, and Porter...
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...and Kiziltepe 254-257). Furthermore, this official language policy and its consequences are most noticeable in academia, an environment where English has become an essential tool for participating in the international scientific community. This essay will discuss the case of Turkey as a country that has been directly impacted by English linguistic imperialism, resulting in a struggle between the economic benefits of expanding English usage, and the existence of a nationalist agenda for which the Turkish language is an essential pillar. The English language was first introduced in the Ottoman Empire by British traders in the early 19th century. A few decades later, its expansion took a leap when Christian missionaries established English schools along the shore of the Bosphorus (Zok 2). A parallel...
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...BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS AND CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS IN COMMUNICATION MARKETS A report prepared for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in connection with the public inquiry “Reconnecting the Customer” by Dr Patrick Xavier* Adjunct Professor of Economics & Finance, Curtin University Business School. May 2011 * Dr Patrick Xavier BEc (Hons), M.A., M.Ec, PhD is Director of Info-Comm Strategies and Adjunct Professor of Economics, Curtin Business School, Curtin University of Technology, Australia. Dr Xavier has published widely and has had extensive experience as a consultant to national and international agencies on regulatory reform in the (tele)communications sector, including the OECD, ITU, World Bank and APEC. He was part of the OECD’s regulatory reform team that visited a range of countries to advise on regulatory reform in major industrialised and emergent economies. He has undertaken work in Hong Kong and in a range of developing countries, including Lao PDR, Romania, Armenia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Pacific Islands, Thailand, Bhutan and China. He can be contacted at: poxavier@gmail.com Disclaimer. The views in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ACMA. © BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS AND CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS IN COMMUNICATION MARKETS Executive summary 4 1. INTRODUCTION 10 1.1 Purpose of this report 10 1.2 Customer complaints in the telecommunications sector 11 1.3 Structure...
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