Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research background
The role of L1 (First Language) in L2 (Second Language) learning has been widelystudied as a source of language transfer from the native linguistic system on the targetlanguage system, but throughout its research history, code-switching in the FL (ForeignLanguage) classrooms has been an issue full of controversy. One group of scholars (Krashen,1982; Ellis, 1984; Chaudron, 1988) oppose to the use of mother tongue, or L1 in the FLclassrooms, holding that target language should be the only medium language during theteaching process and the use of L1 will lead to insufficient input for the students, or moreseriously, may deprive the students’ exposure to the valuable TL input. However,classroom-based research has discovered that the use of L1 does exist in various FL teachingcontexts and a number of researchers are in favor of a careful and principled use of the L1,which they think facilitates teaching and learning (Atkinson, 1987; 1993; Auerbach, 1993;Turbull, 2017; Cook, 2017).The studies on Chinese EFL classrooms show that in order to achieve the successfulcommunicative goals, a large number of teachers switch to the mother tongue frequently forthe principle of teaching efficiency. Nowadays teacher code-switching from English toChinese is a fairly common occurrence in Chinese EFL classrooms and many studies on thisphenomenon have been conducted. Since students learn English with the ultimate goal forcommunication, schools in China advocate that teachers use English as the medium languageof teaching in order to ensure sufficient language input for the students. Therefore, Englishlessons for students in China are supposed to be carried out in English. However, it is notknown yet whether teachers switch to Chinese in English classes in the chosen senior highschool, and if the answer is affirmative, then to what extent? In addition, this paper also triesto find out the circumstances under which teachers use code-switching and both the teachers’and students’ attitudes towards such a practice.
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1.2 Necessity of the Study
With language teaching gradually entering into the post-method era，the research focuson the relationship between mother tongue and foreign language teaching has attracted greatresearch attention. Researchers have tried to find out whether foreign language teachersshould apply code-switching as a teaching strategy in foreign language classrooms. Theirresearch findings can generally be divided into three categories: those who take the firstlanguage as a barrier, those who treat L1 as a facilitator and those who stand in the neutralposition.Apart from different positions held by the researchers, studies of teacher code-switching,as well as other research fields within the realm of SLA (Second Language Acquistion), havemainly been carried out from the cognitive and sociocultural perspective. Although studiesfrom the cognitive perspective have taken an upper hand in quantity, those from socioculturaltheory can provide better explanation on language learning and also cast luminous light onlanguage teaching. Taking all these into consideration, the author of the current paperconsiders it necessary to study teacher code-switching from a sociocultural perspective.Besides, according to Marta Anton and Frederick J. Dicamilla (1999: 234), “it is in studieswithi，英语论文范文，英语论文题目
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