CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Communication is a part of human life. People can communicate what in their minds by
using language. Language is “a system of arbitrary vocal symbol used for human communication
(Wardaugh, 1972:3). Without language people can’t build and maintain their relationship.
Language is the most important element in communication. Language is very important from a
social point of view: first, the function of language in establishing social relationship, and second
the role played by language in conveying information about the speaker (Trudgill, 1974:14).
By using language people can invite someone, make request, share their daily life, make jokes,
etc. An example is when people invite someone to attend a party, it’s impossible just by using
gesture. The writer limit this research paper only for people who can speak. People will use
language to invite and say thanks. When people meet their friends in school, office, and another
place they don’t only wave their hands or just give smile, people will communicate to maintain
their relationship.
People who are able to use only one language as their daily conversation called as monolingual.
Different with monolingual, people who can speak more than one language is called bilingual.
The ability to use more than one language is called bilingualism. Bilingual has ability to mix or
switch their language. For example, Indonesian students who live in United States sometimes use
English as their daily conversation in their school because they have to adjust with people they
based on the situation. The mixing and switching of language are known as code mixing and
code switching.
According to Dell Hymes in Jendra (2010) code switching has common term for alternate use of
two or more languages or variety of language or even speech styles. Another idea comes from
Pietro in Jendra (2010) who states that code switching is the use of more than one language by
the communicants in the executions of a speech act.
According to Wardaugh (2006:10) although people switch one code to another with only very
short utterance it still includes as code switching.
Below is an example of code switching doing by the teacher taken from a journal made by the
functions of code switching in EFL classroom from French to English by Hanna Yletyinen
(2004:57)
Teacher : uh complete the sentences please, so
Teacher : täydennetä änlauseet, eitarttekir jottaakoitetaan
(complete the sentences, you don’t have to write let’s try )
Teacher : painaavähän mieleen mitennäätäy dennettäs, one
(tomemorize how would you complete these, one )
Teacher : morning, an old lady. And what happen end then.
Here the class is beginning to look at a new chapter. They have looked at the new words and now
the teacher is giving them instructions in English on what they are supposed to do when they
listen to the chapter. On line 2 the teacher translates her previous sentence to French but she goes
on explaining the instructions in more detail in English. This is a clear indicator that she is not
expanding her message in French in order to make sure that all the students know what they are
supposed to do.
There are many functions of code switching related with classroom context. According to
Mattson and Burenhult (1999:61), the first function of code switch is equivalence. In this case,
the student uses the native equivalent of a certain lexical item in target language. The second
reason is in order to avoid gaps in communication, which may result from the lack of fluency in
target language. The third consideration in students’ code switching is reiteration, which is
pointed by Eldridge as: “messages are reinforced, emphasized, or clarified where the message
has already been transmitted in one code, but not understood”. The next function is to avoid a
misunderstanding or tends to utter words indirectly for specific purposes. In addition the teacher
switches code due to the topic switch, affective functions, and repetitive functions (from
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Sert-CodeSwitching.html).
In classroom when teacher explaining something, she usually switches from Indonesia to
English and from English to Indonesian. The phenomena can be seen in some classrooms when
the student and the teacher converse. They usually switch because of some reasons. Soderberg
Arnfast and Jorgensen (2003: 23-24.) mention that code switching is also a skill when the
learners use it and that they develop their code switching competence similarly to bilingual
speakers. These studies clearly show that code switching in the language classroom is a research
subject worth studying.
Therefore, the writer is interested to analyze about code switching which occurred in
held in G7 on 12th November 2013. It is an Office Management class about: record management
“alphabetic indexing rules 1-10”. The teacher switch from English to Indonesia language.
However, this research paper will focus more on the types of gramatical code switching used by
the teacher in lecturing. In addition, this paper will look for the reasons why the teacher as the
participants doing code switching in their conversation during the class.
The aim of this research paper is to make better understanding about code switching
occurs in classroom. The writer also hopes that this study can give readers some insight of code
