CODE-SWITCHING AS A TOOL TO PRESENT UNMARKED AND MARKED CHOICES

QUESTION4

3.6.3 CODE-SWITCHING AS A TOOL TO PRESENT UNMARKED AND MARKED CHOICES

Myers-Scotton's Markedness Model, as I have discussed in chapter 2.2.2, predicts a realization ofthree types ofnegotiation viz. CS as an unmarked choice, CS as a marked choice and CS as an exploratory choice. To recapitulate, the most salient feature of the markedness model is that, as an unmarked medium of communication, each variant is associated with a

Ra

set. The use of unmarked choice yields reciprocal identification in terms of participants'

Ra

^sets;ifthe choice is marked it will be interpreted as dis-identification with the

Ra

balance. The addressee will therefore interpret the speaker's negotiation of an RO set accordingly. In this view, CS can be seen as a means to encode both power and solidarity. According to Goyvaerts and Zembele (1992:73), the direct outcome of this theory is that it forces one to assign immense importance to the speaker

rather than the addressee. After this succinct review of this theory, I now present data that illustrate CS as unmarked and marked choices. I do not look at CS as an exploratory choice as there is no evidence ofsuch choices in my study. This is probably because participants know each other well, and the choices most often made are therefore unmarked.

(a) CS as unmarked choices:

The data, obtained from recordings oflessons, in which both bilingual teachers and pupils engaged in CS, undisputedly indicate that the use of the learners' NL, Zulu, is a familiar feature in the classrooms in this study. Participants' familiarity with the interchangeable use ofEnglish and Zulu is a clear indication that CS is an unmarked choice for both bilingual teachers and pupils i.e. CS, particularly in the experimental group, is expected to occur. In the case of the control group, although pupils do not use CS with their monolingual teacher, CS occurs between pupils when speaking to each other during the lessons and more particularly when engaged in group work.

While most instances ofCS during lessons might be described as unmarked choices, I present and discuss two examples, as follows:

VIII. LESSON ON ' KID PLAYBOY' (EXPERIMENTAL GROUP, APPENDIX 4aI:

T The pop of the child is ubani? [Who is it?]

P The father of the child.

T Nayi ipresent enginayo igama lami ngingubani? [Here is my present, my name is... ?]

P NginguMaisie [I am Maisie].

T Wathi le present ekabani? [She said who's present was that?]

P Eka Kid Playboy [It was for Kid Playboy].

T Nobani nomkakhe [And his wife]. What were you going to do if you were Kid Playboy? What were you going to do if you were the groom here?

IX. LESSON ON 'THE SUIT' [EXPERIMENTAL GROUP, APPENDIX 4b):·

T Good morning lOA.

P [Chorus response] Good morningSir.

T How are you this morning?

P [chorus response] Fine. How are you?

T I'm fme. Mina ngisaphila [I'm well]. Right. We're going to do the story "The Suit".

I want you to tell me something about the story. What is the story about?

P >R

T Who can tell me? What is this story about?

P >R

T Alright. What's going on?

P >R

T Right, Masinyane ake uchaze kancane ukuthi lendabaikhuluma ngani? [quickly tell us what the story is about] Yes?

In excerpt VIII, CS as an unmarked choice is used to elicit responses from learners thus encouraging active participation and involvementinthe lesson.Italso provides an opportunity for learners to express themselves in their NL comfortably and confidently without anxiety ofmaking mistakes in English. The teacher's own acceptance oflearners' NL is seen in her feedback to the learner's response; she also engages in CS behaviour. Thus, in this instance, CS serves to facilitate communication between teacher and pupil as well as to decrease distance between them i.e. to encode solidarity.

Excerpt IX,isalso an example ofCS as an unmarked or expected choice, and as I have discussed inthis chapter, 3.3, the forms and functions of CS, inthis instance CS may beperceived as a solidarity promoting feature. Also, as in example VIII, the question posedinZulu, serves as a probing device to elicit learner response and thereby facilitate communication.

(a) CS as a marked choice:

Marked choices as I have noted in chapter 2, 2.1.2, are often made to indicate some kind of emotion and/or to negotiate some specific outcome. By examining the comment made by the interviewee in example VI (i) in this section, one can infer that bilinguals' use ofCS in the presence of monolinguals is a marked choice, perhaps, as the interviewee believes, to exclude monolinguals from a particular conversation. Also consider the following examples ofCS as marked choices which are extracted from pupil-pupil interaction during group work:

X.

(i)

EXTRACT FROM GROUP WORK [CONTROL GROUP, SAMPLE APPENDIX 3a):

PI He should not have made Maisie pregnant in the fIrst place. For making Maisie pregnant he must pay for it.

P2 Ja you can say -

P3 Uyenzile ihomework yakho? [Did you do your homework?]

P2 I don't know. I'm still doing it.

(ii) P2 Ene i1entengisho 'yukuthi makukhomnta funkuyisho akazame esinye iskhathi ayi manje [That's what I'm saying, ifyou have something to say, we'll discuss it some other time not now].

PI Sizame esinye iskhathi 'uma ungasayidingi lengane sewushadile. Ikho kufanele aqale alungise izinkinga zakle. Kusho ukuthi noma angashada angabi nankinga nengane.

[Try another time when you don't want this baby when you're married. That's why he should solve his problem fIrst. That means even if he does get married he will have no problem with the baby]. Are we done?

In example X (i), P3 makes a marked choice when he chooses to speakinZulu, calling for a ne""

RO set. This is probably to narrow the distance between himself and P2, so that, asisevident as the discourse unfolds, P2 would tellhimthe story of 'Kid Playboy' as he (P3) had not done his homework i.e. read the story. P2 however ignores P3's negotiation for a change in code to Zulu,

thereby re-negotiating the distance between them i.e. increasing the distance between them, as he is reluctant to tellhimthe story. In addition, by responding negatively to P3's call for a new RO set, P2 is inadvertently displaying his authority or superiority as he knows the story. PI, in example(ii)also makes a marked choice by switching to English to bring an end to the discussion as she disagrees and is annoyed with her listeners' points of view. In so doing, she asserts her authority and increases the distance between them.