Strands of Tongue: Code Switching in the Mulitlingual ESL Classroom

Abstrak

English is considered an important second language in most countries including Malaysia. Sabah as a multiracial and multicultural Malaysian State has multilingual speakers with inherent language ability that code switching is often used in communication and education. This case study was carried out with the purpose of identifying the reasons for code switching practice and determining the domain language used in code switching among the multilingual ESL students at Penampang Community College in Sabah. A qualitative research approach was employed to collect data through the interview from ten multilingual ESL students from this college. The findings of this study indicated that multilingual students employed code switching as an instructional tool and a language learning strategy in the ESL classroom especially for translation, dealing with difficult vocabulary, encouraging them to speak in English, and as an alternative to cope with difficulty in speaking English. Additionally, the domain language used by students in code switching is the Sabah Malay dialect (SMD). Code switching has a positive impact on students’ interaction strategy, but its excessive use should be avoided as it may slow the English language learning pace. Further research should explore the practice of code switching using larger sample size and in other research setting such as other higher learning institutions in Sabah.