Analysis of code switching and code mixing among students and tutors in St. Teresa's College of Education, Hohoe

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of code switching and mixing as a linguistic resource of students of St. Teresa‟s College of Education, Hohoe. The study looks at the academic and non-academic discussions of students and tutors to unveil the type of code switching (CS) and code mixing (CM) found in the college, the reason(s) for CS and CM, the extent to which CS and CM are a discourse strategy that is used to negotiate their activities. The ethnographic research design was employed for the study. The data for the study were audio recordings that were transcribed, used for the analysis. The analysis was based on Hoffman‟s (1991) and Saville-Troike‟s (1986) theories on CS and CM. Questionnaires and interviews were also administered to students and tutors to cross-check the information in the audio recordings. The study found out that the dominant code type was intra-sentential and among the reasons for CS and CM, members of the college, among other reasons switched and mixed code for convenience, real lexical need and for repetition. It was found that students and tutors code switched and code mixed in their group discussions and teaching respectively. The significant aspect of this study was to enable readers and policy makers to recognize that CS and CM occur at all levels of education and must be given the appropriate attention.