Vietnamese – English code-switching in conversations among Vietnamese EFL teachers a case study

Vietnamese – English code-switching in
conversations among Vietnamese EFL
teachers: a case study

Lê Hương Thảo

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: Ngôn Ngư
̃
Anh; Mã số: 60.22.15
Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Trần Xuân Điệp
Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract: Code-switching is a common phenomenon in bilingualism that has become
increasingly pronounced in Vietnam and intrigued a number of Vietnamese
researchers. Among the few studies on this topic in Vietnam, this thesis investigates
code-switching in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers in English 1,
Faculty of English Teacher Education, University of Languages and International
Studies. More specifically, it seeks to investigate the types of and reasons for code-
switching found in conversations between the participants, using the typology
suggested by Poplack (1980) and reasons proposed by Malik (1994) and Appel and
Muysken (2006). The data were collected by means of recording natural speech of the
informants in their conversations with each other, and teacher self-report forms.
Transcripts of the recorded conversations serve to provide instances of code-switching
for categorization, whereas the teacher‟s self-report forms aim to elicit the informants‟
actual reasons for their code-switching in the recordings. Results show that instances
of intra-sentential code-switching were dominant, accounting for nearly all the
detected instances. Meanwhile, the minority of the instances was extra-sentential
code-switching, and no instances of inter-sentential code-switching were found. As
regards the motivations for the participants‟ code-switching, the most common reason
is habitual expression, followed by the need to quote and to convey semantic

significance. One reason not included in the provided list of reasons was given by an
informant, which was “to save time”. The findings bear significant resemblance to
those of the studies by Poplack (1980) and Ho-Dac (2003), and reveal new aspects in
the possible reasons for this phenomenon.

Keywords: Hội thoại; Tiếng Anh; Chuyển mã; Tiếng Việt

Content
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
Rapid globalization in several aspects of life in the past few decades has strengthened the
dominant role of English as the most important foreign language in Vietnam, traditionally a
monolingual country. As a result, it is common to find an increasing number of bilinguals

2
speaking Vietnamese and English at the same time here. That is, they use a mixed language
and also switch back and forth between two languages while conversing or lecturing. This
phenomenon, defined by linguists as code-switching (code-switching) or code-mixing, is “a
well-known trait in the speech pattern of the average bilingual in any human society the world
over” (Ayeomoni, 2006). Unlike other sociolinguistic phenomena such as pidgins and creoles
where speakers in contact only need to have knowledge of the common language that is used
to communicate with speakers of other languages, code-switching requires its speakers to
know at least two or more varieties, making it an activity exclusive to only bilinguals.
Therefore, studying code-switching in the area of bilingualism is central to gaining a better
insight into bilinguals‟ process of utterances.
Code-switching is a widespread phenomenon in “bilingual communities where speakers use
their native tongue (L1) and their second language (L2) in different domains” (Kim, 2006).
Among these communities, that of teachers teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) are
believed to be a group where code-switching is used frequently, especially when these
teachers communicate with people working in the same field. Indeed, the alternate use of

Vietnamese and English at work, to a certain extent, is an integral part of their communication
with each other. This is understandable, considering the fact that EFL teachers, while living in
their first language environment, are constantly exposed to English in their work and studies.
In the researcher‟s initial observation, code-switching is most pronounced in conversations
between EFL teachers teaching English skills in tertiary level. Since the researcher is a
member of this bilingual community in a university in Vietnam, she has been captivated by
code-switching used among her colleagues, and therefore decided to investigate this
phenomenon.
Quite a number of research studies have been written on this code-switching phenomenon in
recent years. In addition to early works that concentrate on linguistic aspects of code-
switching (Gumperz 1976; Poplack 1980), much of recent research, which was conducted in
countries other than Vietnam, has been concerned with the use of code-switching in the
foreign and second language classroom (Moore 2002; Celik 2003; Dailey-O‟Cain &
Liebscher 2005), in Internet chatting (Cardenas-Claros & Isharyanti 2009), in advertising
(Chen 2006, Leung 2010) and in conversations between fellow expatriates (Ho-Dac 2003;
Jalil 2009). However, so far very little research has dealt with code-switching in Vietnam as
well as of Vietnamese –English bilinguals, a linguistic phenomenon which has become
common in their daily speech. Obviously, research on code-switching is still in its infancy in
Vietnam and therefore leaves many gaps for those who are interested in this topic to
investigate. This study aims at filling this gap. It illustrates the patterns and finds out the
reasons for code-switching among Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), Hanoi University of Languages and
International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU).

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In a word, keen interest in bilinguals‟ process of utterances in general and code-switching
used by her colleagues in particular, and the need to examine unanswered questions left in the
field have been key motivations for the researcher to conduct this study.
1.2. Research questions of the study
The study aims to answer the two following research questions:

1. What are the types of code-switching found in conversations between Vietnamese EFL
teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education,
ULIS, VNU?
2. What are the reasons for the use of code-switching in conversations between
Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education, ULIS, VNU?
1.3. Scope of the study
This is a case study that only examines the phenomenon of code-switching among
Vietnamese EFL teachers at English 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education,
ULIS, VNU. The use of code-switching by teachers in other divisions, albeit equally frequent,
is not within the scope of this study.
This work also focuses on patterns of code-switching found in conversations among the
participants, though code-switching can appear in written form. Added to this, the settings of
these conversations are limited to places on campus only, most of which are teacher‟s break
rooms or conference halls during break times. More importantly, the conversations under
investigation in this study are informal ones covering daily spontaneous topics, which means
discussions of issues in scheduled meetings or conferences are excluded.
1.4. Methods of the study
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in order to find answers to the
research questions. First, natural conversations between participants were audio recorded and
transcribed to identify instances of code-switching, which then were grouped according to
Poplack‟s theory (1980). This qualitative method was used to draw findings to the first
research question concerning types of Vietnamese-English code-switching found in the
recorded conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers.
Next, transcripts of conversations along with a short teacher‟s self-report form were delivered
to participants in order to obtain their reflection on what caused them to code-switch.
Collected data were then calculated and grouped. Employing the quantitative method at this
stage, the researcher sought to find out the answers to the second research questions on
reasons for the participants‟ code-switching.
1.5. Significance of the study

As one of the few studies conducted on the topic of code-switching, this research is expected
to shed some light on the understanding of this phenomenon among EFL teachers in general
and Vietnamese EFL teachers in particular, thereby encouraging more researchers to look into

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this topic. Also, with the findings of the study, the researcher wishes to raise sociolinguistic-
related issues for other studies to discuss, such as attitudes towards this phenomenon, or its
development in the coming years.
The completion of this paper may make other possible contributions to conversation analysis
as a means of ethnographic methodology, and to discourse analysis from a sociolinguistic
perspective. Additionally, this paper is expected to contribute to studies of speech community
of this particular population in the specified setting.
Lastly, this research is supposed to lay the foundation for the researcher‟s future studies on
bilingualism and code-switching.

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. Bilingualism
2.1.1. Definition of bilingualism
Grosjean (1982) defines this phenomenon as one that involves “the regular use of two or more
languages” (Grosjean, 1982, p. 1) within a certain speech community. In his later work,
Grosjean defines a bilingual speaker as more than the sum of two monolinguals in the sense
that the bilingual has also developed some unique language behavior (Grosjean, 1985a, as
cited in Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p. 7).
2.1.2. Types of bilingualism
Weinrich‟s (1953) famous typology distinguishes three types of bilingualism based on the
environment(s) where a speaker learns the two languages, and on the cognitive organization
of words in a bilingual‟s mind. They are compound bilingualism, coordinate bilingualism, and
subordinate bilingualism.
First, compound bilingualism refers to the type of bilingualism where both first and second
languages are acquired by a speaker concurrently under the same environment in early

childhood. The second type is coordinate bilingualism, which occurs when a speaker learns
two languages under separate environments. Finally, subordinate bilingualism is a type of
mediated bilingualism where the lexical and conceptual representations of a speaker‟s first
language play a role in facilitating the lexical representations of the speaker‟s second
language.
On the basis of this typology by Weinreich, the participants in this study can be considered to
have coordinate bilingualism.
2.1.3. Bilinguals’ language choice
In Holmes‟ words (2008, p. 21), “Certain social factors- who you are talking to, the social
context of the talk, the function and topic of the discussion- turn out to be important in
accounting for language choice in many different kinds of speech community.” According to
Grosjean‟s (1982) approach to bilinguals‟ decision-making process, a bilingual speaker bases
his or her language choice for the conversation first on the linguistic background of his or her
interlocutor.

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2.2. Code, code-switching, code-mixing, lexical borrowing, and interference
2.2.1. Code
The term “code” is used by sociolinguists as a less popular name for “variety of language”, or
just “variety” for short, which can be defined as “a set of linguistic items with similar social
distribution”(Hudson, 1996, p. 22). In the context of this study, the term “code” or “variety”
will be taken as the first language used by speakers of a country.
2.2.2. Code-switching
Though several definitions of code-switching have been proposed, the most general and
accepted one seems to be that by Poplack (1980), in which code-switching is defined as “the
alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or constituent”, often with no
change of interlocutor or topic. The type of switching mentioned in this definition may be
thought of as forming a continuum ranging from whole sentences to single words.
2.2.3. Code-switching and code-mixing
One approach investigating this issue from a grammatical perspective is to base on the place

where the alternation takes place. Wei (1998), Muysken (2000), and Bhatia and Ritchie
(2004) share the view that the phenomenon of code-mixing occurs within a sentence, which
leaves the inter-sentential places for code-switching. On the contrary, Poplack (1979/1981)
only uses the term “code-switching” for all cases of code alternation, which can exist below,
at, or above sentence level.
The second one viewing this from a sociolinguistic perspective is more concerned with extra-
linguistic factors. For example, Hudson (1996, p. 53) says that in code-switching, “the point at
which the languages change corresponds to a point where the situation changes, either on its
own or precisely because the language changes.” Conversely, he views code-mixing as a case
“where a fluent bilingual talking to another fluent bilingual changes language without any
change at all in the situation.”, and gives it the name of “conversational code-switching”.
It is the first approach that this study will follow, and the theory by Poplack (1979/1981) will
be used as the framework to identify tokens of code-switching in the study.
2.2.4. Code-switching and lexical borrowing
In terms of the definition of borrowing, Hamers and Blanc (2000, p. 259) describes borrowing
as “the adaptation of lexical material to the morphological, syntactic and, usually (but not
always), phonological patterns of the recipient language”.
According to some authors, code-switching are borrowing are not completely different. For
example, Romaine (1994, as cited in Hamers and Blanc, 2000, p. 259) suggests that:
“Borrowings may look like code-switches in that they retain a foreign status (especially in
phonology), while code-switches often resemble borrowings in brevity and in being fitted into
the syntax of another language.”
However, these two language contacts are often viewed as distinct phenomena. Overall, code-
switching and borrowing differ in three main features. The first one lies in the morphological,
syntactic and phonological integration of each kind into the speaker‟s first language.

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Borrowings are more morphologically, syntactically and phonologically integrated into one
language than code-switching. The second difference is that while borrowing can be
understood by most monolingual people, code-switching requires bilinguality. Finally, we can

base on frequency of use to differentiate these two phenomena. That is, people tend to use
borrowings more frequently than code-switching.
2.2.5. Code-switching and interference
Grosjean (1982, p. 299) suggests that interference involves “the involuntary influence of one
language on another”. The important point here is that code-switching is commonly regarded
as a voluntary behavior over which the fluent bilingual has control, whereas interference is
taken to occur involuntarily, due to the influence of one language on the other. The distinction
between code switching and lexical interference, however, is not always clear, as interference
may lead the bilingual speaker to activate his/her bilingual language mode, thereby
simultaneously increasing the occurrence of code switching (Grosjean, 1982)
2.3. Linguistic constraints on code-switching
The first constraint called equivalence constraint and suggested by Poplack (1980, p. 586) is
explained comprehensively as below:
Code-switches will tend to occur at points in discourse where juxtaposition of L1 and
L2 elements does not violate a syntactic rule of either language, i.e., at points around
which the surface structures of the two languages map onto each other. According to this
simple constraint, a switch is inhibited from occurring within a constituent generated by a rule
from one language which is not shared by the other.
Next, the size-of-constituent constraint says that higher-level constituents like sentences or
clauses tend to be switched more frequently than lower-level ones, which are one-word
categories such as nouns, verbs, determiners, adverbs, adjectives) (Gumperz & Hemrnndez-
Chaivez 1975; Poplack 1980).
The third linguistic constraint on code-switching, the free morpheme constraint, states that
code-switching is prohibited between a free and a bound morpheme. In Poplack‟s (1980)
terms, “Codes may be switched after any constituent in discourse provided that constituent is
not a bound morpheme.”
2.4. Typologies of code-switching
2.4.1. Poplack’s typology of code-switching
According to Poplack‟s (1980, as cited in Hamers and Blanc, 2000, p. 259), there are three
types of code-switching:

(1) extra-sentential code-switching, or the insertion of a tag, e.g. “you know”, “I mean” from
one language into an utterance which is entirely in another language.
(2) inter-sentential code-switching, or switch at clause/sentence boundary, one clause being in
one language, the other clause in the other
(3) intra-sentential code-switching, where switches of different types occur within the clause
boundary, including within the word boundary

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2.4.2. Muysken’s typology
Muysken suggested three types of code-switching. The first type, insertion, is characterized
by the insertion of a constituent from language B into a construction in language A, where A
is the matrix language (Muysken, 2000, p. 60-62). The second type (Muysken , 2000, p. 96) is
termed “alternation”, and occurs where the two languages “remain relatively separate”, for
example, when the switch is at the periphery of the clause (Muysken, 2000, p. 121). The final
type of code-switching suggested by Muysken (2000, p. 122) is called “congruent
lexicalization”, which occurs where the two languages share the grammatical structure of the
sentence, either partially or fully.
2.4.3. Bloom and Gumperz’s typology of code-switching
Bloom and Gumperz (1972) distinguishes two types of code-switching, namely situational
code-switching and metaphorical code-switching, on the basis of sociolinguistic factors. In
Bloom and Gumperz‟s (1972, p. 424-425) view, situational switching refers to cases where
speakers switch languages due to a change in the situation, such as a change in participant,
topic or setting. On the other hand, metaphorical switching takes place in cases where it is the
choice of language that determines the situation.
The typology suggested by Poplack (1980) is adopted as the theoretical framework of this
study.
2.5. Communicative functions of and reasons for code-switching
Many reasons for and functions of code-switching have been discovered, but ten reasons
described by Malik (1994) appear to be most succinct yet comprehensive. They are: lack of
facility, lack of register, mood of the speaker, to amplify and emphasize a point, habitual

experience, semantic significance, to show identity with a group, to address a different
audience, pragmatic reasons, and to attract attention. These ten reasons, along with one
proposed by Appel and Muysken (2006), “to quote”, will be employed as the theoretical
framework of the study.
2.6. Previous studies on Vietnamese – English code-switching and in Vietnamese context
One notable work attempting to deal with this phenomenon exhaustively is that by Ho-Dac
Tuc (2003) on patterns of code-switching in Vietnamese – English bilingualism. By studying
recordings of natural speeches of sixty Vietnamese immigrants residing in Melbourne,
Australia from both structural and contextual perspectives, Ho-Dac found that single words
are switched more often than entire clauses. Specifically, the results showed that different
syntactic word classes switch at different rates, with nouns being the most common and
articles being the least.
Two other studies on code-switching conducted in Vietnam that the researcher could find
include one by Nguyen (2007) on the use of code-switching as a translation technique, and the
other by Giap (2009) on language mixing phenomena in verbal communicative process
between Vietnamese and English. While the former focuses on code-switching used in the

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context of translation, the latter only views code-switching as one among language mixing
phenomena in verbal communication, which bears little relevance to the topic in question.


CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Description of the context and participants
3.1.1. The context
Of the ten faculties in the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), the
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE) is the biggest in size, with roughly
150 teachers and 2,000 students every academic year.
FELTE is divided into six Divisions. The case under investigation in this study is English 1,
which is responsible for teaching English skills for first year students majoring in English

Language Teaching, Translation and Interpretation, and Business.
3.1.2. The participants
For collecting primary data 20 Vietnamese teachers at English 1, including 18 females and
two males, were chosen to be the participants of the study. Their age varied from 22 to 35 at
the time of the study, with the youngest having one-year teaching experience and the others
more than one year. All of them have been using English on a regular basis for at least ten
years and majored either in TESOL or translation when they were undergraduates. They
graduated from their universities with Distinction or Honour degrees and are currently
teaching four English skills to first-year students of FELTE.
The EFL teachers in English 1, FELTE were chosen as participants for this case study for two
reasons. First, the researcher has worked in the Division for almost three years and found
access to the group fairly easy due to her participation in both professional and entertainment
activities organized by the Division, through which she has had informal contact with all the
teachers of English 1. Second, the researcher‟s initial observation revealed that the teachers in
English 1 frequently conversed with each other during lesson breaks in the teacher‟s room to
chitchat and share teaching experience. Such intra-group conversations like these produced a
range of code-switching instances that are worth examining.

3.2. Data collection method
3.2.1. Data collection instruments
3.2.1.1. Recording of natural speech
In this study, recording natural speech provided authentic data for the examination of types of
code-switching found in the conversations, as well as for the participants‟ later retrospective
accounts.
During the course of collection, the researcher was able to collect several recordings of 20
informants in order to obtain samples of speech in a wide range of situations. These
recordings consisted mainly of informal conversations between the informants in the teacher‟s

9
room during lesson break times, in which there were two or more speakers. In no case were

these conversations arranged for the recordings.
Ten conversations with the voices of all the participants were recorded, lasting three hours
and twenty two minutes in total. The shortest recording was about three minutes and the
longest one roughly one hour. Instances of code-switching were detected in all these
conversations.
3.2.1.2. Teachers’ self-reports
In order to find out the reasons for the informants‟ code-switching during the recorded
conversations, a teacher‟s self-report form was developed and sent to the informants to ask for
their retrospective account. In this case study, the informants were asked to comment on what
had triggered them to code-switching while conversing, using the transcripts of their recorded
conversations. Possible reasons for code-switching were provided for the respondents‟
convenience and for the convenience of data analysis.
Apart from the title, introduction and definition of key term, the main part of the teacher‟s
self-report form consists of two sections A and B. Section A provides the transcript of the
recorded conversation in which the recipient of the form participated as an interlocutor. In this
transcript, instances of code-switching that the recipient made during the conversation are
italicized, underlined and numbered in order of appearance from one (01). Section B presents
a table divided into two columns, with one including eleven reasons for code-switching
proposed by Malik (1994) and Appel and Muysken (2006) and the other left blank for the
respondents‟ answers. In this section, informants are asked to insert in the right column a
number representing the token of code-switching in the transcript in part A which illustrates
the relevant reason for their code-switching. If there is any other reason for the informants
code-switching which is not mentioned in this table, they could specify in another table that
follows, which has the same format and headings as the preceding one but is left blank. The
form ends with a final thank-you.
3.2.2. Data collection procedure
The process of data collection consisted of four main steps.
Step 1: Designing the teacher’s self-report form
The teacher‟s self-report form was designed with a view to collecting the participants‟
retrospective accounts of the reasons for their code-switching during the conversations under

investigation. The reasons provided beforehand in the form consist of ten reasons suggested
by Malik (1994) and one by Appel and Mu ysken (2006).
Step 2: Recording natural speech
First, an email was sent to all informants asking for their permission for the recording of their
conversations with each other. When their approval had been granted, the researcher started to
discreetly record the natural conversations between the informants.
Step 3: Transcribing the recordings

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Transcription of the data was carried out as soon as one conversation had been recorded. In
each transcript, instances of code-switching occurring during the conversation were italicized,
underlined and numbered in order of appearance from one (01). The transcripts were then
copied to section A in self-report forms.
Step 4: Sending the audio files and teacher’s self-report forms to participants
As soon as the transcript of one recording was finished, a teacher‟s self-report form with the
transcript and the corresponding audio file was sent via email to an informant speaking in the
conversation to obtain data on reasons for his or her code-switching detected in the
conversation. Informants were expected to listen to the audio file and read the transcript
simultaneously before clarifying why they had code-switched. When informants had finished
the forms, they were asked to send them back to the researcher‟s email address for data
analysis.
3.3. Coding and data analysis procedure
Three hours and twenty two minutes of recorded speech in which all the informants
participated provided 213 instances of code-switching, which served as qualitative data for the
research. In order to answer the first research question, these code-switching instances were
categorized into three types suggested by Poplack (1980), namely extra-sentential switching
(or tag switching), intra-sentential switching and inter-sentential switching. Also, each
instance of a switch was coded as to its syntactic function in the utterance. Breakdown of
switching according to Poplack‟s typology and by word classes were then tabulated.
Responses obtained from the participants‟ self-reports were processed in the same way in

order to find the answer to the second research question. Instances of code-switching were
calculated according to the reasons for which they were uttered and subsequently presented in
tables in descending percentage order.
The names of twenty participants were also coded into letters from A to T to guarantee the
confidentiality of their identities and personal information.
Examples from the transcripts were used for the discussion of results, each of which was
followed by an English translation while switched words and phrases were indicated with
underlining.


CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Research question 1: What are the types of code-switching found in conversations
between Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, FELTE, ULIS, VNU?
4.1.1. Categorization of detected instances of code-switching according to Poplack’s
(1980) typology
Based on the definition of code-switching proposed for this study, there are 213 code-
switches in the corpus. This number was obtained after borrowings such as “CD” or “mail
(“meo”)” were excluded.

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The detected code-switches were divided into three types according to Poplack‟s (1980)
typology, namely extra-sentential code-switching (or tag switching), inter-sentential code-
switching, and intra-sentential code-switching which can be seen in table 2 below:
Type
Number of instances
Percentage
Extra-sentential code-switching
2
0.93%
Inter-sentential

0
0%
Intra-sentential
211
99.07%
Total
213
100%
Table 1. Breakdown of detected code-switching instances according to Poplack‟s (1980)
typology
Table 2 shows that intra-sentential code-switching accounts for nearly all cases of code-
switching, which serves to reinforce the common viewpoint that only very proficient
bilinguals will switch within sentences (Holmes, 2008, p. 46). Also, linguists agree that
people who are less bilingual will tend to switch at sentence boundaries (inter-sentential code-
switching) (Holmes, 2008, p. 46), which may account for the absolute lack of this type of
code-switching in the corpus. Only two extra-sentential instances of code-switching in the
conversations were recorded, both of which are injections, namely “No” and “No thanks”.
4.1.2. Quantification of instances of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category
Table 3 displays the distribution of the syntactic category of the 213 intra-sentential tokens of
code-switching.
Syntactic category of code-switching
Number
Percentage
Noun
106
50.24%
Noun phrase
34
16.11%
Verb

49
23.22%
Verb phrase
04
1.90%
Adjective
13
6.16%
Prepositional phrase
03
1.42%
Sentence
02
0.95%
Total
211
100%
Table 2. Break down of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category
4.1.3. Overview description of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category
4.2.3.1. Nouns and noun phrases
It is apparent from Table 3 that the incidence of code-switching to English nouns and noun
phrases, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the total switches, is higher than that of
any other syntactic categories.
Semantic
category
Nouns and noun phrases
English language
listening, speaking, reading, writing, scanning, vocab test,

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teaching
midterm, skill, vocab, tip, test, observation, answer sheet, answer
key, key, glossary, discussion, language, tapescript, idea, course
work, thesis, homework, course outline, academic writing,
supplementary, follow-up, paragraph, ELT, orientation, case
study, Double Degrees, participation, vocabulary activity file
English
standardized tests
TOEFL, TOEIC, PET, IELTS, BEC
Book titles
College Writing, IELTS Foundation, Objective IELTS
Intermediate, Market Leader, Great Paragraphs
Lesson topics and
subtopics
conflicts, new business, names, common names, nicknames,
adaptor, innovator, adapting, meeting, google
Work-related
form, deadline, full time, pay
Clothes
size, free size, free style
Others
image, positive feeling, negative feeling, permanent residence,
quality of assessment and e-learning in Vietnam
Table 3. Switched nouns and noun phrases by semantic category
4.2.3.2. Verb and verb phrases
English verbs and verb phrases comprise roughly a quarter of the total of 211 intra-sentential
switches.
Semantic category
Verbs and verb phrases
English language teaching

and learning activities
revise, comment, scan, time, check, note, summarize,
discuss, role-play, practice, manage time, preview the
unit
Work-related activities
record, burn, compile, coaching, convert, administer,
order, sort
Others
break, satisfy, miss, pay off, pay back, thank you
Table 4. Switched verbs and verb phrases by semantic category
The most frequently switched verbs in the recorded conversations are: “check”, “comment”
and “discuss”.
4.2.3.3. Adjectives
Only 13 adjectives were found in the recorded conversation, which account for 6.16 percent
of total switches. Most of these adjectives were used when participants talked about their
teaching, namely “boring”, “creative”, “happy”, “smooth”, “typical”, “ready”, “Intermediate”,
“Academic”, and “Social”. In particular, the last three adjectives were short for a book title
(IETLS Objective Intermediate) and English courses (English for Academic Purposes and
English for Social Purposes). In other cases when participants talked about their family issues
and clothes, the switched adjectives were “positive”, “negative”, and “slim”.
4.2.3.4. Prepositional phrase

13
Only three instances of intra-sentential code-switching were in the form of prepositional
phrases, which are “in-class” (used twice) and “in focus”, when speakers talked about their
teaching materials in “tài liệu in-class” (in-class materials) và “mấy quyển in focus” (the in
focus books).
4.2.3.5. Sentence
Two English sentences were used to refer to the topics that one informant had had her
students discuss in the session.

4.2. Research question 2: What are the reasons for the use of code-switching in
conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers at English Division 1, FELTE, ULIS,
VNU?
The breakdown of all detected instances of code-switching according to reason can be seen in
the following table:
Reason
Number of tokens
Percentage
1. Lack of facility
18
8.45%
2. Lack of register
16
7.51%
3. Mood of the speaker
10
4.69%
4. To amplify and emphasize a point
23
10.79%
5. Habitual experience
131
61.50%
6. Semantic significance
34
15.96%
7. To show identity with a group
7
3.28%
8. To address a different audience

0
0%
9. Pragmatic reasons
17
8.92%
10. To attract attention
2
0.93%
11. To quote
33
15.49%
Table 5. Breakdown of detected code-switching instances according to reason (proposed by
Malik 1994; Appel and Muysken 2006)
One reason not included in the table was given by an informant, which was “to save time”.
She explained that Vietnamese equivalents would take longer to utter, and gave four examples
to support her response.
4.3. Summary
In this chapter, we have seen that among the total 213 switches, there are only two cases of
extra-sentential code-switching, and the rest are intra-sentential code-switching. Interestingly
enough, no cases of inter-sentential code-switching were detected. Another finding emerging
from the corpus is that among the 211 instances of intra-sentential code-switching, single
words comprise the majority of the switches. It was also found out in this chapter that
different syntactic word classes switch at different rates.
As regards reasons for code-switching, the data analysis process has also revealed that
habitual expression and the quotation function of code-switching were given by informants as

14
the main factors for their code-switching. Another contributing factor is the purpose to
amplify and emphasize a point. As the informants were proficient in both languages, few
cases of code-switching resulting from lack of facility or registers were detected. An

informant added a reason not included in the provided list of reasons, which was “to save
time”. No instances were cited as a result of the intention of attracting attention, which may
be explained by the shared linguistic background between the interlocutors.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Limitations of the study
As stated in the introductory chapter, this is a case study that only examines the phenomenon
of code-switching in conversations among Vietnamese EFL teachers at English 1, FELTE,
ULIS, VNU. Therefore, the initial findings of this study apply only to this population. The use
of code-switching by Vietnamese EFL teachers in other divisions of the Faculty, albeit
equally marked and frequent, may not be compatible with these findings.
Also, all the conversations under investigation in this study are limited to natural and informal
ones, most of which took place in the teacher‟s break rooms. Thus, speech of the same
participants recorded in formal settings such as meetings or conferences may not produce the
same types of code-switching as found out in this study.
Finally, as this study looks at the types of and reasons for code-switching in conversations
from grammatical and sociolinguistic points of view, only literature relevant to these
questions is covered. Existing literature on the topic of code-switching is abundant and needs
more examination.
5.2. Suggestions for further studies
The general approach in this case study may be useful in carrying on further research in areas
which the present work has not included. One such area is the description of how code-
switching can be exploited in Vietnamese EFL classrooms, both by teachers and learners, to
facilitate the teaching and learning process, such as in the acquisition of vocabulary.
This study has focused on code-switching in conversations between Vietnamese EFL teachers
working at tertiary level. In the researcher‟s initial observation, code-switching occur most
frequently among this population. Therefore, it would be desirable for other researchers to
conduct studies on other populations, such as teachers working at primary or secondary level.
Since the degree of their exposure to the English language and their English proficiency vary,
more new findings are expected to emerge from studying these populations.

The final suggestion is for research on this phenomenon in formal settings or in written
discourses to be conducted. Different levels of formality may imply different choices of
language and different frequencies of code-switching. Also, the cognitive process involved in
producing written discourses is likely to offer other types of and reasons for code-switching.

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