Code-switching in a Bilingual History Lesson: The Mother Tongue as a Conversational Lubricant

• Autores: Wolfgang Butzkamm
• Localización: International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, ISSN 1367-0050, Vol. 1, Nº. 2, 1998, págs. 81-99
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The article is concerned with the use of the mother tongue in bilingual content teaching as well as in conventional foreign language classes. The controversy over the mother tongue as a help or a hindrance is examined by way of an analysis of a history lesson taught in English as a foreign language. The article makes the point that brief episodes of switching to the mother tongue can function as a learning aid to enhance communicative competence in the foreign language. Even though the second language remains the working language, the teacher serves as a bilingual dictionary so that the mother tongue becomes an ally of the foreign language. It can be used as a short-cut to communication as well as in language practice. Successful classrooms usually have a dual focus: on content as well as on language. It is part of the art of teaching to know when to briefly focus on language without cutting off the thread of serious communication.