Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Code-switching is a part of the study of the relation between language and society, called sociolinguistics. Code-switching concerns itself on the changing of language use from one to another in a single conversation. Wardhaugh 2006:101 mentions that “code” in code-switching refers to a particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use in an occasion. Heller 1988:1 adds that code-switching occurs when a person mixes two languages in a single sentence or in a conversation. Therefore, according to the statement, it is concluded that code-switching is the process of switching language use from one to another occurring in a single conversation. One example of code-switching is the switch of language use from both English to Indonesian and English to Javanese. This switch of language is actually the topic that is going to be discussed in this study. This study discusses lecturers’ code- switching in three different languages: English, Indonesian, and Javanese, in the classroom instructions. Code-switching is often applied by the lecturers in the classroom to support students’ learning success. In teaching English as a foreign language, code-switching is one of the methods applied by the lecturers in the classroom. According to Norrish 1997:1, lecturers code-switch when the level of English, whether in the explanation or in the textbook, is quite difficult to understand. Since there is a lot of misunderstandings in the classroom and the lecturers do not want to spend time giving detail explanations about the misunderstanding or searching for simplest words to clarify the misunderstanding and the confusion in the classroom, code- switching is applied to help the lecturers facilitating a good situation of teaching- learning process. In fact, lecturers apply code-switching as a means of providing opportunities towards the students and also enhancing students’ understanding Ahmad, 2009: 49. It is argued by Lai 1996: 91 that code-switching is needed to be a useful tool in assisting English in teaching and learning process to avoid the misunderstanding and to make sure that the instructions given by the lecturers are well received and understood by the students. Therefore, this changing of language used by the lecturers underlies this study to be conducted. This study focuses on the type and reason of code-switching. Poplack 1980:614- 615 identifies three types of code-switching. They are tag-switching, intersentential switching, and intrasentential switching. Besides, Wardhaugh 2006: 110 states that code-switching occurs because of many reasons, such as assert power, declare solidarity, and express identity. In the type of code-switching, although realized by the present researcher that code-switching is significant and useful to be applied in the classroom, the lecturers code-switch, from one language to another, spontaneously. Meaning to say, the lecturers do not prepare to determine what type of code-switching they are going to use. Therefore, this study is going to identify and to classify the type of code- switching based on the lecturers ’ instructions. When a lecturer says, for instance, “so, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI kalau iki wes beres , we’ll move to the methodology,” it means the lecturer switches language from English to Javanese using the intersentential switching type of code- switching. Besides, there are many reasons of code-switching provided for the example above. One of the reasons is the students have limited vocabulary in English. Therefore, switching language from English to languages they are more familiar with, in this case Javanese, will help them to understand the instructions. Moreover, the switching can also aim to make more interesting conversation with the students. In fact, code-switching, no matter what language is used, is needed to facilitate the teaching-learning process. By having this topic, it is believed that the type and the reason of code-switching in classroom instructions spoken by the lecturers are able to be identified and classified.

B. Problem Formulation