Abstract
There has been a tremendous growth of the Hispanic population in the United States leading to a large population of Spanish heritage speakers in our schools. Many school districts have adopted several types of programs to educate this growing population. One of the major issues that being faced in the classroom concerns language development of learners using code switching. “Code switching, or the alternation of two languages within a single clause, sentence or turn is a complex, rule-governed use of language “offers a unique opportunity for studying some of the more complicated aspects of bilingual speech” (Dearholt & Valdes-Fallis 1978). This research project will further investigate the impact of code switching in the classroom from a teachers’ observation and the impact it has on learning. The method used to investigate this topic will consist of a questioned survey given to teachers from elementary, middle and high school that participate in Bilingual programs. The survey will consist of the following questions: When and why do your students code switch? What subject area do you find that students code switch? What subject areas do you find yourself code switching for student understanding? The results of this research have two implications. The first implication from this research would be how educators can enhance instruction to use code switching as language enhancement. The second implication would help educators identify the content areas where students need language instruction to build the vocabulary in the target language.
Description
Education Poster Session 1
