Motivation Underlying Teachers' Code-switching in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Content Courses in English Language Education Program (ELEP)

Abstract

The act of code-switching occurs frequently in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. This research explores teachers’ code-switching behavior and notions in EFL content courses in the English Language Education Program (ELEP) in a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. Specifically, this research aims to understand the motivation behind teachers’ code-switching behavior in the content courses classroom. The data was collected through 4 content course classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with 4 different teachers in the institution. This study has found that there were certain perceived motivations that encouraged teachers to code-switch in teaching the content course lessons. All of the teachers who participated in this research are aware of the functions and situations in the classroom that motivate them to code-switch to L1. These findings highlight the reason why teachers tend to code-switch in teaching the ELEP content courses. Moreover, the motivation by the teachers gained perspectives on how to code-switch in terms of its utilization for teaching EFL content courses.