FURTHER READING

• • Gardner-Chloros, P. (2009). Code-switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.—In this book, Penelope Gardner-Chloros introduces the reader to the sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, grammatical, and developmental aspects of code-switching.
• • Levine, G.S. (2011). Code choice in the language classroom. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.—In this book, Glenn Levine argues that the foreign language classroom should be viewed as a “multilingual classroom community of practice” and provides sample classroom activities that engage students in the co-construction of language choice conventions.
• • Zentella, A.C. (1997). Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell.—In this book, Ana Celia Zentella describes the individual code-switching styles of five Puerto Rican children growing up in New York City’s Spanish Harlem and the development of their Spanish and English over time.

STUDY QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

• 1. Why is bilingual speech looked upon as deficient and undesirable? How is code-switching a communicative resource for bilinguals? How do bilinguals use code-switching as an additional means to communicate their intentions and preferences to other participants in the conversation?
• 2. Gather samples of code-switching in conversation. Keeping in mind the functions of code-switching you read about in this chapter, try to determine what communicative purposes might be served by the code-switches found in your samples. What particular functions of code-switching did you find most often? How frequently did code-switching occur? Would you say that the code-switches were more deliberate or more spontaneous? Ask the participants in the conversation for their opinions.
• 3. Observe a foreign language classroom. How much time does the instructor spend in the target language? How much time is spent in the native language of the students? When does the instructor switch to the students’ native language? What functions do the switches serve? When do the students code-switch? In your opinion, how would the learning of the target language be affected if the instructor and the students were not allowed to code-switch at all?