Alternance Codique en Classe de FLE: Raisons d’Ordre Pedagogique Chez les Enseignants et Facteurs de Motivation Chez les Apprenants

Abstract

This study described code-switching forms used by teachers of French and the pedagogical reasons that underlined these choices. It also examined factors that motivated learners to code-switch in French as a foreign language classes. The study was conducted among nine teachers of French as a foreign language and 171 students in two Senior High Schools. The study was based on Myers-Scotton’s theory of Markedness, which tried to explain language choice by individuals in terms of their rights to usage and their language obligation to their community. Four teaching sessions were recorded and analyzed. The result of the study showed that there occurred three forms of code-switching in the French as a foreign language class: inter-sentential code-switching, intra-sentential code-switching and alternate code-switching. The result also showed that teachers’ code-switching is pedagogically motivated. In the case of teachers, the three forms were used for the same pedagogical reason. That is, they code-switched in order to make lesson activities understandable to learners of French. It was also found that linguistic and extra linguistic factors accounted for learners’ code-switch-switching from French to English. This study formed the basis for revisiting the question of language choice for the teaching/ learning of a foreign language especially in Ghana.

Keywords: Politique linguistique, langue étrangère, alternance codique inter-phrastique, alternance codique intraphrastique, alternance codique enter tours de parole.