Keywords
Code-mixing (CM)
Insertions
Language as a medium of instruction
English as a medium of instruction
Internationalization of higher education
Bilingual higher education in Russia
Submitted : 2023-06-21
Accepted : 2023-07-06
Published : 2023-07-21
Abstract
The internationalization of Russian higher education contributes to the steady increase in the number of courses and programmes in the intermediary language, which in most cases is English, steadily gaining the status of the language of instruction. The article deals with the linguistic phenomena of code-switching and code-mixing in the context of university teaching of special disciplines in English, which is a foreign or a second language for all participants in the educational process – teachers and students. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between the terms “code-switching” (CS) and “code-mixing” (CM), which is of practical significance for the formation of the methodology of teaching special disciplines in an intermediate language as a special field of professional linguodidactics, as well as for the formation of the content of professional development programmes for university teachers. The phenomenon of code-switching discussed in the article deserves close attention of linguists and psycholinguists, but in this article the author limits herself to studying speech behavior of bilingual university teachers from the linguodidactic point of view. Thus, this study lies in the field of pedagogy and is an attempt to determine the nature of switching from English as the language of instruction or intermediary language to Russian as the native language in the aspect of the English-Russian code-mixing and code-switching. The subject under study in this case is the attitude of Russian-speaking university teachers to the role of the native language in the process of teaching the subject in English by means of a survey. The results of the survey, though subjective, allow us to make a primary statement that the observed transitions from the language of instruction (English) to the native language (Russian) in the teacher’s speech represent cases of marked and conscious code-switching, carried out in the context of the educational process, rather than code-mixing. The study was conducted at St. Petersburg State University, the participants included teachers of special disciplines of a wide range of the humanities and sciences.
(code switching). The subject under study in this case is the attitude of Russian-speaking bilingual teachers about the role of the mother tongue in the process of teaching the subject in English by the survey method. The results of the survey, with all their subjectivity, nevertheless allow us to make the primary assertion that the observed transitions in the speech of the bilingual teacher's speech (English and Russian) represent cases of deliberate "code switching" performed in the context of the educational process and not a "mixing of codes". The research was conducted at
St. Petersburg State University, the participants included teachers of special disciplines of a wide range of humanities and exact sciences.
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