International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism
Editor: Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor
Review Editor: Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University, Philadelpia
|
Volume: 1 Number: 2 Page: 81–99
|
|
|
|
|
Code-switching in a Bilingual History Lesson: The Mother Tongue as a Conversational Lubricant
|
|
Wolfgang Butzkamm
|
|
The article is concerned with the use of the mother tongue in bilingual content teaching as well as in conventional foreign language classes. The controversy over the mother tongue as a help or a hindrance
is examined by way of an analysis of a history lesson taught in English as a foreign language. The article makes the point that brief episodes of switching to the mother tongue can function as a learning
aid to enhance communicative competence in the foreign language. Even though the second language remains the working language, the teacher serves as a bilingual dictionary so that the mother tongue becomes
an ally of the foreign language. It can be used as a short-cut to communication as well as in language practice. Successful classrooms usually have a dual focus: on content as well as on language. It is
part of the art of teaching to know when to briefly focus on language without cutting off the thread of serious communication.
© Multilingual Matters 1998
Full text PDF
|
