Codeswitching in the Swedish EFL classroom : A comparative study of teachers’ views and practices regarding first language use and related guidelines

Sammanfattning: In this qualitative case study, the beliefs and practices regarding codeswitching in the EFL classroom are compared between selected teachers of English in upper-secondary and compulsory school (school years 7-9) from Sweden. Through semi-structured interview questions, the data were collected from six teachers from each of the respective levels of education. The interviews were conducted by the researcher on a one-to-one basis with the informants of the study. The answers showed several differences and similarities between the teachers. While both groups of teachers said that codeswitching was to varying extent necessary, the upper-secondary school teachers seemingly had a more negative view towards codeswitching in the EFL classroom. Most of the upper-secondary school teachers codeswitched when for example teaching difficult areas such as grammar by making direct comparisons to the Swedish language. The compulsory school English teachers were less negative towards the use of the L1 and often stated that codeswitching was necessary and had several uses in the EFL classroom.  According to the compulsory school English teachers, codeswitching could aid when giving complex instructions, feedback or be used to show student comprehension. When the teachers were asked about whether the guideline documents affected their choice of language in the classroom, four out of six of the upper-secondary school teachers said that their language selection was affected by the directives to varying extent. The compulsory school English teachers’ selection of language was not affected by their guideline documents, which was expected since these do not give directives regarding language selection.