Codeswitching in Swedish EFL classrooms : Practices and insights from teachers and teacher students

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate the situations in which code-switching takes place in EFL classrooms. The paper focuses on why code-switching takes place, and whether it benefits or limits students' learning, according to teachers and teacher students in Swedish upper-secondary schools. Three teachers and four teacher students participated voluntarily in this study, as well as four of the participating teachers’ students. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the transcripts were thematically analyzed. In addition, observations of four lessons with four different classeswere conducted. The results show that codeswitching is used with the purpose of teaching, being understood, or understanding in the EFL classroom. Based on the interviews and observations, codeswitching was found to be a common strategy in the classrooms.