Motivational Factors for Code Alternation in Pre- Service Teachers’ Verbal Communication in Oyo and Ekiti States


  •  David O. Fakeye    

Abstract

This paper presents why bilinguals (Students of Colleges of Education) mix two languages and switch back and forth between two languages and what triggers them to mix and switch their languages when they speak. These bilingual phenomena are called ‘code alternation or’ code-mixing’ and ‘code-switching’ and these are ordinary phenomena in the area of bilingualism. According to Hammers and Blanc 2000, ‘code –mixing and ‘code-switching’ were considered as signs of incompetence. However Khnert, Yim, Nett, Kan and Duran (2005) remarked that an alternative view is to recognize the cultural, social, and communication validity of the mixing of two traditionally isolated linguistic codes as a third legitimate code. As mentioned, these phenomena may influence bilingual’s language positively. The purpose of this paper therefore is to indicate the motivational factors for code-mixing and code switching among the pre-service teachers verbal communication. Questionnaires were used to elicit responses from pre-services teachers and Chi-square was used to analyse them.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.