Teachers' codeswitching to L1 in the EFL classroom : A comparative study of a Chinese and Swedish teachers' beliefs and practices

Abstract: This qualitative study deals with Chinese middle school teachers' and Swedish upper secondary school teachers' beliefs and practices regarding the use of L1 in the EFL classroom. Through semi-structured interview questions, data were collected from five Chinese teachers and five Swedish teachers. The interviews with the Chinese teachers were conducted by the researcher on a one-to-one basis, while five Swedish teachers were asked to answer the same questions via email. The results of this study showed that there were both differences and similarities between the two groups of teachers. The Swedish teachers had a fairly negative view regarding the usage of L1 in the EFL classroom and most of them claimed that the only time they codeswitched was when giving individual feedback, when making direct comparisons to the Swedish language or when the class got out of hand. Most of the five Chinese teachers deemed target language exclusivity not logically feasible and codeswitched mostly with the students' comprehension in mind. The findings mostly agreed with previous research.