Negotiating Social Identities: The Role of Code-Switching and Code-Mixing in ESL Classrooms in Pakistan

Abstract

This study explores code-switching and code-mixing to ascertain how they help in the construction of social identities in the ESL class in Pakistan. This study explores how such multilingual students employ such language practices in the social cultural and academic domains and how teachers interpret and address such practices. The research design of the study is qualitative, in this research ethnographic research methods are used; Semi-structured interviews are conducted with five ESL teachers. Discourse and systematic thematic analysis is used in analysing the data collected since inter-method triangulation is done to increase validity and reliability of the data collected. These results also indicate that ESL students in Pakistan employ code switching and code mixing to claim their group identity, to negotiate their social identity, and to affiliate with cultural or academic clique. Thus teachers distinguish between the positive and negative aspects of code-switching and their beliefs regarding this issue significantly differ depending not only on individual personalities, but also on classroom situation or specific attitude to teaching practices. The role of socio-cultural factors needs to be studied in the context of language practices in the future; the ways of implementing multilingualism in education policy in Pakistani context should also be explored in the details.