EFL Teachers’ Code-switching in Post Lesson Discussion: A Window into English Supervision

Abstract

Naturally, code-switching occurs in a normal conversation between bilingual speakers who are familiar with the spoken languages as an intellectual trans-languaging process. A puzzling process, still in a positive way, that has been under the attention of linguists for decades regardless of the ethnographic or geographic characteristics of the spoken languages and/or their speakers. This research study explored this phenomenon from a pedagogical aspect that is directly linked with the Omani teachers of English Language  of Cycle One (C1) Muscat Basic Education Schools (BES) as native speakers of Arabic. For the first time, yet beyond the classroom borders, the issue of code-switching is locally tackled from the continuous professional development outlook; the post lesson discussion (PLD) or as also known, the post classroom observation discussion. Qualitatively, the researchers investigated this controversial phenomenon, in the world of foreign languages, from the perspective of the English Language Supervision; Supervisors and Senior Supervisors, in specific, in relation to its functions and the driving reasons, potential pros and cons and how it could be handled properly. The findings of this case study address future educational implications to the best practices of the PLD interaction language as well as to promote heightened understanding of the C1 EFL teachers’ code-switching nature to manage it for the greater good of their continuous professional development (CPD).