Post 199: What is code switching?

Post 199: What is code switching?

Code switching occurs when a bilingual person switches from one language to another. For instance, I can speak French, English and Chinese. Each language represents its own code since each language has its own grammatical and syntactical structure, so when I switch from English to Chinese, I am switching from the English language code to the Chinese language code. People who speak many languages fluently can switch codes depending on whom they are talking to.

Code Switching also occurs when you talk to people of different ethnic groups, people of different ages, people of different communities--such as the workplace/home, or people I know well or people I don't know well. In many ways, code switching in this case is similar to talking in different tone/register. For instance, you don't talk in the same informal register/tone to your friends, as you do your boss. You don't swear in front of your grandmother like you do with your friends.  I have Chinese friends who call each other  'chink', but if somebody from another ethnic group used the word 'chink' it would be considered offensive. Or we may call each other 'banana' meaning you are yellow on the outside and white on the inside (meaning a Chinese person who is too Americanized and has forgotten her Chinese heritage). Chinese people can tease each other and call each other banana but if somebody else form another ethnic group said the word 'banana' to refer to an Asian person, that word can be considered offensive.

In her work on code switching, communication scholar Karla Scott (2000) 
discusses how the use of different ways of communicating creates different cul- 
tural contexts and different relationships between the conversants. (Nakayama, 249)

Code Switching represents many kinds of discourses in writing. It represents our primary discourse (home and family), our secondary discourse (school and teacher) and to the public sphere (workplace). When we write, code switching involves either informal writing we do for friends, or the formal writing we do to get a job or write a resume. 

Modern English Composition theory takes into account all these different kinds of discourses and takes into account the cultural/economic/social aspect of the writer's ability to code switch from one group to another thus resulting in a different discourse for writing. What we learn in Freshman Composition class is good for Humanities (one kind of discourse). What we learn in Research Methods in Chemistry, Engineering, and in all these different fields also involve 'code switching' and different discourses.

The recognition that different fields and disciplines require different writing styles and expectation is known as Writing across the Disciplines or Writing in the Discipline (WAC) and (WID). How can an English Composition teacher accommodate students from all different fields and teach the students what to expect in their writing discourse for all these different fields? That is the daunting question English Composition teachers of WAC classes face.  There are some simple steps WAC teachers can make to help writing students learn about the writing discourse of their field.

Nakayama, Intercultural Communication in Context 5th edition