On attitudes towards code-switching among English Philology students

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse attitudes towards, and reasons for, code-switching among English Philology students. The authors show the evolution in the perception of code-switching by linguists. In the past it was seen as a violation of the linguistic norm, whereas today it is often perceived as an indispensable tool in the process of communication among bi- and multilingual speakers. The attitudes of linguists have been compared with those of students and laypeople. It appears that code-switching may be both a valuable linguistic tool which enlarges one’s linguistic repertoire and a sign of linguistic incompetence, which is reflected in the mixed attitudes towards this phenomenon among English Philology students, who usually present a high level of linguistic awareness.