Survey question development

The objective of using survey questions was to gain an understanding of the students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ code switching in the classroom. A total of 60 questions were distributed to 350 students in the university. The complete questionnaire is attached in Appendix B. This section provides the reasons for asking the particular questions and the way in which the questions were grouped.

The 60 questions were based on the groups in Table 6. For each group there were four questions, where answers to three questions supported the generated description and the motivation for that particular group, while answers to one question suggested the complete opposite. This was to test whether the students were

randomly filling in the answers to the questions or whether they actually understood the questions.

Survey topic Description of how code switching (CS) helps

or does not help

Replacing Usage of CS to replace the word that the student is not familiar with

More understanding Increased understanding if teacher and student _{conduct CS} Mental linkage Creating a link between Arabic and English Emphasising Focusing on a specific word or sentence Understanding English grammar Role of teachers’ CS helps students to gain a _{better understanding of English grammar}

Speaking Switching between languages creates better

English speakers

Confidence The students feel confident to speak

Cooperation Increased cooperation between students

Link between concept and

meaning Explanation of difficult concepts

Explanation of difficult

vocabulary Explanation of difficult vocabulary

Explanation of grammatical rules Explaining complex grammatical rules Class engagement Increasing engagement between students and

teachers in the class Empathising (teacher-student

relationship)

Building better relationships between teachers and students

Class atmosphere Building a better atmosphere in the class Effectiveness As an effective strategy to learn English

Table 6: Survey topics and how each topic is related to code switching

Question format

The first page of the survey contained information about the research and the name and contact details of the researcher. It also asked respondents to state what they thought their English level was and which class they were in. Since code switching is not a familiar term, a brief description of code switching was also included. The questionnaire is included in Appendix B.

Questions started on the second page of the survey and each statement was associated with a 5-point Likert scale that ranged from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (5). At the top of the second page, a table was included to describe

the Likert scale. Participants were asked to read all of the statements carefully and indicate their level of agreement with each statement. In order to ensure that the number of questions did not overwhelm the students, the survey was printed double sided, with 2 pages per sheet, so that all questions, including the introduction, fitted on 3 sheets of paper.

Translation of the questionnaire

Since the survey was meant for a large number of students who may or may not have sufficient proficiency to understand the questions in English, each sentence was also translated into Arabic. This was done to ensure that students filled in their answers appropriately, and not randomly because they did not understand the questions. As a native Arabic speaker and a competent English speaker, the researcher translated the questions into Arabic. To ensure the contents of the translation were accurate, a “back translation for a questionnaire” process was used which checked that, when the Arabic sentences were translated back into English, they retained the same meaning (Harkness & Schoua-Glusberg, 1998). The translation was checked and confirmed with university staff from the King Saud University to ensure that there were no inconsistencies.

Survey distribution and collection

The survey was conducted in two different batches. In one batch were the students from each class who took part in the experiment, and in the other batch were the other students from the university-wide group. The survey was conducted at the end of first semester in 2014, as this gives an indication of whether there is any difference between a student’s attitudes when she has been exposed to mostly English during the entire semester and when there has been the usual exposure to code switching in the classroom. Conducting the survey at the end of the semester allowed for maximum student participation, although it made no difference whether the survey was done at the beginning or end of the semester to the university-wide students, since they were not part of the experimental groups.

In-class survey response

For the in-class surveys, the students in both sections were given the survey at the beginning of the class and were asked to return the survey before they left the

class. They could choose not to fill the survey in, or they could submit a blank survey. This was discussed with the class teacher prior to undertaking the fieldwork to ensure that the students were allocated 30 minutes as part of their class time to answer the questionnaire.

University wide survey response

The university-wide survey was distributed to all teachers in the College of Language and Translation at King Saud University to hand out to their students. Similar to the Grammar 3 class, students were allowed to return the survey at the end of the class. The students did not have to participate if they did not want to. After the class, the teachers returned the survey to the researcher. Similarly to the in-class survey, the teachers were informed prior to the class so that they could allocate sufficient time for students to complete the questionnaire.