Code Switching and Oral Proficiency

Abstract

This qualitative case study attempted to understand how code switching affects students’ proficiency level when learning foreign languages at a public university in Colombia. The participants were seven English intermediate- level students from the foreign language program.

Findings revealed that code switching affects students consciously and subconsciously while speaking a foreign language. Their speaking skills were affected consciously due to the lack of vocabulary; and subconsciously for the environmental situation they were in when communicating (in public, for the nervousness and for the pressure they felt when speaking in front of the teacher and being orally evaluated.)

Key words: Code Switching, case study and communicative skill.