Switching to L1 in the EFL Classroom-the Perspective of Adaptation

Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory (1999) provides the theoretical framework for the study on codeswitching in EFL classroom. It views code-switching as an adaptive phenomenon in the interaction between people and their conditions of life. Based on Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory, the present paper gave a qualitative analysis of the adaptability that teachers’ code-switching to L1 can fulfill. The objects to which teachers’ switching to L1 adapts were classified in relation to linguistic reality, teachers’ and students’ language proficiency, and communicative needs. The data for the study were collected from classroom recordings in EFL classes of Three Gorges University of China. The audio recordings of the teacher talk were transcribed and analyzed for how teachers’ code-switching to L1 adapts to linguistic reality, teachers’ and students’ language proficiency, and communicative needs. It was found that teachers’ code-switching to L1 is a realization of teachers’ adaptation to communicative goals in EFL classroom.