AWEJ Volume.4 Number.4, 2013                                                                    Pp.323-338

Abstract PDF

Full Paper PDF  

 Code Mixing in the KSA: A Case Study of Expatriate Bangladeshi and Indian ESL Teachers

Most. Tasnim Begum

King Khalid University, Abha, KSA

Md. Mahmudul Haque

                                    King Khalid University, Abha, KSA

:Abstract

This study investigated English-Arabic code mixing as a socio-professional phenomenon among the expatriate Bangladeshi and Indian English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers at the tertiary level of education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A socio-linguistic perspective was drawn to determine functional aspects of code mixing usage between the expatriate teachers and the native Arabian speakers. The study also examined the teachers’ attitude towards the effect of code mixing in their socio-professional life. A triangulation method was adopted for the investigation: questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and observation. The findings of this study recognized the hypothesis that code mixing serves as a highly functional linguistic tool in the socio-professional life of the expatriate Bangladeshi and Indian ESL teachers in the KSA. It also identified code mixing as a common speech pattern in the communicative dynamics of these teachers’ campus discourse through an analysis of domain exposure to code mixing. The study unfolded a significant socio-linguistic and socio-professional aspect of campus communication: how code mixing is intertwined with that of the professional and social needs of expatriate teachers in monolingual situations as in the KSA. This study clicked on the current linguistic situation in the KSA education and thus showed how far the English only educational language policy is effective in its implementation phase in higher education. The researchers believe that the teachers’ attitude would provide supplementary data for the language policy makers and educators in the Kingdom to consider this phenomenon into deciding pragmatic institutional language policy in higher education.
Keywords: Code Mixing (CM), Socio-linguistics, Language and Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), English as a Second Language (ESL) in the KSA.