An Analysis of Code-switching and Code-mixing amongst Students of our Lady of Mount Carmel College Muea-buea in Cameroon

Abstract

The research work aims at providing an analysis of code-switching and code-mixing amongst students of Our Lady of Mount Carmel College Muea-Buea in Cameroon. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze code-switching and code-mixing students of Our Lady of Mount Carmel College Muea-Buea in Cameroon. Thus, the researcher used a qualitative research method which involves recording utterances and observation. The instruments used in collating the data were: a note book to prevent data loss and a smart phone for recording utterances. The data collated were analyzed using Van Dijk functional approach of discourse analysis. One major finding of the study is that Code-switching and Code-mixing helps to ease and strengthen communication between the teacher and students involved in classroom interaction. From the conversations collected, it was discovered that two forms of code-switching take place during communication, they are: the intra and inter-sentential code-switching. The researcher also discovered several motivating factors as to why students’ code-switch and code-mix and these factors were classified under the linguistic, social, and stylistic factors. From the data collated and analyzed, it is evident that the linguistic factors are the most prominent factors that play major roles as to why students code-switch and code-mix. Lastly, it was observed that code-switching and code-mixing can have positive and negative impacts on the students.