Switching Between Two Foreign Languages in English for Medical Purposes Course: Impact on Medical Terminology and Vocabulary Comprehension

Abstract

Code-switching (CS) between the mother tongue (L1) and the foreign language (FL) is an embedded practice in the Algerian multilingual society, as it is highly noticed in pedagogical settings like school and university. Yet, switching between two foreign languages seems to gain popularity, mainly, in the English for medical purposes (EMP) course. In the latter, EMP teachers tend to switch between English and French to serve certain pedagogical and non-pedagogical aims. Furthermore, this practice is used as a time-saving strategy and as an instructional tool to enhance students’ skills like; listening and vocabulary comprehension. In an attempt to flesh out an explanatory framework, this study explores the attitudes of students towards their teachers’ use of CS, in addition to their perspective about the reasons behind teachers’ switching between two foreign languages in a medical course. Furthermore, this research reveals the different perceptions of learners about the implementation of English/French CS to enhance their vocabulary comprehension and to promote their medical terminology. To this end, 162 second year pharmacy students, from the faculty of medicine at the university of Sétif 1, formed the participants of the enquiry. Based on a triangulation (quantitative and qualitative) research design, a questionnaire and a focus group discussion (FGD) were used to collect the related data. The findings revealed that teachers switch from English to French to perform different pedagogical functions such as explaining new concepts and difficult expressions, reinforcing and emphasizing a message or an information. Through CS, instructors may create a friendly and a dynamic learning atmosphere by using it as a stopgap to students’ loss of communication and hence to support the learning and teaching process. Moreover, CS is used to boost the learning of medical terminology and to facilitate the comprehension of medical context especially the new and complex vocabulary for learners. Overall CS is regarded as an effective pedagogical strategy, and is recommended in the EMP course, yet it should be used with moderation and in situations where necessary.