iranian efl students’ perceptions of code switching

Code switching, i.e. the use of first language in foreign/second language (l2) classrooms, has been an area of particular interest to l2 researchers and has received great attention in l2 contexts. in this way, it is of utmost importance to find out how the main stakeholders in the field of l2 education, including l2 learners, perceive code switching in their l2 learning environment. thus, the purpose of the present study is to discover the perception of iranian efl learners about code switching in their classroom contexts. the participants were 28 iranian efl students who were studying english in three intermediate level classrooms in a private language institute. in order to collect the data of the present study, the researcher observed the classrooms as a non-participant and made audio-recordings of two sessions of each classroom. in this way, nine hours of classroom data were obtained. the data were analyzed by first transcribing the audio-recordings and then identifying instances of code switching used by students in the transcriptions. next, a semi-structured interview was conducted with five randomly chosen students. following the interview data analysis, two general themes were identified. first, students use code switching to keep the communication going. second, code switching compensates for their low l2 proficiency. it is hoped that the findings of the present study pave the way for carrying out more studies on code switching from other important stakeholders’ points of view, including l2 learners.