A Case Study: Exploring the Patterns and Functions of Mandarin-English-code-switching in Malaysian ACCA Classroom

In Malaysia, due to the complexity of the population composition, students may possess diverse linguistic and cultural capitals, potentially resulting in a lack of a shared first language among both the teacher and their classmates. Although there are a considerable number of studies exploring Mandarin-English-code-switching practices in education, few studies have investigated its patterns and functions in Malaysia ACCA classroom contexts. This study conducts qualitative research on ACCA lessons at a public online Malaysian training center in the higher education phase, including observation and a case study by discourse analysis and multimodal conversation analysis, to explore what are the typical code-switching patterns in this education setting and how the Mandarin-medium instruction teacher mobilizes multiple resources to ensure knowledge accessibility and cater for more students in the classroom. Findings indicate that intra-sentential code-switching and situational code-switching are prominent from the perspective of speaking styles and sociolinguistics, and code-switching practices, occurring as an intentional teaching strategy, contribute to inclusive education, by facilitating more students to comprehend unfamiliar concepts more effectively and fostering better communication and engagement in learning.