LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AND TEACHERS' CODE-SWITCHING PRACTICES

With the advent of globalization, teachers in the Philippine Educational System have been required to teach their subjects using the English language as the medium of instruction. Teachers, however, have resorted to a code-switching strategy in teaching their subjects to enable students to easily comprehend the lesson. In this strategy, the teacher uses English together with some Filipino or mother-tongue words as examples and for clarification of ideas for the sake of in-depth understanding. The study investigated the impact of language attitudes on the code-switching practices of the Teacher-Education Faculty of Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology (MinSCAT). Fifty-five (55) randomly selected faculty and three hundred twenty-nine (329) students served as respondents to the study. Population size was determined through Slovin's formula. A self-made questionnaire divided into two parts was utilized in this study. The first part of the questionnaire was used to determine the teachers' attitudes toward language. On the other hand, the second part was utilized to gather information on the extent of teachers' code-switching practices as assessed by the teacher and student respondents. It was found that the teachers' attitudes toward English as a second language have affected the extent of their code-switching practices in building interpersonal relations with their students. In contrast, their code-switching practices in subject access and classroom management were affected by their attitudes toward the Filipino language. However, their attitudes toward the use of English-Filipino code-switching in teaching directly affect their code-switching practices.