Navigating Linguistic Complexity: Students’ Perspectives on Code-Switching as a Pedagogical and Sociocultural Practice in Multilingual ESL Classrooms

English Language Teaching (ELT)

The growing linguistic complexities of multilingual English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms amid global migration and education globalization give rise to profound pedagogical challenges and, about code-switching, pedagogical conundrums. While debates continue about its legitimacy, there is limited knowledge from students’ perspectives of how code-switching mediates their learning, identity, and social relations in multilingual ESL contexts—specifically in resourced-challenged education contexts found in and reflective of the Global South. This study addresses this significant lacuna by exploring senior high school students’ understanding of code-switching's opportunities, challenges, and implications in their multilingual ESL learning environments. This study is situated in an integrated theoretical framework with converging perspectives of translanguaging theory, sociocultural theory, and interactionist language socialization. The qualitative case study features students’ lived experiences characterized as sites of epistemic agency and sociopolitical struggle. Semi-structured interviews with strategically sampled participants were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to examine code-switching's cognitive, emotional, and social aspects. Findings conceptualize code-switching as a double-edged pedagogical strategy facilitating comprehension, engagement, and cultural relevance while triggering linguistic insecurity and tension about English proficiency expectations. Conceptually, code-switching is framed as an important site of linguistic human rights, identity affirmation, and resistance against monolingualism and the imposition of English linguistic governance in class discourse. Theoretically, the study contributes to multilingual governance and critical applied linguistics by framing code-switching as a complex epistemic and political practice. Practically, the study contributes to policy discussions advocating for flexible and inclusive language policies that support legitimizing vernacular facilitation to improve equitable access and learner empowerment in a globalized multilingual schooling context.

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