FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN A BILINGUAL URBAN CONTEXT: EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF TEACHER CODE-SWITCHING IN PAKISTANI ESL CLASSROOMS
Keywords:
Affective Filter, Comprehension, ESL Classrooms, Foreign Language Anxiety, Pedagogical Tool, Student Participation, Teacher Code-SwitchingAbstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of teachers’ codeswitching on the Foreign Language Anxiety faced by learners in Pakistani ESL classrooms. The widespread use of English in nonnative environments has been a source of causing anxiety among ESL learners, which affects their confidence and participation in the classroom. This study uses a mixed-method approach to design a questionnaire that assesses the effective, behavioral, and cognitive responses to codeswitching of 22 students from different educational levels. The findings of the study reveal that students experience very little anxiety when English is used only as a medium of instruction. Code switching between English and Urdu helped the students to retain concepts better and participate more effectively. This study uses a dual framework combining Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis and Macaro’s Pedagogical Code-Switching model to show that the affective filter caused by emotional barriers could be lowered with the help of purposeful code switching. This research redefines the role of codeswitching by claiming that anxiety is not inherently present in English, but rather it is context-dependent and can be reduced through the effective pedagogical tool of codeswitching.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Afia Siddiqui, Aliza Dilawar, Syeda Umama Harim, Kaukab Saba (Author)
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