Code Switching. The Relationship between personality traits and attitudes toward switching behaviour

Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics Urmia University (International Students Admission Department) course: TEFL language: English abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between MA English students' personality traits (PT) and their attitudes toward university teachers' code switching (CS) in Urmia Iran. In addition to that purpose the correlation between each sub-scale of PT including extraversion agreeableness conscientiousness neuroticism and openness to experience and teachers' CS is analyzed. Finally the overall attitudes of MA TEFL English students toward CS behavior are discussed as well. To this end 150 MA English students (70 males and 80 females) from State and Azad universities of Urmia City participated in this study. Two instruments were used for data collection: In order to measure students' PT the Big Five Inventory designed by John & Srivastava 1999 was administered. Secondly to measure students' attitudes toward teachers' CS the questionnaire developed by Mingfa Yoa (2011) was used. According to the results no significant relationship was found between the PT of students and their attitudes toward teachers' CS. Furthermore there was no significant relationship between students' PT and their attitudes toward CS regarding the five sub-scales of PT. The findings of the study indicate that the majority of students have similar attitudes toward the CS phenomenon. Their overall attitudes were positive toward teachers' CS and the majority of students agreed with CS in EFL settings. As a result it was revealed that CS is an acceptable behavior in the EFL context from MA TEFL students' perspectives.