A preliminary study of Code Switching and its impact on quality of tertiary education: St. Mary’s University in focus

Abstract

The paper attempts to investigate the reasons for teachers’ Code Switching (henceforth CS) and its effect on quality of higher education at St. Mary’s University in Ethiopia. According to Ullah et al (2005), quality of higher education could be defined based on the way it fulfills the national goals and objectives which could be grouped into Social, National and Academic excellence. The study focuses on Academic excellence, which refers to the academic literacy of the students; these are their ability to read and write academic texts and their competitiveness in the international market. Observations, interviews and classroom recordings were used to gather data. The study concludes that teachers in Accounting and Marketing classes at St. Mary’s University code switch due to Interjections, Personalization or Objectivization, Situational code-switching, Addressee specifications and Reiteration. Also, students at St. Mary’s university believe that CS affects their reading and writing academic texts in English, though the teachers do not think it affects students’ academic skills.