The following discussion is a dialogue between two sociolinguist experts exchanging their views on the academic contributions to the study of signed languages in the field of sociolinguistics. Joseph C. Hill is an associate professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. His research interests include sociohistorical and socio-linguistic aspects of African-American variety of American Sign Language and attitudes and ideologies about signing varieties in the American deaf community. Eyasu Hailu Tamene is an assistant professor of sign language and deaf studies at Addis Ababa University and is also one of the founders of the sign language programs at that institution.
Code-switching or the use of L1 in teaching English is a pervasive and inevitable phenomenon in Ethiopia where teachers and students who own the same first language. Nevertheless, researches carried out on the teachers’ attitudes to pedagogical code-switching in Ethiopian context are scarce. This study, therefore, was designed to explore the attitudes of EFL teachers towards code-switching and seek their views on why code-switching should be used in English classrooms. This study employed a qualitative case study design where data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with five English teachers who were purposely selected from two secondary schools. The results revealed that the four teachers supported code-switching whereas one of the teachers had a different stance. All five teachers believed that code-switching should be used in a limited, selective, and purposeful way only when necessary. Furthermore, the results generally indicated that teachers had positive attitudes towards code-switching regarding academic, classroom management and socializing purposes although they had different stands on the specific functions of code-switching. Based on the results, it is possible to suggest that as code-switching is part and parcel of classroom discourse, teacher training programs should incorporate it as an effective instructional strategy.
Ethiopian Sign Language (EthSL) is one of the underresearched languages of Ethiopia although it is used by more than a million members of the Deaf community. Not much is known about the language, particularly its use and current status. In addition, its users within the Deaf community have begun addressing the issues of equality, participation, and rights. What is more, few people understand that the use of EthSL in all domains of public life helps the Deaf community to succeed in every aspect of life, especially in Deaf education. This article addresses several important questions: Who is using EthSL? In what environments are they using it? Do various circumstances affect the variety they use? In order to answer these questions, I selected a diversity of Deaf gathering sites throughout Ethiopia to investigate. Interviews were held with three types of subjects: Deaf students, teachers of Deaf children, and the parents of these youngsters. Finally, the information that was elicited on the use of EthSL was analyzed in the hope of answering the aforementioned questions.
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