Code Choice in the Language Classroom argues that the foreign language classroom is and should be regarded as a multilingual community of practice rather than as a perpetually deficient imitator of an exclusive second-language environment. From a sociocultural and ecological perspective, Levine guides the reader through a theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical treatment of the important roles of the first language, and of code-switching practices, in the language classroom. Intended for SLA researchers, language teachers, language program directors, and graduate students of foreign languages and literatures, the book develops a framework for thinking about all aspects of code choice in the language classroom and offers concrete proposals for designing and carrying out instruction in a multilingual classroom community of practice.

Glenn S. Levine is an Associate Professor of German and German language program director at the University of California, Irvine.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Part 1: Conceptual Framework

1 Monolingual Norms and Multilingual Realities

2 The Conundrum of Babel: Toward a Theoretical Framework for a Multilingual Approach

3 What is a Code? What is Code-Switching?

Part 2: Empirical Support

4 The Code Choice Status Quo of the Language Classroom

5 The Discourse of Classroom Code Choice: Toward Becoming Bilingual

Part 3: Curriculum

6 An Architecture of Classroom Code Choice

7 Getting from Marked to Unmarked and Back Again: Articulation of Multilingual Classroom Communities of Practice

Epilogue: Blessings of Babel

References

Index