抄録
In response to the statements written in the Courses of Study for junior high schools (MEXT, 2017) and senior high schools (MEXT, 2009) that English lessons, in principle, should be conducted in English, the present study investigates beliefs of Japanese junior and senior high school teachers of English about their uses of codeswitching in their classrooms between English (L2) and Japanese (L1). It also identifies factors that have influenced their beliefs. Five teachers participated in semi-structured interviews while watching videos of their own lessons. For data analysis, they were divided into Macaro’s (1997, 2001) categories of theoretical positions, i.e. the Maximal and Optimal Positions. The results revealed that one of the teachers seemed to have adopted the Maximal Position whereas the rest appeared to have taken the Optimal Position. Factors that had influenced their beliefs varied. Considering the findings that their beliefs about codeswitching and factors were different from teacher to teacher, this article proposes that a departmental guideline about codeswitching be established in each school. Future research is suggested based on the limitations of this study.
