An Analysis of code-switching behavior of Turkish-German bilinguals of Çukurova University

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to analyze and describe the nature of Turkish-German code-switching. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to investigate any possible effect of time spent in a monolingual Turkish environment on the code-switching of Turkish returnees from Germany, bilingual in Turkish and German. Six Turkish-German bilingual returnees studying at the German Language Teaching Section, at the Faculty of Education, Çukurova University, participated in the study. Three of them were recent returnees, forming one group and the other three, early returnees, forming the other group. The speech of the subjects were tape-recorded in eight sessions held with the researcher and an interlocutor who was either a bilingual or monolingual. The sessions of the two groups were formed in parallel to each other in order to be able to make a comparison. Finally, the speech of the returnees was analyzed and the results discussed. Frequency count of the code-switching instances were made for each session and examples of code- switching types were given. According to the code-switching frequencies of the groups in different sessions, it can be said that time spent in a monolingual Turkish environment might influence the code-switching behavior of bilinguals. The first chapter offers background to the study, statement of the problem, aim and scope of the study, hypotheses and definition of terms related to the study. In the second chapter a review of literature of some studies on bilingualism and code-switching is given. The third chapter gives information about the methodology applied in this research. In chapter four, the results of the frequency of the code-switching instances are presented and discussed. The code-switching of the subjects are analyzed and categorized into switching types and word classes and examples are given in the last part. In the fifth chapter conclusions are drawn and limitations and suggestions for further research are stated.