Social motivations for code-switching among members of primary school Communities: A Case or Rabuor Ward, Tarime District

This study is about social motivations for code switching among members of primary school communities. The study focuses in Dholuo speaking area of Rabuor and ward of Tarime district and emanates from the pilot study conducted in the same area in the year 2002, in which it was revealed that code switching was an important characteristic of linguistic interaction among teachers and pupils. The study is organized into five chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction, including the general picture of social linguistic situation in Tanzania and particularly in primary schools, and is concluded dm the linguistic situation in the studied primary schools is characterized by kiswahili, Dboluo and to a lesser extent, English language. Chapter two surveys various literatures on the definitions of code switching, types of code switching, directionality of switches, social motivations for code switching as well as the researchers and public attitude towards code switching. Chapter three presents the research methodology of our study. It discusses the research design, set up of the area of the study, the population, and sampling procedures adopted by this study. The chapter also discusses the kind of data collected and the methods used in data gathering. Chapter four presents analyses and discusses the data collected for the study. It undertakes to try to understand the types and frequencies of code switching in discourse the direction of code switches, the social factors that prompt code switching and the meanings encoded in those switches. The chapter ends by examining the attitude of primary school teacher and their pupils toward CS behaviors. Chapter five bears the general conclusion which contains the summary, conclusion and suggestions for further research. The findings tie with the theories adopted in the study as the results shows that, CS is an important feature of linguistics interaction. It is motivated by member of most cases, when a speaker code switch there should be a certain meaning which the speaker want to convey.