The background part consisted of questions about the respondents’ gender, age and mother tongue. The background questions also concerned the participants’
use of English in their leisure time and everyday life, as the respondents were asked to choose how often they listen to, read, write and speak English in the given situations (movies, books, music, letters etc.). Originally the purpose with the many background questions was to be able to examine whether there would be correlations between the frequency of listening, reading, writing and speaking English and for example the frequency of Finnish-English code-switching. This, however, proved to be outside the scope of the study as it would have resulted in an unnecessarily large amount of data. In the end, the only part of the background information to be examined was the question about the frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the respondents’ speech and writing and the possible differences here between the two schools. These results will be reported next.
5.1.1 The frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the respondents’
speech and writing
The frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the respondents’ speech and writing was examined by posing questions about how often the respondents mix Finnish and English when they speak and write, the choices
being almost daily, approximately weekly, approximately monthly, only very rarely and never. These questions were in the background part of the questionnaire but they will be integrated into this chapter since none of the other background questions will be discussed. Measuring the frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the respondents’ speech and writing was done by comparing the percentual mean values of the respondents’ answers. The percentual values are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the speech and writing of the respondents
Most of the subjects reported that they code-switch from Finnish to English when they speak either almost daily (43.2%) or approximately weekly (30.9%).
The same tendency can be seen in code-switching practices in writing too, as 34.6% of the respondents reported they code-switch in writing almost daily and 21.0% approximately weekly. However, taking into consideration the small sample of the study, relatively many of the participants reported that they use such language only approximately monthly (7.4% in speech, 12.3% in writing) or only very rarely (16% in speech, 24.7% in writing). Additionally, the results
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show that code-switching practices are overall less frequent in writing than in speech among the respondents.
To sum up, it seems that code-switching is a quite common phenomenon in the students’ everyday lives. A majority of the respondents reported they mix Finnish and English either almost daily or approximately weekly, although there were also respondents who reported that they do so only approximately monthly or only very rarely. Some participants also reported that they never code-switch. Code-switching seems more common in spoken than in written language. The results are in line with earlier results of English as an important part of Finnish people’s lives and of code-switching as a common feature of especially adolescents’ language practices.
5.1.2 The frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the respondents’
speech and writing - comparisons between the two schools
The frequencies of Finnish-English code-switching in the students’ linguistic practices (speech and writing) in the two schools were measured by looking into the percentual distribution of the answers and comparing the results. The possible statistical significance of the differences was also measured and the results are presented in Table 1. The percentual values from the school in Northern Finland are presented in Figure 2 and the results from the school in Southern Finland are presented in Figure 3.
Figure 2. The frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the speech and writing of the respondents from Northern Finland
Figure 3. The frequency of Finnish-English code-switching in the speech and writing of the respondents from Southern Finland
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Table 1. The statistical difference between the results Sig. (2-tailed)
Speech Writing
0.343 0.764
As the two figures show, a majority of the students from both schools report they code-switch from Finnish to English either almost daily or approximately weekly and again code-switching seems more common in spoken than in written language. 40.0% of the students from the North reported they code-switch in speech almost daily and 26.7% approximately weekly. On the other hand, 20.0% reported they switch only very rarely. Regarding code-switching in writing, the numbers were either lower or about the same in the North; 36.7% almost daily, 26.6% approximately weekly and 23.3% only very rarely. In the school in Southern Finland 45.1% of the students reported they code-switch in speech almost daily and 33.3% approximately weekly. Code-switching in writing was again less common, 33.3% almost daily, 17.6%
approximately weekly, 17.6% approximately monthly, 25.5% only very rarely and 5.9% never. As presented in Table 1, the differences between the results from the two schools were not statistically significant; the 2-tailed significance test values were 0.343 for speech and 0.764 for writing.
The differences between the schools were not major. The distribution of answers between code-switching almost daily and code-switching never were quite similar, except for some dissimilarities. As regards code-switching in writing, among the students in the North the answers were more unevenly distributed between approximately weekly, approximately monthly and only very rarely; about the same number of people said they either code-switch approximately weekly or only very rarely. In the South the students’ answers were more evenly distributed between these three. However, the differences were small. Overall, the differences between the two schools were not major, which indicates that young people’s uses of English besides and among Finnish in Northern and Southern Finland are perhaps not very significant.
5.2 Reasons for Finnish-English code-switching in the respondents’ speech