Between Arabic and English: Code-Switching, Code-Mixing and Lexical Choice Across Jordanian Public, Private, and International High School Sectors

Abstract

Arabic and English use appears to be increasing in the daily communication of young Jordanians, but it may differ across educational contexts. This study analyzed Arabic–English code-switching (CS), code-mixing (CM), and lexical choice among students in public, private, and international schools in Jordan. A quantitative comparative design was used. The research used two instruments to collect data: first, recorded individual interviews conducted with 18 students for the CS and CM analyzes. Second, picture-naming tasks were collected from 347 students in Grades 10–12 to investigate students’ lexical choice in expressing familiar concepts. The classification of CS follows Poplack’s classification, and CM follows Muysken’s typology. Statistical comparisons were made across the school sectors and between genders. The results showed that CS differed significantly across school sectors, occurring among international and private school participants but not among public-school participants. CS (68.9%) was dominated by inter-sentential switching, and no significant gender difference was detected in the interview sample. In contrast, no significant differences in CM frequency across school sectors or between genders were observed, but insertion clearly predominated across all observed CM patterns (94.1%). Picture names varied significantly across sectors. Public-school students preferred Arabic lexical forms, while international-school students preferred English forms, and private-school students often fell between the two groups. The findings point to the need to consider both the educational language environment and individual lexical items when studying bilingual language practices, and indicate that further studies are needed to examine differences in English exposure and proficiency that may be associated with these practices.