BELF vs L1 in communication during cross border collaboration project activities

Abstract

Mothertongue has been considered as interference in second language learning. There are also teachers and learners who considered it as a supporting mechanism for smoother communication. Most of the time, it surfaces to make up for the shortcomings in the second language proficiency. This paper reports on the surfacing of mothertongue in the English language communication between students of two different nationalities. University Malaysia Perlis and The Haatyai University have conducted a collaborative project for their undergraduate students. Forty students participated from both universities and they were required to produce a business proposal for a product of their group’s choice. In order to encourage the English language usage, the participation was restricted to non-Thai speaking for the UniMAP students and non-Malay speaking for the Haatyai University students. The UniMAP students were from the engineering faculty and they were expected to contribute mostly in the production and technical aspect of the business plan whereas, the Haatyai University students were from the Business school and they were expected to contribute mostly in the management and financial section of the business plan. This paper is aimed to find the tasks that compelled the students to resort to their mothertongue. The frequency and tasks for both groups will be compared. The task with significantly low code switching score will also be reported. The data was gathered using two sets of Likert scale questionnaires. The statements for the students’ questionnaire requires the students to rate their perception on their own and their friends’ language use. It is hope that the findings would add on to the understanding of mothertongue role in English language communication among second language users, in this case engineering students.