Code-Switching Between German and Nigerian Languages in University Classrooms: A Sociolinguistic Investigation

This study investigates the phenomenon of code-switching between German and Nigerian languages, particularly English and Hausa, in university German language classrooms in Sokoto State, North West Nigeria. Code-switching, the alternating use of two or more languages within a single conversation or discourse context, is a common communicative strategy in multilingual educational environments. While its occurrence in English-medium classrooms has been widely studied in Nigeria, code-switching dynamics in German language instruction remain underexplored. The study adopts a sociolinguistic ethnographic design, combining classroom observations with audio recordings of instructional sessions and follow-up interviews with four German language lecturers and 50 students at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Thematic and discourse analysis are applied to identify the functions, frequency, and patterns of code-switching in both teacher and student speech. Findings reveal that code-switching is used most frequently for explanatory and motivational purposes, with teachers switching to Hausa or English to clarify complex German grammatical concepts. Student code-switching tends to be more spontaneous and reflects gaps in German productive vocabulary. The study argues that managed code-switching can serve as a pedagogically legitimate scaffold and recommends its inclusion in teacher training discussions. Keywords: code-switching, German language, classroom interaction, sociolinguistics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University.