Code Switching and Code Mixing: Basic Tools for the English/Yoruba Bilingual Students in Lagos

One aspect of language study that attracts much attention today is Sociolinguistics. It examines the use of language by considering social parameters. This field is relatively wide and encompasses a lot of variables like the context of the situation, age, status etc. Among other variables that can be found in Sociolinguistics are code mixing, diglossia, code use of primary and secondary sources, that is, printed materials like textbooks, magazines and journals, and secondary switching, language death etc. This paper looks at some of the issues above and made some clarifications. For data, it made school students who are Yoruba/English bilinguals. These students were surreptitiously studied while discussing in informal situations. Comparisons were made between the two sources and necessary conclusions were made. This paper affirms that the two major concepts discussed are indeed useful tools in the learning of English by bilinguals and teachers of English as a second language should make use of code switching and code mixing to attain effective mastery of thelanguage.Keywords: Language, Bilingualism, Sociolinguistics, Code switch, Code mix, Globalization.