Language matters: Micro aggression in online classroom discourse

This thesis study explores the role of code-switching (CS) in constructing and communicating microaggression (MA) in an online English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom at a private university in Türkiye. Through an interactional sociolinguistic lens to language use, this study addresses the linguistic practices the instructor employs in moments of MA in classroom discourse, and the extent to which CS from English to Turkish serves as a tool in this construction. Detailed analysis of classroom interactions from recorded online sessions revealed that naturally occurring CS instances in the instructor's speech helps MA to be exerted both directly and indirectly through various linguistic acts. Tone of voice, direct warning, interjections, formulaic forms, exertion of threats, direct intervention, enforcement, and indirect warning are employed as a linguistic source in the direct exertion of MA whereas sarcasm/satire, "sitem", idiomatic expressions, rhetorical questions, and simile play a major role in the indirect exertion of MA. The discussion of the findings suggests that CS is strategically used to showcase both subtle and overt forms of control and authority, which often reflects the underlying power imbalances in the classroom. This study deepens our understanding of the language teaching pedagogies by highlighting the ways the language switch is practiced exhibiting MA in various forms particularly in the context of online language teaching.