Cognitive factors in code-switching:In response to Bentahila and Davies (1992)

Abstract

Bilinguals’ tendency to switch between their languages (also known as code-switching) and the cognitive processes driving it are now known to be predicted by a variety of cognitive factors specific to the individual. In this review paper, we reflect on 30 years of progress in the study of the cognitive factors that determine how and when bilinguals switch between languages since Bentahila and Davies’ (1992) chapter on the relationship between code-switching and language dominance. We discuss how their work reflected a growing emphasis on moving beyond a strictly linguistic framework to focus on the psychological and social context in which code-switching occurs, and on the speaker-specific factors that affect the behaviour. We review and evaluate some of the substantial body of subsequent quantitative research about language switching and its relationship to language dominance, lexical access, cognitive control and interactional contexts. Some of these areas, like cognitive control, have seen considerable progress in understanding in the last thirty years and have substantially contributed to the development of psychological theories of bilingualism. Others we are only more recently beginning to understand, such as the effect of interactional contexts on the cognition of code-switching. The data yield a complex and sometimes contradictory picture but overall demonstrate that a range of social and psychological factors affect code-switching behaviours in ways that offer insights into the cognitive basis of code-switching