The Social Psychological Significance of Code Switching in Cross-Cultural Communication

Abstract

Four studies were carried out to explore observers' evaluative reactions to bilingual code switching as a function of 4 factors: situational norms, sociocultural status of the language, ingroup favouritism, and interpersonal speech accommodation. English and French subjects gave evaluative reactions to code switching by English- and French-speaking Canadian actors who were depicted interacting in the roles of a salesman and a customer. Four different patterns of code switching, consisting of 3 or 4 speaker turns each, were depicted in each study. Subjects' reactions to the speakers' language choices were elicited after each turn. The major findings to emerge were a) there was a significant shift in the basis of the subjects' evaluations from primarily situational norms to interpersonal accommodation; b) early language choices during the interactions had significant effects on reactions to later language choices; c) the impact of the situational norms was reinforced when they were concordant with the sociocultural status of the actors but mitigated when they were discordant; and d) both English and French Canadian subjects expressed favouritism toward ingroup language choices; but this was especially true among the English subjects. It is concluded that the social psychological significance of code switching is both dynamic and multiply determined; a tentative empirical model integrating the results is outlined.

Examining the relationship between language divergence and word-of-mouth intentions

“…In addition, finding that language divergence affects word of mouth intentions represents a contribution to the field of sociolinguistics. Several studies show that language divergence affects attitudes and emotions toward an interlocutor (e.g., Genesee and Bourhis 1982;Giles et al 1991) but ignore how language divergence actually affects people's intentions. The findings thus show that the negative consequences of language divergence are much stronger than extant literature currently assumes.…”

“…That is, people develop less favorable impressions of speakers who diverge rather than converge. Genesee and Bourhis (1982) present respondents with constructed conversations, in which the speakers either converge with the respondents' native language or do not. The results indicate that more negative evaluations result when the speakers diverge (speak respondents' second language) rather than converge (speak the respondents' native language).…”

Policies Promoting the Use of Catalan in Oral Communications and to Improve Attitudes towards the Language

“…Likewise, interactions with foreigners involve similar adaptive choices, with subtle hints (such as the physical appearance and accent of the interlocutor, where the interaction takes place, etc.) causing an apparently automatic and unconscious convergence (Genesee 1982) into Castilian by Catalan speakers -the result, in reality, of long periods in the past of social and political subordination.…”

Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Evidence from Montreal

“…Research has shown that adult code-switching is sociolinguistically and grammatically constrained; that is, it is not random. Sociolinguistically, adult bilingual code-switching is shaped by characteristics of interlocutors, the situation, and the purpose of communication (Genesee & Bourhis, 1982, 1988. Adult bilinguals code-switch for a variety of metacommunicative purposes: for example, to establish interpersonal intimacy or distance (Sachdev & Bourhis, 2005), to mark ethnic identities and loyalties (Bourhis, Montaruli, & Amiot, 2007), and to negotiate social roles and status .…”