Studies and researches on code-switching have been conducted and researchers are on debate on whether or not code-switching is beneficial for language proficiency. On one hand, some researches are against the idea of second language acquisition and code-switching as it delimits a speaker’s ability to understand more his or her first language. Xiaoli (2003) argued that the first language should be used in speaking as it maximizes the speaker’s knowledge of the language. Furthermore, code-switching may serve many purposes in a bilingual or multilingual discourse but some linguists believe that bilinguals and multilinguals have “trouble expressing themselves in either language” because of lack of enough knowledge in the two languages or because of confusion as to whether what word is best used in the discourse (Bhatia & Richie 2004 p. 349–350 cited in Zanova, 2011). …show more content…
Puerto Rican-English bilinguals positively view code-switching as an instrument to help them deliver their speech clearly to the person they are talking with (Poplack, 1979). Interestingly, in their study of code-switching in Tunisia in Arabic-French bilinguals, Lawson and Sachdev (2000 p. 1357) found out that the negative attitudes of the bilinguals were not reflected in their actual behavior. “The findings […] suggest that participants in bilingual Tunisia self-reported and actually used code-switching to a much greater degree than might be expected of a typically negatively evaluated variety” (Lawson & Sachdev,