Exploring the Role of Medium of Educational Instruction and Cognitive Control on Bilingual Language Switching

Description

Page: 417-421

Arinjoy Bhattacharjee¹ and Deepshikha Ray² (Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Connecticut Storrs, Connecticut, United States of America¹ and Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal²)

In India, even though students learn vernacular and English, there is a predominant language for instruction. Our study investigates the role of medium of educational instruction in code-switching. 33 Bengali-English bilinguals were divided into two groups based on their medium of instruction and were assigned two tasks – Speaking about a neutral topic in (i) Bengali and (ii) English. They also had to perform a cognitive control task. The code-switching frequencies, reaction time, and accuracy in the cognitive task were analyzed. We found a significant effect of the medium of instruction on code-switching in both languages but individuals with medium of instruction in L1 tend to use L2 more in formal contexts, and switching is influenced by social contexts, such as formal/informal settings. Our findings contradict the association between code-switching and better cognitive control – the likely reason is the cognitive load during the tasks.