Facilitator Research Paper

Bilinguals often employ code-switching when they are communicating. The choice of the language to use will depend on whether the addressee is a monolingual or a fellow bilingual. In monolingual conversation, the bilingual will be forced to use the language that the monolingual speaker understands. In bilingual interaction, the bilingual speaker will decide whether to use first language, second or mixture of the two languages. There are several reasons as to why bilinguals employ code switching. The main reason as to why they employ code switching in their conversations is a lack of appropriate terminology in one of the languages. Another reason is that they find it better to express some notions in one language than the other (Schmidt 27).Triggering is another reason that makes a speaker switch completely from one language to another. This is because the use of one word from a different language leads to a continuation in that language. Speakers also use code-switching when they want to identify themselves with their ethnic groups. Other reasons as to why bilinguals employ code switching include emphasizing or clarifying some points, substituting a word, when expressing a concept that does not have an equivalent in the other language or when excluding someone from the conversation (Schmidt 30).
The book describes fully some of the reasons as to why bilingual speakers opt to use one language on a given occasion leaving the other and the occasions in which to use both. The book is quite enjoyable, and it further deepens into some other subtopics of code switching. The points highlighted in the book directly relates to me because I like conversing in two languages when I am with my friends and purely my mother language when conversing with my parents. The book made me understands that politicians often like using mother language when campaigning at home, so us to identify themselves with their ethnic groups and emphasize some points.

Works Cited

Schmidt, Anastasia. Between the Languages: Code-switching in Bilingual Communication. , 2014. Print.