Code-alternation to Arabic Among Arabic-English Bilinguals

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the alternation from English, viz. a foreign language, to Arabic, viz. the subjects’ first language, in interviews conducted with Arabic-English bilinguals. The subjects are twenty graduate students in the Department of English Language and literature at the University of Jordan. Based on their bilingual profiles, the subjects are identified as being coordinate, i.e. school, bilinguals. The results of the study reveal that code-alternation to Arabic is not frequently used in the interviews. The analysis further indicates that the most common form of code-alternation is codeswitching and that most of the instances of codeswitching are classified as tag switches that serve the function of marking interjections.