Attitudes towards code-switching among young and middle-aged Kannada–English-speaking adults

Abstract

Code-switching (CS) is a natural sociolinguistic phenomenon in bilingualism. This study investigated the attitudes of young and middle-aged Kannada–English-speaking adults towards CS. A total of 254 participants (143 young and 111 middle-aged) participated in this online survey. The survey included four components: demographic characteristics, proficiency, attitude and sentence acceptability task. Further, the study examined the relationship between age, proficiency, acceptability judgments and attitudes toward code-switching. Frequency analyses estimated the number and percentage of occurrences of the categorical variables. Chi-square test of association assessed the relationship between sociolinguistic variables such as age and language proficiency. Results revealed that participants generally had a positive attitude towards code-switching. The effects of age on attitudes towards CS are discussed. Overall, the study intended to draw insights regarding attitudes towards CS in India.