| In recent years, code-switching has been a hot topic of bilingual cognitive studies. Code-switching(Grosjean, 1992) refers to the process that bilinguals switch between two or more languages. The code-switching cost(Kolers, 1966) involving the longer reaction time and the lower accuracy rate happens when the bilinguals switch from one language to another. The reaction time is different between from first language to second language and from second language to first language, which is called the code-switching asymmetry. Generally speaking, domestic researchers mainly focus on Chinese-English bilinguals, and oversea researchers pay more attention to Spanish-English bilinguals(e.g., Hermandez et al., 2000; Fernandez et al., 2013), German-Dutch bilinguals(e.g., Christoffels, Firk & Schiller, 2007), and French-English bilinguals(e.g., Martin-Rhee & Bialystok, 2008). Although their researches have been involved in the code-switching asymmetry, but the reason for it remains controversial. Some researchers showed that it is related to the central executive control mechanism(e.g., Mu?oz, Marquardt & Copeland, 1999; Kohnert, Bates & Hernandez, 1999), while others indicated that it is concerned with the second language proficiency(e.g., Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2005; Bialystok, 2001). Even so, researches on the Chinese-French bilinguals have not been found.Therefore, the present study tries to explore the asymmetric effect in the code-switching process for Chinese-French bilinguals with different proficiency levels. Specifically, two questions are put forward as the following:(1) Does code-switching cost happens to Chinese-French bilinguals both in Chinese to French and French to Chinese switching mode?(2) If there is code-switching cost, how does code-switching direction and French proficiency affect language code-switching process?This present study is set to research the asymmetric effect in the code-switching process for Chinese-French bilinguals with different proficiency levels by behavioral experiments. This study chooses 31 French learners as the Chinese-French bilinguals as participants and conducts three experiments with different code-switching modes. Afterwards, the reaction time and accuracy rate of the judging picture-word matching were dependent variables to find the asymmetric effect. In addition, the present study tries to explain the reasons in terms of the Bilingual Interactive Activation+ Model and Revised Hierarchical Model.This study adopted a within-subject design 3(code-switching modes: no code-switching, Chinese?French, French?Chinese) × 2(proficiency levels: high-proficiency, low-proficiency). Thirty-one students majoring in French from SISU participated in this study. The high-proficient Chinese-French bilinguals were 16 postgraduates. These 16 students have passed the Test National du Fran?ais Enseigné à Titre de Spécialité, Niveau VIII(TFS8), which indicated that they were high-proficient in French. The low-proficient Chinese-French bilinguals were 15 sophomores. These 15 students have reached Independent User Level 1(B1), which indicated that they low-proficient in French. The study consisted of three experiments(no code-switching in Experiment 1, Chinese?French mode in Experiment 2 and French?Chinese mode in Experiment 3). The study was an picture-word matching decision task, which was designed on E-prime software. In Experiment 1, participants were required to directly make a judegement to 40 sets of picture-word as soon as they see. In Experiment 2, participants were required to make a judgement to 40 sets of picture-word after the appear of the Chinese priming words. In Experiment 3, despite the priming words were French words, its procedure was the same as Experiment 2. There were one week interval among each experiment. All materials were programmed by E-Prime2.0 and the behavioral data were edited off-line and analyzed by SPSS19.0. The whole study was conducted in the Behavioral Lab of SISU.The results are as follows:(1) The high-proficient Chinese-French bilinguals and low-proficient Chinese-French bilinguals all have code-switching cost in the code-switching process. By comparing Chinese?French with French?Chinese, the code-switching cost of high-proficient bilinguals is symmetric [t=1.616, p=.107>.05]. While the code-switching cost of the low-proficient is asymmetric [t=2.215, p=.028<.05].(2) From the perspective of language proficiency levels, in the Chinese?French mode, the code-switching cost between high-proficient bilinguals and low-proficient bilinguals is no significant difference [t=-.231, p=.818>.05]; and in the French?Chinese mode, code-switching cost between high-proficient bilinguals and low-proficient bilinguals is still no significant difference [t=.660, p=.510>.05].In conclusion, first of all, the high-proficient bilinguals and low-proficient bilinguals all have code-switching cost in the code-switching process. From the perspective of code-switching direction, the code-switching cost of high-proficient bilinguals is symmetric; while the code-switching cost of low-proficient bilinguals is asymmetric. The results support Bilingual Interactive Activation+ Model and Revised Hierarchical Model. French proficiency level does not affect language code-switching process because of the familiar experimental words and easy task type. |
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