The Source Of Intra-Sentential Switch Costs

Attempts to explore the sources of intra-sentential switch costs,the current study manipulated the two between-subject factors including language proficiency and inhibition control ability,two within-subject factors including cross-linguistic variance and switch direction.The active sentence and passive sentence were embedded into the adverbial clause of time.They were either similar or different between English and Chinese and serving as cross-linguistic variances in the current study.Recruiting 75 Chinese ESL learners as participants,the current study using the experimental paradigm of self-paced reading to explore the sources of intra-sentential switch costs.The result showed that,firstly,the language proficiency was critical in modulating intra-sentential switch costs.The high-proficiency group showed smaller switching costs than the lowproficiency group.Secondly,both group showed a larger switch costs when switching from L2-L1.Thirdly,unlike previous studies,the similarity of cross-linguistic syntactic structures did not facilitate the process of intra-sentential code-switching.Both groups revealed larger switching costs when the stimuli are syntactically similar in Chinese and English.Fourth,the inhibitory control ability didn't significantly affect the switch costs of comprehending the intra-sentential code-switched sentences among Chinese ESL learners.In summary,the advancing of the language proficiency would enhance the switching ability of the bilinguals.Moreover,on the one hand,cross-linguistic similarities increased intra-sentential switch costs.On the other hand,Chinese ESL learners tends to reveal a larger switch costs when switching from L2-L1.In a word,the sources of switch costs in intra-sentential code-switched sentences comprehension are mainly from language proficiency,cross-linguistic syntactic similarities and switching direction.