INFLUENCE OF COMMUNICATIVE SETTING AND PERSONALITY TRAITS ON CODE-SWITCHING BEHAVIOR AMONG FOREIGN LEARNERS OF ARABIC IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Individuals may code-switch to express their cultural identity, maintain social connections, or navigate complex social hierarchies. Foreign students are seriously lacking in learning and implementing modern cross-cultural language practices, mainly using personality traits and emotional attachments while visiting another country for study purposes. Further, code-switching is a common phenomenon, and it is the extent to which individual differences in personality traits and emotional states influence language choice and switching patterns. From a psycholinguistic perspective, it is still unknown if individual differences in one’s personality characteristics, including extraversion, openness, agreeableness, consciousness, and introversion, would modulate the frequency with which code-switching occurs. The present study aims to explore and understand how internal factors (personality and

emotion) interact with external sociolinguistic pressures to influence code- switching frequency of non-Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia. A structural

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equation modeling approach using the quantitative research method was applied to test the hypotheses proposed in the present study. Overall, 93 individuals engaged in conversations where their language behavior was observed and analyzed. Personality traits were measured by indicators based on a 4-point Likert scale. The communicative setting was measured by

indicators based on a 5-point Likert scale. In contrast, the frequency of code- switching was measured based on counting participants during the survey.

The findings from the present study revealed that agreeableness has a

significant negative impact on inter-sentential and intra-sentential code- switching. Furthermore, conscientiousness has no significant impact on inter- sentential and intra-sentential code-switching. Similarly, extraversion has no

significant impact on inter-sentential code-switching; on the other hand, it has a significant impact on intra-sentential code-switching. Neuroticism has a significant impact on inter-sentential code-switching, whereas it has an insignificant impact on the intra-sentential code-switching. Moreover, the

present study indicated that openness has no significant impact on inter- sentential and intra-sentential code-switching. In addition, interlocutor type has

no significant on inter-sentential code-switching. Thus, the interlocutor’s

knowledge of Arabic has a significant impact on intra-sentential code- switching. A conversational setting has a significant impact on inter-sentential

and intra-sentential code-switching. In addition, knowledge type has a significant impact on inter-sentential code-switching and has an insignificant impact on intra-sentential code-switching. Finally, emotional state has a significant impact on inter-sentential and intra-sentential code-switching. These findings suggest that individual and situational factors influence code-

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switching behavior, highlighting the complex nature of bilingual language use. Understanding these factors can enhance our comprehension of language use in bilingual or multilingual contexts. The findings emphasized the importance

of considering individual and situational variables when examining code- switching phenomena. Overall, the study contributes to our understanding of

the intricate dynamics of code-switching and provides valuable insights for linguistics research and language education.