Code-switching and Code-mixing: A gap in the Stuttering Literature

Abstract

Code-switching and code-mixing are self-management communication strategies for bilinguals to achieve a specific communication goal. Interestingly, bilingual children and adults who stutter use code-switching as a speaking strategy whenever they anticipate stuttering. However, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews and clear explanation of code-switching and code-mixing behaviors in bilingual stuttering adults and children. Thus, the present narrative review focuses on identifying studies and its gaps related to code-switching and code-mixing behaviors in stuttering. Only studies that directly tested the code-switching and code-mixing abilities of bilingual children and adults with stuttering or assessed these skills via self and parent reports were included. The findings comprised seven research from the literature on stuttering and code-switching and mixing, of which only three were published as articles, one as a thesis, two as unpublished dissertations, and one as a conference poster. Furthermore, not all of the published research focused solely on code-switching, and none of the studies concluded that code-switching is a deliberate communication strategy adopted by bilingual children and adults who stutter. Population, theoretical, methodological, knowledge, and empirical research gaps have all been found from the literature. In addition, a thorough investigation ought to concentrate on the nature, types, levels and self-reported experiences of code-switching and mixing among the bilingual children and adults who stutter.