Thus far in the empirical literature the dynamics of language switching in cross-cultural communication has been studied mainly from either a sociolinguistic or a social psychological perspective. The sociolinguistic approach has considered language switching largely in terms of normative demands related to the topic, setting and purpose of the conversation as well as various characteristics ofthe interlocutors, such as their age, role, linguistic competence, social class and ethnicity (Saville-Troike, 1982). The traditional sociolinguistic approach has usually explained language switching in terms of language norms and rules which dictate how individuals should communicate with each other in specific situations and cultural settings (Hymes, 1972). In contrast, Giles (1973) has proposed a social psychological approach to studying language switching which identifies the speaker's motives, cognitions, and group loyalties as central. Thus, studies using the social psychological approach have shown that speakers often adapt or 'accommodate' their speech towards that of their interlocutors (Giles er al., 1987). Such switches, known as speech convergence, cannot only allow for more efficient communication but can also reflect speakers' conscious or subconcious need for social integration with their interlocutor. In multilingual settings, convergence to an outgroup language may be an effective strategy for promoting interpersonal liking and for enhancing the climate of cross-cultural encounters where linguistic dissimilarities may otherwise be a serious stumbling block to intergroup harmony. This was demonstrated empirically in a study carried out in Montreal by Giles et al. (1973).In this study, it was found that bilingual English Canadian students perceived French Canadian bilinguals more favourably when the latter converged to English than when they maintained French. Moreover, the EC students were more likely to communicatein French with their FC interlocutor if the latter had previously converged to English than if he had maintained his communications only in French. Since both the EC and FC interlocutors communicated in each other's weaker language (the EC used French while the FC used English), this study showed that mutual language convergence could be used as a strategy to promote ethnic harmony even at the possible cost of communicative effectiveness. Although speakers from different ethnolinguistic groups may wish to converge linguisticaly towards each other at times, there may be circumstances where speakers wish to maintoin their own language or diverge linguistically from their interlocutor (Bourhis, 1979). Speakers may use speech maintenance and divergence because they dislike their interlocutors as individuals or because they wish to assert their group indentity vis-a-vis outgroup interlocutors. Experimental evidence depicting language divergence and language maintenance has been obtained in bilingual settings such as Belgium (Bourhis et al., 1979)