Self-Perception of Code-Switching Among Kannada-English Bilingual Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter

Purpose: Language switch is one of the fluency strategies exhibited by bilingual adults who stutter (BAWS) to avoid stuttering. The present study aimed to compare the self-perceived code-switching (CS) behaviours between bilingual adults who do (BAWS) and do not stutter (BAWNS).Methods: Sixty Kannada-English Bilingual adults (30 BAWS and 30 BAWNS) participated in the study. The participants completed the adapted Bilingual Switching questionnaire (BSWQ) for assessing self-perceived CS behaviours.Results: The results of the current study indicated no significant difference in overall switching scores between BAWNS and BAWS. However, the mean score of L1 switch and L2 switch constructs was significantly higher for BAWNS than BAWS. On the contrary, the mean scores of contextual switching were significantly more for BAWS than BAWNS. It indicates that the BAWS use their switching behaviour in particular situations or environments more than BAWNS. In addition, the BAWS use language switching (LS) more voluntarily than BAWNS.Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggests that the intended switching in BAWS may be to avoid dysfluencies. Moreover, there was a significant difference across the stuttering severity on BSWQ scores, indicating the effect of stuttering severity in CS behaviours.