Abstract
Proficient bilinguals have mastery of two languages, and language code-switching (CS) is often observed in conversations between bilinguals with the same language background. This study investigated the production of late bilingual functions while executing controlled CS task among 15 Japanese native speakers who use English in their professional lives on a daily basis. All subjects were first exposed to English after their twelfth birthday and currently use English in their professional lives. The task given was to name pictures in the language, either Japanese or English, given in a prompt. The subjects answered in English more rapidly than in Japanese. This suggests that they were readier to use their second language (L2) than their native language, resulting in a slower reply for Japanese. In other words, the suppression of their native language was greater than that of their L2. The findings of this study were used to develop a hypothetical model of CS production for late bilinguals.
