L’alternance codique : une pratique de communication langagière

Abstract

Code-Switching: A language Communication Practice

This article proposes a reflection on this so common practice that is code switching in a situation of language contact: Is it the means of communication of the perfect bilingual or a proof of the ignorance of the languages in contact? Should it be described in terms of a linguistic deficit or as a repertoire from which the speaker draws according to his needs? The aim here is not to analyze a few sentences or a conversation presenting types of code switching, but to show, through terminological clarifications, that this notion can be used to describe our way of speaking, the Algerian Arabic, without limiting ourselves to the strict framework of language teaching, and above all without calling into question either the status of the languages involved, or the linguistic knowledge of the speakers.