Fear of Assimilation and Self-Confidence: The Relationship of Code Choice and Communicative Competence in a Second Language

• Published in: Canadian journal of behavioural science 1986-04, Vol.18 (2), p.187-196
• Main Authors: Clement, Richard, Beauregard, Yves
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• ISSN: 0008-400X

The relationship between communicative competence & code choice is assessed & the relationship of both phenomena to fear of assimilation & self-confidence within an interethnic encounter is evaluated. Ss (N = 60 first-year U francophone students) were divided into 4 equal groups on the basis of their answers to fear of assimilation & self-confidence scales: high vs low self-confidence; high vs low fear of assimilation. They were interviewed individually in order to obtain communicative competence & code choice indices. Correlational analyses suggested the existence of a relationship between communicative competence & the phenomena related to linguistic accommodation. Analysis of variance revealed that only self-confidence had an influence on the behaviors under study. The results suggest an important difference between code-mixing & code-switching, the latter being related to the level of proficiency in a second lang, whereas the former evidences a strong relationship to self-confidence. These results are discussed within the context of the theories of linguistic accommodation & communicative competence. 2 Tables, 18 References. HA