Code-switching: An Ethnographic Case Study of Four British-Bangladeshi Bilinguals

This paper reports on a study that aimed at identifying the factors that affect the switching of linguistic codes by the British-Bangladeshi bilinguals living in London and Manchester, UK. Taking an ethnographic approach, four British-Bangladeshi bilinguals were observed as well as interviewed to examine how and why these bilinguals switch codes within a multilingual context (i.e., the United Kingdom). The findings indicate that the British-Bangladeshi bilinguals switch codes for various reasons, including business communication, poor lexical knowledge in English or in a dialect, multilingual family environment, among others. The study has implications for those who are interested in bilingualism and multilingualism.