Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Navid ATAR SHARGHI ¹
• Shohrealsadat Sajjadi ²
• Zahra Dehghan Ghojur ³

¹ Persian Language Teaching Center, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.

² Persian Literature Department, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

³ visiting instructor of Persian Language Teaching Center, Imam Khomeini International University

Abstract

In contemporary society, bilingual and multilingual individuals outnumber monolinguals. When producing speech, all the vocabulary a multilingual individual knows across different languages becomes activated in their mind. To prevent the unintended production of words, a cognitive process known as inhibition is employed, which becomes particularly crucial during language switching, referred to as code-switching. This study aims to investigate the relationship between inhibition and code-switching in the speech production of non-Iranian Persian learners who are multilingual. The research involved 20 participants (15 females and 5 males) who underwent three tasks: naming, Simon task, and color-word task. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 26, employing both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicate a significant relationship between inhibition and code-switching in non-Iranian Persian learners. Additionally, younger learners exhibited stronger inhibition compared to older ones, while gender did not influence inhibition processes; however, their first and second languages did have an impact.

Keywords

• Inhibition
• executive functions
• code-switching
• bilingualism
• multilingualism