Bilingual speakers often code-switch from one language to another, especially when both languages are used in the environment. This article explores the potential theoretical explanations for this language behavior, the costs and benefits associated with language switching, and the role of language dominance in the direction of the switch. In short, code switching follows functional and grammatical principles and is a complex, rule-governed phenomenon. Although significant progress has been made in understanding the psycholinguistics of code switching, research is needed to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying the bilingual's ability to integrate and separate two languages during the communicative process.

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Do bilinguals represent their two languages in one or two memory stores? Consider a word such as loz'e. This word elicits certain associations pertaining to relationships or emotions involving objects, things, or persons, especially for a monolingual speaker of English. Now, consider tliis same concept in a bilingual setting. Docs the concept of "love" carry information regarding its translation equivalent of aruor (e.g., the fact that in Spanish this concept is used primarily to show emotions to persons, but not to animals or objects)? Early researchers addressed this question at a general level by posing that there are separate memory stores if the two languages are learned in different settings (e.g., home vs. school), but a common memory store if the languages are learned simultaneously in the same setting (Ervin & Osgood, 1954). Recent research, however, has addressed this classic question by focusing more closely on how the Recommended Reading

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