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Code-switching and Language transfer
There is much debate in the field of linguistics regarding the distinction between code-switching and language transfer. According to Jeanine Treffers-Daller, “considering CS (code-switching) and language transfer as similar phenomena is helpful if one wants to create a theory that is as parsimonious as possible, and therefore it is worth attempting to aim for such a unified approach, unless there is compelling evidence that this is not possible.”

Not all linguists agree on whether they should be considered similar phenomena. In some cases, linguists refer to the benefits and disadvantages of language transfer as two separate phenomena, i.e., language transference and language interference, respectively. In such views, these two kinds of language transfer, along with code-switching can, comprise what is known as cross-linguistic influence.

Part of the debate may be solved by simply clarifying some key definitions. Evidently, linguists sometimes use different terminology to refer to the same phenomenon, which can make it confusing to distinguish between two phenomena from one another in investigative discourse. For instance, psycholinguists frequently make use of the term language switching in reference to the “controlled and willed switching” to another language. However, this term is hardly used by linguists working on natural code-switching.

Linguists adopted that code-switching involves switching between languages. But when a multilingual speaker fluent in the languages being alternated, can alleviate the contention behind this debate. This is so because language transfer does not require switch between language systems to be done by a multilingual speaker. As a result, this can explain for transfer errors, when proficiency in one language is lower than the proficiency of the speaker in the other.

On the other hand, there are linguistics that maintains that,  "that CS and transfer are manifestations of the same phenomenon, i.e. the influence of one language on another, is an attractive null hypothesis that can be tested in experimental settings."