Validation of the ACSES instrument for measuring use and awareness of bilingual code-switching

The goal of this experiment is to develop an experimental procedure that effectively elicits natural code-switching behavior. The experimenter tried to determine if ACSES, which is a self-reporting survey, successfully measures the code-switching behavior of bilingual speakers. The experiment was designed to make bilingual speakers describe or identify pictures under certain conditions, including the use of a confederate, time constrain, randomization of pictures, and little to no supervision. The data analysis demonstrated that most participants code-switched in the code-switching mode section. However, the relative distance between participants did not present much difference. Based on the results of the experiment, the researcher could not conclusively validate or invalidate the ACSES instrument. ACSES data showed that, in the scale of 1-7, three participants reported to have code-switching tendencies in less than 3 points. Nonetheless, the researcher found that the ACSES Survey is not consistently able to predict the amount of code-switching a bilingual will use in their performance of the task. These results contradict the original hypothesis, which was that the survey analysis would successfully predict bilinguals' code-switching performance. In addition, the researcher believed that bilinguals who self-reported to code-switched, would do it regardless of the environment. Similarly, if a bilingual claimed not to code-switch, they would not do it, regardless of the language mode.