Beyond Lingua Franca: System-Facilitated Language Switching Diversifies Participation in Multiparty Multilingual Communication

When multiple When multiple non-native speakers (NNSs) who share the same native language join a group discussion with native speakers (NSs) of the common language used in the discussion, they sometimes switch back and forth between common language and their native language to reach common ground. However, such code-switching makes others feel excluded and thus not considered appropriate during formal meetings. To offer NNSs more flexibility to code-switch in a group discussion while minimizing the cost of excluding others, we introduced a language support tool that automatically detects between two pre-defined spoken languages, and then transcribe as well as translate them into another language (common language or NNS’s native language). In a within-subject study involving 19 quads (two Japanese and two Chinese) in a collocated setting, participants were asked to perform a series of decision-making tasks with and without the tool. Results showed that the language support tool encouraged diverse use of language during a meeting, resulting in more equal participation from each group member. Although the perceived quality of collaboration became lower, it also elicited helping behaviors among the NNS pairs.