Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt

International Journal of Social Science and Human Research ISSN (print): 2644-0679, ISSN (online): 2644-0695 Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 DOI: 10.47191/ijsshr/v8-i11-60, Impact factor8.007 Page No: 9002-9014 IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9002 Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic CodeMixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt Tasbeeh Yasser1, Wesam K. Morsi2 1,2 The British University in Egypt, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of English Language and Literature ABSTRACT: Code-mixing occurs when speakers alternate between two or more languages within a single utterance, and it is used in different social contexts such as academic, media, and daily conversations. Given the paucity of studies conducted on codemixing phenomenon at the university level in Egypt, the current study aims to examine the perception of phycology Department students toward English-Arabic code-mixing at a private university in Egypt. The participants of the study were 70 Egyptian female and male students that aged from 17-23 years old. A survey of 18 questions was distributed to the participants. The qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. Research findings demonstrated that code-mixing helped students to express their emotions clearly without feeling anxious or embarrassed about speaking with their addressees within different social contexts, and most of the students showed a positive attitude toward code-mixing. During informal or casual conversations with others, codemixing served as a language that each one used to represent their identity. In academic contexts, students were encouraged to codemix in lectures, which helps them to join more discussions during the lecture and to express complex concepts easily without feeling anxious. While, other students used code-mixing strategy to express some specific technical expressions that are culturally refined with their native language. As for the current results, they provide a valuable insight for further research, which suggests to distribute the survey across all faculties or piloted to other universities to understand more about the attitudes and perceptions of students toward code-mixing at university level in Egypt. Thus, code-mixing is not a direct form of language, but it is an important communicative strategy that is used in different communities. The importance of the current study stems from its sociolinguistic approach to cover a distinct gap in code-mixing, based on previous studies. KEYWORDS: Sociolinguistics, Code-mixing, Second Language Acquisition, Egyptian EFL students 1. INTRODUCTION In all societies, language plays a crucial role in communication and interaction for its users. Language gives people the possibility to express themselves, to share their experiences, and to convey their thoughts and opinions. In fact, languages may vary from one community to another. However, all people from all over the world have the ability to acquire and use multiple linguistic repertoires that occurs in different contexts (Hasna, 2022). Nowadays, bilingualism and multilingualism have become a common phenomenon because of political, economic, historical, and linguistic causes. Researchers recognized that people may code-mix consciously or unconsciously between two or more lexical items from different languages within the same single utterance to convey their ideas during any conversation. This alteration creates a sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is known as code-mixing (CM) (Hasna, 2022). Code-mixing is a significant topic of interest that enables researchers to understand the use of code-mixing and to understand people’s perspective towards code-mixing. In the Arab world, people may code-mix between Arabic and other language, which is mostly English. English is known as Lingua Franca or the dominate language all over the world (Abbas et al., 2011). Most non-native English countries use or speak English along with their mother tongue. This is a common phenomenon among many non-native English societies such as Egypt. In Egypt, people code-mix between Arabic and English most of the time. Although English is not the primary language in Egypt, it is mostly used, especially in schools and universities curricula. This suggests that students may code-mix between Arabic and English in some situations due to their habit of mixing two languages or for other reasons. Although several studies have investigated students’ attitudes toward code-mixing, few studies have been conducted on this topic in Egypt. Hence, this study aims to examine the perception of Phycology Department students toward English-Arabic codemixing at a private university in Egypt. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The theoretical framework of the present study is based on various theories including network theory, stance theory, Gumperz’s theory, and communication accommodation theory. According to Abbas et al. (2011) and Bayot (2020), the term “code” Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9003 is defined as a verbal component that can range from a morpheme to a comprehensive and complex as the entire system of language. Moreover, Marjohan (1995) defined “code” as a term, which refers to a variety. Thus, a code may be an idiolect, a dialect, a register, or a language. Hanafiah et al. (2018), Hasna (2022), and Hussein (1999) agreed that bilingualism is the use of two languages, while multilingualism is the use of more than two languages to interact with people. According to Hanafiah et al. (2018), a speaker has a linguistic repertoire consisting of different codes. A monolingual speaker communicates with different codes depending on the language variety. While, it is normal for people communicating in bilingual or multilingual societies to choose between two or more codes (language). However, the bilingual or multilingual speakers should consider their interlocuter’s variety or language to accommodate with them. Researchers found that speakers would be encouraged to socialize and interact with others to maintain relationships. This was explored through three theories, including network theory, stance theory, and Gumperz’s theory. The first theory is the network theory that is used to examine and understand the motivation of code-mixing. Individuals are often influenced by their social networks, which motivates them to code-mix even if they did not intend to code-mix. According to Milroy (1985), social network is “the web-like pattern of relationships among individuals” that includes person’s family, work community, or other branched communities. The social networks of a person are constantly changing and not static. Consequently, the development of one’s knowledge and linguistic choices changes. For the second theory, the stance theory explains people’s motivation for code-mixing. Stance creates the social identity of an individual through using linguistic forms (Bassiouney, 2010). Moreover, an individual’s identity is constructed and promoted through stance taking, which occurs when an individual positions themselves or others into a particular category shaping their own or others’ identities (Du Bois, 2007). In the third theory, Gumperz’s theory (1982, as cited in Amin, 2018) is based on situational code-switching (CS) is when an individual switches between languages based on their different activities, places, groups of people that they communicate with daily, which makes it similar to the concept of diglossia. Each language varieties plays an important role or function within the local speech repertoire, which constructs a relationship between the use of language and the social context. Furthermore, recent years have witnessed numerous studies on the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). Communication is an essential part of people’s lives, and they use it every day to express themselves. For example, communication is used between a mother and her child or between a teacher and a student, and in other social contexts (Elhami, 2020). When people converse with their interlocuters, they apply two strategies including divergence and convergence. In divergence strategy, the speaker alters their speech patterns to make them different from their interlocuter’s pattern. While in convergence, the speaker adjusts their speech patterns to be similar to their interlocuter’s pattern. People use these two strategies consciously and unconsciously to communicate in various social contexts (Elhami, 2020). 3. LITERATURE REVIEW Code-mixing is a common phenomenon among Arab speakers in the course of a single utterance (Abbas et al., 2011) and (Hanafiah et al., 2018). In other words, codemixing is about changing some lexical items while structuring a sentence using another language within a single utterance. For Arab speakers, sometimes they code-mix between English and Arabic due to they are used to this since childhood. Thus, this affects the Arabic language structure of speakers and creates a daily habit of code-mixing (AlAhdal, 2020). From the same perspective, it was found that code-mixing had a negative impact on the sentence structure of both Arabic or English (Hussein’s,1999). Despite that code-mixing affects the sentence structure, code-mixing is an important phenomenon for understanding socio-culture contexts and its dynamics. Hussein (1999) carried out a research paper to investigate the attitudes and practices of Jordanian university students regarding code-switching (CS) and code-mixing (CM) with English. This study collected data using qualitative approach and a structured survey. Hussein (1999) study found that the main reason behind students’ tendency to use English terms inside Arabic sentences was that students faced a problem in replacing English terms with Arabic terms. The reason is that either students are not familiar with these terms in Arabic, or the terms does not have an equivalent Arabic terminology. In addition, the results showed that English has become more integrated into the daily conversations of the students, despite being their second language. Hussein’s (1999) study demonstrated that code-mixing may appear in some situations as an effective communicative tool that solves the problem of university students’ lack in certain Arabic terms. Another study was conducted by Hayek (2016), this study examined the Jordanian students’ linguistic phenomena of codemixing (CM) and their perspectives on Arabic-English code-mixing. This study collected its data using mixed approaches including quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the qualitative approach, there were 17 focused group interviews, and each focused group interview ranged from two to six students. Additionally, the students were interviewed twice without being informed about the specific topic of the research. While the quantitative approach included a structured questionnaire that was written in English and translated into Arabic in order to be understandable to all participants. Hayek (2016) study revealed that gender factor impacts code-mixing in which females code-mix more than males for showing suaveness, proficiency, or other social purposes. While males Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9004 intended to code-mix more than females for linguistic reasons. Furthermore, the study’s results demonstrated that age could be another factor affecting code-mixing. Younger students were more likely to code-mix than older students due to their greater exposure to media. Additionally, students who attended private or international schools were more likely to code-mix due their exposure to English at an early age. According to Hayek’s (2016) study findings, his study reflected that many factors can affect code-mixing such as gender, age, and education level. Thus, this study proved that code-mixing is not just a means of communication, but that it can be affected by other factors. Hayek (2016) study mentioned some limitations that should be taken into consideration. The limitation of this study is that the sample had been distributed to only three Jordanian universities, which makes the study’s findings cannot be generalized. Moreover, the second limitation that the study’s data observed students’ linguistic behaviors over the course of two months on a specific situation. It would have been better to observe the students’ linguistic attitudes throughout their academic year in different contexts. Bayot (2020) and Rukh et al. (2014) agreed that code-mixing is an effective strategy for communication. In Bayot (2020) study, she examined college students’ attitudes toward code-mixing as a tool in second or foreign language learning at Qassim university, Saudi Arabia. In contrast, Rukh et al. (2014) research explored business students’ attitudes towards teachers’ codeswitching and code-mixing to first language (L1) and its influence on their overall second language (L2) learning in Sargodha. Despite the differences in samples and settings of the two studies, Bayot (2020) and Rukh et al. (2014) concluded that code-mixing helped students to express themselves confidently and understand any complex academic contents. Moreover, Bayot (2020) and Rukh et al. (2014) reached that most of the students showed a positive attitude toward code-mixing, and students who code-mix with their teachers were more comfortable and had raised in their English proficiency. 4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Most researchers focused on analysing how students use code-mixing when interacting with others. This does not negate that there were other researchers that examined code-mixing from another perspective, which was the students’ attitudes toward code-mixing. Moreover, most of the researchers who studied the code-mixing phenomena at the university level were from outside Egypt. Even in Egypt, most of the research papers were conducted on code-mixing phenomena at media level more than at academic level (Amin, 2018). Unfortunately, there are not many research papers that address university students’ perspectives towards codemixing. In addition, there are few research papers that have mentioned the topic of code-mixing in both English and Arabic, especially in Egypt. The present study took a sociolinguistic approach to examine the perception of Phycology Department students toward English-Arabic code-mixing at a Private University in Egypt. This study covered a different gap in code-mixing and built upon previous studies, which added up to the current literature. 5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The purpose of the present study was to examine the perception of Phycology Department students toward English-Arabic code-mixing at a Private University in Egypt. The study attempted to answer the following questions: 1. What are the primary motivations for code-mixing among Phycology department students at Private University? a. From students’ perspectives, how do these motivations vary across different contexts (e.g. social, academic, online, etc.)? b. How do students in the Phycology department perceive code-mixing (on-campus/off-campus)? 6. METHODOLOGY The present study targeted a sample of 70 students of Phycology Department at a Private University in Egypt, located in Cairo. The sample of the study included female and male students that aged from 17-23 years old. The study adopted the qualitative and quantitative approach to collect its data in order to adhere to its research questions. The technique used in collecting the data was simple random sampling. This study used a survey that consisted of 18 questions. The 18 questions of the survey are divided into three sections including demographic questions, Likert-scale questions, and Open-ended questions, as it is shown in appendix A. The researchers developed the survey questions. Some of the questions were adapted from (Abbas et al., 2011), and some of them were generated by artificial intelligence (AI), but these questions were later modified. Briefly, the content of the survey questions included understanding the students’ motive to code-mix, how students perceive code-mixing, etc. For more details about the content of the survey questions, they are shown in appendix A. Moreover, the survey of the present study was constructed by Google Forms. Google Forms is a free online platform that is provided by Google. It is a friendly interface that helps people easily build their survey and publish it for their audience. In addition, Google Forms platform allows you to track the results and percentages of your survey (Kurniawati & Lestari, 2020). The survey was piloted on two platforms, such as, WhatsApp and Outlook. Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9005 7. RESEARCH ETHICS The authors adhered to ethical guidelines provided by the Department of English Language and Literature. The survey provided each participant with a Consent Form to obtain official approval from the participant. This procedure was necessary according to the stipulations of the Human Ethical Research Committee at The British University in Egypt. In addition, the purpose of the study was explained to the participants before obtaining any information from them and that it is necessary to develop the educational methods at the faculty. The aim of the research was not stated clearly to ensure that all participants’ responses will be genuine and authentic. Furthermore, all the students that participated in the survey were aware that their participation would be completely voluntary. The participants were informed that their responses would be anonymous and kept confidential. These ethical guidelines were important for constructing credibility and validity of the study. 8. DATA ANALYSIS & RESULTS 8.1. Student’s Motive to Code-mix In investigating the perception of Phycology Department students toward English-Arabic code-mixing at a Private University in Egypt. To check the survey’s reliability and validity, the the coefficient “Cronbach’s Alpha (a)” as statistical test was used. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for total sample reached (0.872), which indicates that the high degree of persistence of the study sample, which reflected its impact on Validity (which represents the square root of the Reliability) as it hit (0.933), which means a high degree of internal stability for all survey items. The reliability level is (0.872), which is greater than (0.70), and this reflects on the credibility which means the possibility of reeling on these measures (see table 1). Table 1. Reliability and Validity for research variables by using "Cronbach alpha coefficient" Research variables Reliability Validity The perception of Phycology Department students toward English-Arabic code-mixing at a Private University in Egypt. 0.872 .933 Most of the participants were 62 females who represent 88% of the whole sample, but there were only 8 males, who represent 11% of the whole sample (see figure 1). Figure 1 The Participants’ Gender The participants of this study were asked about their primary motivations for code-mixing between English and Arabic. The responses were that the highest percentage was 55 (78%) of the students were motivated to code-mix in order to express themselves effectively and to fill in some lexical gaps. In addition, 48 (68%) of the students were adapting to the language preferences of their interlocuters. While the least percentage was 12 (17%) of the students were motivated to codemix in order to reflect their level of education and social status (see figure 2). Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9006 Figure 2. Student’s Motive to Code-mix Between English and Arabic 8.2. Different Social Contexts The students were asked how these motivations vary across different contexts from their perspectives. Their responses indicated that 49 (70%) of the students code-mix more in off-campus contexts such as at parties or clubs, rather than with family or during shopping, which was the highest percentage. In academic contexts, 30 (42%) of the students were motivated to code-mix in classrooms during lectures. Moreover, the online chats and on-campus contexts indicated the exact same number of 27 (38%) students who were motivated to code-mix in these contexts. While the least percentage was the administrative institutions, where 25 (35%) of the students preferred to code-mix in this context (see figure 3). Figure 3. Different Social Contexts 8.3. The Students’ Perception of Code-mixing After analysing students’ motivations to code-mix and the different social contexts in which they would be encouraged to code-mix, students were asked to tell how they perceive code-mixing. The results for this question were divided into three subconcepts, including whether code-mixing is effective, it has negative impact on the sentence structure, and the students’ perception of others who code-mix. In figure 4, the students responded to the question of the effectiveness of code-mixing. The highest percentage of students, 31 (44%) selected that they do “agree” that code-mixing is effective. Furthermore, there were 24 (34%) of the students “strongly agree” that code-mixing is an effective phenomenon for communication. While only one student selected that code-mixing is not effective (see figure 4). 55 34 14 12 48 010 20 30 40 50 60 To express yourself effectively and to fill in some lexical gaps. To show solidarity, build rapport, and strong social connections with your colleges. To show your proficiency in both languages. To reflect your level of education and your social standard status. To adapt to the language preference of the person I'm speaking with. Number of Students Motive Student's motive to code-mix between English and Arabic 27 27 49 25 30 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Online chats On campus Off-campus setting Administrative institutions Classroom academic Number of Students Contexts Different Social Contexts Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9007 Figure 4. Code-mixing Negative impact on the Speaker’s Sentence Structure In figure 5, the students responded to the question of whether code-mixing had a negative impact on the speaker’s sentence structure or not. Thirty students (42%) responded “neutral”, which were the highest percentage. While 24 students (34%) answered “yes” that code-mixing affects the structure of the sentence. In addition, there were 16 (22%) of the students answered “no” that code-mixing does not have any negative impact on the sentence structure (see figure 5). Figure 5. Negative Impact on the Sentence Structure In figure 6, the students responded to the question of how the students perceive others who code-mix. There were 38 (54%) of the students perceive other who code-mixing as “neutral”, the highest percentage. While 17 (24%) and 16 (22%) of the students perceive code-mixing as “very positive” and “positively”, which means approximately (46%) of the students perceive code-mixing as a positive phenomenon. Moreover, the least percentages were 1 for “negatively” and 1 for “very negatively”, which means approximately (2%) of the students who perceive code-mixing as a negative phenomenon. (see figure 6). Figure 6. Students’ Perception of Others who Code-mix. 24 31 11 31 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Number of Students The Effectivness of Code-mixing 24 30 16 0 20 40 1 2 3 Number of Students Negative impact on the speaker's sentence structure Yes Neutral No 17 16 38 1 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Very positive Positively Neutral Negatively Very negative Nuber of Students Students' perception of others who code-mix Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9008 9. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS In accordance with the study’s research questions, this study examined the primarily motivations of the department of Phycology students for code-mixing, their perceptions to code-mix across different social contexts, and how they perceive codemixing. The present study agrees with some other research papers in the field in some respects and differs in others. These will be explained in detail in this section. 9.1. The Students’ Motivation for Code-mixing Q: (1) What are the primary motivations for code-mixing among Phycology department students at Private University? By asking the students this question, the researchers intended to understand why students might be motivated to use codemixing in their everyday communication. In figure 2, 78% of the students responded that they are motivated to code-mix in order to express themselves effectively and to fill in some lexical gaps. This interprets that most of the students prefer to code-mix between English and Arabic because they may not be able to find a specific expression or lexical item in either English or Arabic, so they substitute the English or Arabic lexical item with the other to fill this gap and to convey their conversation effectively. The present study results aligned in this aspect with Hussin (1999) and Rukh et al. (2014). Both studies have shown that code-mixing may appear to be an effective communicative tool that solves students’ problems of lacking in some Arabic or English lexical items. In addition, 68% of the students were adapting to the language preferences of their addressee. This explains that these students prefer to converge their speech patterns according to their interlocuter’s preferences. As stated by one of the students, student number 29, saying ‘not everyone speaks English or code-mix between the two languages, and when I encounters someone who speaks Arabic only, I avoids code-mixing and focuses on choosing all the Arabic expressions, so my interlocuter can easily understand me and feel familiar with the conversational pattern’. In a very similar way argued another student, student number 52, ‘once, I wanted to place an order, so I made a phone call to a store. However, I spoke in Arabic only, and when I noticed that the man is code-mixing between English and Arabic while speaking, I adapted to speak using code-mixing too. I avoided speaking in Arabic only in order to make him understand my request, and not wanting the man to assume that I did not understand the English expressions he used in Arabic sentences’. Therefore, both students converged their speech patterns, so their interlocuters could understand them, avoiding any lack of communication. Additionally, code-mixing can help students express their cultural and linguistic identities and understand others’ identities, and it shows how each one thinks and speaks. This suggests that the students subconsciously applied the communication accommodation theory that people can use to communicate together, making the results of the present study agree in this aspect with the study of Elhami (2020). His study demonstrated that one of the communication methods that people use is convergence where communicators reduce the differences at the linguistic level to adapt to their interlocutor’s behavior in order to make them feel familiar with the speech pattern. Furthermore, as mentioned in analysis section in figure 2, the least percentage 17% of the students were motivated to codemix to reflect their level of education and social status. As student number 49 stated ‘I code-mixes to show my interlocuter that I have a high educational level, and I want to reflect the I am from a high social class’. This interprets that only few students consider code-mixing to only show their social status or educational level. The present study results agree in this aspect with Shah et al. (2019), demonstrating that some students may code-mix just to show their social class level between their colleagues. 9.2. Code-mixing in Different Social Contexts Q: (1a) From students’ perspectives, how do these motivations vary across different contexts (e.g. social, academic, online, etc.)? 9.2.1. Off Campus Context In accordance to the present study’s research question, there were 70% of the students responded that they prefer to code-mix more in off-campus contexts, especially at parties or clubs, rather than with family or during shopping, as mentioned in the analysis section in figure 3. As reported by student 31, saying ‘I prefer to use English and Arabic with my friends more than with my family because my friends will understand me directly when I code-mix, but my family will not’ On the contrary, student 5 stated ‘I code-mix with my friends and family and both of them can understand me easily’. This interprets that both students communicated in off-campus contexts; however, student 31 found it easier to code-mix with friends than family, while student 5 found it easier to code-mix with friends and family. This suggests that the family of student 31 may not have a strong English-speaking background, which makes the student not motivated to code-mix with his/her family; on the other hand, the family of student 5 may have a strong English-speaking background and understand it better, which encourages the student to code-mix with his/her family comfortably. In this aspect, this study respondents align with Shah et al. (2019). 9.2.2. Academic Context For the classroom academic context, 42% of the students were motivated to code-mix in classrooms during lectures, as mentioned in the analysis section in figure 3. As student 3 stated ‘What motivates me to code-mix between Arabic and English when asking a question in the classroom is primarily my need to ensure my message is clearly understood. Sometimes some certain terms or concepts are easier to explain in Arabic, as this is my mother tongue’. This explains that student 3 is motivated to code-mix in classroom to ensure that the professor and others understand the question accurately and clearly. In addition, student 3 believes that there are some concepts are easier to be understood if he/she used their mother tongue or native language (Arabic) into the English Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9009 sentences to express themselves. Moreover, student 6 stated ‘I am motivated to code-mix between English and Arabic when I feel the professor leaves room for code-mixing, but if that does not happen, then I just speak in English only’. This suggests that the student 6 may be motivated to code-mix if the professor allows this, or if the professor understands both English and Arabic languages, making it easier for the students to express themselves in a comprehensive and clear manner. Thus, this motivation may sometimes stem from the professor’s perspective, not only depending on the student’s perspective. In a similar vein, student 55 stated ‘I understands the complex concepts and express myself better when I code-mix between English and Arabic. Also, it helps me fill any lexical gaps I have in English’. This means that student 55 can express themselves more clearly when code-mixing English and Arabic, and he/she may understand the lesson more clearly when he/she hears the professor use code-mixing strategy. Additionally, code-mixing reduces students’ anxiety and hesitation about participating in the classroom with others. Conversely, code-mixing helps students feel confident and willing to express themselves. The present study aligns in this aspect with Bayot (2020) and Rukh et al. (2014). Both agreed that code-mixing helped students to express themselves confidently and understand any complex academic contents. 9.2.3. Online Chats Context Uncommonly, the use of online chats did not exceed 38% of the total sample, which was expected to be higher. This suggests that students may not be motivated to code-mix between English and Arabic in text messages, but they do code-mix while speaking. Additionally, switching between English and Arabic keyboards may be more confusing and time-consuming, so they prefer to use just one keyboard, which may force them to text using only one language. However, the present study results conflicts in this aspect with Aburqayiq et al. (2025) and Zulfira (2022), as both agree that students code-mix on social media to represent prestige and demonstrate identity, and they believed that is considered normal with the advancement of technology and artificial intelligence. 9.2.4. Administrative Institutions Contexts For the administrative institutions’ context, 35% of the students preferred to code-mix in this context, as shown in the analysis section in figure 3. This is the lowest percentage, which means that there are not many students code-mix between English and Arabic in administrative institutions, such as hospitals, police stations, etc. As student 28 reported ‘If I'm going to a government place in Egypt, I will usually speak in Arabic, not English. Most people working there speak Arabic, and all the forms, documents, and official work are done in Arabic too. It's not common to use English or mix it with Arabic in these places because not everyone speaks English well’. This interprets that student 28 is not motivated or encouraged to code-mix with the employees who are working in the government agency due to it is common the lack of proficiency in English among government employees in Egypt, and they understand Arabic better. Thus, student 28 uses Arabic language only and do not use code-mixing strategy in communicating with the employees. This reflects that the environment of the place plays an important role that may have an impact on motivating an individual to code-mix or not. 9.3. The Students’ Perception of Code-mixing Q: (1b) How do students in the Phycology department perceive code-mixing (on-campus/off-campus)? To provide answers to this question, the authors sought to cover a full spectrum and more nuanced responses from the students. Therefore, this question was divided into three sub-concepts, including the students’ perception of others who code-mix, whether code-mixing is effective, and it has negative impact on the sentence structure. 9.3.1. The Perception of Students toward Code-mixing By asking the students how they perceived others who code-mix, we aim to understand how each student perceived codemixing as influenced by their background knowledge, educational environment, or personal attitudes. Fifty four percent of the students perceive others who code-mixing as “neutral”, which means they do not either perceive code-mixing as positive or negative, as shown in analysis section in figure 6. This suggests that these students may depend on their interlocutor’s background knowledge or depending on the setting, as discussed earlier in the section of “code-mixing in different social contexts”. As one of the students responded ‘I perceive code-mixing according to the situation. If it is a formal situation I do not think it’s good to code-mix, but if with friends its acceptable’. This reflects that students may show positive attitude towards code-mixing in casual or informal situations; they may perceive it negatively in formal situations such as presentations or formal interviews. This demonstrates that the environment and situation may alter students’ perception toward code-mixing. Furthermore, there were 24% and 22% of the students perceived others who code-mix as “very positive” and “positively”, meaning that approximately 46% of the students perceived code-mixing as a positive phenomenon. This indicates that these students show a positive attitude toward code-mixing, which means that code-mixing may helped them to create a sense of community and made conversation more engaging and spontaneous, as discussed earlier in the section of “the students’ motivation for code-mixing”. The findings of the present study agree with Bayot (2020) and Rukh et al. (2014). Both reached that most of the students showed a positive attitude toward codemixing, and students who code-mix were more comfortable and engaged in conversations. Investigating Linguistic Boundaries: The Impact of English-Arabic Code-Mixing Among Psychology Students in Egypt IJSSHR, Volume 08 Issue 11 November 2025 www.ijsshr.in Page 9010 9.3.2. The Effectiveness’ of Code-mixing As mentioned in the analysis section in figure 4, there were 44% of the students responded to the question of the effectiveness of code-mixing by selecting “agree”, while 34% of the students selected that they do “strongly agree”. This means that approximately 78% of the whole sample agree that code-mixing is an effective strategy that can be used for communication. As student 40 stated, ‘I code-mix when I cannot find a direct translation to the phrase or word that I want to say’. This suggests that communication is easier for the students when they are able to code-mix between English and Arabic, helping them to express their emotions clearly and use expressions from the other language, especially those that lack of direct translation. Moreover, student 68 affirmed saying ‘it helps me to avoid any kind of obstacles while communicating with others. This explains that code-mixing helps the students to communicate smoothly, even when they cannot express themselves in a language, they can use the other one, which reflects real-life contexts, especially in multicultural societies. The results of the current study agree in this aspect with Bayot (2020) and Rukh et al. (2014), as they both agreed that code-mixing is an effective phenomenon. 9.3.3. The Negative Impact of Code-mixing Sentence Structure As mentioned in the analysis section in figure 5, the students responded to the question of whether code-mixing had a negative impact on the speaker’s sentence structure. There were 42% of the students selected “neutral”, while there were 34% of the students answered “yes” that code-mixing affects the structure of the sentence. In fact, this interprets that most of the students find the code-mixed sentences structures are adequate to their hearing and they do not feel anything odd in listening to English and Arabic languages together. However, one of the students that voted “yes” said ‘for sure code-mixing impacts the sentence structure of the two languages, but when I hear it, I do not feel that there is something strange about the sentence, it feels natural’. This represents that code-mixing may have a negative impact on the sentence’s structure in both languages, but this does not negate the fact that code-mixing still sounds natural to hear. In this regard, the present study results agree with what Hussein (1999) concluded that code-mixing affects sentence structure, whether Arabic or English structures. However, he still believes that code-mixing is an important phenomenon for communication. 10. LIMITATIONS It is worth nothing that the study has some limitations that can be addressed, opening the doors for further studies. The present study has some limitations. The first limitation is that the survey is distributed at Phycology Department only, which makes the results of the study cannot be generalized on the whole faculty or whole university. The second limitation is that it is expected to find the majority of the results are from females, since most of Phycology department are females. This would make most of the results reflect women attitudes toward CM. While the minority of the results reflect the males’ attitudes toward CM. This would make the study have a biased sample. The study cannot even determine whether females code-mix more than males or vice versa due to the inconvenient percentages of females and males’ sample. The fourth limitation is that the present study only examined the students’ perceptions and attitudes toward code-mixing, but did not examine the professors’ attitudes toward code-mixing, especially in academic contexts. 11. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH For further research, it is recommended to conduct a larger sample such as distributing the survey on the whole faculty or the university, so the results can reflect the attitudes and perceptions of all students toward code-mixing from different faculties in this Private University or piloted to other universities in Egypt. Since, the present study sample does not represent a convenient sample of females and males, the gender variable was not considered in this research paper. However, it is recommended for further research to consider the gender variable to determine whether females and males’ attitudes have the same stance toward code-mixing or not. Furthermore, during this research it was found that incorporating students’ native language reduces their feelings of insecurity and hesitation. Thus, further research may investigate the use of code-mixing as a strategy to reduce foreign language anxiety. Additionally, it is recommended to examine the student and professor’s attitudes and perceptions toward code-mixing, not just students. 12. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the present study aimed to examine the perception of Phycology Department students toward English-Arabic code-mixing at a Private University in Egypt. By investigating the students’ motivations and perspectives toward code-mixing, the results demonstrated that most of the students are motivated to code-mix to express themselves effectively and to fill in lexical gaps. In addition, some students code-mix to converge to their interlocuter speech pattern. Besides, the findings revealed that students are motivated to code-mix with others according to social contexts. In the off-campus context, the students were highly motivated to code-mix with others, especially in parties or clubs with friends. Moreover, the students were engaged to code-mix in academic contexts such as lectures, which helped them participate confidently and express themselves clearly without anxiety. Furthermore, most of the students showed a positive attitude toward code-mixing; however, some students seen that code-mixing had a negative