In the fields of bilingualism and second language(L2)acquisition,growing attention has been paid to code-switching in Chinese heritage learners,as they show how early linguistic and cultural influence affects language use.Most existing studies focused on balanced bilinguals,but little has been done to understand the differences in code-switching between Chinese heritage and non-heritage learners.Moreover,no studies have focused on L2 codeswitching in computer-mediated communication,which has become a daily routine of many L2 learners after the COVID pandemic.To fill these gaps,the present study compared differences in code-switching instances between five Chinese heritage and five non-heritage learners in a semi-structured interview in English conducted via Zoom.Results showed that the heritage learners have more instances of code-switching from English to Chinese and knowledge of Chinese cultural terms but fewer linguistic errors than the non-heritage learners.Results also revealed that all the learners shared similar code-switching reasons,but the heritage and non-heritage learners differed in their self-reported code-switching situations.
