'It is likely to attract a good deal of interest because this was the first full-scale study of code-switching to be carried out in a bilingual community in Europe.'Times Higher Education Supplement'The fieldwork strategies adopted for conducting micro-level observations will be of particular interest to others engaged in community-based research on bilingualism and code-switching.'Times Higher Education Supplement'the full-length study undertaken in an exclusively European context . a valuable study.' The Modern Language Review, Vol 88 Part 2'Hers is a thoughtful and thought-provoking initial study of code choices in a particular region under a particular set of historical and social circumstances . Readers interested in a perceptive microlinguistic study of one bilingual region's code choices will find her study highly worthwhile.'Language'an enlightening picture of language contact . this detailed study is of interest at two different levels.

First, it addresses a number of theoretical issues that are discussed with the support of extensive data. Second, it gives a well-rounded picture of a language situation that is in a state of transition'Journal of Linguistic Anthropology'Choice of speakers and settings are made judiciously in line with various hypotheses on their relevance for the observed phenomena. A number of important conceptual and terminological distinctions are made with care, and carried through in the empirical study.'Sociolinguistics'The strengths of the book are in the description of the state of Alsatian, the research summary, the collection of authentic data and the analysis of the "mechanics" of code-switching.'Jörg Roche, University of British Columbia, American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures, July 1993'a long-overdue study of the phenomenon in Strasbourg . The study is well-written . and many a light touch . This is an important book, not only for those who are interested in the linguistic situation in eastern France, but for language contact studies in general.

The meticulous care with which data have been collected and analysed is a model of its kind, and one can only hope that other areas where languages are in contact will be treated with thesame attention'French Language Studies.