This paper explored literature and empirical studies on the correlation between CS and comprehension in academic settings, as well as how CS as a strategy is employed for enhancing comprehension. A systematic literature review was extensively conducted on seven major databases, which have high readability and citation index - ScienceDirect; IBSS; scielo.org; SCOPUS; DOAJ; Taylor and Francis and Web of Science - with search strings that are the combinations of code-switching/codeswitching and keywords, namely code-switching/codeswitching and comprehension, the impact of code-switching/codeswitching on learner performance in South Africa, the impact of code-switching/codeswitching on learner performance, and the correlation between code-switching/codeswitching and comprehension. Findings from the review of local and international literature spanning seven years are ambivalent, with studies ranging from a strong positive correlation to a positive correlation, to no correlation. The paper concludes that the merits of CS in enhancing comprehension in academic settings are applied by both teachers and learners. The paper, therefore, submits that future studies should explore CS in digital learning environments, experimental settings, or policy evaluations. The paper also recommends that curriculum documents provide research-based best practices for applying the strategy as a guide to the employment of the strategy in academic settings.

Keywords: Code-switching; translanguaging; comprehension; multilingual settings; multilingualism

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