Code-switching in young bilingual toddlers: A longitudinal, cross-language investigation

Abstract

Although there is a body of work investigating code-switching (alternation between two languages in production) in the preschool period, it largely relies on case studies or very small samples. The current work seeks to extend extant research by exploring the development of code-switching longitudinally from 31 to 39 months of age in two distinct groups of bilingual children: Spanish–English children in San Diego and French–English children in Montréal. In two studies, consistent with previous research, children code-switched more often between than within utterances and code-switched more content than function words. Additionally, children code-switched more from Spanish or French to English than the reverse. Importantly, the factors driving the rate of code-switching differed across samples such that exposure was the most important predictor of code-switching in Spanish–English children whereas proficiency was the more important predictor in French–English children.

Touching while listening: Does infants’ haptic word processing speed predict vocabulary development?

“…As previously discussed, visual word processing speed has been reported to predict vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual children between two and eight years Peter et al, 2019;Smolak et al, 2021). Regarding haptic word processing, to date, only two studies have been conducted and only short-term predictability (from ages 1;4 to 1;10) has been observed in bilinguals (Legacy et al, 2018;Smolak, DeAnda, Enriquez, Poulin-Dubois & Friend, 2019). We extended past work by testing a sample of French-English children with a wide range of second language exposure.…”

Codeswitching within prepositional phrases: Effects of switch site and directionality

“…DETs) and lexical elements (e.g. Ns) in CS has also been argued elsewhere (Dussias, 2002;Jake et al, 2002;Smolak et al, 2020). Jake et al (2002) account for this asymmetry by showing that if DETs were supplied by the EL, the ML would become less 'transparent ' (p. 87).…”

“…In Raichlin et al (2019), the directionality findings were clearly weighted in favor of CS into L2/Hebrew, due to greater exposure to the societal language in the preschool classroom, in the playground, on the street in the children's mixed neighborhoods, and in their homes, where older siblings and even parents all provided Hebrew input. Smolak et al (2020) reported that for some groups of the Spanish-English bilingual children in their study, low exposure to Spanish caused them to codeswitch into English. Similarly, Ribot and Hoff (2014) noted that CS directionality differences in Spanish-English bilingual children were a function of L1 or L2 input: the children who had more English input switched more from Spanish to English, while the children with higher Spanish input switched more from English to Spanish.…”

“…Sequential bilinguals, that is, those whose home language was acquired before the societal language, tend to become stronger in the societal language (Basnight-Brown & Altarriba, 2007;Ebert & Kohnert, 2016;Jia et al, 2006). They have been reported to codeswitch more from their less proficient to their more proficient language (Genesee et al, 1995;Lanvers, 2001;Ribot & Hoff, 2014;Smolak et al, 2020). For example, in a study of preschoolers' performance on screening tests in Spanish and English, Greene et al (2012) found a correlation between language dominance and CS direction, where Spanish dominant children switched more from English to Spanish, English dominant children switched more in the opposite direction, and balanced bilinguals switched in both directions.…”

“…Other interpretations of asymmetries in CS directionality refer to sociolinguistic factors, such as the status of each of the two languages and whether it is a majority or minority language (Bosma & Blom, 2019;Smolak et al, 2020). Gutiérrez-Clellen et al (2009) viewed their finding of directional asymmetry in sociolinguistic terms, arguing for children's awareness of the 'language prescribed by the majority culture' (p. 105), English.…”