Differences in directionality, motivations and locus of codeswitching have been reported for children’s codeswitching, but these constructs have not been subjected to experimental study in order to examine how they may interact. This study investigated these variables in bilingual preschool children’s codeswitching.
Methodology:
Thirty-two Russian-Hebrew bilingual children (mean age 6;3) performed two tasks: Retelling of narratives manipulated for setting/topic and listener and Conversation with a bilingual adult. Retelling conditions included a Russian story retold to a Hebrew-speaking puppet, a Hebrew story retold to a Russian speaking puppet and a Mixed language story retold to a bilingual puppet. The Conversation task involved responses to questions in Russian, Hebrew and codeswitched speech about holidays and activities at home and in preschool.
Data and Analysis:
All children’s speech was audio recorded and transcribed using CHILDES conventions for data transcription. Codeswitched utterances were coded for the following: Directionality (Hebrew-to-Russian/Russian-to-Hebrew); Motivation (psycholinguistic/sociopragmatic); and Locus (intra-utterance/cross-speaker).
Results:
Overall children produced more codeswitching from Russian to Hebrew and did so more for psycholinguistic motivations (to maintain fluency or to overcome difficulties in lexical access).
Originality:
High rates of codeswitching occurred in this study, ranging from 15% to 22% for Conversation and Retelling, respectively (calculated as codeswitched instances per utterance). This high rate may be attributed to the experimental nature of the tasks, which intended to elicit codeswitching in children’s speech.
Significance:
Drawing from Green and Wei’s processing model, findings regarding directionality and motivation are discussed in terms of connectivity and activation.
AltmanC.Burstein-FeldmanZ.YitzhakiD.Armon-LotemS.WaltersJ. (2014). Family language policies, reported language use and proficiency in Russian–Hebrew bilingual children in Israel. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35(3), 216–234.
2.
AriasR.LakshmanU. (2005). Code switching in a Spanish-English bilingual child: A communication resource. In CohenJ.McAlisterK. T.RolstadK.MacSwanJ. (Eds.), ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (pp. 94–109). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
3.
AuerP. (1995). The pragmatics of codeswitching: The sequential approach. In MilroyL.MuyskenP. (Eds.), One speaker, two languages (pp.115–135). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
AuerP.EastmanC. M. (2010). Code-switching. In JaspersJ.ÖstmanJ.-O.VerschuerenJ. (Eds.), Society and language use (pp. 84–112). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
5.
Basnight-BrownD. M. (2014). Models of lexical access and bilingualism. In HerediaR. R.AltarribaJ. (Eds.), Foundations of bilingual memory (pp. 85–107). New York: Springer.
6.
CantoneK. F. (2005). Evidence against a third grammar: Code-switching in Italian-German bilingual children. In CohenJ.McAlisterK. T.RolstadK.MacSwanJ. (Eds.), ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (pp. 477–496). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
7.
CantoneK. F. (2007). Code-switching in bilingual children. Dordrecht: Springer.
8.
ComeauL.GeneseeF. (2001). Bilingual children’s repair strategies during dyadic communication. In CenozJ.GeneseeF. (Eds.), Trends in bilingual acquisition (pp. 231–256). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
9.
ComeauL.GeneseeF.LapaquetteL. (2003). The modeling hypothesis and child bilingual codemixing. International Journal of Bilingualism, 7(2), 113–126.
10.
CromdalJ. (2001). Overlap in bilingual play: Some implications of code-switching for overlap resolution. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 34(4), 421–451.
11.
CromdalJ.AronssonK. (2000). Footing in bilingual play. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(3), 435–457.
12.
EbertK. D.KohnertK. (2016). Language learning impairment in sequential bilingual children. Language Teaching, 49, 301–338.
13.
GeneseeF.NicoladisE.ParadisJ. (1995). Language differentiation in early bilingual development. Journal of Child Language, 22, 611–631.
14.
GollanT. H.FerreiraV. S. (2009). Should I stay or should I switch? A cost-benefit analysis of voluntary language switching in young and aging bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 35(3), 640–665.
15.
GreenD. W.WeiL. (2014). A control process model of CS. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 24(9), 499–511.
16.
GreeneK. J.PeñaE. D.BedoreL. M. (2012). Lexical choice and language selection in bilingual preschoolers. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29, 27–39.
17.
GrosjeanF. (1997). Processing mixed language: Issues, findings, and models. In de GrootA. M. B.KrollJ. F. (Eds.), Tutorials in bilingualism. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
18.
GrosjeanF. (2001). The bilingual’s language modes. In NicolJ. L. (Ed.), One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing (pp.1–22). Oxford: Blackwell.
19.
GumperzJ. J. (1982). Conversational code-switching In GumperzJ. J. (Ed.), Discourse strategies (pp. 59–99). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
Gutiérrez-ClellenV. F.Simon-CereijidoG.Erickson LeoneA. (2009). Code-switching in bilingual children with specific language impairment. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13, 91–109.
21.
HymesD. (1977). Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Tavistock: London.
22.
Iluz-CohenP.WaltersJ. (2012). Telling stories in two languages: Narratives of bilingual preschool children with typical and impaired language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 58–74.
23.
KrollJ. F.StewartE. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33(2), 149–174.
24.
LanversU. (2001). Language alternation in infant bilinguals: A developmental approach to codeswitching. International Journal of Bilingualism, 5(4), 437–464.
25.
LanzaE. (1997). Language contact in bilingual two-year-olds and code-switching: Language encounters of a different kind?International Journal of Bilingualism, 1(2), 135–162.
26.
MacWhinneyB. (2000). The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
27.
MeiselJ. M. (2001). The simultaneous acquisition of two first languages: Early differentiation and subsequent development of grammars. In CenozJ.GeneseeF. (Eds.), Trends in bilingual acquisition (pp. 11–42). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
28.
MuyskenP. (2000). Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29.
ParadisJ. (2005). Grammatical morphology in children learning English as a second language. Implications of similarities with specific language impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 172–187.
30.
ParadisJ.NicoladisE. (2007). The influence of dominance and sociolinguistic context on bilingual preschoolers’ language choice. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10(3), 277–297.
31.
PaughA. L. (2005). Multilingual play: Children’s code-switching, role play, and agency in Dominica, West Indies. Language in Society, 34(1), 63–86.
32.
PeynirciogluZ.DurgunogluA.Y. (2002). Code switching in bilingual children. In HerediaR.AltarribaJ. (Eds.), Sentence processing in bilinguals (pp. 339–358). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
33.
PoplackS. (1980). Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en Espanol: Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics, 18, 581–618.
34.
ReyesI. (2004). Functions of CS in schoolchildren’s conversations. Bilingual Research Journal, 28(1), 77–98.
35.
SauveD.GeneseeF. (2000). Grammatical constraints on child bilingual code-mixing. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Vancouver, Canada.
36.
SchwartzM. (2008). Exploring the relationship between family language policy and heritage language knowledge among second generation Russian–Jewish immigrants in Israel. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 29(5), 400–418.
37.
SchwartzM.MoinV. (2012). Parents’ assessment of their preschool children’s bilingual development in the context of family language policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 35–55.
38.
SundermanG.KrollJ. F. (2006). First language activation during second language lexical processing: An investigation of lexical form, meaning, and grammatical class. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 387–422.
39.
WaltersJ.Armon-LotemS.AltmanC.TopajN.GagarinaN. (2014). Language proficiency and social identity in Russian-Hebrew and Russian-German preschool children. In SilbereisenR. K.ShavitY.TitzmannP. F. (Eds.), The challenges of diaspora migration in today’s societies – interdisciplinary perspectives from research in Israel and Germany (pp. 45–62). London: Ashgate.
40.
YowW. Q.PatryciaF.FlynnS. (2016). Codeswitching in childhood. In NicoladisE.MontanariS. (Eds.), Bilingualism across the lifespan: Factors moderating language proficiency. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
41.
ZentellaA. C. (1997). Growing up bilingual. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
