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Code-switching in parents’ everyday speech to bilingual infants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2021

Lena V. KREMIN Open the ORCID record for Lena V. KREMIN [Opens in a new window] ,
Julia ALVES ,
Adriel John ORENA ,
Linda POLKA  and
Krista BYERS-HEINLEIN Open the ORCID record for Krista BYERS-HEINLEIN [Opens in a new window]
Lena V. KREMIN*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Canada Center For Research on Brain, Language and Music, Canada
Julia ALVES
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Canada
Adriel John ORENA
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada
Linda POLKA
Affiliation:
Center For Research on Brain, Language and Music, Canada School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Canada
Krista BYERS-HEINLEIN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Canada Center For Research on Brain, Language and Music, Canada
*
*Address for correspondence: Lena V. Kremin, Concordia University - PsychologyMontreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada, E-mail: lena.kremin@mail.concordia.ca
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Abstract

Code-switching is a common phenomenon in bilingual communities, but little is known about bilingual parents’ code-switching when speaking to their infants. In a pre-registered study, we identified instances of code-switching in day-long at-home audio recordings of 21 French–English bilingual families in Montreal, Canada, who provided recordings when their infant was 10 and 18 months old. Overall, rates of infant-directed code-switching were low, averaging 7 times per hour (6 times per 1,000 words) at 10 months and increasing to 28 times per hour (18 times per 1,000 words) at 18 months. Parents code-switched more between sentences than within a sentence; this pattern was even more pronounced when infants were 18 months than when they were 10 months. The most common apparent reasons for code-switching were to bolster their infant's understanding and to teach vocabulary words. Combined, these results suggest that bilingual parents code-switch in ways that support successful bilingual language acquisition.

Keywords

code-switchingbilingualismparental speechLENA
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , July 2022 , pp. 714 - 740
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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