Mandarin-English: “You bite already, zhè yīgè dàdòng” (You bite already, this is a big hole)
Malay-English: “Wah, baju tu colourful-nya” (Wah, that shirt is colourful)
Tamil-English: “Intha flower romba beautiful-la irrukku” (This flower is very beautiful)
If your child is exposed to two or more languages, you may have heard them switching between languages while talking – this is known as ‘code-switching’. Do not fret or discourage your child from doing so! There are misconceptions about why young bilingual children code-switch. Some believe that it is due to their inability to differentiate between the languages or that the children are poor at their languages.
However, that may not be the case! A study conducted in Singapore by Yow and colleagues (2018) investigated the relationship between preschoolers’ code-switching behaviour and their language competency. 5 to 6 year-old English–Mandarin bilinguals were observed during their classroom activities in Singapore childcare centres. From the observations, there was not a single child who did not code-switch! This was the case even though the teachers made efforts to only speak in one language when interacting with the children. The children were also assessed for their vocabulary knowledge. The results suggested that the number of code-switched utterances was not related to their competency in the English language. This finding is consistent with recent studies that code-switching is not a result of language incompetency. In addition, the children who code-switched more tend to produce a larger and more complex variety of Mandarin words compared to those who code-switched less (note that this bilingual population was less dominant in Mandarin).
Upon prevailing research, we re-address the misconceptions on early code-switching:
Does code-switching indicate that my child is confused between languages? No. Code-switching behaviour is not affected by the inability to differentiate their two language systems. Rather, the alternation between languages illustrates that they possess sufficient knowledge of both languages as their code-switched utterances are usually systematic and grammatical.
Do children code-switch because of poor language competency? No. Bilingual children exhibit a good understanding of the grammatical systems of both languages. In another study, two- to four-year-old French–English bilingual children displayed code-switching patterns that were largely alike to that of their adult counterparts.
“Code-switching in a multilingual environment may present bilingual children with opportunities to use both their languages in ways that a (monolingual) language environment alone would not be able to provide them with” – Yow et al. (2018)
All in all, why is it that bilingual children code-switch?
Firstly, it relates to their social-emotional and behavioural skills. Young bilingual children may choose code-switch according to the situational context and conversation partner. Several studies have demonstrated that bilingual children are pragmatically competent and sensitive to societal standards. Family language practices also play a part in children’s code-switched utterances. For example, your child may learn from you to use more Malay words with Nenek (grandmother in Malay). Bilingual children also code-switch for fun! It’s their way of “playing” with their languages.
Secondly, the behaviour of code-switching by children allows them to engage both their languages more often, and particularly the weaker language. Numerous studies have found that bilingual children aged between two to six years code-switch to substitute their lexical gaps and improve their weaker language. By achieving so, they utilise the grammatical structure and words they have acquired in their stronger language when they do not have the translation equivalents. Parents should encourage their children’s regular use of both languages, even when it involves switching consistently between the two languages.
Adapted from:
Yow, W., Tan, J., & Flynn, S. (2018). Code-switching as a marker of linguistic competence in bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 21(5), 1075-1090. doi:10.1017/S1366728917000335 https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000335
This blogpost was written by our intern Nadia Alya and edited by our lab manager Fei Ting.