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Dónde está la ball? Examining the effect of code switching on bilingual children's word recognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2019

Giovanna MORINI  and
Rochelle S. NEWMAN
Giovanna MORINI*
Affiliation:
University of Delaware, USA
Rochelle S. NEWMAN
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, USA
*
*Corresponding author: University of Delaware, Communication Sciences and Disorders Program, 100 Discovery Blvd., Room 533, Newark, DE, 19713. E-mail: gmorini@udel.edu
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Abstract

Hearing words in sentences facilitates word recognition in monolingual children. Many children grow up receiving input in multiple languages – including exposure to sentences that ‘mix’ the languages. We explored Spanish–English bilingual toddlers’ (n = 24) ability to identify familiar words in three conditions: (i) single word (ball!); (ii) same-language sentence (Where's the ball?); or (iii) mixed-language sentence (Dónde está la ball?). Children successfully identified words across conditions; however, the advantage linked to hearing words in sentences was present only in the same-language condition. This work hence suggests that language mixing plays an important role on bilingual children's ability to recognize spoken words.

Keywords

bilingualismword recognitioncode switchingsentence processing
Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 46 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1238 - 1248
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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