Bilinguals sometimes code-switch between their shared languages. While psycholinguistics research has focused on the challenges of comprehending code-switches compared to single-language utterances, bilinguals seem unhindered by code-switching in communication, suggesting benefits that offset the costs. I hypothesize that bilinguals orient their…

Across three experiments, the current study explored how accented speech and coarticulation impact how bilingual listeners comprehend code-switches in speech. Eye-tracking methodology was used to compare responses to single-language and code-switched sentences. Experiment 1 observed how accented speech influenced the costs involved in…

This dissertation investigates the extent to which bilingual speakers' cognitive representations of the syntactic structures of their two languages are interconnected. This is a substantially understudied domain despite the widespread existence of bilingual/multilingual communities in the world, including the US. To draw solid conclusions about…

Code-switching (switching between languages) is a common linguistic behavior in bilingual speech directed to infants and children. In adult-directed speech (ADS), acoustic-phonetic properties of one language may transfer to the other language close to a code-switch point; for example, English stop consonants may be more Spanish-like near a switch.…

While much of the existing literature on code-switching focuses on languages that differ typologically, this dissertation focuses on typologically similar languages. Code-switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese is examined through the perspectives of 1) sociolinguistics, 2) typology, 3) phonetic and phonological production, and 4) speech…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to gain insight into the experience of bilingual teachers undergoing a change of bilingual education program, from a TBE model to a DLBE model. This study documents the ways the bilingual teachers experienced changes in their language ideologies, their teaching practices, and the support, or lack thereof,…

The continuous underrepresentation of the Latinx population in STEM fields and careers requires urgent attention. This study addresses this issue by designing and implementing a science curriculum based on culturally relevant and translanguaging pedagogies. Focusing on chemical and physical reactions, the curriculum was implemented in two…

Bilingual speakers present a natural phenomenon called code switch (CS) when communicating, where bilinguals or multilinguals alternate their languages during discourse. However, code-switching between two languages does not mean children cannot differentiate between the languages. Rather, code-switching is considered a common aspect of…

Translanguaging is a theory and pedagogy of language that understands multilingualism to be an inherently fluid, flexible, and dynamic practice (Garcia, 2009). As a pedagogy, a translanguaging stance aims to empower multilingual learners to draw on the entirety of their communicative repertoires to disrupt and transform classroom language borders…

This study explores code-switching (CS) in the emotional narratives of bilingual speakers of English and Arabic. Exploring the immigrant Arab community in Mississippi, USA contributes to the literature gap and provides valuable insights into the correlation between code-switching and bilingual identities in various emotional, social, and cultural…

This dissertation investigates intuitions about Spanish syllable structure and whether or not word segmentation strategies are affected by these syllabic intuitions. The study utilizes monolingual Spanish speakers, L1 Spanish speakers who are L2 learners of English and L1 English speakers who are L2 learners of Spanish. For Spanish syllabic…

In the context of language diversity in schools, this research underscores the persistence of monolingual academic standards despite linguistic variety. Bilingual education, historically intertwined with sociopolitical agendas aligning with dominant societal power structures, necessitates a paradigm shift. Bilingual educators must empower students…

Bilinguals are able to compose expressions across their languages with seeming ease. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as "code-switching," has challenged both theoretical models in linguistics as well as neurobiological models of language processing. And yet, our models of the bilingual brain and the language processing mechanism…

This is an ethnographic case study that explores and examines the translanguaging practices of three bilingual teachers in a rural elementary school in deep south Texas. Translanguaging guides this analysis. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without…

This three-part dissertation explores the complexity of collaboratively designing and implementing translanguaging reading pedagogies for students classified as English learners in a second-grade English-medium classroom. With the increasing linguistic heterogeneity in the United States, public schools have a pressing need to develop culturally…