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…

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.…

Recent research on second language and subject-matter learning calls for moving away from hegemonic monolingual education in U.S. schools and instead making "translanguaging" the norm by supporting bi/multilingual students to use their full linguistic repertoires as they participate in classroom learning (Garcia, Johnson, & Seltzer,…

Translanguaging pedagogy is an instructional approach that promotes the use of multiple languages to dismantle linguistic hierarchies in classrooms and embrace bilingual children's language practices and identities. This dissertation examines how bilingual education teachers enact translanguaging pedagogy in public elementary and middle schools to…

Most bilingual programs are built around a clear separation between the two languages used throughout the school day. However, in bilingual research centers (BRCs), a key component of the Gomez and Gomez Dual Language Enrichment model, students can choose which language to use. This is what sparked my interest, because I wanted to understand more…

Translanguaging, an emergent theoretical orientation to language, has become a widely discussed topic in writing studies with the rise of translingual movement in composition. Challenging the ideologies of standardization and monolingualism, translanguaging forwards towards a pedagogy of difference and facilitates transcending the…

Bilingual language control refers to how bilinguals are able to speak exclusively in one language without the unintended language intruding. Two prominent verbal theories of bilingual language control have been proposed by researchers: the inhibitory control model (ICM) and the lexical selection mechanism model (LSM). The ICM posits that…

Researchers from Jean Piaget (1932) to Sehlauoi (2008) have utilized small case studies to intensively examine naturally occurring child language production in the home environment. This qualitative, 5-year longitudinal, five-year case study continues the focus of previous research on child bilingualism and code-switching; however, it aims to…

Because language, as a method of communication, is a two-way channel involving both speakers and listeners, a methodical study of linguistic variation should involve an analysis of both, how it is expressed and how it is interpreted. Furthermore, because language is known to vary between individuals (inter-speaker variation) as well as at the…

This dissertation investigates code-switching (CS), the concurrent use of more than one language in conversation, commonly observed in bilingual speech. Assuming that code-switching is subject to universal principles, just like monolingual grammar, the dissertation provides a principled account of code-switching, with particular emphasis on OV~VO…

This sociolinguistic study examines the functions and motivations of code-switching, which is used here to mean the use of more than one language in the same conversation. The conversations studied here take place in a very particular context: one-on-one speaking sessions in a study abroad program in Morocco where English is the L1 and Arabic the…

This mixed-methods study investigates the ideologies, attitudes, and understandings of language, bilingualism, and second language acquisition among students, teachers, and parents in a Bay Area dual immersion (DI) program. The work shows that despite rhetoric and awareness of language variation, students' and teachers' approaches to language…

This dissertation takes an ethnomethodologically-grounded, conversation-analytic approach in investigating the sequential deployment of linguistic resources in Spanish-language talk-in-interaction. Three sets of resources are examined: 2nd-person singular reference forms (tú, vos, usted), indicative/subjunctive verbal mood selection, and…

This study utilized a novel task design in an effort to identify the source of the second language processing advantage commonly reported in mixed language conditions, investigate switch cost asymmetry in non-balanced bilinguals, and identify task-related variables that potentially contribute to inconsistent results across studies with similar…