Macaro has stated that the choice between a monolingual, immersive, target language-only pedagogy versus a non-immersive, multilingual pedagogy is 'probably the most fundamental question facing second language acquisition (SLA) researchers, language teachers, and policymakers'. Recognizing that prior empirical work on monolingual versus…

In this paper we investigate multilingualism as a phenomenon which pervades different social and cultural levels but is manifested in the everyday life of multilingual individuals. As an illustration, we examine multilingualism from the perspective of a young Sami boy, Ante, and explore how different languages function as a complex--but at times…

This study on code-mixing focuses on the influence of Spanish in Nahuatl discourse as revealed in narratives produced by adults and children. Results indicate differences in frequency of content word embedded language (Spanish), lexical items across grade level (for children), grade level attained (for adults), and correlations (for children)…

Discusses two problematic cases that arose when the Matrix Language frame model of codeswitching was applied to Arabic diglossic switching: a co-occurrence of system morphemes from both varieties of Arabic within a single CP; and CPs in which the word order is that of the dialect but the system morphemes are from Standard Arabic and CPs in which…

Investigates the use of code switching in first-year learners of Danish. Points out that code switching appears as a skill used in early attempts of playing with the languages involved in the conversation. Acknowledges code switching as an increasingly sophisticated language skill even a an early stage of second language acquisition. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the analysis of six-year-old Finnish-speaking children's second-language acquisition during their first year of Swedish immersion in kindergarten. (JL)

This collection of papers focuses on individual bilingualism and societal and educational phenomena. After "Introduction and Overview" (Jean-Marc Dewaele, Alex Housen, and Li Wei), 12 papers include: (1) "Who is Afraid of Bilingualism?" (Hugo Baetens Beardsmore); (2) "The Importance of being Bilingual" (John Edwards);…

Provides that in bilingual conversation, the unmarked choice can be identified via a frequency-based criterion. Data come from a Malawian family temporarily living in the United States. Both parents and children engage in code switching, but how the two languages are employed and their frequency within the overall codeswitching pattern shows that…

Provides a description of the characteristics of intrasentential language mixing produced by a group of Korean-English bilingual children, with a special focus on the distinction between code switching and borrowing. Data suggest that intrasentential language mixing is determined by the bilingual abilities and preferences of the speaker as well as…

Presents results from ongoing research about non-adapted language switches, highlighting a longitudinal study of an adult learner of third-language (L3) Swedish with first-language (L1) English and second-language (L2) German. The study is based on 844 non-adapted language switches. Researchers identified four types of switches. Results indicated…

Explores the usefulness of a typology of contact mechanisms for one type of contact setting: that of a typical immigrant language, in this case the variety of Turkish that is spoken in the Netherlands. Examines the relevance of insertional code switching to the genesis of mixed languages--Dutch and Turkish. (Author/VWL)

Investigation of the extent to which young bilingual children's code differentiation correlated with language mixing revealed that children who avoided using their other language when naming pictures of objects which were not known in one of the languages showed significantly less mixing in their speech than children who freely substituted words…

Examines how teachers and learners in eastern and southern Africa code switch between English and their first languages in science and mathematics lessons. Uses empirical classroom data to show that code switching is a valuable linguistic resource in education. (Author/VWL)

Five experiments are reported in which the picture naming performance of bilingual speakers in a language-switching task was explored. In Experiment 1, Spanish learners of Catalan and Korean learners of Spanish were asked to perform a switching task between their first and dominant language (L1, Spanish or Korean) and their second language (L2,…

A case study analyzed the babbling and speech production of an infant, aged 20 to 24 months, whose family members spoke Portuguese, English, and French interchangeably. Focus was on vowel production, choice of lexicon, and the relationship between babbling and speech in the interaction of his languages. The child's utterances were recorded in…