Doctoral Dissertation Research: Code-switching in Three Groups of Bilinguals

Language provides people with a unique means to conceptualize the world and interact with their fellow members in a society. How is this process affected when individuals speak more than one language? Although more people in the world are bilingual than are monolingual, bilingualism has only recently received attention from researchers, particularly in the U.S.

Studies of language processing have shown that the interactions across the bilingual's two languages produce dynamics that are not evident in monolingual speakers, such as code-switching across the two languages in the middle of a sentence. In addition, the rich sociocultural contexts in which bilinguals use the two languages distinguish them from monolingual speakers.

To better understand how bilingual language processing is influenced by the context in which languages are used, this dissertation project will examine the code-switching behavior in bilinguals who use both languages with a high level of proficiency but who live in locations in which the two languages are used differently. By demonstrating the diverse competencies of bilingual speakers, this study will investigate the cognitive benefits of bilingualism and contribute to the documentation of one of the largest minority language communities in the U.S. and around the world that has received little attention.

The project will also support educational diversity by engaging a group of undergraduate research assistants who are drawn from the relevant bilingual community and who are often first-generation college students.

An increasing number of studies show that there is variation among bilinguals who speak the same two languages. Adopting both psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches, the planned research examines bilingual speakers' practice of code-switching in three groups of highly proficient bilinguals, with different contexts for the two languages they speak : homeland bilinguals raised in a context in which one language is dominant while being educated in the other language; heritage bilinguals raised in a household that speaks one language within an environment where the other language is dominant; and immersed bilinguals raised in an environment in which one language is dominant but later moved for higher education to an environment in which the other language is dominant.

By examining code-switched word perception and production, this study will address three questions: (1) How do variations across language acquisition and sociocultural context affect speakers' perception and production of words in the code-switching context? (2) What do code-switching practices reveal about the impact of linguistic structure? (3) What do differences in code-switching patterns across the three types of bilingual speakers reveal about the interaction between sociocultural context, cultural identity, cognition, and language processing broadly? Using code-switching as a tool to examine bilinguals' speech processing holds the promise of revealing fundamental principles of language, cognition, and social interaction that may require a revision of the traditional understanding of culture and context in language use.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.