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Code-switching by language learners | ||
Tags: Code-switching | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jenne:) Tetraglot Newbie Netherlands polyglotquest.wordpr Joined 4468 days ago 38 posts - 56 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Norwegian | Message 1 of 23 26 October 2012 at 11:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am doing a Master's programme on linguistics and a few weeks ago, I came across quite an interesting phenomenon: code-switching. Code-switching means that a speaker of two or more languages uses these languages spontaneously in a single sentence or conversation (such as "hei, I am going home, so vi sees i morgen" ["hello, I am going home, so we will see each other tomorrow"]). Something that I found a bit disappointing was that my teacher only focussed on the use of code-switching by people who have two first languages. I catch myself code-switching quite frequently, even though I am just a language learner. I only have one mothertongue and I do not live in a multilingual community. I am learning multiple languages, however, so I assume this is what triggers the process. For this reason, I decided to write a research paper on the use of code-switching by language learners. I understand that survey-dropping is not allowed, so I thought it would be nice to start an interesting discussion on this forum as well. I think I am not the only one here who code-switches a lot, so others might want to share their thoughts on the topic. From a sociolinguistic perspective, the following questions seem to be relevant here (in order to see which factors influence code-switching). By answering these questions, we might come to some very interesting conclusions.
1. What is your gender? 2. Are you younger than 30, aged between 30 and 60, or older than 60? 3. What is your mothertongue/what are your mothertongues? 4. In which country have you lived the longest? 5. Which languages are you learning and which languages have you learned? If possible, please specify your fluency level for each language. 6. Are your languages affected by code-switching when you speak or write in them? 7. Which languages are affected and are some affected more than others? 8. How often do you experience code-switching? 9. What are your reasons for code-switching? Is it fun, does it sound intelligent, does it reflect your identity, is it caused by confusion, etc. 10. What is your attitude towards code-switching? Negative, positive, or neutral? I PMed one of the moderators (Iversen, in case one of the other moderators is wondering) and he gave me permission to post the link to my survey, so here it is: http://www.enquetemaken.be/toonenquete.php?id=120401. I would appreciate it if you could participate. In return, I will share the overall results when I have finished the paper. The survey is completely anonymous, free, and safe and I am an innocent, well-meaning student who is obsessed with languages :). So... what are your thoughts on code-switching? Do you do it, or has your brain managed to separate the languages completely? How frequently does it happen? Edit: After reading the comments below, I decided to create two surveys to make the research as reliable as possible:
Code-switching between mothertongues (may also be done by language-learners with two or more mothertongues) Edited by Jenne:) on 04 November 2012 at 11:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 2 of 23 27 October 2012 at 12:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't know whether it really counts as code-switching, but I have often found myself resorting to a word from a different L2 when struggling in the L2 I was actually trying to speak at the time.
In me, it is essentially a panic-reaction, and a form of self-defence I think. I usually find it annoying and sometimes humiliating. I simply clutch at the nearest word (like a drowning man clutching at a straw I suppose...) that comes to mind. I imagine the process is quite different for bilingual or trilingial (etc) people. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 23 27 October 2012 at 12:54am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think there's a difference between code-switching and simply interference.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 23 27 October 2012 at 1:03am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Codeswitch with my friends group (and sometimes even my brother) from Dutch to English
and back virtually every day 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 23 27 October 2012 at 1:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
My crotchety answer is that you'll probably get more meaningful information from the Code-switching article on Wikipedia. What you call code-switching is a very different process, depending on whether you've been raised with both languages or whether you're a learner of another language. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 23 27 October 2012 at 5:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
That would be a pretty remarkable claim, if true. What's the difference between (1) a full bilingual who code switches, (2) somebody's whose used their second language professionally and socially for many years in a bilingual environment like Montreal, and (3) an upper intermediate student who occasionally switches from their L1 to their L2 when speaking to somebody who knows both languages? I've never seen any second language acquisition research which demonstrates that these are fundamentally different things. But maybe I haven't been reading the right papers. For me, one of the very strong triggers for involuntary code switching is to use a French word in an English sentence. At least half the time, the rest of the sentence will come out in French, unless I make a conscious effort. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jenne:) Tetraglot Newbie Netherlands polyglotquest.wordpr Joined 4468 days ago 38 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Norwegian | Message 7 of 23 04 November 2012 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, this is code-switching. You switch from one language to another by selecting words from another L2 even though you intend to speak in one L2 only.
I disagree. Interference is the use of native (or at least an unintended language's) features such as L1 grammar and L1 pronunciation. Code-switching is the use of words and phrases from another language. So there is a difference between the two processes. At least, this is what my teacher has told me, so I guess I should keep to this name and definition when doing the research project.
That is one thing I would like to find out, whether the processes are really that different from one another. Your post gave me the idea to create a survey about switching between mothertongues as well ^^. Very interesting, especially because many linguists believe that people who were raised with two or more languages have a different brain structure than those who learn languages later in life. Thank you to those who have already filled in the survey. I would appreciate it if more people could do it, though, as a larger number would make the research more reliable. Ten people have filled it in so far, which isn't a very impressive number of language learners :). So now there are two surveys to make the research as reliable as possible: Code-switching by language-learners Code-switching between mothertongues (may also be done by language-learners with two or more mothertongues) I am even more excited now than I was a few weeks ago, just because of all the interesting replies I have seen in this topic. Edited by Jenne:) on 04 November 2012 at 11:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 23 04 November 2012 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm not sure that this view is actually supported by current brain-imaging studies. At the very least, there's some weak evidence that highly-fluent L2 speakers use much the same brain areas as native speakers. See, for example, this paper by Stanislas Dehaene (1999):
Also, I think some linguists (especially in the US) need to be much more careful with terminology like "mother tongue". As we've witnessed recently on HTLAL, the world is full of heritage learners who barely speak their childhood home language. Just because your mother has always spoken a language with you does not guarantee that you can put a coherent sentence together. Children will routinely fail to acquire languages if they can figure out how to get by without them. These distinctions might seem a bit fussy, but if we're discussing bilingual code switching, we really can't treat everything as "mother tongue" versus "L2". Consider a city like Montreal, where you can find every imaginable combination of English and French skills. I've met people who speak native-sounding French and English, but who have big vocabulary holes in one language. There are families were one sister is English-dominant, and another is French-dominant. I've heard of English speakers who carried on conversations in French for two or three minutes before realizing that they were both anglophones. Lots of people prefer French when talking about certain subjects, and English when talking about others, because of vocabulary holes or a least a strong association between a language and a subject. Of course, all this sounds pretty crazy and unusual. But it's exactly the kind of environment where there's lots of code-switching. And good luck with your project! It sounds really interesting, and we'd all love to read your results. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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