Bilingualism and code-switching in young children

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: The Essay begins with some general aspects of bilingualism and the different kinds of code-switching (CS). After a short explanation, the author exemplifies code-switching with the help of two studies and a model.

In the research field of bilingualism, CS received the highest interest in the past few years. It can be defined as the ability of bilinguals, who are able to switch easily between two or more languages. It is also common, that bilinguals integrate their two languages to a given degree.

While the first view of CS is the psycholinguistic one, it is also important to mention the sociolinguistic view on CS. It is important to understand, that there is a different behaviour of CS between women versus men, middle-class versus working-class, and other social groups. It is claimed, that the language manner and use are related to the speakers' social identity. From the sociolinguistic point of view, it can be argued, that sociolinguists can help us to understand CS in a different way.