Real-Time Processing of Mixed-Language Sentences in Spanish-English Bilingual Toddlers

Abstract

This thesis examines the short and long-term effects of code-switching and language processing in bilingual children. The effects of bilingualism have been studied across the speaker’s lifetime and are associated with various advantages for speakers, such as enhancing performance on various cognitive tasks and slowing cognitive decline. In development, bilingualism emerges, often with surprisingly minimal difficulty, as children are exposed to two languages. This is a remarkable achievement given that it is very common for bilingual adults to mix languages together when they speak to their children, a phenomenon known as code-switching. But might children’s processing of mixed language over the course of development actually give rise to later cognitive advantages? Children’s processing of mixed language offers a window into this possibility. This study utilized the Looking-While-Listening procedure to see if infants were able to more quickly and accurately establish reference to an object in a single language, rather than when hearing a code-switch. They heard two different kinds of trials, one all in a single language, and one with a code-switch. The results showed no significant effect to support the idea that code-switching affects a child’s language learning and processing. However, some of the results were trending in the predicted direction, which might imply that in future research with larger sample sizes, there will be evidence to support this hypothesis.