Hispanic Mothers’ and Fathers’ English-Spanish Code-Switching During Interactions with Toddlers: Relation to Toddlers’ Expressive Vocabulary

• In Event: Dual Language Development in the U.S. and Singapore: Multifaceted Experiences, Multifaceted Effects During Early Childhood

Abstract

Introduction. A characteristic that is unique to interactions between bilingual parents and their children is code-switching (CS), that is, switching from one language to another within a unit of discourse (Nicoladis & Genesee, 1998). Only a handful of studies have examined the relation between observed parental CS and child vocabulary, primarily with preschoolers and older children. These studies have found nonsignificant or positive associations between CS and child vocabulary, whereas other studies based on parent report have shown negative associations (e.g., Bail et al., 2015; Byers-Heinlein, 2013). This suggests that more research is needed to understand how parents CS and its relation to bilinguals’ language skills, especially during toddlerhood, a pivotal age for language development. Moreover, evidence on the correlates and purpose of parental CS is nearly nonexistent. Limited research indicates that parents who value bilingualism may use CS more often and that they use CS to improve children’s understanding and teach words (Kremin et al., 2021). In this study, we provide an in-depth description on the frequency and purpose of parental CS and its association with toddlers’ vocabulary.

Research Questions & Hypotheses. We ask: (1) How frequently do Hispanic mothers and fathers and their 2-year-olds CS during play interactions and what are the pragmatic functions of their CS? (2) Are parents’ beliefs about bilingualism related to their use of CS? (3) Is parental CS related to toddlers’ CS and expressive vocabulary? We hypothesize significant associations between parental CS and toddlers’ CS and expressive vocabulary.

Study Population & Methods. We used 17 observed mother- and father-child interactions across five activities (e.g., toy play, puzzle). Eight parents were English-dominant and nine were Spanish-dominant based on parent-reported and observed language use. A total of 1,334 switches from parents and toddlers were coded as intra-sentential and inter-sentential using the Matrix Language Frame approach. Each switch was coded for one or multiple pragmatic functions (Table 1). Parents ranked the importance of bilingualism for child and rated their own importance in helping child develop bilingualism. Toddlers’ total (English and Spanish) expressive vocabulary was measured using MB-CDI.

Results. About a fifth of parents’ and toddler’s utterances contained CS. Paired t tests revealed that parents (t=2.12, p<0.05) and toddlers (t=3.20, p<0.01) used significantly more inter-sentential than intra-sentential CS. Moreover, about half of parents’ CS were to label objects and 40% were to give commands (Table 1). We found a nonsignificant relation between parents’ bilingualism beliefs and use of CS; however, supporting the modeling hypothesis (Comeau et al., 2003), the more often parents used CS, the more often toddlers used CS (r=0.71, p<0.01). Importantly, parents’ use of translations were positively correlated with child vocabulary (r=0.60, p<0.05), suggesting that parents who provide equivalent input between languages have children with a larger total vocabulary. In contrast, inter-sentential CS showed a negative and marginally significant correlation (Figure 1). Our next step is to examine parental CS at 18 months and its relation to language skills at 24 months in a larger sample of Hispanic mothers and fathers and their children.

Authors

• Yu Chen, New York University School of Medicine
  Presenting Author

• Angelica Alonso, University of Maryland - College Park

• Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park

• Milagros Urioste Resta, University of Maryland - College Park

• Catherine S Tamis-Lemonda, New York University

• Melissa E Libertus, University of Pittsburgh