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A longitudinal investigation of language mixing in Spanish–English dual language learners: the role of language proficiency, variability, and sociolinguistic factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2019

Simona MONTANARI ,
Wendy OCHOA  and
Kaveri SUBRAHMANYAM
Simona MONTANARI*
Affiliation:
California State University, Los Angeles, USA
Wendy OCHOA
Affiliation:
California State University, Los Angeles, USA University of California, IrvineUSA
Kaveri SUBRAHMANYAM
Affiliation:
California State University, Los Angeles, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Simona Montanari, PhD, Department of Child & Family Studies, E&T A509, Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services, California State University, Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032, United States of America. E-mail: smontan2@calstatela.edu
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Abstract

This study examines language mixing in 26 Spanish–English dual language learners over the course of their first year of preschool. The children's patterns of language choice while interacting in monolingual language contexts were analyzed at age 3;6 and 4;5 to examine: (1) whether the frequency of language mixing changed during the year; (2) whether mixing was related to proficiency as measured by utterance length and lexical diversity; and (3) whether there were different subgroups of children, among the participants, with similar proficiency and language use patterns. The results indicate that language mixing, which was low at both ages, was related to limited lexical resources only at 3;6. However, by age 4;5, language choice was more constrained by sociolinguistic variables – children's awareness of the language prescribed by the majority culture – than by proficiency. An exploratory cluster analysis further reveals different profiles of learners sharing similar proficiency and language mixing characteristics.

Keywords

language mixingDual Language Learnerslongitudinal studylanguage proficiencyvariability
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 46 , Issue 5 , September 2019 , pp. 913 - 937
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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