Bilingualism: Is It Worth It?
Introduction
Bilingual Code-Switching is the use of two or more languages within the same conversation. It not only serves as a linguistic tool but as a cultural marker for many and is common in various language communities. Within the Hispanic population in the United States, bilingual code switching of Spanish and English can serve as a representation of an identity straddling two countries, identification with an individual’s country and culture of origin as well their acculturation with the American culture (Bilingualism, culture and identity). English words and phrases are also common within Latin America, learned through American internet culture and American friends and family.
Bilingualism has been frowned upon by many for generations in the United States. School children are often discouraged from using their mother tongue when not necessary and many have suggested to parents that they should only teach their child one language as learning multiple at once can limit proficiency in all. My own mother did not want to teach me Spanish growing up for fear I wouldn’t learn English correctly. Culture and nationality play a role in this as well, since Spanish has a negative connotation to some due to its prevalence in lower SES immigrant communities. Yet, despite these beliefs, research shows the promising benefits that early bilingualism can bring. Bilingualism has been demonstrated to correlate with a higher executive functioning in children of lower SES as well as a later onset of Alzheimer’s disease in aging adults (Bilingual advantages in executive functioning: Evidence from a low-income sample; Degree of bilingualism predicts age of diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in low-education but not in highly educated Hispanics).
Additionally, despite its almost ubiquitous use within bilingual communities, CS is met with further hesitancy. Lab-based studies suggest that comprehending CS leads to processing costs, potentially making communication more difficult (Does integrating a code-switch during comprehension engage cognitive control?; The influence of lexical and conceptual constraints on reading mixed-language sentences; Switch cost modulations in bilingual sentence processing: evidence from shadowing). So what can explain the large prevalence of code switching among bilingual communities? (Bilingual experience shapes language processing: Evidence from codeswitching).
This summer I had the opportunity to participate in the BSOS SRI at UMD, an initiative that aims to increase diversity of graduate degrees in social, behavioral and economic sciences (BSOS SRI). They funded an independent project in which we hypothesized that lab-based studies do not accurately represent real-life bilingual conversations, and thus the cognitive costs demonstrated in these studies exist not due to code switches being difficult to understand but rather due to the unnatural environment. In order to test this theory, we designed a study utilizing real-life stimuli instead of the lab-based stimuli traditionally used so that bilinguals may be able to predict and prepare for upcoming code switches. Code switching has been demonstrated to not occur randomly, but rather constrained by linguistic and communicative factors and is typically preceded by subtle phonological cues (Phonetic variation in bilingual speech: A lens for studying the production–comprehension link).
The study
We instructed participants to listen to audio clips from the Bangor Miami Corpus of Spanish-English bilingual speech, recorded naturally from real bilingual conversations in Miami, Florida, USA (Bangor Miami Corpus). The Bangor Miami Corpus was recorded and transcribed between 2008 and 2011 as part of a research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). We compiled sentences that began in Spanish, and half of them continued in Spanish and the other half switched to English on the final word. We cut off this last word and asked participants to make a guess whether a code switch occurred on a scale to determine confidence in their choice. The options ranged from “Definitely English” to “Definitely Spanish”. Our participants also completed questionnaires to assess their Spanish and English proficiency and code switch experience.
Conclusion
We have concluded the first stage of our study and our results suggest that bilinguals are not able to predict an upcoming switch in this context. In the next stage of our study we hope to include more speech leading up to the point where the participants are asked to guess if there will be a code switch. We hypothesize that with more context given the task will be easier because of the linguistic and communicative factors that may precede them.
Although we do not have data to suggest that bilinguals are able to predict an upcoming code switch, the study is consistent with the idea of the immense cultural impact that code switching offers bilingual communities. That so many people would regularly engage in a practice that may have cognitive processing costs demonstrates the immense benefits the practice must provide as well. As a code switcher, I am excited about this research because code switching is not only a linguistic practice but is first and foremost a cultural practice which many other studies on code switching tend to forget. Rather than look at science to determine which sociolinguistic practices are best, I think we should focus on using science to better understand said practices.
Further reading
Adler, R. M., Valdés Kroff, J. R., & Novick, J. M. (2020). Does integrating a code-switch during comprehension engage cognitive control?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(4), 741. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000755.
Altarriba et al. (1996). The influence of lexical and conceptual constraints on reading mixed-language sentences: Evidence from eye fixations and naming times. Memory & Cognition 24: 477–92. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03200936.
Beatty-Martínez, A. L., & Dussias, P. E. (2017). Bilingual experience shapes language processing: Evidence from codeswitching. Journal of Memory and Language, 95, 173–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.04.002.
Bultena et al. (2015). Switch cost modulations in bilingual sentence processing: evidence from shadowing. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. 30, 586–605. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2014.964268.
Deuchar, Margaret. (2011). “The Miami Corpus: Documentation File.” Bangortalk, http://bangortalk.org.uk/.
De Zulueta, F. (1995). Bilingualism, culture and identity. Group analysis, 28(2), 179–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0533316495282007.
Fricke, M., Kroll, J. F., & Dussias, P. E. (2016). Phonetic variation in bilingual speech: A lens for studying the production–comprehension link. Journal of memory and language, 89, 110-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.10.001.
Gollan, T. H., Salmon, D. P., Montoya, R. I., & Galasko, D. R. (2011). Degree of bilingualism predicts age of diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in low-education but not in highly educated Hispanics. Neuropsychologia, 49(14), 3826–3830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.09.041.
Grote, K. S., Scott, R. M., & Gilger, J. (2021). Bilingual advantages in executive functioning: Evidence from a low-income sample. First Language, 41(6), 677–700. https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237211024220.
