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Code-Switching by Spanish–English Bilingual Children in a Code-Switching Conversation Sample: Roles of Language Proficiency, Interlocutor Behavior, and Parent-Reported Code-Switching Experience

Code-switching is a complex bilingual behavior that can be affected by a variety of factors related to characteristics of the speaker, the interlocutor, and the broader sociolinguistic context. A better understanding of these factors is important for interpreting children’s use of code-switching in different elicitation contexts across research studies and in applied settings, such as language sample analysis for clinical assessment. In the current study, we used a conversation sample protocol with a code-switching adult interlocutor to examine the use of English, Spanish, intra-sentential and inter-sentential code-switching, and alignment with the interlocutor by Spanish/English bilingual children with a wide range of language abilities. In a single-language comparison condition, the same examiner engaged the child in conversation using only English or only Spanish. Key findings include that children exhibited limited use of code-switching in the English condition and similar frequency of code-switching in the Spanish, compared to the code-switching, conditions. Children exhibited a tendency to align with the examiner in their use of English vs. Spanish and their use of intra-sentential code-switching during the code-switching context, although they generally code-switched less than the examiner. There was also considerable variability across children. Predictors of this variability included children’s age and language proficiency. However, language proficiency was not associated with the frequency of children’s intra-sentential code-switching in a code-switching context. Parent-report measures of code-switching experience exhibited limited associations with the children’s observed code-switching behavior; inter-sentential switches into English showed the most direct associations. Based on the findings from this exploratory study, we highlight the importance of including a code-switching context when analyzing language samples from bilingual children, considering both the target child and the interlocutor’s behavior, and continuing to refine indirect report measures of code-switching experience.