This study examined the code-switching patterns in the speech of immigrant Spanish-speaking children. Seven-and 10-year-old boys and girls from bilingual classrooms were each paired with a mutually selected friend, and their speech was collected in two contexts: while the children waited for an expected science experiment and when they worked together to follow an instruction worksheet about hands-on magnetic materials. This study presents data on the discourse characteristics of children's code switching, and the functions that Spanish and English have according to context. In addition, the data are described in relation to children's language competence and preference. The study found that code switching occurred both within and across turns. The older children's switches were more frequent and were deployed for a wider variety of functions than the younger children's. The results challenge the negative view that code switching by children who are learning two languages is due to lack of proficiency, and instead support the view that it is used as a strategy to extend their communicative competence during peer interaction.

This article explores the ways in which young emergent bilingual children begin to develop literacy in two languages, Spanish and English.Three case studies of four-year-old Mexican-background children and their families living in southern Arizona are presented from a qualitative socio-psycholinguistic perspective. The children’s home and classroom interactions were observed and analyzed for patterns of language and literacy in their two languages. The findings show that these emergent bilinguals learn and develop their own ‘theories’ and ‘concepts’ about language and literacy from an early age. The conversational participants and interlocutors were among the factors that directly influenced children’s development of language and literacy in Spanish and English. In addition, context was another important factor that contributed positively to the development of their emergent bilingualism and biliteracy. Finally, I discuss the language-literacy strategies that these Mexican-background children use as they try to make sense of their metalinguistic and biliteracy knowledge, while developing additional literacy tools and resources in both Spanish and English.

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This study examined sentence processing in emergent bilingual children and young adults in both and . One hundred participants from five different age groups (5;4-7;11, 8;0-10;11, 11;2-13;11, 14;0-16;8 years, and college-age adults)

The dual purposes of this review are, first, to synthesize the extant research on biliteracy, focusing particularly on children and youths and, second, to clarify key terms and phenomena in this developing field. The review is organized into three areas of research: (1) individual biliteracy development, (2) biliteracy in family and community contexts, and (3) biliteracy in the classroom context. Contributions from these various areas offer multiple possibilities for describing children's −development and maintenance of biliteracy while taking into consideration the interdisciplinary and multifaceted nature of research in this area.