Several scholars have claimed that childhood bilingualism may enhance development of linguistic awareness. In the present investigation, metalinguistic ability is studied in terms of the dual skill components outlined by Bialystok and Ryan (1985): control of linguistic processing and analysis of linguistic knowledge. A total of 38 English–Swedish bilinguals, assigned to two groups according to relative proficiency, and 16 Swedish monolinguals, all aged 6 to 7 years, received three tasks: symbol substitution, grammaticality judgment, and grammaticality correction. Effects of general bilingualism were found on tasks requiring a high control of linguistic processing, thus replicating previous findings. The results indicated that a high degree of bilinguality may also enhance the development of linguistic analysis. Moreover, it was found that certain metalinguistic skills – especially control of processing – were more readily applied in the subjects' weaker language.

A B S T R A C TThis article investigates children's procedures for constructing oppositional stances in argumentative exchanges. While most previous research on children's arguments entails a monolingual bias, the present analysis focuses on bilingual practices of code-switching in disputes emerging during play activities. Drawing on more than ten hours of video-taped play interaction in a bilingual school setting, it is shown how the language contrast arising through code-switching displays and highlights the affective intensity of oppositional stances. Sequential analyses show how code-switching works to escalate social opposition, often to the peak of an argument, resulting in subsequent backdown or full termination of the dispute. Moreover, in certain participant constellations code-switching may be used to constrain opponents' opportunities to engage in further adversative interaction. Finally, it is argued that an approach to play discourse concerned with children's methods for accomplishing accountable actions allows for a view of bilingualism as socially distributed; that is, as an emergent and interactionally managed feature of discourse. (Bilingualism; child disputes; code-switching; social interaction)*

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In Goman's classic paper (1979), bilingual code-switching was seen as a prototypical device for accomplishing shifts in footing. Yet his work has not informed research on code-switching to any great extent. The present study of primary school children's play interaction in an English-Swedish school setting combines a sequential approach to code-switching with an analysis of footing (cf. Auer 1984), extending prior work in showing that code-switches often involve subtle shifts of footing, both in terms of production formats and participation frameworks. Code-switches were employed as important rhetorical and dramaturgic play devices, e.g. when contextualizing changes of addressee and shifts of frame (e.g. serious, nonserious). In contrast to earlier, often speaker-centered work, reception is discussed in-depth in the present analyses, and it is shown that footings are truly interactional achievements.