The Modeling Hypothesis and child bilingual codemixing

Abstract

According to one explanation of child bilingual codemixing (the modeling hypothesis), bilingual children' s rates of mixing are related to rates of mixing in the input addressed to them. An assumption of this hypothesis is that bilingual children are sensitive to codemixing in the input and that they can adjust their own rates on-line in accordance with the input. Despite its widespread appeal, evidence concerning its validity has been largely inconclusive. The assumption is largely noncontroversial in the case of older bilingual children, as evidenced by their adoption of the patterns of codemixing of the speech communities in which they live. H owever, it is not clear whether young bilingual children have the cognitive and linguistic capacities implicated by this assumption. The present study sought to examine this assumption directly. Six French-English bilingual children (average age 2;4 years) were recorded during play sessions with an assistant who engaged in relatively low (15%) or relatively high rates (40%) of mixing on three separate occasions. The results indicate that these children were sensitive to the language choices of their interlocutors and that they were able to adjust their rates of mixing accordingly; further, they appeared to do this by matching their language choice with that of their interlocutors on a turn-by-turn basis.

The Influence of Dominance and Sociolinguistic Context on Bilingual Preschoolers' Language Choice

“…For this study, discourse context was interpreted as being the 282 The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism adult interlocutor's language choice, which is in line with the assumptions of much prior work (e.g. Comeau et al ., 2003;Genesee et al ., 1995a;Lanza, 1997;Nicoladis & Secco, 2000). Because the children varied in terms of the typical contexts and interlocutors where and with whom they would use each language, it was deemed appropriate to choose the interlocutor for each language session based on each child's background, resulting in different arrangements across children.…”

“…Simultaneous bilingual children can use their languages differentially and with sensitivity to their interlocutor's language choice by the age of 2 years (Comeau et al ., 2003;Deuchar & Quay, 2000;Genesee et al ., 1995aGenesee et al ., , 1997Lanza, 1997;. Interlocutor sensitivity is often defined as children using more of their language A with an interlocutor who speaks language A, and more of their language B with an interlocutor who speaks language B (e.g.…”

Initial Bilingual Development: One Language or Two?

“…Goodz, 1994;Genesee et al, 1995;Genesee et al, 1996) claimed no correlation between parents' mixing rate and children's mixing rate, whereas the findings of Comeau et al (2003) study demonstrated that bilingual children changed their mixing rate in accordance with that of the interlocutors.…”

Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Evidence from Montreal

“…Additional evidence from our lab that young bilingual children are sensitive and responsive to unfamiliar interlocutors' language preferences comes from a study by Comeau, Genesee and Lapaquette (2003). Comeau et al observed six Montreal French-English bilingual 2-to 2 ½ year olds while they played with an unfamiliar experimenter on three separate occasions.…”