Chapter 12. Code-switching and code-mixing in bilingual Spanish–Catalan children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

This study focuses on a specific bilingual context to study code-switching and code-mixing in Spanish-Catalan simultaneous bilingual children with and without language difficulties with similar exposure to these close languages. We aimed to know whether children with DLD showed different code-switching and code-mixing patterns compared to children without language difficulties and explored the role of some variables that could affect their use, such as the language spoken by their parents and children’s ages. Fifteen Spanish-Catalan bilingual children with DLD and their age controls were followed from 8 to 12 years of age. Children were audio-recorded while they produced an oral narrative task in the language chosen by the child. Results indicated that children whose parents spoke both languages at home also use more code-mixing at 12 than parents that only spoke one language. Besides bilingual children with DLD showed more code-switching only at an earlier age (i.e., 8) but not more code-mixing than their age-matched peers. We discuss these results considering several explanaitions.