Issue in Bilingualism: English-Chinese Code-Switching Past and Present
Code-switching (CS) is a common linguistic phenomenon found in almost any bilingual or multilingual community. This phenomenon means alternation between two or more sets of linguistic codes in a person’s utterance during a conversation. Such alternation i
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Issue in Bilingualism: English-Chinese Code-Switching Past and Present Hockhuan Goh and Kaycheng Soh
Code-switching (CS) is a common linguistic phenomenon found in almost any bilingual or multilingual community. This phenomenon means alternation between two or more sets of linguistic codes in a person’s utterance during a conversation. Such alternation is not only found in adults’ talk but also among conversations of young children. In the past, many studies on CS have reservations over this phenomenon as some researchers viewed it as a manifestation of incompetence or confusion in the two languages. This is still perceived by some language purists and language educators today (Goh et al. 2007). On the other hand, CS is viewed positively by other researchers (Poplack 1980; Genesee 1993; Genesee 2001). They have shown that CS consistently adheres to certain linguistic patterns and this means that it is not a result of confusion or incompetence. Moreover, some research has revealed that children use CS for various communicative purposes, like showing intimacy to interlocutors, differentiating interlocutors who speak different languages, etc. (Al-Khatib 2003; Genesee 2002; Genesee 1993, 2004; Li and Milroy 1995; Poplack 1980; Reyes 2004; Romaine 2004). Although CS has many years of research, there is to-date little consensus. This lack of consensus is not only a result of the diverse research perspectives of researchers but also of the basis of what researchers considered as a switch. This is reflected in the terminologies that researchers have used to address the phenomenon i.e. code mixing, code changing, language alternation and borrowing (Al-Khatib 2003; Genesee et al. 2004; Plaff 1997). Other than differences in terminologies, the criteria for what is considered a switch is also diverse. Some researchers have chosen to give CS more specific criteria by restricting it to switch instances of certain physical length, e.g. beyond a word (Poplack 1980; Reyes 2004), or switch instances that bear intentions for discourse or pragmatic purposes (Auer 2005; Li 2005), while
H. Goh (*) • K. Soh Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 K. Soh (ed.), Teaching Chinese Language in Singapore, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0123-9_9
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other researchers set no specific criteria and put all switch instances under the umbrella term of CS or code mixing (Genesee et al. 2004; Romaine 2004).
Previous Studies CS has been widely studied from many perspectives. Some studies approached it from a social constructivist viewpoint and regarded it as some sort of reflection on the speaker’s identity, mirroring societal change or growth that one has undergone in a particular social context (Al-Khatib 2003; Baynham 1993; Kanno 2000). Another set of studies focused on discourse or pragmatic perspectives and regarded CS as a function or conversational tactic in communicative activities among bilinguals (Auer 2005; Li 2005; Reyes
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