Processing of Code-switched Sentences by Bilingual Children: Cognitive and Linguistic Predictors

Overview

Journal Cogn Dev

Specialty Pediatrics

Date 2019 Dec 31

PMID 31885416

Citations 4

Authors

Megan C Gross

Eva Lopez

Milijana Buac

Margarita Kaushanskaya

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Production studies of language switching have identified costs in the speed and/or accuracy of word production, but it is unclear whether processing costs are experienced by listeners as well. A related question is whether language control during comprehension recruits domain-general cognitive control. The current study examined processing of code-switching in Spanish-English bilingual children (ages 6;0-11;10) using an auditory moving window paradigm. Cognitive control was indexed by the Dimensional Change Card Sort. Children exhibited significant costs in processing speed when listening to code-switched sentences, but no costs in a measure of offline comprehension. The extent to which cognitive control skills moderated processing costs depended on the robustness of the language system: children with higher language skills exhibited a greater moderating effect of cognitive control. Taken together, the findings provide limited support for a role of cognitive control in children's code-switching processing and suggest that the processing costs incurred may be transitory.

Citing Articles

Mixed-Language Input and Infant Volubility: Friend or Foe?.

Ruan Y, Byers-Heinlein K, Orena A, Polka L Biling (Camb Engl). 2024; 26(5):1051-1066.

PMID: 38187471 PMC: 10769107. DOI: 10.1017/s1366728923000287.

Combining Languages in Bilingual Input: Using Experimental Evidence to Formulate Bilingual Exposure Strategies.

Kaushanskaya M J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023; 66(12):4771-4784.

PMID: 37732839 PMC: 11361785. DOI: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00181.

Does code-switching influence novel word learning?.

Kaushanskaya M, Crespo K, Neveu A Dev Sci. 2022; 26(2):e13292.

PMID: 35639763 PMC: 10163668. DOI: 10.1111/desc.13292.

Processing of Code-Switched Sentences in Noise by Bilingual Children.

Gross M, Patel H, Kaushanskaya M J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021; 64(4):1283-1302.

PMID: 33788593 PMC: 8608215. DOI: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00388.

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