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Bilingual toddlers often use two languages within a single sentence. While this mode of expression is often looked down upon in society, it is actually the child’s attempt to communicate more precisely at a time when they are not yet able to do so more effectively. As they grow older, their tendency to code-switch diminishes.
Tap-tap! Two-year-old Fiona hits a nail with a toy hammer. Then she grabs a screwdriver and tries to loosen a bolt attached to a playset. When she is unsuccessful, she calls out to her mother, “Emme, see ei worki!” (“Mommy, this doesn’t work!”)
Known as code-switching, this type of mixing of languages within a sentence is an everyday occurrence for many toddlers in multilingual families, writes Piret Baird, a doctoral student in linguistics and lecturer at the Tallinn University (TLÜ) School of Humanities.
Understanding Code-Switching in Bilingual Toddlers
Parents in multilingual families themselves do not code-switch very often when speaking to their child, so why do their toddlers do it? How do these young children decide whom to speak to in which language? In my doctoral research, I set out to answer precisely these kinds of questions about the linguistic development of bilingual toddlers.
Beyond simply satisfying scientific curiosity, answering these questions is important for another reason as well. Many parents in multilingual families have experienced the social stigma attached to this kind of code-switching.
The prevailing view holds that the only correct way for a bilingual child to acquire language is for each parent to speak exclusively in one language — known as the One Parent, One Language (OPOL) approach. When a child responds to a parent in the other parent’s language or code-switches, this can spark concern or even fears in parents.
Very few studies on language acquisition in bilingual toddlers have been conducted in Estonia specifically in the context of the Estonian language, meaning there is a lack of scientific knowledge on the subject.
For my doctoral research, I recorded the everyday conversations of an Estonian-English bilingual toddler with her loved ones over a period of two and a half years. In this family, the entire household spoke Estonian at home three days a week, and English four days a week. I analyzed the length and complexity of the child’s sentences, the proportion of speech in each language as well as when she used which language.
I found that between the ages of two and three, a toddler may code-switch a great deal when speaking. Sentences containing elements from both languages, such as “Untagurda see” (“Un-back this [car] up”), accounted for half of the two-and-a-half-year-old child’s speech.
Longer, more complex sentences
It turned out that words and structures from either language were used by Fiona like a hammer, nails and screwdriver in a toolbox, which she used as needed. If a particular phrase was more readily available in Estonian at a given moment, she would use that, but if a word came to mind more quickly in English, she would use that instead, even if her conversation partner was speaking in Estonian at the time.
Such language use meant that sentences involving code-switching were longer and more complex than monolingual sentences. This suggests that, despite being frowned on, code-switching actually allows young children, whose language skills are still developing, to express themselves more effectively.
As the child’s speech developed, the proportion of sentences involving code-switching dwindled, and by the age of five, her speech contained only a limited amount of code-switching, as the need for it had diminished.
I also found that code-switching in conversations was not influenced by children’s caregivers’ speech. Fiona’s parents spoke almost exclusively in a single language at a time, and even her siblings’ occasional code-switching did not lead Fiona to use two languages more often in monolingual conversations. However, this aspect requires further research, as my data on her limited interactions with her siblings do not allow for definitive conclusions.
Based on the above, we can conclude that multilingual families don’t need to fear the occurrence of code-switching in early childhood. This code-switching boosts a child’s ability to communicate, and as their proficiency in both languages continues to develop, their use of two languages within the same conversation will likewise diminish.
This article was written by Piret Baird and first published as part of the “Science in 3 Minutes” competition organized by the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
Piret Baird is a doctoral student in linguistics at the Tallinn University (TLÜ) School of Humanities, where her doctoral research focuses on bilingualism in toddlers. She has also studied Estonian language proficiency among non-native-speaking children, and is currently analyzing the Estonian language proficiency of refugee children. Baird has previously earned master’s degrees in teaching English as a second language and comparative politics.
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