This study observed the occurrence of code switching among six Arabic-English Saudi bilingual children living in the United States at the time of the study. A mixed-methods research design using quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques was applied in order to investigate the presence of code switching in the speech of the participants, the different types of code switching involved, and their social motivations. Three research instruments were used for the purpose of the study: a parental questionnaire, language portraits, and recorded Arabic and English storytelling sessions. Syntactic and sociolinguistic approaches were employed; the Markedness Model by Myers-Scotton (1993) was adopted to examine the social motivation behind code switching, and Poplack's (1980) classification of code switching was used to identify code switching patterns. Overall, the findings revealed the participant's dominant and preferred language to be English, the presence of intrasentential and intersentential code switching, a preference for intersentential over intrasentential code switching, the function of code switching, and the role of social motivations in language choice and code switching. Moreover, this study contributes to the current research on the Markedness Model among bilingual children by providing evidence for Myers-Scotton (1993) as marked and unmarked code switching was observed among the participants. This study also agrees with previous studies (e.g. Myers-Scotton, 2002; Bolonyai, 2005; Fuller, Elsman, & Self, 2007) that argued that bilingual children are rational and social actors who choose a given code intentionally to achieve certain social goals in a given interaction.

This is the first book to focus on the social motivations for codeswitching, that is, the use of two or more linguistic varieties in the same conversation. Using data from multilingual African contexts (mostly from conversations studied in Kenya) Carol Myers-Scotton advances a theoretical argument which aims at a general explanation of these motivations. She treats codeswitching as a type of skilled performance, not as the 'alternative strategy' of a person who cannot carry on a conversation in the language in which it began. When engaging in codeswitching, speakers exploit the socio-psychological values which have come to be associated with different linguistic varieties in a specific speech community: the switch codes in order to negotiate a change in social distance between themselves and other participants in the conversation, conveying this negotiation through the choice of a different code. Switching between languages, Professor Myers-Scotton suggests, has a good deal in common with making different stylistic choices within the same language: it is as if bilingual and multilingual speakers have an additional style at their command when they engage in codeswitching between different languages.

This volume is the first published collection of papers on the impact of diglossia and dialectal variations on language and literacy acquisition, impairment, and education. The authors are pioneering in this field and are leading researchers with substantial experience in conducting research in this area. A wide range of areas and languages are covered, including the US, South Africa, Israel, and various European countries. The chapters present novel data and insights regarding the role of dialectal variations on language and literacy, from a wide range of countries and perspectives. These insights have significant theoretical and practical implications. A majority of literacy learners worldwide are taught to read and write in a language variety or a dialect that is not the same as their spoken language. Not only is this the global norm, but it is probably also the greatest obstacle to literacy learning. This volume is the first published collection of papers on the role of dialect in language and literacy acquisition, impairment, and education in a variety of languages and situations across Europe, the Middle East, North America, Africa, and Asia.The authors are pioneers in this field.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2.3, University of Stuttgart (Institut für Linguistik), 40 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a complete overview over the phenomenon of code-switching and code-mixing. The history of the research of code change has undergone various periods that have shown how complex the phenomenon of codeswitching and code-mixing are. In the course of research of code change it has become clear that code-switching and code-mixing can be investigated from different perspectives. Researchers focused on code change after they had realized that linguistic forms and practices are interrelated. And code-switching/-mixing, in their turn, embodies not only variation, but the link between linguistic form and language use as social practice. Research from a linguistic and psycholinguistic perspective has focused on understanding the nature of the systematic of code change, as a way of revealing linguistic and potentially cognitive processes. Research on the psychological and social dimensions of code-switching/-mixing has largely been devoted to answering the questions of why speakers code change and what the social meaning of code change is for them. The sociological perspective later goes on to attempt to use the answer to those questions to illuminate how language operates as a social process. Throughout the history of research on code-switching/-mixing it has been proposed that it is necessary to link all these forms of analysis and that, indeed, it is that possibility that is one of the most compelling reasons for studying code-switching/- mixing, since such a link would permit the development and verification of hypotheses regarding the relationship among linguistic, cognitive and social processes in a more general way (Heller, Pfaff 1996). As with any aspect of language contact phenomena, research on code- switching

In this second edition of Arabic Sociolinguistics, Reem Bassiouney expands the discussion of major theoretical approaches since the publication of the book’s first edition to account for new sociolinguistic theories in Arabic contexts with up-to-date examples, data, and approaches. The second edition features revised sections on diglossia, code-switching, gender discourse, language variation, and language policy in the region while adding a chapter on critical sociolinguistics—a new framework for critiquing the scholarly practices of sociolinguistics. Bassiouney also examines the impact of politics and new media on Arabic language. Arabic Sociolinguistics continues to be a uniquely valuable resource for understanding the theoretical framework of the language.

Modern Arabic Sociolinguistics outlines and evaluates the major approaches and methods used in Arabic sociolinguistic research with respect to diglossia, codeswitching, language variation and attitudes and social identity. This book: outlines the main research findings in these core areas and relates them to a wide range of constructs, including social context, speech communities, prestige, power, language planning, gender and religion examines two emerging areas in Arabic sociolinguistic research, internet-mediated communication and heritage speakers, in relation to globalization, language dominance and interference and language loss and maintenance analyses the interplay between the various sociolinguistic aspects and examines the complex nature of the Arabic multidialectal, multinational, and multiethnic sociolinguistic situation. Based on the author’s recent fieldwork in several Arab countries this book is an essential resource for researchers and students of sociolinguistics, Arabic linguistics, and Arabic studies.

This volume demonstrates that mixed utterances in young bilinguals can be analyzed in the same way as adult code-switching. It provides new insights not only in the field of code-switching and of language mixing in young bilinguals, but also in issues concerning general questions on linguistic theory which are difficult to be answered with monolingual data.

Carol Myers-Scotton has edited a collection of essays that covers the choice of one style of English over another in everything from Bible translations to "surprise in poetry" to supervisor-worker interactions on the automobile assembly line. An important theme developed to varying degrees in these papers is the notion that speakers and writers, as rational actors, exploit the unmarked-marked opposition regarding audience expectations so as to convey messages of intentionality charged with social or psychological import.

This updated and revised edition of Hamers and Blanc's successful textbook presents state-of-the-art knowledge about languages in contact from individual bilingualism (or bilinguality) to societal bilingualism. It is both multi- and interdisciplinary in approach, and analyses bilingualism at individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. Linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural aspects of bilingual development are explored, as are problems such as bilingual memory and polyglot aphasia. Hamers and Blanc analyse the relationship between culture, identity, and language behaviour in multicultural settings, as well as the communication strategies in interpersonal and intergroup relations. They also propose theoretical models of language processing and development, which are then applied to bilingual behaviour. Other topics reviewed include language shift, pidgins and creoles, language planning and bilingual education. This book will be invaluable to students, teachers and scholars interested in languages in contact in a range of disciplines including psycholinguistics, linguistics, the social sciences, education and language planning.