Conversational code-switching among Korean-English bilingual children

Abstract

Using the sequential analysis developed by Auer(1984,1995), this paper attempts to show how young Korean-English bilingual schoolchildren employ code-switching to organize their conversation. Auer's distinction between participant-related and discourse-related code-switching proved to be useful in revealing that the children employ code-switching to negotiate the language for the interaction and accommodate other participants' language competences and preferences, as well as to organize conversational tasks such as turn-taking, preference marking, repair and bracketing of side-sequences. Contrary to the assumption that code-switching is evidence of linguistic deficit in bilingual speakers, the sequential analysis suggests that code-switching is used as an additional resource to achieve particular conversational goals in interactions with other bilingual speakers.