Language Mixing In Language Acquisition

In bilingual communities, there is an existing debate over the issue of whether language mixing in input is detrimental to the child’s language development. Linguist use the term language mixing as a cover term for a number of different types of utterances the child produce (Myers-Scotton, 2005). One type of mixing is referred to as code mixing which refers to instances in which people alternate between at least two languages in a single conversation (Herk, 2012). A group of researchers held view that introducing language mixing from young can be detrimental to child language acquisition as it might trigger confusion between languages (Antón Eneko, 2015). Another group held the view that children have the ability to acquire more than one language

We can examine this by comparing language skills of early and late bilinguals. Early bilinguals became bilingual as early as before the age of 5 and that they are have equal proficiency in both their languages. Late bilinguals only acquire their second language after the age of 10. By looking at these two type of bilinguals, we can compare their cognitive differences in the age range of 5 to 10 and monitor their speech and comprehension skills. During this period, we can keep in control the variable - the number of language input in each group of bilinguals (early bilinguals mixing in language input and late bilinguals with only one language input). We can then test the hypothesis of whether the number of language input and timing of second language exposure impacts bilinguals’ language development. According to this hypothesis, differential outcomes for early and late bilinguals occur because late bilinguals do not acquire native-like proficiency levels in their second language and as a result, language competence does not increase at a steady

Results from a number of studies of bilingual children have indicated poorer phonological skills in young bilinguals than their monolingual counterparts. Gildersleeve-Neumann, Kester, Davis, and Peña (2008) examined the English phonological skills of typically developing, bilingual (English–Spanish) 3-year-olds. The results indicated that the bilingual children showed an overall lower intelligibility rating, made more consonant and vowel errors overall, and produced more uncommon error patterns than monolingual English speakers of the same