Multilinguism: An Approach to Codeswitching—–?????
Intro:
A multilingual individual can be identified as one who uses several languages. Therefore and according to Lowi (2005) ”A bi-multilingual has the resources of two or more languages at their disposal who when in contact with others who share these resources, may draw upon all of their languages to communicate.” In other words, this ability becomes the definition of codeswitching. It is the reason why in Lysicott’s (2014) spoken word, “I am Articulate”, she proclaims her ability to be able to speak in three different languages. Such include the way she would speak to her family, her friends, and in the academic setting. The purpose of my study is to attest how one of the influences of codeswitching varies widely on where we find ourselves and by who we are surrounded.
Methodology:
For this task, I have collected data of my personal use of language over the course of a 48-hour period. It is important to note that the information logged was completed during two different days. The first twenty-four hours took place during the weekend while the second twenty-four hours were recorded during a weekday. These differ in the fact that activity was minimal during the first day of recording, the setting of activity was at home with my family and remained constant throughout. The second day of collection involved multiple activity with my friends and classmates and more variance of setting. The information obtained was logged when dialogue occurred the most. In some cases, much of the activity may have taken place once every two-three hours, in others, dialogue occurred more frequently within the hour. The information was later analyzed and categorized by the type of language used according to the environment I found myself surrounded by, the frequency at which codeswitching occurred was calculated at the end of each day. The graphs below reflect the most frequently used type of language according to the setting.
Graphs/Results:
Discussion:
Based on the information provided by the first two graphs, the distinction between them varied due to the setting at which each was conducted. During the first day of data recollection at home, there was extended interaction with members of my family, especially with my younger siblings, therefore it came to me as no surprise that Spanglish and kiddie language would be the most frequent types of languages used during this period. During the second day of recollection, the chart reflects an increase in each language category. While Spanglish use remains at the top of the list, casual/informal and formal language use come to tie. Although it was conducted while at an academic setting, the specific day and time of collection severely affected the results of this transmission due to my schedule for the day. Thus, the results would’ve differed if the information were collected on a different day of the week. While initially expecting my first day of data collection to be the least variant in language use, surprisingly was the day at which most of the codeswitching occurred. There was a back and forth of intersentential and intrasentential use of English and Spanish in the use of kiddie and informal languages. While at the academic setting, I found my use of language categories to go in accordance of who I was speaking to, there was no need to shift from one form of language to another.