International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Why Children Code-Switch? Sociolinguistic Factors
Patrick A. McCarthy

Abstract
This essay examines the general topic of child code-switching by primarily focusing on sociolinguistic variables that influence code-switching in a child’s speech. Three factors were discussed. First, it is claimed that parents play an important role in their child's speech by the strategies that they choose to influence their child's language development. In addition, a child's proficiency in either of the two languages that he is using can also have an influence on whether a child code switches. Finally, it was also found that contextual situations could have a strong impact on a child's code switching.

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