Analyzing Alina's Explanation Of Two Language

According to Ford (2001), language mixing is the term used to describe the phenomenon of communication though the usage of two languages as if they were one language. Ford (2001) states that mixing is unconscious and is used by child without regard of their interlocutor's understanding of both languages. This means that the child is only using words that he/she has learned to communicate their needs at the given moment. Alina demonstrated a significant amount of language mixing errors also known as code-mixing when evaluating her speech transcription (U1, 2, 3, 10, 26, 34, 36, 37, and 41). Alina demonstrated language mixing in U1 when stating “Look cutting your naranja.” Alina mixes English and Spanish when using “naranja” instead of using “orange.” Alina constantly produces this type of mixing in U2, 3, 34, 36, and 41). Alina also demonstrates language mixing in U 41in which she states, “You all finish my naranjas.” Alina mixes Spanish and English to fill in vocabulary gaps. Therefore, she may not know the word “naranjas” in English at all because …show more content…
89). This means that some children mix a lot and others do not mix much. Crago (2011), children may even mix differently and at different rates with different members of the family (p.89). Analyzing Alina’s speech we can see that she does not mixes much, yet the only word that we see she says most is “naranjas.” According to Anderson and Brice (1999), children are able to keep both languages separate with each parent and is able to code mix when is appropriate. This supports Alinas’ language mix because Alina is able to keep language separate or mix them depending on the environment of language (e.g. which parent she speaks to). As mentioned before, Alina’s mother speaks to her in English and her father speaks to her in Spanish so Alina is able to separate her language depending on who she is talking to