CONCEPT WRITING: Code Switching and Language Borrowing by JM

Code switching and language borrowing are two very typical aspects of Chicano Spanish. The natural occurrence of code-switching and language borrowing in all situations in which two languages come into contact can be misinterpreted as confusion of the two languages. (Ovando and Collier). Nonlinguists sometimes refer to any blend of Spanish and English as "Spanglish". The word ”groceria” (used to mean grocery) for example, does not exist in standard Spanish. Spelled differently (”grosería”) it means expletive. A Chicano though, may use the word to mean grocery store, even knowing that the correct word is ”mercado”, as he is strongly influenced by the English environment. This person's children, however, may never have heard the word ”mercado” and will use ”groceria” thinking it is correct. This is how the original Spanish words are lost. Another example of what may happen when two languages come into contact is code-switching as, for example, when a bilingual Mexican-American child says to another, ”"Andale, pues,” let's go" (O.K. come on, let's go) or "Gimme the ball, ”que le voy a decir a mi Mamá” (Give me the ball, or I'll tell my mother).

Although the desirability of code-switching and its role in language development is debated by many educators, some researchers agree that there is a function and logic to its use. Code-switching is for many bilinguals a way to cope with the bicultural-bilingual setting in which they function. Code-switchers use both languages only with speakers who know both codes. Bilingual speakers are aware that each of their languages has certain strengths and that two languages can be used simultaneously to convey the most precise meaning.

Although sociolinguists emphasize the positive aspects of code-switching, Gonzalez and Maez discuss what they call "regressive code-switching", which occurs when a student who is losing a first language leans on the second language to provide the missing lexical items or structure. If code-switching is used in the classroom, it should be of the intersentential (after the end of a sentence) type and not intrasentential (within a sentence).

Students who use nonstandard varieties of their first and second languages and make use of language borrowing and code-switching strategies have sometimes been called "alingual". Their relative proficiency in each language is limited only by knowledge of the standard variety, or in the case of subtractive bilingualism, by loss of their first language in the process of acquiring another one. A label like "alingualism" is often linked with being culturally deprived, implying that the quality of the student's sociocultural background is deficient. Code-switching may be seen as a reflection of the speaker's inadequacy to express himself completely in one language or the other. (Ovando and Collier, 87.) However, research carried out here in El Paso suggests that code-switching is done for specific functions. To the purist and the Mexican national, word-borrowing and code-switching may seem like a threat to the integrity of the standard language, but such language mixture is an aspect of natural language change. My experience has been that code switching will not arise if a Chicano is perceived by another Chicano not to speak Spanish fluently or to prefer to speak English. If he prefers to speak Spanish, he will be spoken to in Spanish. If the person speaks both languages and the situation is casual, usually code-switching is the norm. Of course, if one accepts this explanation, then he also accepts the fact that mixed language sentences are part of the Chicano language. The frequent involvement of Chicanos in bilingual contexts and consequent exposure to code changes is a possible explanation for this acceptance.

However, there are certain syntactic constraints that are understood by all bilinguals, albeit unconsciously. Adverbial constructions may be switched, ”"Vamos next week" (we'll go next week), but not as interrogatives, ”"When vamos?"; a switch may occur at a noun phrase only after a determiner, ”"Se lo di a mi “grandfather" (I gave it to my grandfather) but not as, ”Se lo di a “my grandfather; an adverb may be switched before an adjective, "”Es” very friendly", (He is very friendly) but not ”Es” very ”amistoso."

The production of switches in any situation requires social knowledge which is subculturally specific and acquired only through practical experience. It is learned by being a member of the group and depends on the individual's bilingual ability to speak appropriately. At the same time, code-switching is governed by constraints which can, in some measure, be compared to grammatical phenomena. It is not random but rather subject to an underlying switching grammar.


Works Cited

Gonzalez and L.F. Maez, "To Switch or not to Switch: The Role of Code Switching in the Elementary Bilingual Classroom," in ”Ethnoperspectives in Bilingual Education Research,”
ed. R.V. Padilla, Ypsilanti, MI: Eastern Michigan University, 1980, 125-135.

Ovando, Carlos J. and Virginia P. Collier, Bilingual and ESL Classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural Contexts, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985, pp 86-90

Valdés-Fallis) ”Language in Education Series, No. 4: Code Switching and the Classroom Teacher” Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1978, p 7.)