‘I’m Sorry, Could You Please Repeat That?’: A Research on Bilingual Children’s Ability to Process and Repeat Mixed Sentence Repetition (MSR) Tasks

Abstract

This study investigates the code-switching behavior of bilingual Turkish-Dutch children, focusing on the distinction between content words and function words during Mixed Sentence Repetition (MSR) tasks. Code-switching, the practice of alternating between two languages within a single utterance, is a common phenomenon in bilingual language development. While previous research has explored various aspects of bilingual code- switching, limited studies have examined how bilingual children handle different word types during controlled linguistic tasks.

The study examines whether bilingual children exhibit additional switches more frequently in mixed-language sentences compared to monolingual sentences and whether these switches predominantly involve content words or function words. The MSR task was designed to assess children's ability to process and reproduce mixed-language input, allowing for an analysis of spontaneous code-switching beyond the elicited linguistic structures.

A paired samples t-test was conducted across two levels of analysis: one at the sentence level (16 trials) and another at the individual sentence level for each child (256 trials). The results consistently demonstrated that bilingual children were significantly more likely to switch content words than function words. Notably, no additional switches were observed in monolingual sentences, indicating that switches were exclusively triggered in mixed-language contexts. Furthermore, function word switches occurred despite their absence in the stimuli, suggesting that children’s switching behavior is not solely a reflection of the input but may stem from broader linguistic and cognitive processes.

These findings contribute to our understanding of bilingual language processing by providing empirical evidence on the differential treatment of content and function words in code-switching. The study highlights the need for further research into the mechanisms underlying these switching patterns, particularly how bilingual children balance linguistic input, cognitive control, and lexical access when managing two languages. The results also have implications for educational approaches, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and supporting the natural switching tendencies of bilingual children in learning environments.