Codeswitching Investigated in Dutch–English Bilingual Children in Australia

The present study analyzed the number of English words used within Dutch conversations and whether the age and topic influence the frequency of codeswitching among bilingual Dutch–English children residing in Australia. An interview and monologue on three different topics (The Netherlands, Australia, and Random) conducted with simultaneous and sequential bilingual children aged 4–12 years (n = 40) were audio recorded and then transcribed. The interview consisted of questions related to the three aforementioned topics, and the monologue was guided using prompting boards on the three topics. The number of English and Dutch words was manually counted for both the interview and the monologue. Codeswitching is frequently used by Dutch primary school–aged children living in Sydney. No difference was found in the codeswitching frequency by age group, therefore it doesn't appear to be age-related in school-aged children. Codeswitching frequency differed significantly by topic of conversation. Children codeswitched less when the topic of conversation was linked to the Dutch-language environment. This study encouraged free speech to avoid a test situation to get as close to real-life situations as possible, to investigate the amount of codeswitching in children's conversations. Discussing a topic related to the native language may lead to a significant decrease in codeswitching.