Abstract
Introduction: Code-switching refers to the bilingual’s ability to switch languages
within a conversation and within a sentence. This language-switching
is both grammatically well formed and conforms to discourse/pragmatic
constraints in proficient adult bilinguals who have acquired both languages in early childhood (‘early’ bilinguals). Bilinguals with aphasia due to stroke or
other brain trauma may present with impaired language selection. Evidence
of grammatical impairment of code-switching is less conclusive. The aim of
this study was to investigate whether the code-switching of early bilingual
adults with aphasia systematically differs from that of healthy bilingual adults
on grammatical and discourse measures. Methods: A single case design was
used to examine the code-switching of three early bilinguals with aphasia, in
comparison to language- and age-matched controls. Code-switching was
tested on three types of sentences (those with pronoun subjects, negation, whquestions)
across four conditions (conversation, narrative recount, elicited
sentence production, lexical selection). Participants completed a detailed test
battery assessing lexical, syntactic and cognitive abilities in each language.
Results: The results for participants with aphasia differed significantly from
the controls on grammatical but not discourse measures of code-switching.
Significantly more language mismatches were produced on all sentence types
for elicited sentences. Performance on lexical selection tasks varied across
participants with aphasia. Language selection in conversation and narrative
recount did not differ between participants with aphasia and controls.
Discussion: These results provide evidence of a dissociation between discourse
impairment and grammatical impairment of code-switching, and
change over time in the capacity to code-switch. For these bilinguals with
aphasia, grammatical impairment of code-switching was evidenced in the
presence of unimpaired language selection. The implications for cognitive
models of language switching will be discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 138-139 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Brain impairment : abstracts of the 32nd Brain Impairment Conference |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
| Event | Brain Impairment Conference (32nd : 2009) - Sydney Duration: 7 May 2009 → 9 May 2009 |