Language Mixing of Young Children Growing up in a Japanese and Chinese Environment : From the Perspective of Translanguaging

ニッチュウ　バイリンガル　カンキョウ　デ　ソダツ　ヨウジ　ノ　ニゲンゴ　コンヨウ　ニ　ツイテ　トランス　ランゲージング　ノ　シテン　カラ　ノ　コウサツ

Wang, Tao

The Japanese Society for Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education

二言語混用

トランスランゲージング

This study aims to examine the mixed use of two languages in the speech of a young child growing up in a bilingual environment. The study observed conversations between a Young child, born and raised in Japan (pseudonym: Xiaohua), and her Chinese-speaking mother from 3 years and 0 months to 3 years and 11 months. It was noted that although the proportion of mixed language expression in this young child’s speech is very small, only 2.3%, this proportion often increases with development. Additionally, from the perspective of translanguaging, a survey and classification were conducted to explore the purposes behind this young child mixing two languages, indicating that languages mixing is a positive linguistic behavior that accompanies development and contributes to smooth communication. Finally, seven hypotheses are proposed regarding the purposes of bilingual young children mixing two languages:“problem solving,” “emotional expression,” “imitation,” “topic introduction and transformation,” “peer awareness expression,” “citation, and “scene control.”