Publisher's Synopsis
Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 1, University of Innsbruck (English Linguistics), course: Systemic and/or Applied English Linguistics: Language Development in Multilingual Children, language: English, abstract: Even if there has been a change in time, code switching in children, in contrast to adults' code switching, is still regarded as a 'problem' by several people, professionals included. Even if the idea that a child should learn to answer in the appropriate language is per se right, it was the context in which it all happened which was wrong. Some people in my town believed that in a German-speaking kindergarten Italian shouldn't be used as it would contaminate the language of other children. This is not a single case but part of a large number of misconceptions which have led parents and teachers to think of code-switching as a kind of linguistic disorder and, consequently, sending children to professionals, who might also not fully understand the field of code-switching. This can lead to wrong assumptions, stigmatizing children who are intrinsically 'normal' as 'bad' speakers. All this fears don't apply to adults' code-switching as it is seen as something more rule-governed.
