The Codes of the Spanish-English Bilingual

Abstract

This article presents some conclusions based on research conducted in an East Texas community with a Mexican American population of less than ten percent. Three generations of one family were interviewed to determine their relative competence in English and Spanish. The grandparents showed minimal command over English, the second generation about equal command, with a slight English dominance, and the children a limited command over Spanish. The best indicator of the availability of each of the two language codes is the amount of each language used in unstructured conversations. When the situation excludes one language, the speakers can use only English or only Spanish. But when the situation allows more freedom, the speaker uses the construction that is closest to the tip of the tongue, producing a linguistic mixture. The nature of the 'mixing' suggests that the two codes are not entirely separable, but are two codes that together constitute the speaker's competence in a singular sense. The project also included a comparison of the English of some migrant first graders and some foreign students. The two groups made entirely different types of errors, demonstrating the need for different instructional techniques for different age groups.