A code-switching asymmetry in bilingual children: code-switching from Dutch to Frisian requires more cognitive control than code-switching from Frisian to Dutch

Abstract

Recent research suggests that cognitive control plays a role in code-switching, both in bilingual adults and in bilingual children. Code-switching would only require cognitive control, however, when speakers maintain some degree of separation between their two languages, not when they completely mix the lexicons and grammars of their languages. For Frisian–Dutch bilinguals, mixing of Dutch (majority language) into Frisian (minority language) is common, but mixing of Frisian into Dutch is not. Therefore, Frisian–Dutch bilinguals need to maintain some degree of language separation when they speak Dutch, but not when they speak Frisian, predicting that code-switching from Dutch to Frisian would affect cognitive control more than vice versa.