WEBVTT

00:01.000 --> 00:10.000
My name is Jeanine Treffers-Daller, I’m from the University of Reading in the UK and my main interest in research is bilingualism in general, 

00:11.000 --> 00:25.000
but my current projects are about code-switching, that is the use of different languages within one conversation. It is possible for bilinguals to switch between language systems in seamless ways, 

00:26.000 --> 00:36.000
so you don’t even notice the transition from one language to another. It’s a very interesting skill and that sets bilinguals apart from any other group in society. 

00:37.000 --> 00:48.000
So, the question is then, you know, how is this possible? How can people draw on vocabulary and grammar from two languages and mix these two, even within one language? 

00:49.000 --> 01:01.000
How does that skill relate to other skills, for example to cognitive skills? Right, are you perhaps better at tasks where you need to inhibit irrelevant information? 

01:02.000 --> 01:15.000
And that seems to be the case, there is evidence for that that bilinguals are a little bit better than monolinguals at inhibiting and at suppressing irrelevant information, at least in experimental situations in a laboratory. 

01:16.000 --> 01:24.000
And one of the factors that influences that is how frequently they code-switch, how frequently they mix languages within discourse. 

01:25.000 --> 01:41.000
So, it’s really interesting to look at this topic and to try and uncover what the properties of the sentences are, but also to look at in what situations people do this, why they do that and how it relates to identity 

01:42.000 --> 01:53.000
because that is also a very important aspect of a bilingual. Sometimes a bilingual can strongly identify with one group or identify strongly with another group, or they have a mixed identity and that also relates to code-switching behaviour. 

01:54.000 --> 02:04.000
So, it has many sort of linguistic aspects but has also got societal aspects and it has cognitive aspects, and these three things, you know, looking at them together is something I really find very fascinating. 

02:05.000 --> 02:22.000
(In German) Thank you. And are you doing this as well sometimes? Yes, definitely, definitely. I speak also German, my husband is German, I currently live in Berlin. (In English) I enjoy code-switching (in German) jeden Tag,

02:23.000 --> 02:33.000
sometimes I speak with my children in Dutch (in Dutch) and they answer in Dutch (in English) or they answer in English, because we lived in the UK for a long time.  

02:34.000 --> 02:45.000
So we do this on a daily basis but of course it depends on who we’re talking to. So, if we’re here in the university we speak English only, but as soon as somebody would come along who also speaks my languages, 

02:46.000 --> 02:57.000
I would immediately start switching between these languages because it is nice to be able to draw on all these resources that you've got. So, at the moment I have to inhibit my Dutch because I know there are no other speakers of Dutch here. 

02:58.000 --> 03:08.000
But as soon as a Dutch speaker comes along, I’d be happily code-switching between those languages. (In German ) Thank you, (in Dutch) thank you. (In German) You're welcome.