Spanglish or Code-Switching?

1. CODE-SWITCHING 

The use of Code-Switching is sometimes thought to be a broken way of speaking by mixing two languages, in this case, Spanish and English. It can also be interpreted as a lack of language ability. And even though this might be true, there are other reasons why this phenomenon happens. For example, Code-Switching can prove that the speaker has knowledge of both languages and is capable of switching from one and the other making sense in what they are saying.

According to O. A. Santa Ana (1993), the bilingual speakers are not a homogeneous group; native Spanish speakers’ knowledge of English ranges from passive to full competence.

Crystal (1987) suggests that code, or language, switching occurs when an individual who is bilingual alternates between two languages during his/her speech with another bilingual person. A person who is bilingual may be said to be one who is able to communicate, to varying extents, in a second language. This includes those who make irregular use of a second language, are able to use a second language but have not for some time (dormant bilingualism) or those who have considerable skill in a second language.

We refer to Code-Switching when the speaker forms complete sentences in both Spanish and English. For example, “Yo no estoy de acuerdo con eso. But, anyhow, I think I will try again to get it.”

2. SPANGLISH

Spanglish is not so different from Code-Switching. In this case, instead of forming sentences in different languages, the speaker just adds a word to what they are saying.

It is very common to see this phenomenon happen in Americans whose parents speak Spanish. They will speak English in their school or with their friends but at home they can sometimes mix the languages.

3. SURVEYS ABOUT CODE-SWITCHING AND SPANGLISH

We made 30 surveys to some UANL students of different faculties to verify our hypothesis. We asked three questions in Spanish because we wanted to make sure that everyone understood the questions. 

The first question is: What linguistic phenomenon do you use more? Twenty eight students chose the option “Spanglish,” and two students chose Code-Switching. 

The second question is: Why do you use it? Nine students chose the first option “To distinguish what I want to say,” fifteen students chose the second option “When you forget the word in Spanish and you say it in English,” and six students chose the last option that is: another one, they wrote: because they want to practice more the English language; it sounds good, they said by instinct and habitually.

And finally, the third question is: With who do you use it? Twenty six students chose the option “with friends” (one of them chose also with the family), two students (including the other person) chose the option “with family,” and three students chose “with everybody.”

CONCLUSION

After our investigation we  realized that there is very little difference between Code-Switching and Spanglish. The first one forms complete sentences in both English and Spanish  while the other one  includes a single word in the opposite language.

The most used phenomenon in UANL students is Spanglish. We agree with them as we use this phenomenon a lot too. The answers didn’t really change from the different faculties. Code-Switching is used too but in a lower level.

REFERENCES

Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

O. A. Santa Ana. 1993. “Chicano English and the Nature of the Chicano Language Setting, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 15(1):3-35.