Second System Code Shifting in a Hearing Two-Year Old

Abstract

Breeze, a hearing child, 28 months old, of hearing parents, who had some acquaintance with signing but did not sign at home, was taped in play and lunch sessions with a 46 month old hearing child and her deaf mother, both of whom signed. I examined the tapes to find whether the communicative behavior would show code shifting, other second-language learning behaviors, or both in Breeze's utterances. I found that a change in communication did occur within a relatively short time and that this code shifting was influenced more by motivational variables and Breeze’s own flexibility with language than by the linguistic features of sign.