Research Question Proposal

Karen Landeros

Research Question: Code-Switching in Multilingual Children: how does the cognate facilitation
effect present itself in multilingual children?

Aims: to begin, the cognate facilitation effect is when bilingual children recognize and produce
cognates of their prominent language over non-cognates. So then this study investigates how
multilingual children, whose native language is English (L1) and Spanish and Korean (L3) as
their foreign languages, use cognates when narrating a story.The result will give us a better
understanding of the effects of trilingual teachings and how ones identity as a multilingual
affects their speech-production
Targeted Population: recent kindergarten graduates of a multilingual institution in Koreatown,
Los Ángeles
Design/approach: children will take a picture description task. The task involves a researcher
to show a child an image and ask for them to describe what is happening in it. The child will also
be asked questions to elicit a narration. Responses will be recorded and transcribed.