≪Abstract≫
This study aims to observe the patterns of code switching in Korean-English bilingual teenagers’ discourse with their family members in order to discover why and when the teenagers use code switching in light of two different language developments. Besides the main purpose, this study also attempts to compare the teenagers’ code-switches with very young bilinguals’and to find what language strategies bicultural parents employ to develop their teenagers’ bilingual ability. Two Korean-English bilingual teenagers residing in Korea were recruited and were observed for the period of two months.
From analysis of the code switching data, it was revealed that the teenagers used code switching diversely as a conversational strategy as well as a learning strategy. The teenagers’ code switching phenomenon superficially seemed very similar to young bilingual children’s in the facts that it was seen mostly at the inter-sentential level when conversing in their non-dominant language and it occurred mostly in simple sentence constituents. However, looking under the surface of the phenomenon, it could be interpreted differently since the teenagers used code switching more diversely as a conversational strategy. Regarding parental language management strategies, the result found out that each teenager’s parents basically used one person-one language strategy (OPOL) flexibly to develop their teenagers’ bilingual ability.
