Sociolinguistic Factors of Language Mixing Frequency in Mandarin-English Bilingual Children

Globalisation has established interdependent relationships between nations and allowed more cross-cultural connections. The two outcomes increase the demand for English-proficient individuals and the number of bicultural and bilingual families, respectively. The paper suggests the sociolinguistic factors of language mixing frequency in Mandarin-English bilingual children in Mandarin-based societies. Sociolinguistic factors are defined as the influence of community/society and identity on one's language use in this paper. By reviewing the literature, this paper suggests parental, pedagogical, and contextual factors. Parental factors refer to how parental bilingual discourse strategies can influence the language mixing of children. Pedagogical factors refer to how the advantages of using language mixing in EFL learning influence children's language mixing patterns in the future. Contextual factors refer to the consideration of changing language mixing frequencies according to the context of the conversation. Contextual factors will be split into three categories: interlocutor's preferences, social connections, and cultural expression. After discussing sociolinguistic factors, this paper also points out the limitations of the reviewed research.