Dispelling myths of first-generation immigrant code-switching: Evidence from Thai marriage migrants in England Narawan Promprakai Doctor of Philosophy School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Newcastle University June 2018 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is of my own composition. It is being submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Newcastle University, and it contains no material previously submitted for the award of any other degree, at any other universities. Date: _______________________________________22 June 2018 Signed: _______________________________________ Abstract Code-switching, i.e. the use of lexical items from Language A in stretches of Language B where there are equivalents in Language B, has long been at the centre of bilingualism studies. However, it has received little attention in the first-generation immigrant context, possibly due to its infrequency and insertional characteristic. Consequently, our knowledge of how first-generation immigrants adopt and adjust the host-country language in their intragroup talk is limited and possibly inaccurate. This thesis aims to systematically explore how and why first-generation Thai immigrants in England employ code-switching by: 1) investigating the frequencies, social distribution, sequential patterns and functions of code- switching, and 2) exploring Thai syntactic structures underlying the informants’ code- switching. Approximately 13 hours of audio-recorded conversations obtained from 36 first- generation female Thai immigrants, all of whom are marriage migrants, were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative analysis reveals that the informants’ code-switching occurs infrequently, and that the informants’ proficiency in English speaking and reading skills are the only social variables that are correlated with the frequency of code-switching. Nonetheless, the qualitative analysis demonstrates that the informants’ code-switching is systematic and purposeful. It can be represented systematically as sequential patterns, each of which are associated with a variety of functions. The qualitative analysis also shows that the informants’ knowledge of Thai syntactic structures contributes to communicative effectiveness of code-switching in a way that code-switching alone may not adequately achieve. The overall finding of this investigation is that code-switching, despite its infrequency and insertional nature, is highly intricate and purposeful. This finding suggests that first- generation immigrant code-switching may have much more insights to offer than previously reported, and that code-switching, even single-word type, plays an important role in day-to- day interactions among first-generation immigrants. The finding also implies the need for more systematic and comprehensive studies of first-generation immigrant code-switching in relation to other language contact phenomena. i ii Acknowledgements I have always thought of my PhD not as a journey, but rather an exciting adventure run. There were times that this run has been a lot of fun, and there were also times when it left me lying in the mud, wondering if I should continue. Now that I have made it to the finishing line, I would like to express my gratitude to the people whose help and support have been invaluable to me. First, I am very grateful for the financial support of Bangkok University throughout the duration of the doctoral programme. Without this assistance, I would not have been able to join this exciting adventure run in the first place. Every runner needs a coach, and I consider myself lucky to be working with not just one but two super coaches, Dr. Heike Pichler and Professor Karen Corrigan. I cannot thank them enough for their invaluable advice, thorough feedback and patience, especially in the final three years throughout my personal struggles. I would like to extend my appreciation to Dr Joan Cutting and Dr Mei Lin, my examiners, for a wonderful PhD viva experience and their comments on how to further improve my thesis. My gratitude also goes to Professor Vivian Cook, Professor Martha Young-Scholten, Dr. Graham Low, Dr. Alex Leung, Dr. Patrick Chi-wai Lee, Dr. Nongnuch Tantisantiwong, Dr. Watcharabon Buddharaksa, Dr. Patchanok Kitikanan and Art Mitchells-Urwin for their helpful tips and suggestions on academic writing and statistics. Moreover, this thesis would not have been possible without the Thai marriage migrants in England who took part in my study, for which I am thankful. I would like to thank my family: the Promprakais in Thailand (Nuttanun, Surasri, Kittipot, Ornwara and Dr. Prapasri Promprakai), the Milton family (St John, Karen, Jasmine, Matilda, Patricia, Stephanie, Jack and Jed Milton) and the Price family (Eric and Kathleen Price) for their unlimited encouragement. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to Sansom Milton whose patience, kindness and understanding have supported me in every way possible throughout six years of my studies. iii iv Table of contents Abstract i Acknowledgement iii Table of contents v List of figures x List of tables xi Key to romanisation conventions xii Key to transcription conventions xv List of abbreviations xvi Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Overview of previous studies on code-switching in immigrant communities 3 1.2.1 Quantitative and qualitative approaches to code-switching 4 1.2.2 Code-switching among first-generation immigrants 6 1.2.3 Code-switching and other language contact phenomena 7 1.3 Linguistic context in Thailand 9 1.4 Rationale of the study 11 1.5 Research questions 11 1.6 Definitions of key terms 16 1.6.1 Types of code-switching 20 1.6.2 Code-switching versus translanguaging 21 1.7 Thesis overview 22 Chapter 2: Data collection and analysis methods 2.1 Introduction 26 2.2 Sampling universe 26 2.2.1 Thai immigrants in England 27 2.2.2 Why Thai marriage migrants? 29 2.3 Informant recruitment 31 2.4 Informant sample 32 2.5 Data collection instruments 34 2.5.1 Audio recording 34 2.5.2 Questionnaires 35 v 2.6 Selected speaker variables 36 2.6.1 Age 36 2.6.2 Length of residence 37 2.6.3 Educational attainment 38 2.6.4 English language proficiency 39 2.7 Data collection procedures and ethical considerations 42 2.8 Methods of analysis 45 2.8.1 Transcription 45 2.8.2 Theoretical frameworks 47 2.8.3 Quantitative analysis methods 48 2.8.4 Qualitative analysis methods 48 2.9 Conclusion 49 Chapter 3: Types, frequency and social distribution of code-switching 3.1 Introduction 50 3.2 Quantitative approach to code-switching 50 3.2.1 Frequency count 54 3.2.2 Distributional analysis 54 3.2.3 Correlational analysis 55 3.3 Types of code-switching in the data 57 3.4 Overall frequency and distributional analysis 62 3.5 Social distribution and correlational analysis 64 3.5.1 Age 64 3.5.2 Length of residence 65 3.5.3 Educational attainment 67 3.5.4 English language proficiency 68 3.6 Extra-sentential code-switching: Types and frequency analysis 74 3.7 Discussion of findings 78 3.8 Conclusion 84 vi Chapter 4: Sequential patterns and functions of code-switching 4.1 Introduction 85 4.2 Qualitative approaches to the analysis of code-switching patterns 86 and functions 4.2.1 Interactional sociolinguistics 86 4.2.2 Conversation analysis 92 4.3 Auer’s (1995) sequential code-switching patterns 94 4.4 Sequential patterns and functions of first-generation Thai immigrant 101 code-switching 4.5 Code-switching in Pattern A 102 4.6 Code-switching in Pattern B 106 4.6.1 Pattern B1 107 4.6.2 Pattern B2 114 4.6.3 Patterns B3-a and B3-b 119 4.6.4 Patterns B4-a and B4-b 124 4.6.5 Patterns B5-a and B5-b 134 4.6.6 Back to basics: Pattern B 140 4.7 Frequency and distributional analysis of sequential code-switching 143 patterns 4.8 Discussion of findings 145 4.9 Conclusion 151 Chapter 5: Grammatical integration of code-switching: A transfer perspective 5.1 Introduction 152 5.2 The study on grammatical integration of code-switching 154 5.3 Transfer and code-switching 156 5.3.1 Transfer and code-switching in Thai-English contact literature 158 5.4 Jarvis and Pavlenko’s (2008) transfer identification criteria 160 5.4.1 Intragroup homogeneity 161 5.4.2 Intergroup heterogeneity 162 5.4.3 Crosslinguistic performance congruity 163 5.5 Typological characteristics of Thai 165 vii 5.5.1 Lack of verb/noun reflectional system 165 5.5.2 Pragmatic particle system 167 5.5.3 Flexible serial verb construction 170 5.6 Thai syntactic transfer to code-switching 173 5.6.1 Thai pragmatic particle system 173 5.6.2 Thai serial verb construction 184 5.7 Other Thai-English contact outcomes 194 5.7.1 Hybridisation 194 5.7.2 Interference 198 5.8 Frequency and distributional analysis of Thai syntactic transfer 204 5.9 Discussion of findings 208 5.10 Conclusion 211 Chapter 6: Discussion and conclusions 6.1 Introduction 213 6.2 Synthesis of key findings 216 6.2.1 Orderliness and purposefulness of first-generation immigrant 216 code-switching 6.2.2 Social influence versus discourse-pragmatic motivations 218 6.2.3 Incorporation of code-switching and transfer studies 219 6.3 Procedural model for first-generation immigrant code-switching 222 6.4 Complementary approach to first-generation immigrant code-switching 225 6.5 Implications of the study 227 6.6 Directions for future research 230 APPENDIX 1 Speaker information 233 APPENDIX 2a Questionnaire (English) 235 APPENDIX 2b Questionnaire (Thai) 239 APPENDIX 3 Original CEFR criteria 242 APPENDIX 4a Participant information sheet (English) 243 APPENDIX 4b Participant information sheet