Bryan Koronkiewicz

Co-authored paper presented at the Going Romance Conference, Braga, Portugal. [PDF]

This study investigates how language dominance impacts acceptability ratings of Spanish-English intra-sentential code-switching (CS) among 22 highly proficient adult early bilinguals. While overall language dominance did not significantly predict differentiation between grammatical and ungrammatical switches, self-reported proficiency and language use were significant predictors, with balanced use and higher proficiency leading to greater consistency in structural acceptability ratings. These findings suggest that navigating structural constraints in CS is less tied to being “balanced” in dominance and more connected to proficiency, language use, and exposure, aligning with prior research that emphasizes the role of community norms and frequent CS experience.

Paper presented at the UIC Bilingualism Forum, Chicago, Illinois. [PDF]

This study examines the acceptability of Spanish-English code-switching (CS) involving adverbs, focusing on pre- and post-verbal positions and differences in bilingual types. Both heritage and late second language bilinguals, despite different acquisition contexts, demonstrated similar structural constraints in adverb placement, with English adverbs favoring pre-verbal positions and Spanish adverbs being acceptable in both pre- and post-verbal positions. These findings suggest that bilingual competence in CS is consistent across diverse acquisition backgrounds, highlighting the importance of refining models of second language acquisition to account for language mixing. 

Paper presented at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Omaha, Nebraska. [PDF]

This study investigates whether late second language (L2) bilinguals can acquire code-switching (CS) structural constraints similar to those of early bilinguals, comparing L2 Spanish and L2 English speakers with heritage Spanish speakers. Participants rated the acceptability of subject-pronoun switches in code-switched sentences, with the preliminary results indicating significant influence of acquisition order on CS acceptability.