An Ethnographic Investigation of Code Switching and Mixing in Pakistan: A Case Study of Nine-Year Old Child, Alia

Bilingualism has special designation in learning of language especially in countries where English is second or third language. Bilingualism sketches the concept of a speaker that either mixes or switches two or different codes while making an utterance. In that perspective, the present study is designed as an ethnographic research to validate the notion of bilingual action of speech turning in Pakistan. This case study of nine year old child named Alia has been conducted to formulate the situation of bilingualism in multilingual society of Pakistan. In that regard the researcher recorded the dialogues of a child while taking part in different roles. The speech of the child was later analyzed to investigate the influence of bilingualism on it. The two languages were focused Urdu and English with the little extent of Punjabi code. Various reasons were researched for finding out the basic factors that led to switch or mix codes within an utterance. The parents of a child Alia were also interviewed that led to find specific factors of their child to code switch and mixes. The factors include bilingual environment, partners, mother tongue, social interactions and medium of education in school.