Cross Linguistic Influences In Bilingual First Language Acquisition

Examination Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Cologne, 94 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: There is interdependent development in BFLA. Several studies could show that the systems are influencing each other and they can not be regarded as minor to argue for an autonomous development. Furthermore, there are different methods of predicting which grammatical domains will be influenced and the direction of influence. These are language internal factors, dominance or epiphenomena of speech production. Nevertheless, there are problems as some children did not show the predicted influence. Possible suggestion to the problem is a modification of the criteria already developed and an inclusion of the possibility of individual differences due to different learner types.

How do children develop bilingual competence? Do bilingual children develop language in the same way as monolinguals? Set in the context of findings on language development, this book examines the acquisition of English and Spanish by two brothers in the first six years of their lives. Based on in-depth and meticulous analyses of naturalistic data, it explores how the systems of both languages affect each other as the children develop, and how different levels of exposure to each language influence the nature of acquisition. The author demonstrates that the children's grammars and lexicons follow a developmental path similar to that of monolinguals, but that cross-linguistic interactions affecting lexical, semantic and discourse-pragmatic aspects arise in Spanish when exposure to it diminishes around the age of four. The first of its kind, this original study is a must-read for students and researchers in bilingualism, child development, language acquisition and language contact.

Third language acquisition is a common phenomenon, which presents some specific characteristics as compared to second language acquisition. This volume adopts a psycholinguistic approach in the study of cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition and focuses on the role of previously acquired languages and the conditions that determine their influence.

This volume explores the implications of cross-linguistic structures in simultaneous bilingualism. It aims to find cognitive explanations for the presence or absence of cross-linguistic structures that go beyond the debate of ‘one system or two’. The contributors present syntactic, morphological and phonological features that are found in bilingual children, but are untypical of monolingual development, and discuss pertinent methodological issues. The orientation of this volume stands out from competing volumes in the field in that the focus is not limited to similarities between monolingual and bilingual first language acquisition. The volume will be of interest to researchers in the field of bilingualism and primary language acquisition, language theorists, and professionals working with bilingual populations.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Koblenz-Landau, language: English, abstract: This research paper focuses how children acquire two or more languages simultaneously from birth on, how their achievements can be measured and if their development proceeds similar to monolingual children. To a certain extend the argument includes theories of Applied Linguistics and Cognitive Linguistics . Therefore, this analysis can be used as overview or short introduction about the current research on bilingual first language acquisition and may encourage the reader, which might be also a teacher who is likely to face a multilingual environment in his classrooms, to enhance his knowledge in this specific area.

The chapters in this volume provide the first comprehensive overview of trends in research on early phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic development in children acquiring two (or more) languages simultaneously. Ongoing as well as emerging issues are examined and discussed by leading researchers in the field. Collectively, these studies extend our knowledge of bilingual acquisition and broaden our understanding of the child's ability to acquire and use language. This volume is of interest to researchers working on language acquisition by monolingual and bilingual children, graduate students of psychology, linguistics and communication sciences, and researchers and professionals concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of bilingual children with language impairment.

Using the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of North America as a context, this well-written text provides excellent examples of how unique cultural and linguistic attributes influence the language acquisition process in children. The editors discuss the fact that although acquisition of language is universal among the world's children, the precise developmental sequence is influenced by the socio-cultural context in which language is acquired. Emphasis is placed on the importance of studying different cultural groups and language to arrive at a better understanding of language development.