Language Acquisition Processes In Bilingual Children

Lisa is 4 years and 5 months old and Giulia 3 years and 4 months. One morning, the girls' father is taking them to nursery school. L: ... e bravissima, ha riscaldato l'auto. E' bravissima, vera? In praising the sun for having warmed up the car, Lisa has referred to it in the feminine gender, as in the German die Sonne. Her father corrects her by using the masculine gender. F: E' bravissimo. E' if sale. L: E' un maschietto, if sale? (Is the sun a little boy?) F: E'maschife. (It's masculine.) G [determined]: E' una femmina! (No, it's a girl!) F: Forse in tedesco. (Perhaps it is in German.) is left disoriented, speechless. Giulia This book is devoted to language acquisition in children who have been expos ed to two languages since birth. It has often been said that the study of simultaneous bilingualism is the "most fertile ground" for the formulation of general theories on language acquisition processes, and indeed, most of the studies on early bilingualism aim in this direction. But in a sense this book serves the reverse purpose. Using the results of psycholinguistic research as a basis, I have sought to understand the peculiarities of the process of language organization in the child who faces the problem of learning two languages when other children are learning only one. Thus, the recurring theme of my study is the diversity of bilingual as opposed to monolingual acquisition.

Using an interdisciplinary perspective to discuss the intersection of language development and learning processes, this book summarizes current knowledge and represents the most critical issues regarding early childhood research, policy, and practice related to young bilingual children with disabilities. The book begins with a conceptual framework focusing on the intersection between the fields of early childhood education, bilingual education, and special education. It goes on to review and discuss the role of bilingualism in young children’s development and the experiences of young bilingual children with disabilities in early care and education settings, including issues of eligibility and access to care, instruction, and assessment. The book explores family experiences, teacher preparation, accountability, and policy, ending with recommendations for future research which will inform both policies and practices for the education of young bilingual children with disabilities. This timely volume provides valuable guidance for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and researchers.

Statements like “Ich kann doch nicht shufflen!” or other language mixings belong to the everyday life of bilingual children. This book deals exactly with this topic and contains a case study about English-German bilinguals having lived in Great Britain and the U.S. and now growing up in Germany. Thereby, the study is based on the current theory of bilingualism. The study was conducted with a family living in Germany whereby the children were 8, 10 and 12 years old. They were studied for 2 weeks in their everyday lives, and the results should be of interest for all kinds of readers who are interested in languages and their acquisition or who are personally involved in bilingualism. In chapter 1, the term ‘bilingualism’ is described briefly, the reasons for the chosen topic are portrayed, and the family of the case study and their special situation is introduced. In the next chapter, a general overview about the theoretical background of bilingualism is given. Important sub items of this chapter are the current status of research, the ways in which bilinguals can be categorized, the ‘one person – one language principle’ and interferences and code-mixing as important components of bilingualism. In chapter 3, the case study itself is presented. Here, the aims, methodology and materials of the study are described. Subsequently, the results of the case study are brought into relation with the underlying linguistic theory. At the end of the book, the findings of the study are summarized, and further, the consequences for the three children’s language acquisition processes are drawn.

This book addresses the topics of language acquisition among monolingual and bilingual populations. It makes use of real classroom strategies along with the use of numerous case studies per chapter, which will be helpful to classroom teachers as well as speech-language pathologists and special education teachers.

Increasingly, children grow up hearing two languages from birth. This comprehensive textbook explains how children learn to understand and speak those languages. It brings together both established knowledge and the latest findings about different areas of bilingual language development. It also includes new analyses of previously published materials. The book describes how bilingually raised children learn to understand and use sounds, words and sentences in two languages. A recurrent theme is the large degree of variation between bilingual children. This variation in how children develop bilingually reflects the variation in their language learning environments. Positive attitudes from the people in bilingual children's language learning environments and their recognition that child bilingualism is not monolingualism-times-two are the main ingredients ensuring that children grow up to be happy and expert speakers of two languages.

Describes how intellectual development of bilingual children differs from that of monolingual children.

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.