Bilingualism Flashcards
Bilingualism and age of acquisition
Early (simultaneous): up to age ~3
o Late (sequential/successive):
§ Age ~4-7: early/child L2 acquisition
§ Age ~7 to puberty: late child L2 acquisition
§ Beyond puberty: adult L2 acquisition
Internal vs external functions of language
Internal functions (e.g., counting, praying, dreaming, thinking) might draw on one language vs. external functions (language use in various situations and domains) might draw on another language
“high” language/variety in a bilingual community
Used for reading and writing, education, government, etc.
“low” language/variety in a bilingual community
used for interactions with family and friends, etc.
Vocabulary of bilinguals is typically smaller in each language than it is for monolinguals, but not when …
their two languages are combined
Bilinguals use the same range and complexity of vocabulary as monolinguals, although they show …
gaps with particular vocabulary items when compared to monolingual
metalinguistic awareness and bilingualism
Bilingual children perform better on tasks of metalinguistic awareness than monolinguals
Cognitive advantages of bilingualism
- control of attention;
- inhibition of distraction;
- expansion of working memory
- protection against cognitive decline
early childhood bilingualism
very early, simultaneous, regular and continued exposure to more than one language
Dual Language System Hypothesis (aka Separate Systems Hypothesis
Children learning two languages are able to differentiate between their languages in several domains:
o Phonology
o Lexicon/Vocabulary
o Morphology
o Syntax
* The stages of development and error types that bilingual children display are the same as those exhibited by monolinguals of each language.
Dobilingual children use the wrong word order ? (mix languages)
No, e.g. in French and German, do correct word order in each language and notice order works differently in both languages even if some sentences look the same
Impact of sociolinguistic contex on bilingual mental lexicon
Children often have different words in each language when their two languages are used in different contexts (e.g., home vs. school), resulting in different lexical items in each language
Translation equivalents in bilinguals
Several researchers report robust numbers of translation equivalents (knowing pomme = apple for example) in early bilinguals even when different languages are used across contexts, inconsistent with one lexicon
Phonological factors impacting the mental lexicon
Children choose to produce words in one language or the other based on phonological complexity (Celce-Murcia 1978), even if the child knows the word in both languages, e.g. choose word without complex onset.
Claims in favour of one mental lexicon are based on children’s ______production/comprehension
Production
Does the Dual Language System Hypothesis predict that there should be no mixing between languages?
- No, because bilinguals are “not two monolinguals in one person”
(Grosjean 1989); their languages can influence each other. - But the fact that mixing occurs, e.g. at lexical and syntactic levels,
does not mean that children have a single lexicon and grammar for the two languages.
On-the-spot borrowing
cannot find word from your current language, so borrow from other then switch back
Code-switching
synctactically governed : switching language at phrase boundary
* The input to bilingual children may include examples of parental
code-mixing, so their mixing behaviour may indicate sensitivity to the input rather than language fusion
Cross-language influence
Systematic influence of the grammar of one language on the grammar of the other language during acquisition
Types of cross-language influence
- Acceleration: A property emerges in the grammar of a bilingual earlier than it would in a monolingual;
- Delay: A property emerges in the grammar of a bilingual later than it would in a monolingual;
Predictors of cross-language influence
- Markedness (complexity)
- Frequency
- Language dominance
Acquisition of word-final codas in Spanish-German bilinguals
Acquisition of Spanish codas accelerated; German codas not impacted.
Predictor : Codas are frequent in German input and across all input the Spanish German bilingual receives as compared to the Spanish monolingual : frequency facilitates acquisition of codas in Spanish.
Acquisition of vowel length contrast in Spanish-German bilinguals
Predictors
* Markedness
Long vowels are marked – markedness delays acquisition of vowel length contrast in German.
* Frequency
Spanish has no long vowels; long vowels are less frequent across all
input the Spanish-German bilingual child receives – frequency delays
acquisition of vowel length contrast in German.
