bilingualism Flashcards
who is bilingual
speaking two languages does not make u bilingual
clear cut = grow up with two languages
acquired = when you live with two languages
overview
history of bilingualism
simultaneous bilingualism
early/late sequential bilingualism
young research field
young research field - in 1999, only 2% of research on language development included bilingual children
was seen as a “special population”
diary kept by Leopold (1939-49) on English-german bilingualism
migrant children research only since 60s in the US and elsewhere
simultaneous and sequential bilingualism
Simultaneous: from birth, born to two parents who either speak different languages, or who both speak several languages
Sequential: Native language L1 followed by L2
Language balance: no dominant language
Additive and Subtractive language environments
better or worse
immigrant children to the US had lower academic achievements
heterogeneous population: professionals, poverty, refugees, international families, adventurers
traveling and internet communication makes trans-language migration more likely
environment types for bilinguals
immersion into majority language school. help by language therapists
transitional immersion: kindergarten in native language, school in majority language
dual language curriculum: teaching in two languages
Immersion aim: L2 dominance
fusion hypothesis
children create one system that combines the two languages
autonomous development hypothesis
children create two language systems which develop without interaction
3 interdependent development hypothesis
children create two language systems which influence each other
stage model for bilingualism
stage one: fused lexicon and grammar
2: seperate lexicons, fused grammar
3: sepertate lexicons and seperate grammars
lexical differntiation - mutual exclusivity
assumption of mutual exclusivity in word learning - one name per object, a second word would be rejected (synonym)
Extension to bilingual children: acceptance of two words for a concept can be taken as evidence for language differentiation
4YOs overide multiple exclusivity principle in favour of translated words
No fusion but two separate interactive systems
effects on language development
bilingual children are ofter more advanced in one
course of language development is regular like monolingual children
measures of grammatical are correlated with voab development but not across languages
sources of variabilities in bilingualism
not all children become bilingual (75%)
children do not want to speak a language that is less prestigious
when only one parent is bilingual, just the national language is more likely to be adopted
the school language can also influence the use of the native language in the household leading to language attrition
books are a better input than television
sequential bilingualism
in a new environment, children soak up langauage compared to adults
there can be stages of immersion into the new language
use of native language even if it is not understood
academic language
language more varied and abstract
grammatical structures are more complex
discourse structure
language for peer interaction is not sufficient for accademic language skills
takes 4-8 years to reach english school proficiency
