Bilingual First Language Acquisition

Author: Annick De Houwer
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1847696287
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 489

Book Description
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.

Bilingual Language Acquisition

Author: Carmen Silva-Corvalán
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107729211
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Book Description
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.

The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism

Author: François Grosjean
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444332783
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Book Description
The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism presents a comprehensive introduction to the foundations of bilingualism, covering language processing, language acquisition, cognition and the bilingual brain. This thorough introduction to the psycholinguistics of bilingualism is accessible to non-specialists with little previous exposure to the field Introduces students to the methodological approaches currently employed in the field, including observation, experimentation, verbal and computational modelling, and brain imaging Examines spoken and written language processing, simultaneous and successive language acquisition, bilingual memory and cognitive effects, and neurolinguistic and neuro-computational models of the bilingual brain Written in an accessible style by two of the field’s leading researchers, together with contributions from internationally-renowned scholars Featuring chapter-by-chapter research questions, this is an essential resource for those seeking insights into the bilingual mind and our current knowledge of the cognitive basis of bilingualism

Trends in Bilingual Acquisition

Author: Jasone Cenoz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027234711
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
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.

The Bilingual Acquisition of English and Mandarin

Author: Ruying Qi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781604977745
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
"This book is a must read for students of bilingual first language acquisition. In this groundbreaking work, Ruying Qi traces the development of two of the world's most important languages, Mandarin Chinese and English, in a young child of immigrant parents growing up in Australia. Dr. Qi's work is trendsetting in its focus on pragmatic and semantic aspects of the bilingual development process, which have been understudied phenomena so far. Bilingualism and child language scholars alike will appreciate the many bridges made between issues specific to the bilingual situation and theoretical issues relevant to the study of child language in general." - Professor Annick De Houwer, University of Erfurt, and Director, European Research Network for Bilingual Studies ERBIS Germany

Blackwell Handbook of Language Development

Author: Erika Hoff
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405194596
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 515

Book Description
The Blackwell Handbook of Language Development provides a comprehensive treatment of the major topics and current concerns in the field; exploring the progress of 21st century research, its precursors, and promising research topics for the future. Provides comprehensive treatments of the major topics and current concerns in the field of language development Explores foundational and theoretical approaches Focuses on the 21st century's research into the areas of brain development, computational skills, bilingualism, education, and cross-cultural comparison Looks at language development in infancy through early childhood, as well as atypical development Considers the past work, present research, and promising topics for the future. Broad coverage makes this an excellent resource for graduate students in a variety of disciplines

First and Second Language Acquisition

Author: Jürgen M. Meisel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139496379
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Infants and very young children develop almost miraculously the ability of speech, without apparent effort, without even being taught - as opposed to the teenager or the adult struggling without, it seems, ever being able to reach the same level of proficiency as five year olds in their first language. This useful textbook serves as a guide to different types of language acquisition: monolingual and bilingual first language development and child and adult second language acquisition. Unlike other books, it systematically compares first and second language acquisition, drawing on data from several languages. Research questions and findings from various subfields are helpfully summarized to show students how they are related and how they often complement each other. The essential guide to studying first and second language acquisition, it will be used on courses in linguistics, modern languages and developmental psychology.

Bilingual Development in Childhood

Author: Annick De Houwer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108853838
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Book Description
In the first decade of life, children become bilingual in different language learning environments. Many children start learning two languages from birth (Bilingual First Language Acquisition). In early childhood hitherto monolingual children start hearing a second language through daycare or preschool (Early Second Language Acquisition). Yet other hitherto monolingual children in middle childhood may acquire a second language only after entering school (Second Language Acquisition). This Element explains how these different language learning settings dynamically affect bilingual children's language learning trajectories. All children eventually learn to speak the societal language, but they often do not learn to fluently speak their non-societal language and may even stop speaking it. Children's and families' harmonious bilingualism is threatened if bilingual children do not develop high proficiency in both languages. Educational institutions and parental conversational practices play a pivotal role in supporting harmonious bilingual development.

Bilingualism Across the Lifespan

Author: Elena Nicoladis
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110341247
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Book Description
This book pioneers the study of bilingualism across the lifespan and in all its diverse forms. In framing the newest research within a lifespan perspective, the editors highlight the importance of considering an individual's age in researching how bilingualism affects language acquisition and cognitive development. A key theme is the variability among bilinguals, which may be due to a host of individual and sociocultural factors, including the degree to which bilingualism is valued within a particular context.Thus, this book is a call for language researchers, psychologists, and educators to pursue a better understanding of bilingualism in our increasingly global society.

An Introduction to Bilingual Development

Author: Dr. Annick De Houwer
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1847691706
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Book Description
Increasingly, children grow up hearing two languages from birth. This introductory textbook shows how children learn to understand and speak those languages against the backdrop of their language learning environments. A narrative around the bilingual development of four young children with different language profiles helps to explain the latest research findings in a lively and accessible manner. The narrative describes how bilingually raised children learn to understand and use sounds, words and sentences in two languages, and how they are able to use each of their languages in socially appropriate ways. Positive attitudes towards bilingual development from the people in bilingual children's 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.