Children’s agency in language choice: a case study of two Japanese-English bilingual children in London

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 749-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eiko Gyogi
Keyword(s):  
Language Choice ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Children’S Agency ◽  
Japanese English

scholarly journals Do Bilinguals Acquire Similar Words to Monolinguals? An Examination of Word Acquisition and the Similarity Effect in Japanese–English Bilinguals’ Vocabularies

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-182
Author(s):  
Aya Kutsuki
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Word Category ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Similarity Effect ◽  
Japanese English

Previous research has paid much attention to the overall acquisition of vocabularies among bilingual children in comparison to their monolingual counterparts. Much less attention has been paid to the type of words acquired and the possible transfer or cross-linguistic effects of the other language on vocabulary development. Thus, this study aims to explore similarities and dissimilarities in the vocabularies of simultaneous bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals and considers the possible cross-linguistic similarity effect on word acquisition. Six simultaneous Japanese–English bilingual children (mean age = 34.75 months (2.56)) were language–age-matched with six Japanese monolinguals; their productive vocabularies were compared regarding size and categories. Additionally, characteristic acquired words were compared using correspondence analyses. Results showed that, although delayed due to the reduced inputs, young bilinguals have a similar set of vocabularies in terms of word category as monolinguals. However, bilingual children’s vocabularies reflect their unevenly distributed experience with the language. Fewer interactive experiences with language speakers may result in a lower acquisition of interactive words. Furthermore, there is a cross-linguistic effect on acquisition, likely caused by form similarity between Japanese katakana words and English words. Even between languages with great dissimilarities, resources and cues are sought and used to facilitate bilingual vocabulary acquisition.

Early emergence of syntactic awareness and cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children’s judgments

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
French And English ◽  
Better Than

Bilingual children sometimes perform better than same-aged monolingual children on metalinguistic awareness tasks, such as a grammaticality judgment. Some of these differences can be attributed to bilinguals having to learn to control attention to language choice. This study tested the hypothesis that bilingual children, as young as preschool age, would score overall higher than monolingual children on a grammaticality judgment test. French–English bilingual preschoolers judged the acceptability of three constructions in French and English (i.e. adjective–noun ordering, obligatoriness of a determiner, and object pronoun placement). Their performance was compared with that of a group of age-matched English monolinguals. The results showed that the bilingual children scored higher than the monolingual children. These results demonstrate that syntactic awareness develops quite early for bilinguals. Additionally, the bilingual children demonstrated cross-linguistic influence of core syntactic structure in French, as their judgments were affected by English acceptability.

The bilingual lexicon: implications for studies of language choice

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Quay
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Daily Diary ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Language Mixing

ABSTRACTLexical gaps in vocabulary development have been acknowledged as a reason for language mixing in young bilingual children. In spite of this, most studies do not take into account whether young bilinguals have the lexical resources to make a choice between their two languages. Inferences are nevertheless still being made about whether or not young bilinguals differentiate between their two languages based on language choice. It is widely believed, however, that young bilinguals do not have the resources to make lexical choices at a pre-syntactic stage of development before age two. A bilingual case study of an infant acquiring Spanish and English from birth to age 1;10 is used to address this issue. Daily diary records and weekly video recordings in the two language contexts are used to construct the child's lexicon and to establish that translation equivalents that make possible language choice are available from the beginning of speech. The results are used to discuss the importance of translation equivalents in the bilingual lexicon for viable interpretations of language choice.

“Where is my brush-teeth?” Acquisition of compound nouns in a French–English bilingual child

1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Language Choice ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Compound Structure ◽  
Bilingual Child ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Compound Nouns ◽  
Form Compound

This study had two purposes: (i) to see if bilingual children can differentiate their languages with respect to the ability to form compound nouns and (ii) to test the validity of previous explanations of the acquisition of compounds. Compound nouns are right-headed in English and left-headed in French. If the French–English bilingual child in this study could differentiate between the two compounding rules, his compounds should show differential order based on the language of the semantic head. The analysis was based on the child's spontaneous compound productions from 2;9 to 3;3. The results showed that the language choice of the semantic head noun predicted the order of his compounds, suggesting that he had two distinct compounding rules. The pattern of errors made by the child cannot be accounted for by any previous explanation alone. It is suggested that children use various cues to learn compound structure.

Bilingual children’s repairs of breakdowns in communication

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
LIANE COMEAU ◽  
FRED GENESEE ◽  
MORTON MENDELSON
Keyword(s):  
Language Choice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Repair Strategy ◽  
Play Session ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Communication Breakdowns

This study examined two- (n=10) and three-year-old (n=16) French–English bilingual children’s repairs of breakdowns in communication that occurred when they did not use the same language as their interlocutor (Language breakdowns) and for other reasons (e.g. inaudible utterance). The children played with an experimenter who used only one language (English or French) during the play session. Each time a child used the other language, the experimenter made up to five requests for clarification, from non-specific (What?) to specific (Can you say that in French/English?). The experimenter also made requests for clarification when breakdowns occurred for other reasons, e.g. the child spoke too softly, produced an ambiguous utterance, etc. Both the two- and three-year-olds were capable of repairing Language breakdowns by switching languages to match that of their experimenter and they avoided this repair strategy when attempting to repair Other breakdowns. Moreover, they switched languages in response to non-specific requests. The results indicate that even two-and-a-half-year-old bilingual children are capable of identifying their language choice as a cause of communication breakdowns and that they can differentiate Language from Other kinds of communication breakdowns.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document