Becoming Bilingual: The Language Acquisition And
Essay Preview: Becoming Bilingual: The Language Acquisition And
Report this essay
Becoming Bilingual: The Language Acquisition and
Development of Bilingual Children
Table of Contents
Introduction
Definitions of Bilingualism
Minimalistic Definition
Maximalistic Definition
Ambilingual, Equilingual and Semilingual Speakers
Ambilingual Speaker .
Equilingual Speaker
Semilingual Speaker
Active and Passive Bilingualism
Methods of raising bilingual children
Various representations of raising bilingual children
Mixing Methods of raising bilingual children
5.2.1
What language do the children speak actively at home?
5.2.1.1
Reading class
5.2.1.2
Oberlin-Kinder-University
Bilingual Language Acquisition and Children
Natural and Artificial Language Acquisition
Compound and Coordinate Bilinguals
The Role of Age in Language Development
6.3.1
Unitary Language System Hypothesis
6.3.2
Separate/Independent Development Hypothesis
Sociolingual Influence on Language Acquisition
6.4.1
Children in the Linguistic Majority
6.4.2
Children of Bilingual Families
6.4.3
Social Considerations Regarding the Status of the English Language in Germany
Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of English Input
6.5.1
Reading class
6.5.2
Oberlin-Kinder-University
Code Switching
Which Type of Language Switching can be Differentiated?
7.1.1
Interference
7.1.2
Borrowing
7.1.3
Code mixing
7.1.4
Code-Switching
Types of code-switching
7.2.1
Which elements can be switched?
Data analysis
Oberlin-Kinder-University
8.1.1
Antonia (1996-1998)
8.1.2
Antonia (September 2005)
8.1.3
Christopher (1996-1998)
8.1.4
Christopher (September 2005)
8.1.5
Cristina (1996-1998)
8.1.6
Cristina (September 2005)
8.1.7
Jason (February 2002)
8.1.8
Jason (September 2005)
English Reading group
8.2.1
Ariadne (February 2002)
8.2.2
Ariadne (September 2005)
8.2.3
8.2.3.1
Nils (February 2002)
8.2.3.2
Nils (July 2005)
Aaron and Gabriel
8.3.1
Aaron
8.3.2
Gabriel
Conclusion
Bibliography
Administered Questions in Final Interviews
2 Introduction
It was only a few decades ago that there were a mere handful of researchers in-volved in studies dealing with bi- and multilingualism, but the last twenty years has shown an intense increase in research in this area of Linguistics. Specifically, the ability of a bilingual individual to change from one language to the next has become the center of such studies. Via intensive examination in various areas of multi-lingual acquisition, it has not been demonstrated that this changing from one language to the next is a consequence of a language deficit. On the contrary data has shown the bilingual individual as having a highly developed language system. Studies have also shown that bi- and multilingual individuals brains are often shaped in such a way as to strengthen other cognitive areas. At one time in history, the ability to speak more than one language was considered a negative attribute; in the present time, however, attitudes have changed drastically.
In this report, five children will be examined over a period of one to five years to evaluate the development of their bilingualism according to the common aspects of bilingualism. Additionally, there will be a more focused study on their ability to switch from one language to the other. This which will be mentioned in the second part. As a veteran primary and EFL teacher and mother of two bilingual children, I have had the opportunity to witness second-hand language acquisition for the past fourteen years. It is through careful note-taking during my teaching that I have been able to collect data for such an empirical study. In this work, I will be referring to four children, Cristina, Antonia, Jason and Christopher, that attended the Oberlin-Kinder-University (an English-speaking preschool in Freiburg), where I worked as a preschool teacher for two years from 1996-1999. Antonia and Christopher were part of the preschool group of which I had primary instructional responsibility These children were preparing for primary school. Cristina and Jason belonged to a younger group of children with whom I also often worked. These children, with the exception of Jason, were raised in a German-speaking home. They were part of an immersion program in which the teacher (myself) spoke only English. With the exception of Christopher, whose mother is American and father is German, and Jason, whose parents are both American