Bilingual Language Development

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how there are several different ways to expose children to a second language. It looks at how some children are exposed to two languages since birth and how others are exposed to a second language once they enter a school program. It discusses how the process of double language acquisition is not so smooth and how there are a few discrepancies in fluency and language confusion to be taken into account.

Outline
Introduction
How Children Learn Two Languages
Stages of Development
Code Switching
Language Mixing
Two Languages, One Sentence: Not a Sign of Confusion
Language Imbalance
Language Loss and Semilingualism
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"For some bilingual children, code switching is a normal language phenomenon. While some children acquiring a second language appear to confuse the two languages at first, code switching is a normal aspect of second language acquisition. Young bilingual children tend to insert single items from one language into the other (McClure, 1977), primarily to resolve ambiguities and clarify statements. Children over nine and adults, however, tend to switch languages at the phrase or sentence level, typically to convey social meanings. Studies of code switching in adults show it to be a sophisticated, rule-governed communicative device used to achieve goals such as conveying emphasis or establishing cultural identity."

More papers on Bilingual Language Development:

• Term Paper # 149746 : "Sign Language Development in Children"
• Research Paper # 27860 : "Bilingual First Language Acquisition"
• Essay # 62990 : "Childhood Language Acquisition"

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