Becoming Bilingual: The Language Acquisition And

Becoming Bilingual: The Language Acquisition and

Development of Bilingual Children

Table of Contents Page

1 Introduction 6

2 Definitions of Bilingualism 9

2.1 Minimalistic Definition 9

2.2 Maximalistic Definition 10

3 Ambilingual, Equilingual and Semilingual Speakers 12

3.1 Ambilingual Speaker . 12

3.2 Equilingual Speaker 12

3.3 Semilingual Speaker 13

4 Active and Passive Bilingualism 14

5 Methods of raising bilingual children 16

5.1 Various representations of raising bilingual children 16

5.2 Mixing Methods of raising bilingual children 17

5.2.1 What language do the children speak actively at home? 18

5.2.1.1 Reading class 19

5.2.1.2 Oberlin-Kinder-University 20

6 Bilingual Language Acquisition and Children 25

6.1 Natural and Artificial Language Acquisition 25

6.2 Compound and Coordinate Bilinguals 26

6.3 The Role of Age in Language Development 28

6.3.1 Unitary Language System Hypothesis 29

6.3.2 Separate/Independent Development Hypothesis 30

6.4 Sociolingual Influence on Language Acquisition 33

6.4.1 Children in the Linguistic Majority 34

6.4.2 Children of Bilingual Families 34

6.4.3 Social Considerations Regarding the Status of the English Language in Germany 35

6.5 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of English Input 37

6.5.1 Reading class 38

6.5.2 Oberlin-Kinder-University 41

7 Code Switching 43

7.1 Which Type of Language Switching can be Differentiated? 43

7.1.1 Interference 43

7.1.2 Borrowing 47

7.1.3 Code mixing 50

7.1.4 Code-Switching 52

7.2 Types of code-switching 52

7.2.1 Which elements can be switched? 52

8 Data analysis 55

8.1 Oberlin-Kinder-University 55

8.1.1 Antonia (1996-1998) 55

8.1.2 Antonia (September 2005) 57

8.1.3 Christopher (1996-1998) 57

8.1.4 Christopher (September 2005) 58

8.1.5 Cristina (1996-1998) 58

8.1.6 Cristina (September 2005) 59

8.1.7 Jason (February 2002) 60

8.1.8 Jason (September 2005) 60

8.2 English Reading group 62

8.2.1 Ariadne (February 2002) 62

8.2.2 Ariadne (September 2005) 63

8.2.3 Nils 64

8.2.3.1 Nils (February 2002) 65

8.2.3.2 Nils (July 2005) 66

8.3 Aaron and Gabriel 67

8.3.1 Aaron 67

8.3.2 Gabriel 69

9 Conclusion 71

10 Bibliography 73

11 Administered Questions in Final Interviews 76

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