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Book Details
Abstract
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.
Overall this book is written in an understandable and easy-to-follow manner, particularly due to the use of stories of the four children throughout…this book would be an excellent addition to a course on bilingual child language acquisition, as it contains clearly explained information on bilingual language acquisition in an easily accessible format.
Alyssa Martoccio, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
Annick De Houwer has recently been appointed as Chair of Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Erfurt in Germany. She is also the new Director of the Language Center there. In addition, Professor De Houwer holds the title of Collaborative Investigator to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.A.). Her PhD was based on a dissertation on bilingual acquisition, a topic she has since continued to work on steadily. Her book The Acquisition of Two Languages from Birth (CUP, 1990) is widely cited in the bilingual acquisition literature. Dr. De Houwer has also published on Dutch child language, attitudes towards child language, teen language, and intralingual subtitling. She has extensive editorial experience.
The kind of bilingual development which starts very early, namely bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA), seems to attract much attention and spark much curiosity. How do children manage to acquire two languages simultaneously? In what ways does early bilingual exposure affect the course of their overall language development? Behind such questions lurks the yardstick of monolingualism, by which BFLA is often inappropriately evaluated. Now prominent BFLA expert Annick de Houwer has given us an introductory book with a most balanced and fair view of BFLA as a standard in its own right, tracing the bilingual development of four fictitious prototypical children. As always, her clarity of thought and writing makes the book accessible to anyone.
Masayo Yamamoto, Professor of Bilingualism Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
De Houwer’s book introduces readers to the research findings about bilingual first language acquisition through the charming stories of four imaginary bilingual children growing up in different contexts. Parents, students, and practitioners alike will discover what to expect from typical bilingual acquisition, including how individual “typical” can be!
Elena Nicoladis, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Canada
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Contents | vii | ||
Acknowledgements | viii | ||
Preface | ix | ||
Some technical notes about this book | x | ||
1 Introducing the fancy term for bilingual development: Bilingual First Language Acquisition | 1 | ||
What is Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA)? | 2 | ||
The family as the primary setting for bilingual development | 3 | ||
Developing in two languages from birth: An outline | 4 | ||
Milestones in bilingual language development | 5 | ||
Normal variation in bilingual language development | 5 | ||
Varying levels of development in each language | 7 | ||
Negotiating language choice in conversations | 8 | ||
Introducing four bilingual families | 10 | ||
Key points | 13 | ||
Activities and discussion points | 14 | ||
Further reading | 14 | ||
2 From birth to the comprehension of words | 15 | ||
Early interaction, socialization and maturation | 16 | ||
Infant detectives: Learning about sound | 17 | ||
The words that BFLA children hear | 18 | ||
Lily: Lots of words | 19 | ||
Arno: Big babbler | 21 | ||
Ramon: Asking for words in two languages | 22 | ||
Toshie: Highly sensitive to language choice | 23 | ||
Key points: Bilingual language development in the first year of life | 24 | ||
Activities and discussion points | 25 | ||
Further reading | 26 | ||
3 Saying words and starting to combine them | 27 | ||
Lily: Changing places | 28 | ||
Arno: Picking up speed | 30 | ||
Ramon: Saying words in two languages | 32 | ||
Toshie: A slow start | 35 | ||
Key points: From first words to word combinations | 37 | ||
Activities and discussion points | 39 | ||
Further reading | 40 | ||
4 Making sentences | 43 | ||
Lily: World traveller | 44 | ||
Arno: Racing along | 46 | ||
Ramon: Saying sentences in two languages | 48 | ||
Toshie: Catching up | 50 | ||
Key points: Word combinations become real sentences | 52 | ||
Activities and discussion points | 55 | ||
Further reading | 56 | ||
5 Preschool and beyond | 57 | ||
Lily: Storyteller | 58 | ||
Arno: The school counselor making trouble | 59 | ||
Ramon: Big translator | 60 | ||
Toshie: Slowly starting to speak Language Alpha | 62 | ||
Key points: Consolidating and expanding | 63 | ||
Activities and discussion points | 64 | ||
Further reading | 65 | ||
6 In conclusion: Bilingual learning in context | 67 | ||
Bilingual development: Good or bad? | 68 | ||
Comparisons with monolinguals | 68 | ||
Variation in proficiency | 69 | ||
Variation in bilingual learning contexts | 70 | ||
Parental work | 71 | ||
In conclusion | 72 | ||
Activities and discussion points | 73 | ||
Further reading | 73 | ||
Glossary | 75 | ||
Bibliography | 79 | ||
Index of the four BFLA children and their families | 87 | ||
Subject index | 89 |