8. The building of textual cohesion in the narrations of bilingual children: Implications for bilingualism and multilingual societies
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Patrizia Giuliano
Abstract
The paper investigates a less widespread type of bilingualism, that acquired by young learners attending foreign schools in their own country, in our case the French School in Naples, Italy. Pupils attending this institute are daily exposed to French, at school, and Italian, at home. Their bilingualism is the expression of a new way of looking at foreign language acquisition. In our contemporary world, increasingly characterised by cultural diversity and multilingualism, monolingual families are starting to realise the importance of raising their children bilingually by sending them to foreign or international schools: a modern practice made possible in certain urban settings. From a linguistic perspective, the paper investigates the way the bilingual pupils under scrutiny manage textual cohesion when producing oral narrative tasks. We aim at testing our data with respect to the following questions: Is there any difference in the way our bilingual speakers exploit language specific patterns vis-à-vis their monolingual counterparts (in French and Italian) for textual cohesion? Does one of the two patterns prevail by virtue of the possible strong character of one of the two languages? To what extent are these issues relevant to a multilingual society? These research questions will be addressed by relating them to matters of intercultural pragmatics within the two cultures involved. This means that, although the purpose of our study is primarily cognitive and linguistic in nature, it also tries to explore the possible influence of extra-linguistic factors on the bilingual speaker’s mental and verbal dimension.
Abstract
The paper investigates a less widespread type of bilingualism, that acquired by young learners attending foreign schools in their own country, in our case the French School in Naples, Italy. Pupils attending this institute are daily exposed to French, at school, and Italian, at home. Their bilingualism is the expression of a new way of looking at foreign language acquisition. In our contemporary world, increasingly characterised by cultural diversity and multilingualism, monolingual families are starting to realise the importance of raising their children bilingually by sending them to foreign or international schools: a modern practice made possible in certain urban settings. From a linguistic perspective, the paper investigates the way the bilingual pupils under scrutiny manage textual cohesion when producing oral narrative tasks. We aim at testing our data with respect to the following questions: Is there any difference in the way our bilingual speakers exploit language specific patterns vis-à-vis their monolingual counterparts (in French and Italian) for textual cohesion? Does one of the two patterns prevail by virtue of the possible strong character of one of the two languages? To what extent are these issues relevant to a multilingual society? These research questions will be addressed by relating them to matters of intercultural pragmatics within the two cultures involved. This means that, although the purpose of our study is primarily cognitive and linguistic in nature, it also tries to explore the possible influence of extra-linguistic factors on the bilingual speaker’s mental and verbal dimension.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Tensions between language policies and language practices
- 1. Language policies versus language practices: A new language conflict? 13
- 2. Multilingualism and immigration in the educational system: The case of Italian schools 37
-
Part 2: Responses to multilingual challenges in the field of societal practices
- 3. Rescaling the problem of language difference: Some observations for policy and practice of language support in an era of globalisation 71
- 4. “Only dirty things!” Functions of mother tongue use in collaborative group work 91
-
Part 3: Responses to multilingual challenges in the context of family policies and practices
- 5. Urban multilingualism and family language policy 121
- 6. Multilingual family practices: An interactional study 141
-
Part 4: New ways of mapping multilingual proficiency
- 7. Sociopragmatic competence and second language acquisition: Learners of English in a study abroad context 167
- 8. The building of textual cohesion in the narrations of bilingual children: Implications for bilingualism and multilingual societies 191
- Conclusion 217
- Index 227
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Tensions between language policies and language practices
- 1. Language policies versus language practices: A new language conflict? 13
- 2. Multilingualism and immigration in the educational system: The case of Italian schools 37
-
Part 2: Responses to multilingual challenges in the field of societal practices
- 3. Rescaling the problem of language difference: Some observations for policy and practice of language support in an era of globalisation 71
- 4. “Only dirty things!” Functions of mother tongue use in collaborative group work 91
-
Part 3: Responses to multilingual challenges in the context of family policies and practices
- 5. Urban multilingualism and family language policy 121
- 6. Multilingual family practices: An interactional study 141
-
Part 4: New ways of mapping multilingual proficiency
- 7. Sociopragmatic competence and second language acquisition: Learners of English in a study abroad context 167
- 8. The building of textual cohesion in the narrations of bilingual children: Implications for bilingualism and multilingual societies 191
- Conclusion 217
- Index 227
