The early acquisition of English as a second language
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Li Wei
Abstract
One aspect of English in Europe today, particularly in Britain, is the fact that many children with an L1 that is not English acquire English outside the home at a very early age. This paper focuses on the acquisition of English by young Chinese children who were born in China but moved to Britain at around one year of age. As such this paper addresses the underexplored area of early acquisition of a second language prior to age three. The analyses focus on lexical acquisition, the use of code-switching and early grammatical learning of English. The results are discussed in relation to a number of hotly debated issues in the literature on bilingual first and early second language acquisition.
Abstract
One aspect of English in Europe today, particularly in Britain, is the fact that many children with an L1 that is not English acquire English outside the home at a very early age. This paper focuses on the acquisition of English by young Chinese children who were born in China but moved to Britain at around one year of age. As such this paper addresses the underexplored area of early acquisition of a second language prior to age three. The analyses focus on lexical acquisition, the use of code-switching and early grammatical learning of English. The results are discussed in relation to a number of hotly debated issues in the literature on bilingual first and early second language acquisition.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgement xi
- The dynamics of English in a multilingual Europe 1
- The increasing role of English in Basque education 15
- English language testing 31
- When comprehension is crucial 51
- English as a lingua franca and the Standard English misunderstanding 71
- The early acquisition of English as a second language 95
- “The more languages, the more English?” 113
- Conceptualizing ‘English’ for a multilingual Europe 133
- English as a foreign language 147
- Index 167
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgement xi
- The dynamics of English in a multilingual Europe 1
- The increasing role of English in Basque education 15
- English language testing 31
- When comprehension is crucial 51
- English as a lingua franca and the Standard English misunderstanding 71
- The early acquisition of English as a second language 95
- “The more languages, the more English?” 113
- Conceptualizing ‘English’ for a multilingual Europe 133
- English as a foreign language 147
- Index 167
