Assessing narrative development in bilingual first language acquisition
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Enkeleida Kapia
Abstract
Developing appropriate developmental expectations for children exposed to more than one language from birth has become a pivotal task for many researchers across the globe. While it is important to understand why monolingual norms are not always applicable as norms for speakers of superdiverse environments, it is equally important to recognize areas in which monolingual norms are useful in super diverse environments. This study focuses on this issue. Specifically, the study looks at whether language development for 6–7 years old simultaneous bilinguals shares the same developmental milestones with language development data from monolingual children. The analysis is based on narrative data produced by 6 Albanian-speaking monolingual children in Albania and 6 Albanian-Greek speaking bilingual children in Greece.The results are surprising in that data from monolingual children and data from bilingual children show different developmental paths depending on whether micro structure or macro structure language elements are considered. When micro structure language data are taken into consideration, results indicate that monolinguals differ significantly from bilinguals. However, when macro structure elements are considered, then both monolinguals and bilinguals appear to perform at similar levels. In other words, the results from this study suggest that it may be useful and appropriate to use monolingual norms for speakers of superdiverse environments only in terms of assessing macro structure elements of bilinguals’ language, but not micro structure elements.
Abstract
Developing appropriate developmental expectations for children exposed to more than one language from birth has become a pivotal task for many researchers across the globe. While it is important to understand why monolingual norms are not always applicable as norms for speakers of superdiverse environments, it is equally important to recognize areas in which monolingual norms are useful in super diverse environments. This study focuses on this issue. Specifically, the study looks at whether language development for 6–7 years old simultaneous bilinguals shares the same developmental milestones with language development data from monolingual children. The analysis is based on narrative data produced by 6 Albanian-speaking monolingual children in Albania and 6 Albanian-Greek speaking bilingual children in Greece.The results are surprising in that data from monolingual children and data from bilingual children show different developmental paths depending on whether micro structure or macro structure language elements are considered. When micro structure language data are taken into consideration, results indicate that monolinguals differ significantly from bilinguals. However, when macro structure elements are considered, then both monolinguals and bilinguals appear to perform at similar levels. In other words, the results from this study suggest that it may be useful and appropriate to use monolingual norms for speakers of superdiverse environments only in terms of assessing macro structure elements of bilinguals’ language, but not micro structure elements.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
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Capturing superdiversity
- Using correspondence analysis to model immigrant multilingualism over time 27
- Capturing diversity 45
- Measuring language diversity in urban ecosystems 75
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Language acquisition and practice
- Foreign language acquisition in heritage speakers 99
- Heteroglossia in English complementary schools 123
- Enough is enough 143
- The primary classroom as a superdiverse hetero-normative space 161
- Assessing narrative development in bilingual first language acquisition 179
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Examples of language contact and change
- Detecting historical continuity in a linguistically diverse urban area 193
- Four decades of study of synchronic variation in varieties of Dutch. A sketch 227
- Language contact in heritage languages in the Netherlands 253
- Chinese and globalization 275
- Author index 297
- Subject index 301
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Capturing superdiversity
- Using correspondence analysis to model immigrant multilingualism over time 27
- Capturing diversity 45
- Measuring language diversity in urban ecosystems 75
-
Language acquisition and practice
- Foreign language acquisition in heritage speakers 99
- Heteroglossia in English complementary schools 123
- Enough is enough 143
- The primary classroom as a superdiverse hetero-normative space 161
- Assessing narrative development in bilingual first language acquisition 179
-
Examples of language contact and change
- Detecting historical continuity in a linguistically diverse urban area 193
- Four decades of study of synchronic variation in varieties of Dutch. A sketch 227
- Language contact in heritage languages in the Netherlands 253
- Chinese and globalization 275
- Author index 297
- Subject index 301
