Interactions between input factors in bilingual language acquisition
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Barbara Zurer Pearson
Abstract
This chapter synthesizes findings from research on relationships between language input and language development in bilingual children, and highlights a context in which the ability to manipulate input factors to promote bilingual acquisition takes on increased urgency, namely in language maintenance and revitalization. Indeed, child bilinguals are considered the key to language survival. We present a brief overview of major input factors and how their interactions affect children’s ability to become bilingual. Using nine major factors from UNESCO guidelines for assessing language vitality (UNESCO 2011), we describe the contrasting linguistic, cultural, and economic circumstances in Brazil and Guyana where an endangered Amazonian language, Wapichana, is spoken. A project in northern Brazil linking documentation for language preservation and education for language revitalization is evaluated for its potential to expand the domains in which Wapichana can continue to play a role in the life of the community and reverse the process of language shift that has recently taken hold at a faster pace in Brazil than in Guyana.
Abstract
This chapter synthesizes findings from research on relationships between language input and language development in bilingual children, and highlights a context in which the ability to manipulate input factors to promote bilingual acquisition takes on increased urgency, namely in language maintenance and revitalization. Indeed, child bilinguals are considered the key to language survival. We present a brief overview of major input factors and how their interactions affect children’s ability to become bilingual. Using nine major factors from UNESCO guidelines for assessing language vitality (UNESCO 2011), we describe the contrasting linguistic, cultural, and economic circumstances in Brazil and Guyana where an endangered Amazonian language, Wapichana, is spoken. A project in northern Brazil linking documentation for language preservation and education for language revitalization is evaluated for its potential to expand the domains in which Wapichana can continue to play a role in the life of the community and reverse the process of language shift that has recently taken hold at a faster pace in Brazil than in Guyana.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction to “Input and experience in bilingual development” 1
- Language exposure and online processing efficiency in bilingual development 15
- The absolute frequency of maternal input to bilingual and monolingual children 37
- Language input and language learning 59
- Language exposure, ethnolinguistic identity and attitudes in the acquisition of Hebrew as a second language among bilingual preschool children from Russian- and English-speaking backgrounds 77
- Interactions between input factors in bilingual language acquisition 99
- Properties of dual language input that shape bilingual development and properties of environments that shape dual language input 119
- The typical development of simultaneous bilinguals 141
- French-English bilingual children’s sensitivity to child-level and language-level input factors in morphosyntactic acquisition 161
- Comparing the role of input in bilingual acquisition across domains 181
- Index 203
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction to “Input and experience in bilingual development” 1
- Language exposure and online processing efficiency in bilingual development 15
- The absolute frequency of maternal input to bilingual and monolingual children 37
- Language input and language learning 59
- Language exposure, ethnolinguistic identity and attitudes in the acquisition of Hebrew as a second language among bilingual preschool children from Russian- and English-speaking backgrounds 77
- Interactions between input factors in bilingual language acquisition 99
- Properties of dual language input that shape bilingual development and properties of environments that shape dual language input 119
- The typical development of simultaneous bilinguals 141
- French-English bilingual children’s sensitivity to child-level and language-level input factors in morphosyntactic acquisition 161
- Comparing the role of input in bilingual acquisition across domains 181
- Index 203
