Linguistic interference between L1 and L2 in internationally adopted children

Area of Science:

• Child language acquisition
• Developmental psycholinguistics
• Cross-linguistic influence

Background:

• Bilingual children may experience cross-language interference or facilitation.
• Internationally adopted toddlers often lose their first language (L1) rapidly after adoption.
• Residual L1 effects might influence new language (L2) acquisition patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cross-linguistic patterns in the language development of internationally adopted toddlers.
• To determine if L1 attrition impacts L2 acquisition in early childhood.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study of 23 children adopted from Eastern Europe (ages 11-23 months at adoption).
• Language samples collected at 6-month intervals for the first year, then annually up to age 4.
• Analysis of the acquisition order of English grammatical morphemes (e.g., V + ing, articles, copulas, auxiliary verbs).

Main Results:

• English grammatical morphemes were acquired in the typical sequence observed in monolingual English-speaking children.
• No significant impact of cross-linguistic factors from the first language was observed on L2 acquisition patterns.
• The development of specific morphological structures followed a predictable trajectory.

Conclusions:

• Early L2 acquisition in internationally adopted toddlers is not significantly hindered by L1 attrition.
• The developmental trajectory of grammatical morphemes in English appears robust in this population.
• Findings offer insights for professionals and parents supporting language development in adopted children.