Best Practices for Building a Bimodal/Bilingual Child Language Corpus

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Child Language Acquisition

Background:

• Bimodal bilingualism involves simultaneous acquisition of signed and spoken languages.
• Longitudinal data collection is crucial for understanding language development trajectories.
• Previous research has not fully addressed the specific methodological hurdles in studying young bimodal bilinguals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail effective and respectful strategies for collecting longitudinal spontaneous language samples from young bimodal bilingual children.
• To address challenges related to language choice, elicitation techniques, and participant engagement.
• To provide guidelines for researchers and support for participating families.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study design involving bimodal bilingual children in the United States and Brazil.
• Focus on spontaneous sign language and spoken language production.
• Development of protocols for directing language use and training parents/interlocutors.
• Emphasis on participant-centered approaches and data use negotiation.

Main Results:

• Successful implementation of methods for eliciting representative language samples.
• Demonstration of techniques to manage language choice and encourage target language use.
• Establishment of collaborative relationships with participating families.
• Identification of strategies to enhance data quality and participant experience.

Conclusions:

• Methodological adaptations are essential for studying bimodal bilingual language acquisition.
• Parental involvement and respectful negotiation are key to successful longitudinal data collection.
• The presented strategies enhance the feasibility and quality of research with young bimodal bilingual children.