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Language differentiation in early bilingual development
F Genesee1, E Nicoladis, J Paradis
1Psychology Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. genesee@ego.psych.mcgill.ca
Journal of Child Language
|October 1, 1995
Summary
Bilingual children can differentiate languages even when they mix them in early speech. This study shows language dominance, not parental input, may influence code-mixing in young bilinguals.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psycholinguistics
- Child language acquisition
- Bilingualism research
Background:
- Simultaneous bilingual children often exhibit code-mixing, leading to claims of undifferentiated language systems.
- Previous research suggests language differentiation emerges with functional categories, typically around age three.
- The early stages of language differentiation in bilingual children remain an area of inquiry.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate language differentiation in very young simultaneous bilingual children before functional category emergence.
- To explore potential factors influencing code-mixing, specifically parental input and child's language dominance.
Main Methods:
- Observational study of five bilingual children aged 1;10 to 2;2 with varying Mean Length of Utterance (MLU).
- Children were observed interacting with each parent separately and both parents together.
- Analysis focused on instances of code-mixing and evidence of language differentiation.
Main Results:
- Despite code-mixing, children demonstrated clear differentiation between their two languages.
- No significant evidence linked children's code-mixing to their parents' rate of mixing.
- Child language dominance showed some correlation with the extent of code-mixing.
Conclusions:
- Young bilingual children can differentiate languages even when exhibiting code-mixing.
- Code-mixing in early bilingual development is not solely indicative of undifferentiated language systems.
- Language dominance appears to be a more significant factor in code-mixing than parental input.
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