Early Bilingualism and Multilingualism

The results of the study indicate that early bilingualism or multilingualism usually has linguistic and cognitive benefits for a young child. According to the responses to a questionnaire, obtained from parents and caregivers, children who grow up with two or more mother tongues develop as well as their monolingual peers, and sometimes even better.

The author investigates the development of children raised bilingually or multilingually. Parents and caregivers completed a questionnaire, providing information on 36 children growing up with two or more languages. Their responses indicate that bilingual and multilingual children usually develop as well as their monolingual peers, and sometimes even better. Some drawbacks of early bilingualism or multilingualism, such as a slight delay in the onset of speech production or asymmetrical language competences, are compensated for by several benefits of early acquisition of two or more mother tongues and early contacts with two or more cultures.

Autorentext

Zofia Chlopek's research interests lie within the domains of applied linguistics and psycholinguistics. They include, inter alia, cross-linguistic influence and conceptual transfer in a multilingual mind, teaching third and additional languages, intercultural education as well as early bi-/multilingualism.

Inhalt

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Early bi-/multilingualism current research outcomes Parents' and caregivers' attitudes towards early bi-/multilingualism empirical study Research questions Discussion and conclusions References Subject Index ****Appendix: The questionnaire used in the study