The development of children's language in a bilingual culture
This research asks how young children become bilingual, and what best predicts bilingual language development. All mothers of new babies on Anglesey in North Wales were contacted and asked to complete a questionnaire for the family concerning their past and present use of Welsh and English, and their attitudes towards these languages. Use was. taken as more important than knowledge and respondents (N= 413), were allocated to five language background types on the basis of language use. Ten firstborn children with both parents resident were chosen to represent these groups, and recordings were made of their language development at three monthly intervals from age 16 to 36 months. Nine sessions took place at home, most during free play between mother and child, the last between fathers and children at three. This small sample allowed close scrutiny of the process of language acquisition. Families who replied to the first questionnaire were sent a. second three years later. This asked about current parental language use and attitudes, and. about the development of their child's Welsh and/or English. More than two thirds of families on Anglesey use Welsh and the large majority of families want their children to
Lyon, Jean
Linguistics
The development of children's language in a bilingual culture. This research asks how young children become bilingual, and what best predicts bilingual language development. All mothers of new babies on Anglesey in North Wales were contacted and asked to complete a questionnaire for the family concerning their past and present use of Welsh and English, and their attitudes towards these languages. Use was. taken as more important than knowledge and respondents (N= 413), were allocated to five language background types on the basis of language use. Ten firstborn children with both parents resident were chosen to represent these groups, and recordings were made of their language development at three monthly intervals from age 16 to 36 months. Nine sessions took place at home, most during free play between mother and child, the last between fathers and children at three. This small sample allowed close scrutiny of the process of language acquisition. Families who replied to the first questionnaire were sent a. second three years later. This asked about current parental language use and attitudes, and. about the development of their child's Welsh and/or English. More than two thirds of families on Anglesey use Welsh and the large majority of families want their children to
development child_language bilingual culture asks young_child become bilingual best predicts bilingual language development mother new north_wales contact ask complete questionnaire family concern past_present use welsh_english attitudes_towards language use take important knowledge respondent allocate language background type basis language_use child parent resident choose represent group recording make language development interval session take_place home free_play mother_child last father child small_sample allow close_scrutiny process language_acquisition reply first questionnaire send second ask current parental language_use attitude and development child welsh and english family use welsh large majority family want child