Bilingualism and language acquisition in early childhood: research and application Virginia Yip (CUHK) and Stephen Matthews (HKU) Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre Outline z Early bilingual acquisition as an emerging field standing at the intersection of the fields of bilingualism and language acquisition. z Bilingual development in 2 groups of bilingual children in our longitudinal studies: (a) one parent-one language families; (b) one parent-two language families. z Integration of research and application: need for education practices, parental strategies to be informed by current research 2 Workshop on Bilingualism and Language Acquisition Bilingualism Language Acquisition Bilingual Language Acquisition 3 Language acquisition across monolingual and bilingual contexts First Language Acquisition Second Language Acquisition Bilingualism 4 Different Language Policies One Parent One Language One Parent Two Languages 5 Children from one parent-one language families z Currently 7 children in Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language Corpus from one parent-one language families. z 6 children’s longitudinal development in Cantonese and English has been analyzed and presented in our book The Bilingual Child (2007: Cambridge University Press) 6 7 bilingual children in CHILDES Timmy Kathryn Sophie Llywelyn Alicia Charlotte Janet 7 Launch of new longitudinal corpora Kasen 2;4 -4;0 Darren 2;0 -3:8 • Children from one parent-two language families with both parents speaking Cantonese as L1 and English as L2 • An increasingly common situation in Hong Kong 8 Children from one parent-two languages families z Kasen: 2;04- 4;00 (20 English files and 20 Cantonese files) z Darren: 1;07-3;11 (28 English files and 27 Cantonese files) z Parents are native speakers of Cantonese who speak English as a second language. z Children are addressed in both languages with varying degrees of code-mixing. 9 Different types of input conditions z Both one parent-one language and one parent- two languages families provide support for development of early bilingualism z With consistent and frequent exposure to dual input, children are able to develop bilingualism in the first few years of their life. 10 Kasen I speak English and Cantonese. (2;11;05) 11 Video clip 12 Research questions for one-parent two-languages children z Is code-mixing quantitatively or qualitatively different from one-parent one-language children? z Is cross-linguistic influence similar to or different from one one-parent one-language children? 13 Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) in Cantonese and English - Kasen 6 4 3 2 1 age 1.1 1 3; 1 9.0 7 3; 0 6.3 0 3; 0 3; 0 5.0 5 3.0 9 3; 0 0.0 3 3; 0 0.0 2 2; 1 8.1 1 2; 0 6.1 6 2; 0 4.0 7 0 2; 0 mlu (words) 5 14 kasen_mlu_can kasen_mlu_eng age 1.2 4 3; 1 8.1 8 3; 0 6.2 9 3; 0 6.0 7 3; 0 4.1 8 3; 0 2.2 0 3; 0 0.0 7 3; 0 0.0 3 2; 1 8.2 0 2; 0 7.0 8 2; 0 4.2 9 2; 0 3.0 8 2; 0 0.1 0 2; 0 9.1 7 1; 0 7.2 3 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 1; 0 mlu (words) Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) in Cantonese and English - Darren darren_mlu_can 15 darren_mlu_eng Wh-in situ questions Kasen: occasional use of wh-in situ z It’s who? (Kasen 2;06.16) z She is so angry with who? (Kasen 2;11.05) z Do you know the next one is where? (Kasen 3;11.11) Darren: rare use of wh-in situ z they clean what body (Darren 3;10.10) 16 Code-mixing by Kasen in Cantonese and English contexts z Kasen’s code-mixing pattern is asymmetrical: consistently more mixed utterances in Cantonese contexts than in English contexts. CHI: 我 drink 囉 I drink SFP ‘I drink obviously’ INV: 你飲呢個嘅? (Kasen 2;07) ‘You drink this?’ z Mixed utterances are rare in English contexts: CHI: let me show you 呀 CHI: 呢度喇 (Kasen 3;03.09) 17 2; 04 .0 2; 7 05 .0 2; 5 06 .1 2; 6 07 .0 2; 0 08 .1 2; 1 09 .0 2; 1 10 .0 2; 2 11 .0 3; 5 00 .0 3; 3 01 .0 3; 0 03 .0 3; 9 04 .0 3; 6 05 .0 3; 5 06 .0 3; 8 06 .3 3; 0 08 .0 3; 3 09 .0 3; 7 10 .0 3; 7 11 .1 4; 1 00 .0 9 percentage of mixing Code-mixing by Kasen in Cantonese and English contexts Mixing pattern by Kasen CA context Eng context 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Age 18 The bilingual vs monolingual child z Bilingual and monolingual Monol in gual al u ing l i B development show quantitative and qualitative differences z Bilingual children may take a different path to reach the target z They are not two complete or incomplete monolinguals but have their own unique profile 19 Bridging research and application z Application of research findings in bilingual acquisition to early childhood education. z Systematic research integrating bilingualism and language acquisition is needed more than ever in informing educators as well as developing assessment tools that are sensitive to bilingual children’s profiles. z We argue that research and application go hand in hand in deepening our understanding of how children develop bilingual competence in early childhood. 20 Common views among parents z Bilingualism as burden: “two languages may be too much for my child” z Preference for sequentialbilingualism: “let’s wait until her English is established first, then we can teach her Chinese” 21 Our views as linguists z Parents who delay exposing children to both languages on the grounds that it will be a burden for them are under a misapprehension. z When the input conditions are favorable, there are strong grounds for children to learn two or more languages in tandem from early on and thus achieve bilingual competence. 22 Our views as linguists z The first few years of life are the golden years for language acquisition: the child is equipped to acquire multiple languages in an effortless manner. z Some researchers even argue that merely exposing the child to one language is tantamount to underutilizing the child’s potential. z The outcome of bilingual acquisition in most respects converge with adult native speakers. By age 3-4, the child has mastered a high level of complexity in phonology and structure of the languages. 23 From bilingual to trilingual z Growing demand in Hong Kong for children to be exposed to and receive trilingual education in Cantonese, English and Mandarin. z While encouraging children to learn English and Mandarin, it is important to preserve Cantonese as a foundation for the acquisition of additional languages, and as part of the cultural heritage of the majority of speakers in Hong Kong. 24 Implications for preschool teachers z Awareness of language development: how language develops over time from infancy to early childhood; code-mixing as natural part of bilingual development z Adult’s role in supporting development z Learning and teaching that address the youngest age group including infants 25 Teacher training z Take courses that connect linguistics and teaching; early childhood education, child development z Preferably taught by educational linguists who can relate learning to the real work of teachers z A challenge: inspire teachers of young children and bring about improvement in teaching and learning for our children 26 Conclusions z Bilingual acquisition draws on and interacts with many fields: L1 acquisition, L2 acquisition, bilingualism, early childhood education, developmental psycholinguistics z The collective research on childhood bilingualism in the international academic community including our own shows: It’s not too early to regularly expose children to two or three languages from birth. The child will benefit from the host of advantages of early bilingualism. 27 Acknowledgments: thank you z Our research team for the study of Kasen and Darren: Angel Chan, Jacky Chan, Andrew Chau, Cheng Siu Pong, Antonio Cheung, Jacqueline Lai, Elaine Lau, Phyllis Lo, Kelly Shum, Alice Tse, Eunice Wong, Hinny Wong and Reace Wong. z The data collection and corpus construction were fully supported by General Research Fund (GRF) grants “Childhood Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition in Hong Kong Children” RGC Ref. no. CUHK4692/05H and “From Lexicon to Syntax in Childhood Bilingualism” RGC Ref. no. CUHK 453808. 28 References z z z z z z Bialystok, E. 2003. Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy, and Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bialystok, E. 2007. Language acquisition and bilingualism: Consequences for a multilingual society. Applied Psycholinguistics 28: 393-397. Yip, V. 2006. Early bilingual acquisition in the Chinese context. In Li P., L-H .Tan, E. Bates & O. Tzeng. (eds.) Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics (Vol.1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 148-162. Yip, V. and S. Matthews. 2007. The Bilingual Child: Early Development and Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yip, V. and S. Matthews. 2010. The acquisition of Chinese in bilingual and multilingual contexts. International Journal of Bilingualism 14.1. Yip, V. and S. Matthews. (In Preparation). Bilingual Development 29 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.