The effect of negation training in a second language on the expression of negation in the native language was investigated. Four-year-old children from bilingual (Spanish/English) homes who showed no expressive or receptive ability in Psychologists and educators have become concerned with the educational implications of learning more than one language during the developmental years. One critical issue in early childhood second language research is that of language transfer (Saville, 1971). If transfer effects exist, are they inhibitory or facilitative? Garcia (1977) reported that as Spanish prepositional expression was acquired by 3-and 4-year-old English monolingual correct English prepositional use decreased. Similarly, it is possible that the requirements imposed on a child with respect to acquiring a second language may lead to the use of structures in the native language that had been acquired in the sec- 1986,191,[203][204][205][206][207][208] NUMBEiL 2 (summEEL 1986)
The present study offers an analysis of bilingual acquisition with particular emphasis on the development of negation. Of specific interest was the analysis of errors under "forced conditions" that required the child to use negative syntactic structures. The study attempted to isolate qualitative differences in these constructions cross-sectionally across age (3, 4, 5, and 6 years), with comparisons between the English constructions of Spanish/English bilinguals and those of matched monolingual English-speaking children. The three dependent measures were (a) negative-agent-verb sequence, (b) do inclusion, and (c) subject omission. The present research allowed a comprehensive testing of two contrasting theoretical positions-contrastive analysis versus the mental organization hypothesis-related to multiple language acquisition. Results were that English monolinguals scored differently than bilinguals across the three dependent variables, in English. There also was evidence that Spanish negative constructions were used in English negative constructions. Support for a partial transfer hypothesis is suggested in view of transference from Spanish to English.
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