Many first language acquisition (FLA) studies have found a strong correlation between lexical and grammatical development in early language acquisition. For bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA), the development of grammar is also found to be correlated with the size of the lexicon in each language. This case study investigates how a Malay-English bilingual child developed the lexicon and grammar in each of her languages and considers possible evidence of interaction between the languages during acquisition. The study also aims to show that the predominant linguistic environment to which the child was alternatively exposed might have played an important role in her lexical and grammatical development. Thus, the study presents two sets of data: (a) a 12-month longitudinal investigation when the child was 2;10 up till 3;10 in Australia and (b) a one-off elicitation session at age 4;8 when the family was in Malaysia. The findings show that not only the emergence of grammar is linked to the lexical size of the developing languages, but that other variables, mainly the linguistic environment and the bilingual language mode, also influenced the child’s language productions.

The early development of simultaneous bilinguals has been at the core of heated controversy since the mid-seventies. The Unitary Language System Hypothesis by Volterra and Taeschner saw early development as a single language system gradually diverging into two systems. On the contrary, Meisel (1989), De Houwer (1990) and Paradis and Genesee (1996) suggested the early separation of two linguistic systems. Neither position, however, considered language environmental conditions constraining development as key variables. This paper aims to show that the predominant environmental languages to which the Malay-English bilingual child in the current study was alternately exposed might have played an important role in shaping the child's acquisition of plurality in each language. Throughout the period of investigation (from age 3;4 to 3;10 and at 4;8) the child's interactions were regularly audio and video recorded. The current study focuses on the development of plural marking in a simultaneous Malay-English bilingual child. Interestingly, at a point when English was environmentally predominant, the child would occasionally use the English plural suffix-s on Malay nouns. After moving back to Malaysia, the child used reduplication to mark plurals in both languages. The findings of this study indicate that the predominant linguistic environment in which the child grows and develops plays an important role in shaping the child's language production.

Studies to document the English acquisitional trajectory of Malaysian learners are scant and this normative data is imperative for syllabus-designers, policy-makers, teachers as well as linguists to understand the root cause of the students' low proficiency in English. Hence, this article presents the acquisition of English grammar among Malay-English bilingual primary school children. Seven nine-year-old children, who have attended the same primary school which employed the Standard Based Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) syllabus for 2 years (i.e., since they were 7 years old) became the subject of this study. The speech output of the children was elicited from two communicative tasks. Their English grammatical acquisition was then analysed using the Processability Theory (PT) framework. Other than the school environment, the children's home language factor was also examined. The results indicate that other than the home language environmental factor, the children's language aptitude also contributes to their English grammatical acquisition. In terms of PT's developmental stages, it was also found that the children's acquisition of English morphology adheres to the stages predicted by PT. The findings also lend credence to PT's typological applicability across different populations.

English is undoubtedly an important language for educational and socioeconomic mobility in numerous countries including Malaysia. Regardless of its importance, studies to document English language acquisition among Malaysian children acquiring English in the local context remain scarce. This normative data is imperative for syllabus-designers, policymakers, teachers and linguists to understand and to develop materials that are developmentally sensitive and contextualised to the local setting. Thus, the objective of this paper is to present the onset of English lexical acquisition among 99 Malaysian preschoolers at the beginning of formal instruction. The 99 children were pupils in 3 public preschools in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The children's language production was elicited in individual communicative tasks. Their lexical output, both in English and Malay were analysed based on the children's language choice during the session as well as the frequencies of types and tokens. The results indicate that Malaysian preschoolers displayed a limited range of productive abilities and age-sensitive vocabulary in English at the beginning of formal instruction. However, at that point, the children already possess receptive skills greater than their productive skills. Based on the findings, implications for pedagogy are also discussed.

This study investigates the development of plural encoding in a Malay-English bilingual first language acquirer from a Processability Theory (PT) perspective. In Malay, plurality is encoded through reduplication, while English uses morphological inflection. The child’s oral production was collected weekly from age 3;4 to 3;10 using natural conversation and elicitation tasks in separate Malay and English sessions. Expressions for singular and plural contexts are analysed based on PT. Results suggest that pluralisation in each language followed PT, they add to the applicability of PT to bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA), and reveal some novel typological sequences. Cross-linguistic influences were found in plural encodings in each language. Also, a prosodic feature was, usefully, found to disambiguate between Malay ‘iteration’ (Lemma) and ‘reduplication’ (Category procedure).