Abstract:Harmonious bilingual development is the experience of well-being in a language contact situation involving young children and their families. While so far no systematic ethnographic studies of harmonious bilingual development exist, the following constituting elements are proposed: the use of parent-child conversations employing basically a single language, children's active use of two languages rather than just one, and children's more or less equal proficiency in each language. The factors contributing to th… Show more
“…Excessive coercion from authoritarian parents, however, will be ineffective because it tends to silence children instead of encouraging the use of the HL, as Guardado () demonstrated in a 1.5‐year‐long ethnography of Hispanic Canadian families in Vancouver with children between 4 and 8 years of age at the time of study. Ultimately, what seems most effective for bilingual outcomes is family harmony and well‐being, on the one hand, and “children's active use of two languages rather than just one,” on the other (De Houwer, , p. 169).…”
Section: Measuring Input and Exposure During Childhood: Possible In Hmentioning
Using the lenses of bilingualism and social justice, I reflect on relevant conceptual and methodological issues encountered in the study of the linguistic development of heritage language speakers. Themes examined include the early but varying timing of heritage language learning; the surrounding linguistic environment, including the link between parental input and linguistic outcomes and heritage language speakers’ bilingualism, multilingualism, and multilectalism; the framing of literacy in the minority language; and the unique and language‐shaping experience of minoritization, often an outcome of immigration. I argue that bilingualism is gradient and that better measurement of relevant variables—particularly those related to timing, input/exposure, and literacy—can invigorate the study of heritage language development and make new and more robust insights possible. I propose that heritage speakers and their languages must be understood as connected to minoritized communities and to the experience of inequitable multilingualism.
“…Excessive coercion from authoritarian parents, however, will be ineffective because it tends to silence children instead of encouraging the use of the HL, as Guardado () demonstrated in a 1.5‐year‐long ethnography of Hispanic Canadian families in Vancouver with children between 4 and 8 years of age at the time of study. Ultimately, what seems most effective for bilingual outcomes is family harmony and well‐being, on the one hand, and “children's active use of two languages rather than just one,” on the other (De Houwer, , p. 169).…”
Section: Measuring Input and Exposure During Childhood: Possible In Hmentioning
Using the lenses of bilingualism and social justice, I reflect on relevant conceptual and methodological issues encountered in the study of the linguistic development of heritage language speakers. Themes examined include the early but varying timing of heritage language learning; the surrounding linguistic environment, including the link between parental input and linguistic outcomes and heritage language speakers’ bilingualism, multilingualism, and multilectalism; the framing of literacy in the minority language; and the unique and language‐shaping experience of minoritization, often an outcome of immigration. I argue that bilingualism is gradient and that better measurement of relevant variables—particularly those related to timing, input/exposure, and literacy—can invigorate the study of heritage language development and make new and more robust insights possible. I propose that heritage speakers and their languages must be understood as connected to minoritized communities and to the experience of inequitable multilingualism.
“…Il est largement admis que de nombreux facteurs contribuent à l'acquisition, au développement et au maintien du bilinguisme chez l'enfant (De Houwer, 2015 ;Pearson et Amaral, 2014). L'analyse des rôles joués par ces facteurs est compliquée par la nature dynamique et complexe du processus d'acquisition bilingue (Herdina et Jessner, 2002).…”
L’objectif de cette étude est d’observer les effets de l’exposition aux langues sur différentes variables linguistiques en production orale d’enfants bilingues français/anglais sans pathologie, scolarisés dans une école internationale publique (France), et répartis en deux groupes d’âges (groupe 1 : N = 10, M = 6;3; groupe 2 : N = 15, M = 10;2). Des questionnaires parentaux ont permis d’obtenir des mesures quant à l’exposition courante et cumulative aux langues ainsi qu’à la fréquence à laquelle les enfants lisent dans les deux langues. À partir de tests de vocabulaire réceptif standardisés et de productions narratives (Frog, where are you?), des données linguistiques françaises et anglaises ont été obtenues. Les narrations ont été transcrites en respectant les conventions CHILDES dans le logiciel CLAN, permettant l’observation de diverses mesures linguistiques relatives au lexique, à la morphosyntaxe et au discours. Des corrélations ont été effectuées entre les mesures d’exposition et celles des performances linguistiques. Les résultats révèlent que le vocabulaire réceptif et certaines mesures de productivité narrative semblent être sensibles au degré d’exposition de chaque langue. De plus, nos conclusions renforcent l’idée du rÔle essentiel de la lecture sur la performance linguistique, et ce d’autant plus pour les enfants les plus jeunes. Pour finir, cette étude souligne l’importance de travailler en étroite collaboration avec les équipes pédagogiques et les parents d’enfants bilingues afin de fournir des recommandations concrètes pour enrichir le langage oral.
“…Patterns of language choice are an integral part of a person’s bilingual persona, that is, how a bilingual individual presents herself or himself on a particular occasion or in a range of occasions (De Houwer 1999, Hult 2014, Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004), and it is well-known that young children attach emotional importance to their caregivers’ language choice (De Houwer 2009). Lack of continuity in that language choice may not be beneficial to young Children's harmonious bilingual development (De Houwer 2006, 2009, 2015), that is, to their experience of their bilingual situation as neutral or positive.…”
An important aspect of Family Language Policy in bilingual families is parental language choice. Little is known about the continuity in parental language choice and the factors affecting it. This longitudinal study explores maternal language choice over time. Thirty-one bilingual mothers provided reports of what language(s) they spoke with their children. Mother-child interactions were videotaped when children were pre-verbal (5M), producing words in two languages (20M), and fluent speakers (53M). All children had heard two languages from birth in the home. Most mothers reported addressing children in the same single language. Observational data confirmed mothers' use of mainly a single language in interactions with their children, but also showed the occasional use of the other language in over half the sample when children were 20 months. Once children were 53 months mothers again used only the same language they reported speaking to children. These findings reveal a possible effect of children's overall level of language development and demonstrate the difficulty of adhering to a strict “one person, one language” policy. The fact that there was longitudinal continuity in the language most mothers mainly spoke with children provided children with cumulative language input learning opportunities.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.