Linguistic and narrative development in a Japanese–English bilingual's first language acquisition: a 14-year longitudinal case study

Abstract

In the seven decades since Leopold's groundbreaking 1939 study, there has been no longitudinal study covering more than two years of a Japanese bilingual subject's development. Despite the lack of longitudinal research, however, we have been broadly informed by the veritable outpouring of research on a short-term basis since the late twentieth century. This longitudinal study tracks a JapaneseÁ English bilingual from childhood (4;09) into late adolescence (19;01). Data collected orally were analyzed in terms of fluency, accuracy, complexity, and vocabulary. By continuing through the late acquisition phase, we were also able to observe the development of the subject's growing ability to employ narrative structure, examining her nondominant language, English, from both the linguistic and narrative perspectives, to determine whether the nondominant language develops in a similar manner to monolinguals and/or to bilinguals who are acquiring two linguistically close languages. The results indicate that, even when exposure to the nondominant language is limited and the two languages are typologically distant from each other, the development of the nondominant language is similar or identical to that of a monolingual in core linguistic areas, and that a child acquiring two languages simultaneously is able to develop two separate languages Á partially supporting the Separate Development Hypothesis. This support is not robust, however, because our subject showed some idiosyncratic errors and a unique narrative style, possibly due to L1 influence. The results also imply that extensive and intensive exposure to the nondominant language at or before a certain age may be essential to reach a level similar to monolinguals.

Linguistic consequences of toing and froing: factors that modulate narrative development in bilingual returnee children

“…Our results support the findings of other longitudinal studies that showed a significant increase in micro-and macrostructure among kindergarten to first-grade Spanish-English bilingual children (Bitetti and Hammer 2016;Squires et al 2014;Uccelli and Páez 2007). A longitudinal case study over 14 years by Taura and Taura (2012) also found that Japanese-English bilingual's story grammar showed significant gains from ages 4;09 to 7;00 and plateaued around 11;0 (although this was in their L2 English). The rapid gains in micro-and macrostructure around the ages of 6 to 8 most likely coincides with the introduction of formal schooling and literacy practices (Bitetti and Hammer 2016).…”

Factors Affecting Home Language Literacy Development in Japanese-English Bicultural Children in Japan

“…Their performance demonstrates simultaneous Japanese-English bilingual and bicultural children's potential for mastering literacy in both languages, despite attending regular Japanese-medium schools in Japan and receiving only limited English literacy instruction in weekend school. This finding shows that intensive exposure through studying abroad and attending bilingual schools (Taura and Taura 2012) are not the only ways for Japanese-English bilingual children to develop their English literacy. Weekend schools can be an affordable and accessible model for successful home language literacy learning, even in late childhood and adolescence.…”

“…Biliteracy research on older simultaneous bilingual children schooled in the societal language is needed because they likely become increasingly dominant in that language as they grow older. Taura and Taura (2012) is a rare 14-year longitudinal case study of a Japanese-English simultaneous bilingual child who was mostly educated in Japan from Grades 1 to 12. Despite her predominantly Japanese-medium education, she performed at almost age-appropriate levels in standardized oral and written tests in English from age 11 onwards after an 8-month stay in Australia and subsequent enrollment in a private bilingual high school in Japan.…”