Trilingual Language Acquisition

Chevalier, Sarah

doi:10.1075/tilar.16

Cited by 71 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Lee (2004) uses questionnaire-based methods to examine language use of young aborigines aged 16 and over in 195 families in Taiwan and discovers that the presence of grandparents supports the parents to maintain the home languages. In a study of two English-French-Swiss German children (aged between 2 and 4) carried out by Chevalier (2015), and also in a study of two Croatian-English-German children (aged between 1 and 3) conducted by Ivir-Ashworth (2011), it was found that language input by grandparents had beneficial effects on active trilingualism. In a survey of German-Chinese families in Hong Kong, Chong (2004) points out that grandparents’ positive ideas and attitudes toward bilingualism help with school-age 3 children’s language acquisition.…”

Section: The Role Of Grandparents In Family Language Policymentioning

confidence: 96%

The role of agency in the language choices of a trilingual two-year-old in conversation with monolingual grandparents

Zhan

2020

First Language

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This study examines the role of agency in a young trilingual child’s language choice in interaction with her Mandarin-speaking grandparents. The child was born in Japan to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father. English is used as a lingua franca in the family. The study demonstrates how the child asserts her agency to negotiate the decisions and efforts made by the grandparents. The bond of the heritage language and culture, and the value of child trilingualism are strongly desired and explicitly implemented in the grandparents’ monolingual or ‘bilingual-like’ discourse strategies in dealing with the child’s mixed codes. Meanwhile, the child’s flexible language use is not a passive response to the grandparents’ strategies but an exercise of her four significant senses and behaviour, which are: (1) resisting through no response; (2) moving on in a dual-lingual conversation; (3) assisting the grandparents to decode her non-Mandarin speech; and (4) modifying the language choices of herself and others. This study suggests that language choices of trilingual children are complex. It also provides empirical evidence that grandparents provide an important incentive in the planning of family language policy.

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Section: The Role Of Grandparents In Family Language Policymentioning

confidence: 96%

The role of agency in the language choices of a trilingual two-year-old in conversation with monolingual grandparents

Zhan

2020

First Language

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“…As for both quantity and quality, parent proficiency and parental discourse style in the HL can explain children's degree and type of language knowledge (Chevalier 2015;Quay 2011). Input from less proficient parents is different from that provided by proficient parents.…”

Section: Children's Linguistic Trajectories In Plurilingual Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Parents’ Perceived Value of the Heritage Language Predicts Their Children’s Skills

Cangelosi,

Borghetti,

Bonifacci

2024

Languages

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The growing field of family language policies (FLPs), defined as overt and explicit planning in relation to language use among family members, has garnered increasing interest. FLPs influence child–caretaker interactions and are closely linked to child language development and acquisition. This study investigates the impact of FLPs on children’s proficiency in their heritage language (HL). Employing a multi-method approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 53 multilingual parents to explore their beliefs, ideologies, and language management within the family context. Concurrently, their children were administered standardized tasks in their heritage language (HL) to assess receptive vocabulary skills and morphosyntactic comprehension. Our findings indicate that parents’ perceived value of the HL significantly correlates with their children’s language performance, going beyond the influence of reported domestic language usage.

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“…In bilingual contexts, balanced exposure (~50%) shows a positive effect on outcomes in both languages (e.g., Thordardottir, 2011). Some have argued that balanced exposure also favors active trilingualism (Chevalier, 2015). However, balanced exposure in trilingual contexts is lower (~33%) and may not be sufficient in particular to support development in a language not spoken widely in the community.…”

Section: Fls and Language Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Trilingual families’ language strategies: potential predictors and effect on trilingual exposure

Quirk,

Hadeed,

Byers-Heinlein

2024

International Journal of Multilingualism

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Trilingual families' language strategies: potential predictors and effect on trilingual exposureFamily language strategies are approaches that parents adopt for language use with their multilingual children. In bilingual contexts, these strategies influence children's language exposure and development (Macleod et al., 2022). In the more complex context of trilingualism, how families settle on strategies and their relationship with exposure may differ. We examined these relationships in a preregistered online study of 31 families raising trilingual toddlers aged 18-36 months living in Montreal with English, French -the city's two community languagesand various heritage languages. Families' language strategy and language background, children's exposure, and parents' attitudes and concerns towards children's trilingualism were assessed via questionnaire. The most frequent strategies adopted involved mixed use of a community and heritage language with children. Strategies that excluded the community languages at home were associated with lower parent proficiency in the community languages and higher heritage language exposure. Mixed strategies led to more balanced exposure to the three languages. Attitudes towards trilingualism were favorable, concerns were weak, and neither showed a relationship with family language strategy choice.These findings shed new light on unique features of trilingual language environments and open future directions for research on how they relate to the development of three languages.

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Trilingual Language Acquisition

Cited by 71 publications

References 64 publications

The role of agency in the language choices of a trilingual two-year-old in conversation with monolingual grandparents

The role of agency in the language choices of a trilingual two-year-old in conversation with monolingual grandparents

How Parents’ Perceived Value of the Heritage Language Predicts Their Children’s Skills

Trilingual families’ language strategies: potential predictors and effect on trilingual exposure

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