Dinner conversations with a trilingual two-year-old: Language socialization in a multilingual context

Quay, Suzanne

doi:10.1177/0142723707083557

Cited by 59 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The child's language mixing in many cases (but not necessarily) indicated a language production problem and was flagged by pauses and cut-offs (Quay 2008 Goodwin, Cekaite & Goodwin 2012), and the types of reason-giving offered by the child. For instance, they entailed accounts that topicalized Mona's lack of heritage language knowledge.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions

2015

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The present study explores language socialization patterns in a Persian-Kurdish family in Sweden and examines how “one-parent, one-language” family language policies are instantiated and negotiated in parent–child interactions. The data consist of video-recordings and ethnographic observations of family interactions, as well as interviews. Detailed interactional analysis is employed to investigate parental language maintenance efforts and the child’s agentive orientation in relation to the recurrent interactional practices through which parents attempt to enforce a monolingual, heritage language “context” for parent–child interaction. We examine the interactional trajectories that develop in parents’ requests for translation that target the focus child’s (a7-year-old girl’s) lexical mixings. These practices resembled formal language instruction: The parents suspended the ongoing conversational activity, requested that the child translate the problematic item, modeled and assessed her language use. The instructional exchanges were asymmetrically organized: the parents positioned themselves as “experts”, insisting on the child’s active participation, whereas the child’s (affectively aggravated) resistance was frequent, and the parents recurrently accommodated the child by terminating the language instruction. The study argues that an examination of children’s agency, and the social dynamics characterizing parental attempts to shape children’s heritage language use, can provide significant insights into the conditions for language maintenance

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions

2015

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“…For such families, questions concerning the acquisition and maintenance of three or more languages in a natural environment are of direct relevance, and in the last decade the issue has also received growing scholarly attention. A number of recent works focus on or provide some information about the relationship between language input and the language development of young trilingual children, notably Barnes (2006Barnes ( , 2011, Cruz-Ferreira (2006), Dewaele (2000Dewaele ( , 2007, Kazzazi (2007Kazzazi ( , 2011, Montanari (2005Montanari ( , 2010, Quay (2001Quay ( , 2008 and Wang (2008). The present paper concentrates on one particular aspect of this relationship, namely the influence of caregiver discourse styles on early trilingual development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caregiver responses to the language mixing of a young trilingual

Chevalier

2013

Multilingua

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The situation once described by Hoffmann (1985), in which children grow up exposed to three languages from an early age, is a reality for an increasing number of families. In Europe -as elsewhere -greater mobility is leading to greater numbers of mixed-language couples (Piller 2002), and, by extension, multilingual families. For such families, questions concerning the acquisition and maintenance of three or more languages in a natural environment are of direct relevance. Researchers in bilingualism have already pointed out the importance of social context for the acquisition of two languages in childhood, focusing in particular on the quantity and quality of exposure to the languages (De Houwer 1990;Döpke 1992; Okita 2002;Lanza 2004) or the prestige of the languages (Lambert 1977). In this paper, I will make use of the insights gained by such researchers and test them in a trilingual setting. The paper will focus mainly on one aspect, namely the conversational style of parents and caretakers. The data come from research being carried out in Switzerland and consist of 33 interviews with multilingual families, as well as case studies of two trilingual children. The findings attest to the importance of conversational style, but at the same time indicate that a number of further factors are also of great significance.

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“…All the children in these studies had high levels of active trilingualism: they spoke the language of each parent with that parent most of the time (as well as being able to speak the community language). In the studies of Montanari (2005), Quay (2001) and Quay (2008), on the other hand, in which the parents also followed the one person, one language principle but did not use insisting strategies, the children did not speak the parental languages with each parent most of the time.…”

Section: Motivation For Young Children To Speak Another Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Active trilingualism in early childhood: the motivating role of caregivers in interaction

Chevalier

2012

International Journal of Multilingualism

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The present paper is concerned with the language development of two young children from two different families growing up exposed to three languages. The children live in Switzerland and have been exposed to English, French and Swiss German from infancy. The focus is on the children's production of these languages, and the contextual and affective factors which have influenced their levels of active trilingualism. The method consists of two longitudinal case studies. Monthly recordings were made by each caregiver (mother, father and third caregiver) in dyadic interactions with the children from ages 2;1 to 3;1. It was found that one child had a high level of active trilingualism, speaking the language of the caregiver with that caregiver over 90% of the time (measured in utterances). By contrast, the other child had a low level of active trilingualism. An analysis of the children's language exposure, such as the position of the community language in the home, the variety of exposure, the interactional style of the caregivers, and the prestige of the languages involved indicates the importance of motivation, largely influenced by the caregivers in interaction, in explaining the children's different levels of active trilingualism. Active trilingualism in early childhood: The motivating role of caregivers in interactionThe present paper is concerned with the language development of two young children from two different families growing up exposed to three languages. The children live in Switzerland and have been exposed to English, French and Swiss German from infancy. The focus is on the children's production of these languages, and the contextual and affective factors which have influenced their levels of active trilingualism. The method consists of two longitudinal case studies. Monthly recordings were made by each caregiver (mother, father, and third caregiver) in dyadic interactions with the children from ages 2;1-3;1. It was found that one child had a high level of active trilingualism, speaking the language of the caregiver with that caregiver over 90% of the time (measured in utterances). By contrast, the other child had a low level of active trilingualism. An analysis of the children's language exposure, such as the position of the community language in the home, the variety of exposure, the interactional style of the caregivers, and the prestige of the languages involved indicates the importance of motivation, largely influenced by the caregivers in interaction, in explaining the children's different levels of active trilingualism.

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Dinner conversations with a trilingual two-year-old: Language socialization in a multilingual context

Cited by 59 publications

References 22 publications

Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions

Language Maintenance in a Multilingual Family: Informal Heritage Language Lessons in Parent–Child Interactions

Caregiver responses to the language mixing of a young trilingual

Active trilingualism in early childhood: the motivating role of caregivers in interaction

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