Social factors in childhood bilingualism in the United States

Abstract

A number of studies have shown that approximately one-quarter of children in potentially bilingual environments do not become bilingual. This article explores several key factors that influence the likelihood that a child who has access to interactions in two languages will learn them both. The five factors discussed are input, language status, access to literacy, family language use, and community support, including schooling. It is argued that the quantity of input has the greatest effect on whether a minority language will be learned, but language status and attitudes about language also play a role. When families are proactive and provide daily activities for children in the minority language, the children respond by learning it. In addition, dual-immersion, “two-way” schooling is shown to benefit children's level of language proficiency in the minority language without diminishing their progress in the community language.

Bilingualism and conversational understanding in young children

“…The role of SES in producing a bilingual advantage has been studied in relation to EF performance and is complicated by language status and the degree to which bilingual language proficiency is balanced (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008;Pearson, 2007). Most relevant to the present research are data from Canadian 6-and 7-year-old bilinguals with a similar level of vocabulary in English and French that indicate the bilingual advantage on at least some EF tasks does not emerge when the SES of the bilingual and monolingual groups is controlled (Morton & Harper, 2007).…”

“…One of the most central and enduring issues in cognitive science concerns the impact of access to language on cognitive development (Bloom & Keil, 2001;Carruthers, 2002;Siegal, 2008;Siegal & Surian, 2004, 2007. Children are exposed to a wide range of language environments.…”

“…This capacity for flexibility in the representation of language and objects suggests that early bilingualism should be accompanied by advanced Childhood bilingualism and conversation 4 meta-pragmatic skills. However, little is known about the extent to which bilingualism influences performance on measures of conversational understanding -a process that is often central to cognitive development and learning (Siegal & Surian, 2004, 2007. In the present research, we aimed to address the question of whether bilingualism confers an advantage in terms of children's understanding and appreciation of messages as intended by speakers in conversation In depicting communication as a cooperative exchange, Grice (1975Grice ( , 1989 proposed that appreciation of certain conversational rules or maxims provide the foundation for pragmatic competence.…”

Lessons From Research for Les Familles Exogames: A Literature Review

“…Although there is a point where exposure no longer has an effect on language development (Gathercole & Hoff, 2007), some scholars argue that the exposure threshold is higher for minority languages (Pearson, 2007;Pearson, Fernández, Lewedag, & Oller, 1997;Vihman, Lum, Thierry, Nakai, & Keren-Portnoy, 2006), including French in minority settings (Bournet-Trites & Reeder, 2001;Landry, Allard, & Deveau, 2007;Reeder, Buntain, & Takakuma, 1999). Therefore, examining the interconnectedness between the home, the educational setting, and the community is important in order to understand the linguistic and …”

Israel's English Speaking Immigrant Parents' Family Language Policy Management: Language in the Education Domain

“…For example, while first generation immigrant parents may believe in preserving the HL within the family by managing language use in the home through practicing or speaking only the HL, children, when old enough and once they enter formal educational settings will exert their own influences on the home/family language domain by potentially introducing different beliefs and practices which are introduced by the new domain: the school (pre-school, kindergarten, etc.). Children can and do instigate certain language use explicitly or implicitly through the use of that language (Pearson, 2007), practicing their rights as key participants in their family's language policy and affecting its course. Educational institutions and schools have been found to be particularly influential on FLP through their policies coupled with the amount of time that children spend in school-related environments.…”