Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to BilingualismVol. 4:4 (2014) ► pp.462–493
Combined effects of age of onset and input on the development of different grammatical structures
A study of simultaneous and successive bilingual acquisition of French
This study investigates the combined effects of Age of Onset of Acquisition (AOA) and quality and quantity of input on the development of three grammatical structures in French. In a longitudinal and multiple case study including successive (L2) Swedish-French bilingual children (n = 3), simultaneous (2L1) Swedish-French bilingual children (n = 3) and monolingual French children (n = 3), we examine the development of finite verb forms, object pronouns and subject-verb agreement. A distinction is made between structures that are early/ late in different modes of acquisition and less/more difficult. The operationalization of quantity and quality of input is based on individual input profiles. The results show that AOA affects the development of less difficult and early grammatical structures whereas AOA has no influence on more difficult structures that are acquired late. An effect of input is found in the 2L1 children, and in some of the L2 children. This effect is most clear with more difficult and late structures.
Keywords: Child second language acquisition, bilingual first language acquisition, bilingualism, French, morphosyntactic development, age of onset of acquisition, quantity and quality of input, input profiles
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical background
- 2.1The age factor
- 2.2The input factor
- 2.3The linguistic factor
- 2.4The three grammatical structures investigated
- 2.4.1 Finite and non-finite forms
- 2.4.2 Object pronouns (clitics)
- 2.4.3 Subject-verb agreement in number
- 2.4.4 Comparing the three structures
- 3.Research question and predictions
- 4.Method
- 4.1Participants
- 4.2The individual input profiles
- 4.3Procedures
- 4.4Analysis and scoring of data
- 5.Results
- 5.1Finite and non-finite forms
- 5.2Use of object clitics
- 5.3Subject-verb agreement in number
- 5.4Summary of results
- 6.
- Note
-
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