Trilingual Language Acquisition

Contextual factors influencing active trilingualism in early childhood

| University of Zurich
Hardbound – Available
ISBN 9789027244055 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
 
e-Book –
ISBN 9789027267887 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
 
This book examines the language development of two children from the ages of two till four, who are growing up exposed to English, Swiss German and French. Its aim is to ascertain the importance of different environmental factors in fostering active trilingualism. These factors include the quantity of input for each language, whether or not the societal language is spoken in the home, and the conversational style of the caregivers. Although increasing numbers of children are being raised trilingually, research in this field is scarce; this study thus makes an important contribution to our knowledge of trilingual language acquisition. A special point of interest lies in a comparison of the acquisition of two minority languages by a single child, since this allows us to pinpoint more precisely how the development of non-societal languages can be influenced. This book will be of considerable interest to researchers and students working on multilingualism and language acquisition alike.
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 16]  2015.  x, 225 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.16
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
ix–x
1. Introduction
1–8
2. Bilingual Language Acquisition Research: A Review of the Literature
9–34
3. Trilingual Language Acquisition Studies
35–74
4. A Study of Trilingual Language Acquisition in Context: Methodology
75–94
5. The Children's Language Production
95–136
6. "He spends a lot of time with his grandmother": Contextual Factors
137–156
7. "What does Shelly say?": Focus on Caregiver Discourse Styles
157–194
8. Active Trilingualism in Early Childhood: Contextual Explanations
195–204
Appendices
205–216
References
217–222
Index
223–225
“This excellent study on Trilingual First Language Acquisition is a milestone in the field. The author’s contribution to the field lies both in her study’s carefully collected novel empirical data and in her thoughtful and comprehensive analyses.”
Cited by

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Subjects & Metadata

Linguistics

Applied linguistics
Language acquisition
Multilingualism
Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
BIC Subject: CFDM – Bilingualism & multilingualism
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2015026585 | Marc record