Running head: BILINGUALISM IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Bilingualism in early childhood
Laura Medrano
University of Texas at El Paso
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BILINGUALISM IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
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Abstract
The acquisition of two languages is called bilingualism and it can occur from early
childhood to late adulthood. This paper analyses bilingualism and some of its consequences such
as code switching and possible language impairments in children, as well as the process of
learning two languages in on itself. For starters, questions about the differences between the rate
at which a monolingual speaker and a bilingual speaker learn language arises and whether they
are any different, while the linguistics milestones appear to be the same for both cases there is a
difference a lot of the time in the way language is structured and constructed by the two type of
speakers, particularly when they are young speakers. The paper also analyses with what
occurrence children code switch between languages and if it’s in any way related to their
exposure to either English or Spanish with findings that there is indeed some correlation. Finally,
the paper looks at whether learning two languages side by side causes any language impairments
in young children.
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Introduction
Early childhood is an optimal stage to learn language. Children are already learning one
language and starting to differentiate between sounds and words that belong in the language that
they are spoken to and those that are not. However, there are children that learn two languages
side by side, this is called simultaneous bilingualism, since the two languages are learned as a
first language. This leads to fluency in both languages from an early age, which in turn has other
ramifications such as the occurrence of code switching, which is when a speaker alternates
between languages in a single conversation. A concern for early bilingualism is that of children
not learning either language correctly, creating language impairments, such as trouble reading or
writing as well as a child that grew up learning only one language. A study of bilingualism in
children can be achieved by asking the following questions:
1. How do bilingual children differ in language acquisition from their monolingual
counterparts?
2. Are bilingual in English and Spanish children more likely to code-switch between either
languages?
3. Do bilingual children face certain language impairments due to their bilingualism,
particularly Spanish and English speakers?
These questions will aid in answering the ways in which simultaneous bilingualism creates a
unique language situation.
How do bilingual children differ in language acquisition from their monolingual
counterparts?
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Language milestones are achieved almost at the same time for monolingual and bilingual
children. However, bilingual children must discern between two languages and here one of the
first differences between monolingual and bilingual children can be found. To test how bilingual
children discern language Werker, Byers-Heinlein and Fennel (2009) turned to newborn babies
since previous research by Moon, Cooper and Fifer (as cited in Werker et al., 1993, p. 3651) had
suggested that language preference was determined during the last months of pregnancy (p.
3651). They compared preference of English versus Filipino in a group of newborns whose
mothers had spoken both languages throughout pregnancy and they also tested babies who had
been exposed to only English during their time in the womb. For the assessment the newborns
sucked on a pacifier that then registered their sucking strength frequency as they were presented
with alternating sentences in either English or Filipino. Monolinguals sucked more when they
heard English sentences while bilinguals showed no difference at sucking speed. What this
shows is that the exposure to only one language even while in the womb prepares the
monolingual child to attend to only one language while it prepares the bilingual child to attend to
and learn to languages. (Werker, et al., 2009, p. 3651).
Oller and Eilers argued that lexical development in bilingual children happens at the
same rate as that of a monolingual children, but bilingual children have smaller vocabularies in
each of their languages than their monolingual counterparts (as cited in Hoff, 2006). This can
occur because bilingual children employ their vocabulary in different settings and acquire words
that are specific to each particular setting while monolingual children are only ever speaking in a
same language in every setting and as such acquire words in only one language. Hoff (2006)
notes that “multiple languages can be acquired, at a rate influenced by the amount of
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communicative opportunity and language input provided by relevance of input in each language
to the acquisition of the other language” (p. 66).
Silva-Corvalan (2014) notes that “morphosyntactic structures of the languages of a
bilingual are acquired in ways that are not radically different from monolingual acquisition” (p.
3), but also notes that “simultaneous bilinguals also produce some unusual structures nor attested
in the monolingual acquisition” (p. 9). This can translate to the fact that while monolinguals and
bilinguals learn language in pretty much the same way, but the way they later construct language
shows some variation.
Silva-Corvalan (2014) states that “bilingual communities are characterized by their social
and linguistic heterogeneity” (p, 22) which is an important factor when a child is growing up
bilingual. To this she adds that “the heterogeneity is evident in the proficiency continuum that
develops in languages involved” (p. 22). What this means is that while bilingual children are
indeed exposed to two languages, but there is always a predominant language and the
proficiency obtained in either language or both languages will be determined not only by
exposure but also by social acceptance of said language.
As Miesel said “development in each of the languages of bilingual children does not
differ qualitatively from the acquisition of the respective languages by monolinguals” (as cited in
Silva-Corvalan, 2014, p. 24). This, hand in hand with the literature, provides that while the way
bilinguals and monolinguals acquire language might differ slightly there is no great divergence
present.
Are bilingual in English and Spanish children more likely to code-switch between either
languages?
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Code switching is the phenomenon where a speaker will switch between languages in a
same sentence and it oftentimes goes hand in hand with convergence, which means words
converge to other language’s grammatical form. In Smith (2007) there is a sample of both
monolingual and bilingual, English and Spanish, speakers. It was noted that children exposed to
a majority of Spanish speakers are more likely to code switch than they are to make use of
convergence. However, Spanish/English convergence was noted to occur when children only
hear Spanish at home and English somewhere else (p. 102). Code switching then is greatly
determined by exposure to either of the languages or so would this study suggest.
Ribot and Hoff (2014) also conducted a study on children aged two and a half, all of them
bilingual speakers to observe the manner in which code switching occurred. They found that a
greater percentage of children code-switched when responding to Spanish than code-switched
when responding to English. The input balance, meaning what language the children heard more
often, was also taken into consideration. The study found that children who switched to English
heard more English than those who didn’t and that the children that code switched to Spanish
heard less English and more Spanish at home (p. 336). Their findings are illustrated in Figure 1
in which we can see the frequency in which children code-switch depending on the expressive
vocabulary and receptive language . These results are in accordance with the Smith’s findings as
well.
Figure 1. The average receptive and expressive vocabulary for four different code-switching
patterns.
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Source: Ribot, K. M., & Hoff, E. (2014). “¿Como estas?” “I’m good.” Conversational codeswitching is related to profiles of expressive and receptive proficiency in Spanish-English
bilingual toddlers. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38(4), 333-341.
Silva-Corvalan (2014) in her study of brothers Nico and Brennan also notes that the two
children, English and Spanish speakers, also make use of code-switching. However, out of the
two of them Nico switches more smoothly than Brennan. She notes as well that the switching
occurs in an asymmetrical way and that the “mixing of English words and expressions in Spanish
discourse is far more frequent than the opposite” (p. 96). She also notes that bilinguals “switch to
their stronger language to compensate for lexical gaps in their weaker language” (SilvaCorvalan, 2014, p. 97) and that the two brothers did this when they were around two. Another
factor that contributes to a child code-switching she says has a lot to do with how adults react to
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it or if the adults in the children’s life themselves make use of code-switching (Silva-Corvalan,
2014, p. 97).
Gathering the observations of Smith (2007), Ribot and Hoff (2014), and Silva-Corvalan
(2014) show that the code-switching in bilingual children, Spanish and English speakers at least,
occurs with more frequency if the child has a stronger proficiency in Spanish than he or she does
in English. It will also be more common for a child to code-switch if it’s a common occurrence
in his or her environment.
Do bilingual children face certain language impairments due to their bilingualism,
particularly Spanish and English speakers?
A common conception of bilingualism is that children might not be learning either
language well, which would lead to language impairments. However, studies have found that
kids may actually get smarter. In an interview with Southern California Public Radio featured on
their site for bilingual learning (2013) Professor Lavandenz, who teaches at Loyola Marymount
University, actually shares the result of her studies and tells us how an MRI from a bilingual
children will actually show more brain activity then that of a monolingual child. She says: “The
research is showing us that with young bilingual learners, even infants that the executive
function is able to work more effectively. It works more. Additionally it shows that young
children are able to take on the languages without being distracted.”
Dr. Elizabeth Peña in a feature story for the University of Texas at Austin (2010) speaks
about evaluating whether a bilingual child actually has a language disorder or is instead
showcasing the differences that there are between languages and that can occur while learning
two languages simultaneously. She says:
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“In the early stages of bilingualism, children’s language skills are in flux, so there’s a
huge range of proficiency in their second-language performance, which makes it difficult
to distinguish between typical second-language differences and genuine language
impairment. The result is that children from a linguistically diverse background are often
over- or under-identified with a language disorder.”
This means that there can be cases of misdiagnosis when it comes to bilingual children’s
capacity to produce and understand language when in reality is just a case of a different linguistic
background. However, there are also cases where language impairments are indeed present.
In this same feature story the element of code switching is mentioned since it was
believed to be one of the first red flags for language impairments in bilingual children. However,
according to Jennifer Garcia (2010), a speech pathologist, it is normal for a child to mix their
Spanish and English and represents in no way that they might have a language impairment. She
remarked that: “Languages are constantly interacting and changing for a child, so I would not
diagnose this child with a disorder.” It is apparent that being bilingual has little to nothing to do
with having a language impairment and that a lot of other factors come into play.
In an interview conducted via email with the Director of both the English Education and
Rhetoric and Writing Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, Dr. Kate Mangelsdorf, who
has ample experience in the subject of bilingualism was asked about how bilingualism might
affect learning. She replied that “People who are bilingual have an advantage over monolingual
people.
Generally speaking, they use more of their brains than people who know only one
language.” In this same interview Dr. Manglesdorf also noted that bilingual people “have a
better understanding of cross-cultural communication.
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Conclusion
The topic of bilingualism in children is a subject that continues to evolve as more
research is conducted on the topic. As observed, there isn’t much difference between the way a
monolingual speaker and a bilingual speaker acquire language, as far as the rate in which the
information is learned goes. It is observed that there are some differences between the two such
as the size of the lexicon or the way sentences are constructed but it is not a significant difference
as far as acquisition itself goes.
Research was pretty much conclusive on the topic of code-switching to show that factors
like environment and exposure to the language are crucial factors that determine in what
instances code-switching occurs. For Spanish and English speakers results showed that when
exposed to more Spanish switches to this language would occur, while a bigger exposure to
English would result in a switch to this language when in conversation.
Finally, research finds that contrary to popular belief bilingualism does not create any
language impairments and is actually beneficial in the long run for children. It activates more
parts of their brain. And as mentioned by Dr. Manglesdorf in an interview, a bilingual person
tends to do better on tests and have higher thinking skills as well as having a better
understanding of cross-cultural communication. While it is true that a bilingual children’s
lexicon might be slightly smaller than that of a monolingual speaker, which in turn can look like
a disadvantage or even an impairment of sorts, bilingual children eventually do catch up.
There is still much to be learned about bilingualism and how it affects young children and
this literature review is merely an introduction to a topic that is evolving as new multi-linguistic
backgrounds continue to evolve and grow.
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References
Fernandes, D. (2013, January 23). Bilingual learning | 89.3 KPCC. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
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Erin, G. (2010, September 27). Difference or disorder? Retrieved October 21, 2014, from
http://www.utexas.edu/features/2010/09/27/language-2/
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental
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Ribot, K. M., & Hoff, E. (2014). “¿Como estas?” “I’m good.” Conversational code-switching is
related to profiles of expressive and receptive proficiency in Spanish-English bilingual
toddlers. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38(4), 333-341.
Silva-Corvalan, C. (2014). Bilingual language acquisition: Spanish and English in the first six
years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, D. J. (2007). Spanish/English bilingual children in the southeastern USA: Convergence
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