The Rise and Fall of the Three-Stage Model in Bilingual Language Development

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The burst of interest recently in this area could be due to the recognition that being monolingual is not the common state. Romaine (1989) explains this saying that there are “thirty times as many languages as there are countries ... This entails the presence of bilingualism in practically every country of the world” (p.8). Bilinguals could be elites, who chose to be bilinguals, or folk bilinguals, who were forced in a situation, where acquiring another language became a necessity. Genesee defines bilingual acquisition as, “the acquisition of two languages during the period of primary language development, extending from birth onward” (2000, p.167). Acquiring two languages can be one language at a time (sequential) or at the same time, (Simultaneous). This paper will focus on the simultaneous bilingualism, otherwise known as bilingual first language acquisition: the three-stage model valid or. Bilingual First Language Acquisition Ng and Wigglesworth (2007) give a broad definition of bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA) stating that it is “is the learning of both languages in a naturalistic setting, in which both the formal aspects and the social conventions of the languages must be acquired. Thus, the child must learn about the phonological properties of both languages” (p.40). Most researches agree that it is from birth until the age of three. However, it can be argued that by three, the child has already begun speaking fluently. The first spoken word ranges from the ages of ten months to fourteen. Keeping in mind that a child accumulates language even before speaking, it is possible to narrow down the age limit; Critical Period Hypothesis gives an estimate that is parallel. “Scholars have made a distinction between two c... ... middle of paper ... ...th German-English Bilinguals. GRIN Verlag. Leopold, W. F. (1947). Speech Development of a Bilingual Child, a Linguist's Record....: Grammar and General Problems in the First Two Years. III. Northwestern University Press. Meisel, J. M. (2011). First and second language acquisition: Parallels and differences. Cambridge University Press. Mey, J. L. (2009). Consise Encyclopedia of pragmatics. Ng, B. C., & Wigglesworth, G. (2007). Bilingualism: An advanced resource book. Taylor & Francis. Romaine, S. (1989). Bilingualism. B. Blackwell. VanPatten, B., & Benati, A. G. (2010). Key terms in second language acquisition. Continuum. Volterra, V., & Taeschner, T. (1978). The acquisition and development of language by bilingual children. Journal of child language, 5(2), 311-326. Yule, W., & Rutter, M. (Eds.). (1987). Language development and disorders. Cambridge University Press.

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