An Introduction to Bilingual Development

1 Introducing the fancy term for bilingual development: Bilingual First Language Acquisition

What is Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA)?

The family as the primary setting for bilingual development

Developing in two languages from birth: An outline

Milestones in bilingual language development

Normal variation in bilingual language development

Varying levels of development in each language

Negotiating language choice in conversations

Introducing four bilingual families

Key points

Activities and discussion points

Further reading

This chapter sets the scene for the rest of the book.

• It defines the topic of this book. The topic is bilingual development, but as of now I will mostly use the more technical term for it, namely Bilingual First Language Acquisition or BFLA for short.

• It establishes that when children start hearing two languages from birth this usually happens within the family.

• It gives an introductory overview of BFLA children's major linguistic developments.

• It discusses the great range of variation that exists among BFLA children (and monolingual ones) during the ages at which major linguistic developments take place.

• It explains how BFLA children's two languages do not necessarily develop at the same rate.

• It emphasizes the role of the people that BFLA children interact with in helping to explain children's selection of one language rather than another.

• And, finally, this chapter introduces four BFLA children and their families whose bilingual development will be traced throughout most of the rest of this book.

What is Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA)?

Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA) is the development of language in young children who hear two languages spoken to them from birth. BFLA children are learning two first languages. There is no chronological difference between the two languages in terms of when the children started to hear them. This is why in referring to these languages it is best to use a notation that does not imply a notion of ‘first’ and ‘second’. Following Wölck (1987/88) I will refer to BFLA children's two languages as Language A and Language Alpha.

I will be using the term Bilingual First Language Acquisition as a synonym for bilingual development. The term Bilingual First Language Acquisition is just more technical and precise.

My focus in this book is on children under the age of six. There are two main reasons: first, this book wants to describe how children become bilingual the way other children become monolingual, that is, without anyone formally teaching them. Children under the age of six typically learn language without formal instruction. This may change as they start to go to school around the age of six. Second, most of the scientific publications on bilingual development concern children under the age of six.

The definition of BFLA refers only to the context in which young children learn to speak. It differs from Monolingual First Language Acquisition (MFLA), in which children hear just one language from birth (their Language 1). BFLA also represents a different language learning context than Early Second Language Acquisition (ESLA), where MFLA children's language environments change in such a way that they start to hear a second language (Language 2) with some regularity over and above their Language 1. Often, this happens through day care or preschool. The BFLA context also differs from that of Trilingual First Language Acquisition (TFLA) where young children hear three languages from birth (e.g. Barnes, 2006).

BFLA, MFLA, ESLA and TFLA, then, are four different contexts for language learning in early childhood. Whether these different contexts all imply different language acquisition processes and developments is an issue that is beyond the scope of this book. However, I will, at times, draw comparisons between BFLA on the one hand, and MFLA on the other.

This book only talks about contexts where young children are hearing spoken language(s). Some children, though, may have little access to spoken language or it may even be absent. This is the case when children are born into families where the people taking care of them do not speak, but use sign language, or when children have a serious hearing loss that prevents them from hearing speech. If children growing up in these circumstances see two different sign languages from birth they may also be acquiring two first languages. Once there are studies documenting such contexts we may have to expand the definition of BFLA to include these as well.

The family as the primary setting for bilingual development

If children hear two languages spoken to them from birth, they will most likely hear them within the (extended) family. As such, the family is the primary setting in which children develop bilingually. There are, of course, many different kinds of families, and children grow up in many different kinds of family settings. When in the following I speak of ‘parents’ and ‘couples’ I am referring to all the people who take care of young children on a day-to-day basis. A single parent who has no help from others with a newborn baby may also create a BFLA situation by addressing the child in two languages from the very start.

Becoming a bilingual family Two examples

From bilingual couple to bilingual family

Monika and Arnau have been married for two years. They were both raised in Spanish and Catalan, and use Spanish and Catalan between each other. Their relatives speak Spanish and Catalan every day as well. When their twin boys are born, Monika and Arnau continue to speak Spanish and Catalan at home between each other, and to their newborn babies. This feels the most natural and normal to them.

From monolingual couple to bilingual family

Ayhan and Marc speak English together. Ayhan is Turkish and Marc British. Marc understands some Turkish, but does not speak it. His family speaks only English. Ayhan's family only speaks Turkish. Ayhan herself is fluent in English. When Marc and Ayhan's baby girl Aylin is born, Turkish enters their home when Ayhan finds she simply cannot address the baby in English–it feels too strange and ‘disconnected’. After a long conversation, Ayhan and Marc decide that Marc will speak to Aylin in English, and Ayhan will talk to her in Turkish. Marc will try to learn more Turkish so that he'll understand what's going on, and Marc and Ayhan decide that if Marc feels left out once Aylin gets a bit bigger, Ayhan could still use English when Marc is around, and switch back to Turkish when he's not.

The typical BFLA situation is the one where a newborn child's parents speak each of two languages when the baby is present. The chances are that during pregnancy, the not-yet-born infant heard mother speak two languages (that's right, infants can hear before they are born–see Chapter 2). But it is just as possible that until the birth the not-yet-born child's mother spoke only one language, and that the birth of the child triggers a change in the mother's language use.

Indeed, childless monolingual couples often become instant bilingual families upon the birth of their first child. This is most often the case when children are born to couples where the partners have different language backgrounds but speak only one language between themselves. After the birth of the baby one of them then starts speaking another language to the infant, and continues using the other language in addressing the other parent. Such changes in home language use patterns can have profound effects on the couple's relationship.

Alternatively, parents-to-be may both be bilingual and speak two languages at home. When the baby arrives, this pattern is just continued. There are also situations where bilingual couples decide to address their infant in just one language, thereby effectively blocking the possibility of BFLA. At the other end of the spectrum, monolingual parents may hire a nanny or ‘au pair’ out of the desire to raise their child with two languages from the very beginning.

It depends very much, then, on whether parents start speaking two languages to their baby as to whether a child will be raised in a BFLA setting or not. For some parents, it is a conscious decision to raise their child with two languages. For many others, speaking two languages at home is just a matter of course and not a matter of choice, very much the way that it is not a real ‘choice’ for completely monolingual parents to address their newborn child in the single language they happen to know and live with.

Developing in two languages from birth: An outline

Children who hear two languages from birth do not say much in the first year of life. Through interactions with people who talk to them regularly they do learn to understand words and phrases in two languages by their first birthday. This comprehension of language grows and grows, and never stops (at least not in healthy, hearing individuals).

After they are six months old, bilingual infants start to babble. This babbling lays the foundation for speech. Then, after their first birthday, bilingual infants start to say things that sound like words. At first, these are mainly single words. Some BFLA children may try to say longer things, but although the melodies of these longer utterances might sound like sentences it is impossible to make much sense of them. As bilingual children start to say more and more ‘real’ words, their babbling all but disappears.

Around their second birthday, bilingual toddlers speak in longer utterances. These now often consist of two or three words. Between two and three, BFLA children's language production really takes off, with many of their utterances now consisting of four, five, six or more words that are fully fledged sentences. From then on, the sky is the limit, and it is often difficult to keep bilingual children quiet!

Milestones in bilingual language development

The steps I've sketched above are very important in BFLA children's language development. They are so important that they are often called ‘milestones’.

The last age indication in the milestones box coincides with BFLA children's fifth birthday. There is still a lot to learn after age five, though (Berman, 2004). The very fact that no adult wants to sound like a five-year-old in any language is clear evidence of that. Not only do BFLA children learn a lot more words, idioms and phrases after age five, they also learn to construct more and more complex stories and become better conversationalists. They may also learn to read and write.

There is a particular order in overall