A Portrait of the Young in the New Multilingual Spain

Edited by Carmen Pérez-Vidal, Maria Juan-Garau, Aurora Bel

Publication date:

12 November 2007

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781847690234

The view that a bilingual speaker, or a speaker acquiring more than one language, is the sum of two —or more— monolinguals is proving to be a myth rather than a reality. Accordingly, this book provides a new profile of children and young people becoming bilingual or multilingual in today’s multicultural Spain. The chapters present studies on the acquisition of the four official languages plus the languages of several new communities. They include descriptive, functional, pragmatic and formal perspectives, covering phonetics, lexis, morphology and syntax, as well as code mixing and input, bilingual twins, SLI bilingualism, narratives, literacy, age and stay abroad effects. The book should be of interest to graduate students and researchers working in the field of second and foreign language acquisition and multilingualism, language planners, language teachers and families alike.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Prologue by Miquel Siguan

1 Issues in the Acquisition of Two or More Languages in Multilingual Environments - Carmen Pérez-Vidal, Maria Juan-Garau and Aurora Bel

Part 1: The Early Acquisition of Two or More Languages Within the Family Context

2 Early Galician/Spanish Bilingualism: Contrasts with Monolingualism - Miguel Pérez Pereira

3 Early Trilingualism: The Development of Communicative Competence in English Alongside Basque and Spanish - Julia Barnes

4 Influence of the Linguistic Environment on the Development of the Lexicon and Grammar of Basque Bilingual Children - Andoni Barreña, Mª José Ezeizabarrena and Iñaki García

5 Null and Overt Subjects in the Developing Grammars (L1 English/L1 Spanish) of Two Bilingual Twins - Juana M. Liceras, Raquel Fernández Fuertes and Rocío Pérez-Tattam

6 Contributions from Bilingual Specific Language Impairment in Catalan and Spanish to the Understanding of Typical and Pathological Language Acquisition - Mònica Sanz-Torrent, Iris Badia and Miquel Serra

7 The Simultaneous Development of Narratives in English and Spanish - Esther Álvarez

Part 2: Bilingual and Multilingual Acquisition at Later Ages and in Instructional Settings

8 Classroom Bilingualism at an Early Age: Towards a More Natural EFL Context - Ana Llinares García

9 First Language Influence on Second Language Acquisition: The Case of Immigrant L1 Soninke, Tagalog and Chinese Children Learning Catalan - Elisabeth Serrat, Lluïsa Gracia and Laia Perpiñá

10 Predicting Enhanced L3 Learning in Bilingual Contexts: The Role of Biliteracy - Cristina Sanz

11 Learning Context Effects on the Acquisition of a Second Language Phonology - Joan C. Mora

12 Non-adult Long-distance wh-questions in the Non-native Acquisition of English - Junkal Gutierrez Mangado and María del Pilar García Mayo

"It is no surprise that a large amount of interesting contemporary work on all aspects of bi-tri-and multilingualism emanates from Spain. A portrait of the young in the new multilingual Spain provides a rich example of this work, covering many aspects, both internal and external, of a multi-faceted phenomenon. Factors taken into account include the context of acquisition linguistic input, the "critical mass" hypothesis, the role of the classroom "personal factors" learners with SLI, learners of different ages, the role of literacy and the nature of bilingual linguistic competence: Grosjean's "the bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person". From the grammatical point of view this last factor finds an almost ideal testing ground in Spain, with the availability of bilinguals speaking closely-related languages (Spanish and Catalan) and non-related languages (Basque and Spanish), a fact reflected in this book. Finally, and above all, this book is a striking example of the way attitudes to bi-and multilingualism have changed."