Three is a Crowd?

Acquiring Portuguese in a Trilingual Environment

By (author) Dr. Madalena Cruz-Ferreira

Publication date:

11 January 2006

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781853598388

The book describes three siblings' apportioning of linguistic and cultural space among three languages: Portuguese, Swedish and English. Parallel strategies accounting for monolingual and multilingual language management shape a truly illuminating picture of child linguistic competence. Written by a multilingual parent, educator and linguist, this book is for parents, educators and linguists in our predominantly, increasingly multilingual world.

Acknowledgements
1. Preview
Part I. Becoming Multilingual
2. Issues in Bilingualism and Bilingual Acquisition
3. The Children
4. Data Collection and Analytical Choices
5. Speaking Languages and Talking about them
Part II. Making Sense of Portuguese
6. Shaping Sound
7. Probing for Constituency
8. Probing for Meaning
Part III. Acquiring a Third Language
9. A New Language: Intruder or Guest?
10. Language Input and Language Management in a Multilingual Environment
11. Balancing Culture and Identity
12. Overview
References
Index

Cruz-Ferreira’s book provides insight into the strategies that young children develop to guide their own acquisitional processes. This book provides further support for the view of language as a ‘resource’ or tool and multilingualism as an opportune site for the study of the acquisition and use of that communicative resource.