Korean-English Bilingualism in Early Childhood

A Longitudinal Investigation of Development

By (author) Sunny K. Park-Johnson

Publication date:

12 March 2024

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781800412897

This book gives an overview of the linguistic development of Korean-English bilingual children living in the US. It provides a detailed longitudinal account of English and Korean acquisition in early childhood, offering a close examination of Korean-American children’s code-switching and morphology and syntax development during a time when their language dominance is shifting rapidly. The book sheds light on the broad and creative linguistic capabilities of bilingual children, expands our understanding of heritage language acquisition and furthers bilingualism research on typologically distinct language pairings. Researchers investigating heritage language development in early childhood will find the extensive longitudinal data a rich source of comparison and the book will be a useful resource for scholars and graduate students interested in sequential bilingualism, second language acquisition and heritage speakers.

Sunny Park-Johnson’s highly accessible and illuminating book takes the study of young bilingual children to a new level. She builds a convincing case for the value of bilingualism for immigrant children through her careful empirical study and, in lucid and engaging prose, draws out the implications of her findings for education and social policies. An immense accomplishment and a highly valuable contribution.