This book contains reports of research on bilingualism in infants and children as well as perspectives from those involved in cross-linguistic research on language development, literacy development in bilingual children, and psycholinguistic research on bilingualism in adults. It offers a fresh multidisciplinary perspective and next steps for research on childhood bilingualism.

This practical and reassuring guide will enable readers to make informed decisions about how to raise their child bilingually.

First published in 1987. This volume is based primarily on a conference on childhood bilingualism held at New York University on June 25 and 26, 1982 with an interest in exploring the nature of bilingual cognition and the effect of bilingualism on psychological development.

In the first decade of life, children become bilingual in different language learning environments. Many children start learning two languages from birth (Bilingual First Language Acquisition). In early childhood hitherto monolingual children start hearing a second language through daycare or preschool (Early Second Language Acquisition). Yet other hitherto monolingual children in middle childhood may acquire a second language only after entering school (Second Language Acquisition). This Element explains how these different language learning settings dynamically affect bilingual children's language learning trajectories. All children eventually learn to speak the societal language, but they often do not learn to fluently speak their non-societal language and may even stop speaking it. Children's and families' harmonious bilingualism is threatened if bilingual children do not develop high proficiency in both languages. Educational institutions and parental conversational practices play a pivotal role in supporting harmonious bilingual development.

Project Report from the year 2009 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 1, Syddansk Universitet (Syddansk Universitet, Sønderborg), language: English, abstract: A lot of people in the world are bilingual. People in Africa and Asia often speak their community language and additionally an official language like English or French. It is not a big surprise when calling in mind that according to Prof. Dr. Martin Haspelmath of the Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig there are about 6500-7000 languages in the world and according to www.welt-in-zahlen.de 193 countries. That makes an average of 35 languages per country. Despite the fact that bilingualism is widespread, there are a lot of negative opinions in the mind of people. People say for example "Your kid is going to get all these languages mixed up.", "when will she (or he) use that (language)" (both cf. Bosemark, 2006b, my italics) or that bilingual children are overstrained and that they start later to talk than their monolingual peers (cf. Leist-Villis, 2008). Within this research-paper I will deal with bilingualism in childhood. More precisely I will answer the research question "What are the reasons for parents to raise their child bilingually". First I will define the term bilingualism. For that I quote a few definitions of bilingualism from experts and afterwards I will define the one I will work with. Afterwards I will introduce some successful methods applied by parents and I will point out the advantages and disadvantages of the methods I found in literature. I will continue explaining the research I have done on the topic followed by the analysis of my data. Concluding I will answer the research question and give a prospective view on possible future research. Bilingualism is a huge topic and to look on it more deeply I decided to consider families who raised their children English-German or German-English. To get in contact with families bringing up their children in th

In this accessible guide to bilingualism in the family and the classroom, Colin Baker delivers a realistic picture of the joys and difficulties of raising bilingual children. This revised edition includes more information on bilingualism in the digital age, and incorporates the latest research in areas such as neonatal language experience, multilingualism and language mixing.

Using an interdisciplinary perspective to discuss the intersection of language development and learning processes, this book summarizes current knowledge and represents the most critical issues regarding early childhood research, policy, and practice related to young bilingual children with disabilities. The book begins with a conceptual framework focusing on the intersection between the fields of early childhood education, bilingual education, and special education. It goes on to review and discuss the role of bilingualism in young children’s development and the experiences of young bilingual children with disabilities in early care and education settings, including issues of eligibility and access to care, instruction, and assessment. The book explores family experiences, teacher preparation, accountability, and policy, ending with recommendations for future research which will inform both policies and practices for the education of young bilingual children with disabilities. This timely volume provides valuable guidance for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and researchers.