The interconnectedness of bilingual memory remains a topic of great debate. Semantic priming provides a powerful methodological tool with which to investigate this issue in early bilingual toddlers. Semantic priming effects were investigated in 21 bilingual toddlers (2.5 years) within and across each of their languages. Results revealed the first…

The articles in this special issue provide a complex picture of acquisition in bilinguals in which the factors that contribute to patterns of performance in bilingual children's two languages are myriad and diverse. The processes and contours of development in bilingual children are influenced, not only by the quantity, quality, and contexts…

The topic of bilingualism has aroused considerable interest in research on language acquisition in recent decades. Researchers in various fields, such as developmental psychology and psycholinguistics, have investigated bilingual populations from different perspectives in order to understand better how bilingualism affects cognitive abilities like…

Examines the lexical and syntactic development of a bilingual child and the cognitive developments that coincided with the child's linguistic processes. Concludes that it is the development of self-awareness and sensitivity to standards in the second year which provides the motive for the child to avoid mixed-language utterances. (SED)

Assumptions of strong, causal relations between cognition, language, and affection are often made in general and in bilingualism in particular. This paper presents first a set of hypotheses concerning the relation between affection and language in bilingualism. One subset is concerned with language learning, language maintenance, and mental health…

Presents a case study of a bilingual two-year-old, documenting his translation skills between the age of 1 year, 11 months and 2 years, 5 months. Argues that critical insights into child language may be gained through the examination of a child's linguistic abilities in cognitively demanding situations. (SED)

Behavioral studies have shown that while young infants can discriminate many different phonetic contrasts, a shift from a language-general to a language-specific pattern of discrimination is found during the second semester of life, beginning earlier for vowels than for consonants. This age-related decline in sensitivity to perceive non-native…

One of several guides developed by the California Department of Education for caregivers in centers and family child care homes, this guide offers information based on current theory, research, and practice that will support the language development and communication of infants and toddlers and their families. Each of the five sections focuses on…

Research was conducted to examine the language acquisition of a Mexican-American child who has been brought up in a linguistic environment where code-switching between Spanish and English is the dominant style of speaking. In addition, the relation of code- switching to the acquisition of bilingualism is analyzed. The speech of the subject, a…

The works cited on this extensively annotated bibliography represent approaches for understanding the language development of disadvantaged children. The subjects covered are bilingualism and dialectology, developmental influences (ethnic, family and home, instructional, and social and economic) and developmental status and processes (behavioral,…

In line with the psychologists' viewpoint on child development, an argument is made for reconsidering the timing and type of modern language instruction in the school. Evidence of the receptiveness of children to language learning from birth to age eleven is discussed, along with the efficacy of learning through a direct, or school, experience.…

In an experiment designed to determine their use of relational terms, 168 Navajo children aged 5 to adult attempted three relational tasks regarding the concepts of upward, downward, and equality comparison in the areas of mass, number, and continuous quantity. All subjects used the relational terms of "more", "less", and…

This report is a compilation of five research papers in second language acquisition and immigrant adaptability that are part of studies conducted in Sweden over the last twenty years. (1) "Language teaching and psycho-physics" discusses basic measurement problems in the assessment of second language proficiency, where testing of writing and…

The last 25 years have witnessed an explosion of research at the intersection of typical language development and child language disorders. A pioneer in bringing these fields of study together is Robin S. Chapman, Emerita, University of Wisconsin. This contributed volume honors her with chapters written by former students and colleagues, who track…