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3 - Two Languages in One Mind

Differentiating Linguistic Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2019

Jürgen M. Meisel
Jürgen M. Meisel
Affiliation:
Universität Hamburg
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Summary

The most frequently expressed concern is whether early bilinguals will be able to differentiate their languages. Research on child bilingualism has demonstrated that this is indeed the case. Children acquiring two languages simultaneously are able to differentiate their lexical and grammatical systems from very early on. Ocassional language mixing is not an indication of an underlying unitary system, fusing two or more linguistic competences. Rather, mixing is a performance phenomenon. Most mixed utterances are instances of code-switching, i.e. linguistic behaviour constrained by grammatical and sociolinguistic principles. Early mixes may also result from a choice of language that is unexpected from an adult perspective. Choosing the adequate language in bilingual settings requires sociolinguistic knowledge that is acquired in the course of children’s socialization. Parents can support bilingual L1 acquisition by their own linguistic behaviour. Following the ‘one person, one language’ (OPOL) principle is a method that has been applied successfully for over 100 years.

Keywords

Language differentiationmixinglanguage choicecode-switchingfusionUnitary System HypothesisDual System Hypothesisone person – one language method (OPOL)
Type
Chapter
Information
Bilingual Children
A Parents' Guide
 , pp. 58 - 92
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Barron-Hauwaert, S. (2004). Language strategies for bilingual families: The one-parent-one-language approach. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Meisel, J. M. (2017). Bilingual acquisition: A morphosyntactic perspective on simultaneous and early successive language development. In Cairns, H. & Fernández, E. M. (Eds.), Handbook of psycholinguistics, pp. 635–52. New York: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar

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