Bilingual First Language Acquisition

by Annick De Houwer

Increasingly, children grow up hearing two languages from birth. This comprehensive textbook explains how children learn to understand and speak those languages. It brings together both established knowledge and the latest findings about different areas of bilingual language development. It also includes new analyses of previously published materials. The book describes how bilingually raised children learn to understand and use sounds, words and sentences in two languages. A recurrent theme is the large degree of variation between bilingual children. This variation in how children develop bilingually reflects the variation in their language learning environments. Positive attitudes from the people in bilingual children's language learning environments and their recognition that child bilingualism is not monolingualism-times-two are the main ingredients ensuring that children grow up to be happy and expert speakers of two languages.

Genres: Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1905

Reviews

[Rabiah]

Annick De Houwer is one of the pioneers in the field of Bilingual First Language Acquisition. This book is simple, clear and all the issues with regard to children's dual language development are mapped out.Engaging book indeed, but there are some of her ideas that I would disagree, simply because I am raising a Malay-English bilingual child and the experience tells me otherwise. For instance she advocates that once children are exposed to two languages from birth, the linguistic systems would develop independently. Well, I do observe lots of Malay-English mixed utterances in my child's speech so I think this proposition does not hold up. However, the book is very informative so I'd recommend the book for those who want/plan to raise bilingual children. Talking to young children is an entertaining experience, imagine the joy of talking to bilingual child(ren).