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Bilingualism/Multilingualism and Language Acquisition Theories

by Evienia Papadaki - D'Onofrio
September/October 2003
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/bilingualism-multilingualism-and-language-acquisition-theories/5015346/

In an increasingly diversified and multilingual world, more and more young children find themselves in an environment where more than one language is used. Similarly, with job changes that involve moving to different parts of the world, parents can feel overwhelmed by the linguistic demands on them and their children. What can parents expect of their children? Do parents have anything to contribute to the process of early language development? What does it mean for children to learn two or more languages at the same time? Do children need to possess special skills to be able to cope with more than one language?

Despite the strength of the data (Grimes, 1992) which clearly demonstrates that today there are many more bilingual or multilingual individuals in the world than there are monolingual, and many more children who have been and continued to be educated through a second or a later-acquired language and, despite the wealth of studies and research carried out in the last 40 years or so on the field of bilingualism, there is still considerable lack of awareness of how children acquire language and whether bi-multilingualism can be an asset or not.

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