The importance of input in the evaluation of bilingual children's language

skills

Annick De Houwer

^{University of Antwerpen, Dept. of Cummunication Studies, Campus Drie Eiken, Antwerpen}

There are many different ways in which young children can learn to speak two languages. Likewise, children who learn to speak two languages do so in many different ways.

This huge variation makes it very difficult for speech and languagepathologists to assess whether or not young bilingual children are developing as could be expected or "normally".

This lecture will give an overview of the major kinds of settings in which children learn to speak two languages, of the characteristics of bilingual learning in children, and the relationship between learning setting (input) and developing language skill. Based on this information, a step-by-step procedure will be proposed that can serve as a basis for determining whether a particular child growing up bilingually is developing as could be expected or not

In my lecture I will rely mainly on my own research on bilingual acquisition, which includes a survey of 2500 bilingual families, in-depth case studies, and a longitudinal group study comparing 30 monolingual and 30 bilingual children over a 4-year period. Where relevant I will of course also draw on the international literature.

In evaluating children's bilingual development, major distinctions need to be made between children growing up bilingually from birth, and those that first start off learning just one language. A second major distinction is that between children who actually need to use two languages for communication and those who do not. A third distinction relates to differences in the frequencies with which children hear each of their languages. These basic input factors have a strong effect on how children develop bilingually, and should be taken into consideration in assessments of whether children are developing normally or not.

We are still very far from being able to adequately assess bilingual children's language development. For one, we often lack the appropriate diagnostic instruments. Nevertheless, an approach such as outlined in this lecture can already make a difference, and the fact that input is such an important factor suggests that changes in the input situation can have beneficial effects so that also bilingual children can be given the chances they deserve to help them develop harmoniously.