Trilingual Development

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

the book. In other words, this implies that there are indeed language delays in young bilinguals.

In the research produced, Dr. Montanari did an extensive (four year) study on trilingual first language acquisition on a young girl named Kathryn who lived in Los Angeles and was born to a Filipino-American mother and Chilean-American father. Kathryn was exposed since birth to three different languages, she addressed in Tagalop by her mother, in Spanish by her father and in English by her older sister. However, English was the main medium of communication in and outside the home. Although the three languages were used at home to some extent, Kathryn’s sister was considered as passive trilingual child because she understood Tagalog and Spanish but she talked to her parents in English and was addressed by them in English too.

Kathryn was exposed to all three languages since birth at different rates. From birth to age 2; 2 Kathryn’s exposure to Tagalog was of 48%, to Spanish 29% ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

to ensure the exposure to the three different languages and the child’s communication in all three of them. The recordings were made by the Spanish-speaking grandmother, her mother and the author while the child was being addressed. All the recordings were made at the child’s home and during the recording; the child was engaged in different activities such as reading, drawing, eating meals and during free play. Speakers of the three languages participated in the recordings. Each of them used a different language while addressing the child and each of them took turns using their own language.

The dairy keeping and the recordings were used to analyze the different areas of language ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: