Bilingual child acquisition through the lens of sociolinguistic approaches

Leonie Cornips*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademic

Abstract

This paper entails a perspective on bilingual child acquisition through the lens of sociolinguistic approaches. A discussion of the concepts of monolingual language ideology and power dynamics is undertaken in order to reveal their important consequences on studying bilingual child acquisition, in particular, which (parts of) language(s) and children are important to study with which kinds of methodologies, concepts, and analyses. This paper discusses ethnographic fieldwork as a methodology to dive deeper into the whole envelope of bilingual child use in situated interactions with parents/care-takers, teachers and other children at home and in the classroom. The emphasis on language ideologies and power dynamics has helped sociolinguistic enquiry to move away from existing monolingual bias in bilingual child acquisition research.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBilingual Cognition and Language
Subtitle of host publicationThe state of the science across its subfields
EditorsDavid Miller, Fatih Bayram, Jason Rothman, Ludovica Serratrice
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Chapter2
Pages15-36
Number of pages22
ISBN (Electronic)9789027264541
ISBN (Print)9789027200150, 9789027200167
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

SeriesStudies in Bilingualism
Volume54
ISSN0928-1533

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