This article examines multilingual language use in two groups of children, one group at a state school, and one at a private IB school. The IB school has earlier been assumed to reflect an 'elite' multilingualism. Three research questions are posed: to what extent is the children's language use multilingual, what are their typological profiles,…

In this study, we examine how mobility and on-going changes in sociocultural contexts impact family language policy (FLP) in the UK. Using a questionnaire and involving 470 transnational families across the UK, our study provides a descriptive analysis of different family language practices in England and establishes how attitudes influence the…

This study compares the use of the variable (q), which is realized as rural [q] and urban [?], in the speech of twenty-two parents and their twenty-one children from the village of Oyoun Al-Wadi in Syria. The study shows that children acquire the general gendered linguistic pattern of the community but do not replicate the linguistic frequencies…

Children and young people from migrated families often learn host languages faster than their parents might do, and from very young ages they help their parents, families or community members by translating or interpreting, known as child language brokering (CLB). Language brokers need to mediate with different languages in different contexts and…

An area in need of study in child language acquisition is that of complex multilingual contexts in which there is little language separation by interlocutor or domain. Little is known about how multilingual children use language to construct their identities in each language or in both languages. Identity construction in monolingual contexts has…

The current investigation examined the development of voice onset time (VOT) in Standard-Greek (SG) and Cypriot-Greek (CG)-speaking children at age levels 2;0-2;5, 2;6-2;11, 3;0-3;5, and 3;6-4;0 years. SG presents with a two-way voicing contrast (voiced and voiceless unaspirated stops) whereas CG is a three-way contrast dialect containing…

The factors affecting the mastery of the host country's language by the children of immigrants are important in the study of immigration-related issues. This exploratory study analyses the possible link between parental socio-linguistic background factors (parent-child language choice, parental proficiency in L2, educational level, socio-economic…

After reviewing recent research on child language development under age five, this article discusses classroom discourse and identifies factors that may promote or inhibit pupils' mastery of the later phases of linguistic development. (30 references) (Author/LB)

Interviews with Catalan- or Castilian-speaking children of parents from each of those linguistic backgrounds found that there were fewer "mixed" families than previously suggested by research and that association with one dialect frequently depended on such diverse factors as type of school attended, neighborhood, and desire for social…

In a study of features that seem to be typical of children's conversations, 10 Finnish preschool children's conversations were videotaped and audiotaped over a period of 10 hours. The children were taped in conversation, play, fairy tale, and eating situations. Among the findings are that all children enjoy playing with language, but some initiate…

This study applies perspectives from sociolinguistics to investigate the language mixing of a bilingual two year old acquiring Norwegian and English simultaneously in Norway. The investigation stresses the need to examine more carefully the roles of dominance and context in the language mixing of young bilingual children. (40 references) (JL)

To raise a child bilingually, parents may need assistance with increased second language input from outside the home. One way to do this is through the use of mother tongue playgroups for young children. (SL)

The recognition of linguistic stereotypes based on gender and actual speech production were examined in 10 four-year-old and 10 six-year-old children. Eight linguistic forms were presented to the children in two different contexts in a story. After each sentence containing one of the forms, the children were asked whether a boy or girl had spoken,…

A sociolinguistic research project conducted in two adjacent Belgian villages with a Low Frankish-speaking population is reported. Questionnaire surveys measured the impact of the fixation of the linguistic frontier between the two villages on the local population's French/Dutch language behavior and attitudes. (Contains seven references.)…

Investigates how Turkish children of different ages discuss a conversation they have witnessed during a televised dialog between two Sesame Street characters. Findings reveal that there is a developmental change in children's ability to use appropriate linguistic means to orient their listeners to the different properties of a conversation. (17…