Language-mixing and research on bilingual acquisition of prosody a methodological review

1. Language-mixing and research on bilingual acquisition of prosodya methodological review Olga Gordeeva Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh

2. Introduction (1) • a longitudinal analysis of speech production of Russian-Scottish English bilingual children (3;0 -- 4;0) • prosodic level of speech • extent of native-like command in relation to the language input • identify research specific language interference phenomena

3. Introduction (2) • instrumental and statistical analysis of the acoustic correlates of word-stress in close vowels duration / fundamental frequency /intensity • independent research variable extrinsic vowel duration (EVD) • monosyllabic carrier-words in picture-naming tasks repeated in time

4. Language Mixing Interference Language mixing:definitions (1) Code-switching

5. Language mixing:definitions (2) • language interference • bidirectional influence LA<==>LB • Mennen 1998 • incidental nature (dynamic) metalinguistic awareness in adults (what about children, it is still to fully develop?) • representational (static) E.g. systematic phonic substitution // for/r/where there is only one phoneme

6. Bilingual Child Speech Production of Language A "NATIVE” COMMAND OF Language A SPEECH IMMATURITY INTERFERENCE FROM LB Specificity of child’s “native-like” production in Language A

7. Methodological Issues Three factors may distort the measured amount of language interference in speech production: • lack of language mode control • wrong reference for native-like command • child speech immaturity

8. LANGUAGE A (base language) MONOLINGUAL LANGUAGE MODE BILINGUAL LANGUAGE MODE 1 2 3 LANGUAGE B Language Mixing and Language Mode Control Interference Code-switching Grosjean(2001), representation of the language mode continuum

9. Monolingual Language Mode Control: How? • confront subjects with a different experimenter for each language; • ask parents not to be present in the experiment location Lanza,1990: different parental strategies toward language mixing ==> extent of mixing in child speech. • non-use of cognates: Russian // Scottish E. //

10. Language Interference and Control of the Input HOW? control for the child’s specific linguistic environment • language input to the child may, but should not necessarily mean “standard language” input • input to the child language can be influenced by dialect, idiolect or L2 of caregivers. E.g.: R Scottish English

11. Language Interference and Speech Immaturity HOW? elicit multiple repetitions of carrier-words to assess incidence • Matthews, 2001: variability and the acquisition of vowels in normally developing Scottish children • Problem: a non-adult like realisation may incidentally coincide with a cross-linguistic difference in focus of bilingual research. E.g.

12. Summary and Remaining Problems • maximal ruling out of code-switching by language mode may not be guaranteed in child speech • control for linguistic input from immediate sociolinguistic environment of the child • absence of monolingual Russian peers as controls in our research design • use sufficient number of repetitions of carrier words