Bilingualismo

BILINGUALISM INFANT RESEARCH
An investigation using a Language Development Survey was made to parents with infants that were exposed to English and Spanish languages. The focus of the investigationwas to verify the vocabulary and word combination reports that a groups of parents conducted to their bilingual toddlers for clinical research. Using 30-minute video tape to facilitate interactionbetween parents and their toddlers was a way to verified how accurate these reports were.
The participants in this investigation were twelve infants 21 to 27 months old who were exposed to bothlanguages for at least 8 hours per week. All the parents had at least high school diploma or other degree. Some of the participants were exposed to English or Spanish through parents or by other speakers. Allof the parents had different language backgrounds. In the beginning all parents completed a vocabulary check list in both languages, completed questions about word combinations, the time that thechild was exposed to the languages, the child development and health, and family history.
The investigation was based on a study relying on monolingual infants. It took a different procedure towardsbilingual children because their vocabulary was distributed between two languages. As a result, the procedure was adapted for obtaining information in both languages of these toddlers. The investigationwas conducted with 564 words (divided equally in both languages) and questions about word combinations. Parents reported the words that their toddler had used in Spanish and/or English. After this,the parents played with their child for 30 minutes in a room with toys using in most of the cases both languages to communicate with their toddler, this interaction was videotaped.
As a result of thisinvestigation, research demonstrated the consistency between the reports made by the parents and the samples that were videotaped in the study. Some reports made by the parents had a bigger...