Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, United States.
Adv Child Dev Behav. 2021;61:129-167. doi: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2021.03.002. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
All normal children in normal environments acquire language. However, all normal children in normal bilingual environments do not acquire two languages. This chapter asks what makes the simultaneous acquisition of two languages more difficult than the acquisition of one. Focusing on children in immigrant families whose two languages are a minority language used more at home and a majority, societal language, this chapter describes common patterns and individual differences in bilingual development. The most frequently occurring outcome in that circumstance is strong skill in the majority language with more varied and weaker skills in the minority language. This chapter also reviews research that identifies factors that contribute to individual differences in order to identify the experiences and abilities that support bilingual development. Those factors include the quality and quantity of children's exposure to each language, children's use of each language, and the functional value of proficiency in each language. We conclude that two languages are more difficult to acquire than one because language acquisition requires substantial and continued environmental support. It is not easy for children to acquire strong and comparable skills levels in two languages because environments tend not to provide high and comparable levels of support for two languages.
所有正常环境中的正常儿童都能习得语言。然而，在正常的双语环境中，并非所有正常儿童都能习得两种语言。本章探讨了是什么使得同时习得两种语言比习得一种语言更困难。本章聚焦于移民家庭的儿童，他们的两种语言是一种在家中使用较多的少数民族语言，另一种是多数社会语言。本章描述了双语发展中的常见模式和个体差异。在这种情况下，最常见的结果是掌握多数社会语言的能力较强，而少数民族语言的能力则更为多样且较弱。本章还回顾了识别导致个体差异的因素的研究，以确定支持双语发展的经验和能力。这些因素包括儿童接触每种语言的质量和数量、儿童对每种语言的使用情况，以及每种语言熟练程度的功能价值。我们的结论是，两种语言比一种语言更难习得，因为语言习得需要大量且持续的环境支持。儿童很难在两种语言中获得同等水平的语言能力，因为环境往往无法为两种语言提供同等水平的高支持。
