A Longitudinal Study of Pragmatic Differentiation in Young Bilingual Children

Abstract

Current evidence indicates that young bilingual children can use their languages differentially and appropriately in different language contexts at about two years of age. We examined whether there is an even earlier developmental stage when bilingual children do not use their languages in pragmatically differentiated ways. We recorded natural language samples from 4 French‐English bilingual children during free play sessions with their mothers and fathers, all of whom were native speakers of one of the languages and habitually used that language with their children. We observed the children 7 times between approximately 1;7 and 3;0 years of age. We analyzed 2 aspects of pragmatic differentiation: (a) use of French‐only and English‐only utterances and (b) use of translation equivalents. Analysis 1 indicated that none of the children showed differentiated and appropriate use of French and English during the initial recording sessions but that all did so in later sessions. Analysis 2 indicated a shift in their use of translation equivalents from generally inappropriate to generally appropriate; this shift coincided with the emergence of differential usage with both parents, as revealed in Analysis 1. Taken together, the analyses suggest a stage very early in development when bilingual children do not show pragmatic differentiation in language use.

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