Date of Award
Spring 3-23-2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Thesis
Department
Communication Sciences & Disorders
First Advisor
Suzanne Reading
Abstract
Multiple language acquisition has only recently become a heavily researched and focused topic. Many questions have been left unanswered and furthermore, experts in the field are coming to contradicting results and conclusions. The presented thesis investigates the culmination of recent research in this newly developed field, as well as provides feedback from bilingual individuals on their experiences of being bilingual. Through analyzing current studies, the conclusion is made that bilingual children will follow a series of stages in their semantic and syntactic acquisition in which there is a bilingual disadvantage, followed by a bilingual advantage, and lastly a continuous stage of neutrality between bilingual children and their monolingual peers. This theory combined with the positive social effects of bilingualism seen through results of the survey, encourage education systems to take responsibility in teaching children to be proficient in two languages. 3
Recommended Citation
Pfister, Jessica Michelle, "A Contrast of Bilingual and Monolingual Children in regards to Semantic and Syntactic Language Acquisition" (2009). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 45.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/45