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Bilinguals Are Not Two Monolinguals in One Head

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The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person

Early studies on bilingualism have spread the idea that bilingualism was a disadvantage, that it might help developing anomalies (Pichon and Borel-Maisonny, 1937) or deteriorate children’s intelligence (Eichorn-Jones: 1952). From the 1970s onwards, more extensive and in-depth studies have discredited this idea that bilingualism was cognitively damaging and have shown the complexity and the specific characteristics of bilingual acquisition. Among these fundamental research, we can find Volterra & Taeschner (1978), Grosjean (1989), Romaine (1989), De Houwer (1995) and Genesee (1996), to name but a few. These research have highlighted the fact that Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA) differs in many ways from the monolingual language acquisition that has been viewed as the ‘normal’ acquisition of language in the past. In this essay, the main focus will be on the bilingual-specific characteristics that children inevitably adopt when learning two or more languages simultaneously. We will see that to some extent, bilinguals can be compared to monolinguals. However, this essay will be centred on Grosjean’s quote ”the bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person”. The complex linguistic strategies supported by bilingual datas will reveal the singularity of bilingual language acquisition, which cannot simply be reduced to the idea of two monolinguals in one head.

Studies focusing on whether bilinguals can be compared to monolinguals show some biased interrogations greatly influenced by a monolingual approach. However, research comparing bilingual language acquisition with the ‘norm, i.e. a monolingual language acquisition, have allowed us to understand how children who simultaneously learn two or more languages adapt their knowledge of the language in order to communicate. These comparative studies have

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