Language use of a bilingual immigrant child – an analysis of case studies

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of maternal and paternal languages on the development of a bilingual immigrant child’s language. It is assumed that mother’s language has the greatest... [ view full abstract ]

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of maternal and paternal languages on the development of a bilingual immigrant child’s language. It is assumed that mother’s language has the greatest influence on child’s language. In addition, maternal language is responsible for the largest part of the variance in the language children understand and use as well as the development of bilingualism. We also believe that fathers influence the language of the home and mothers influence the language of the child. In our analysis, the focus is on the quantity and quality of exposure to the given languages, the pattern of language use by parents, the language of formal instruction and the style of parent-child interaction. Over one hundred cases studies have been under examination depicting various language constellations, such as: Polish and English, Polish and Russian, Polish and German, Polish and Ukrainian, Polish and Belorussian, Polish and Lithuanian. Hence, with this paper we hope to be able to better understand cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers in the process of relocation to another country.

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