Original scientific paper

Self–interpreting by bilingual children

Galina Chirsheva ; Cherepovets State University

Abstract

This paper aims at describing self–interpreting as a specific skill of simultaneous bilingual
children to interpret their own utterances from one language into the other. There are
very few works on childhood bilingualism whose authors pay attention to the phenomenon
(see Dodson 1984; Saunders 1988; Malakoff – Hakuta 1991/2000; Gergely 1997). The data
for the present paper are taken from tape–recorded and video–recorded speech of three
boys, who acquired Russian and English from their parents according to the principle
“one parent – one language”. Self–interpreting positively influences the development of
the child’s bilingualism, while the study of this phenomenon helps to reveal many aspects
of childhood bilingualism: the difference in the vocabulary and semantic development
in two languages; the difference in the acquisition of two grammars; specific features of
hesitations; development of pragmatic bilingual competence.

Keywords

childhood bilingualism; self–interpreting by children; intentional bilingualism; Russian language; Croatian language

Hrčak ID:

62325

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/62325

Publication date:

17.12.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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