Book Review: Bilingual Language Acquisition: Spanish and English in the First Six Years

Carmen Silva-Corvalán’s (2014) Bilingual Language Acquisition is an original, innovative, and sophisticated empirical study of bilingual language acquisition by young children. It is based on the author’s thorough examination of bilingualism (English and Spanish) by her own grandchildren Nico and Brennan over a time span of approximately 6 years. The author refers to the current world’s linguistic reality, in which bilingualism is practiced by half of the world’s population, often in locations where the second language is either official or co-official. The current millennium of globalization and global migration naturally creates a particular environment, characterized by multiculturalism, transnationalism, and multilingualism, further increasing the need for research in this field. As child bilingualism is prevalent throughout the world, how children become bilingual and the effects of bilingualism are important research questions.

Prior to introducing her data, Silva-Corvalán describes the literature on the epistemology of bilingualism in infants and young children. Contrary to popular belief that being exposed to two languages from early childhood creates confusion, she demonstrates how bilingualism results in cognitive and social advantages. Silva-Corvalán further differentiates between two major patterns of language acquisition—simultaneous bilingualism and sequential bilingualism. The former refers to the process of acquisition of two languages at the same time from the very beginning of language learning and production. The latter defines the process of building the second language skills upon the skills of the first one. Therefore, sequential bilingualism is associated with a certain age difference between acquisitions of the two languages. The author points out the lack of agreement among scholars in the field about the age at which bilingual development is considered sequential.

To address the need for such an agreement and contribute to the field of studies of bilingualism, Silva-Corvalán poses a set of research questions. The questions concern the similarities and differences in language learning by monolingual and bilingual children; the influence of languages on one another; the representation of languages in the minds of the children; and the role of social context during bilingual language development. Linguistically remarkable is the author’s positionality with regard to the case study and the data she chose to analyze. A bilingual speaker of English and Spanish languages, and a linguist with a solid academic background in the field, Silva-Corvalán meticulously explored the acquisition of English and Spanish by her grandchildren Brennan and Nico.

Although at first sight the particular nature of the relationship between the researcher and the researched might suggest a natural bias or subjectivity, Silva-Corvalán’s case proves immune to the potential pitfalls of the so-called “emotionally attached ethnographer.” On the contrary, the favorable atmosphere of familiarity, reciprocal affection, and trust between the researcher and the researched proved crucial for a natural authentic environment, especially important in case studies that involve vulnerable demographics. The author emphasizes that “bilingual children are in fact the ideal subjects for cross-linguistic research because such factors as personality, cognitive development, and social environment are under control” (p. 3). Indeed, the subjects proved appropriate for the thorough scholarly examination of bilingual linguistic and communicative skill development. The longitudinal character of the case study (conducted over several years) enabled a unique in-depth perspective on the matter.

Another remarkable feature of Silva-Corvalán’s study is its solid theoretical framework. Prior to analyzing the empirical data, she revisits various theories that aim to explain how children acquire languages. She refers, among others, to nativist and constructivist theories. The author explains how the nativists view language as a fundamental part of the human genome and argue that children are genetically equipped with innate knowledge of language and a Universal Grammar. The constructivist theories are usage-based in nature: They assume that language emerges from the interaction of cognition with experience, and suggest that the only actual innate feature of the human beings is their ability to learn. Silva-Corvalán points out that none of the theories have yet provided the definite answer to how language is actually acquired.

Given the state of the knowledge in the field, Silva-Corvalán prefers “a theoretically eclectic empirical approach to the investigation of bilingual development” (p. 7). The author explicates how the study of bilingual development presents certain theoretical questions that extend beyond those nativists and constructivists engage in. Among them, Silva-Corvalán emphasizes language differentiation models, various cross-linguistic phenomena, as well as markedness, complexity, and vulnerability in language acquisition. She also investigates the phenomena of language proficiency, dominance, and language input. One central theme of the book is differences in the development of the two languages in the bilingual siblings, affected by the unequal amounts of exposure to the respective languages. As a specific theoretical framework for the analysis, the author refers to the literature on sociolinguistic differences among balanced and dominant bilinguals, as well as predominant, dominant, weaker, and stronger languages.

In several analytic chapters of the book, Silva-Corvalán explores various aspects of the emerging grammars of English and Spanish of the bilingual siblings under consideration. She focuses on the multifaceted analysis of language production and theorizes the outcomes of her findings. In line with the central aim of this research project, each chapter examines the effect of input and usage of Spanish and English on the examined linguistic domain. Comparisons between the siblings’ linguistic behavior with that of Spanish and English monolinguals, as well as of other bilingual children are further foci of the book.

In addition to the theoretical framework, Silva-Corvalán provides information on the siblings’ ecology, family, and patterns of language use, as well as certain specificities of linguistic data collection. The author presents an overview of how in the time period of several years the brothers become competent speakers of English and Spanish, regardless the different degrees and the gradual establishment of English as their dominant and Spanish as their weaker languages. Such observations refer to the copula selection in Spanish (i.e., the usage of either ser or estar in lieu of English to be); development of negative and interrogative constructions, as well as categories of tense, mood, and aspect markers in the respective languages. They also encompass metalinguistic awareness, lexical innovations, and a curious linguistic phenomenon of code switching (interchangeably used by the author with code mixing).

Linguistically, the book provides a unique insight on the concept of code switching—usage of a word, a phrase, or a sentence from one language in another one—as representative of bilingualism and biculturalism. An example is provided in the following utterance by Nico (who speaks to his brother Brennan aka Bibi in “child language” and asks if it would be ok if their grandpa would drop him off):

In the aforementioned example, an English verb and an English pronoun are inserted in a Spanish sentence. Similarly, an utterance produced by Brennan (informing how a woman gave him some purple medicine), illustrates adjectival use in the process of code switching:

Brennan’s sentence exemplifies the insertion of an English adjective in a noun-preceding position, typical of the English language. It illustrates how code switching affects the speech of a bilingual individual not only lexically but also syntactically.

Silva-Corvalán specifies that the siblings switch languages to express affection, to emphasize or to contrast mixed passages, to encode overheard quotations, and to add interest to their narratives. She adds that the bilinguals also switch to their stronger language to compensate for certain lexical gaps in their weaker language, or because lexical items in the dominant language may be more readily accessible. The author also addresses social factors of adult language usage, describing code switching by children as naturally susceptible to “the adult input and adult attitudes to it” (p. 97).

Although Silva-Corvalán briefly mentions adult interactions, a more profound insight on the actual effect of adults’ culture in code switching is missing in the book. An example would be usage of concepts that have different semantic and pragmatic connotations in the respective languages. Spanish mañana, for instance—albeit translatable in English as tomorrow—conceptually differs from its English equivalent as a result of respective cultural differences on the approach to time. Likewise, certain social phenomena exist in only one culture and hence only in its lexicon, and therefore demand “code switching” (e.g., the typical French children’s lexicon includes the concept of a ritual afternoon meal: le gouter). Since Silva-Corvalán does refer to Spanish as the heritage language of the siblings, the reader might benefit from understanding a broader cultural environment that defined the bilingual dynamics in the family. Lustig and Koester’s (2010) insights on intercultural communication, Deutscher’s (2011) delightfully original perspective on language representation of social reality, and Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) work on conceptual framings help further explore this somewhat underrepresented area of the study.

The study might also benefit from a more specific examination of cultural identities of the adult family members. The reader is left curious about the parents of the children, their strategy and consistency (or lack thereof) in selection, and use of the respective languages. In the chapter about methodology, the author provides a particularly thought-provoking insight: “The father used Spanish with Nico almost exclusively until the child was 3;6 years old, but use of Spanish decreased from that age on, mainly because the child preferred to speak English with his parent” (p. 30). For one, this observation is dropped as is, and the role of agency of the child (over the father) as a decision maker in the language selection is not analyzed. The reader is left guessing what the father’s actual motivation for switching languages is.

A clearer perspective on the (cultural and linguistic) positionality of the father would shed more light on the matter. Often, it is not obvious if the language switch in the father’s discourse is a natural outcome of the apparent Americanization of the family, or if the parents have agreed upon a specific strategy. It is also unclear whether the language switch was caused by external factors, briefly mentioned but not sufficiently addressed in the book. A natural language environment of a predominantly (or solely) English-speaking day care, or children’s increasing interactions with mostly English-speaking peers (a logical explanation, given the children’s age) might be examples of such factors Silva-Corvalán briefly mentions but neither enlightens sufficiently nor correlates enough with the study.

For that matter, the author’s hypothesis about the alleged salience of birth order as a direct cause of insufficient Spanish language proficiency by the younger sibling does not sound entirely plausible. The author states, “I hypothesized that, mutatis mutandis, the birth order of the child within the family accurately predicts the level of bilingual proficiency achieved. This statement is supported by the studies presented in this book” (p. 348). The aforementioned statement suggests an oversimplified justification of the partial loss of Spanish by the younger sibling, while the social environment (e.g., the fact that the Spanish-speaking father actively switched back to English, among possible others) is neglected. Although the correlation between the birth order of the children and their proficiency in Spanish appears probable, the claimed (exclusive) causality does not.

Profoundly informative, intellectually engaging, and extensively descriptive in style, the book tends toward a certain overabundance of linguistic details. The latter occasionally provides a rather narrow perspective on the subject of child bilingualism, almost artificially taken out of a larger cultural context. Silva-Corvalán neither sufficiently analyzes the actual role of Hispanic cultural heritage in her family, nor does she adequately address Americanization of her grandchildren. Although she refers to English as a dominant language, she does not address the respective cultural dominance appropriately as relevant for the analysis of bilingualism as a natural representation of biculturalism. Acknowledgment of culture- and identity-based nuances might eliminate the danger of making theoretical generalizations that might or might not work for linguistically similar but socially and culturally different cases. Nakayama’s (2009) work on linguistic and cultural heritage of bilingualism and biculturalism in the American context would be a great example to consider.

This is by no means to imply that this research is not highly relevant and well delivered. There are numerous potential avenues for the future of this fascinating research project, inspired by the author’s thought-provoking observations. For example, Silva-Corvalán emphasizes the positive role of favorable sociointeractive conditions as decisive for eager engagement of the siblings in the bilingual learning. At the same time, she emphasizes the negative connotations Spanish often has in California, related to the ongoing issue of immigration. The author states that “even though Spanish as a minority language in California may have low prestige because of its association with immigrants with a relatively low socioeconomic status in the siblings’ family it is valued and respected” (p. 30). This observation is fascinating, as it naturally evokes scholarly inquisitiveness regarding the future of the siblings: the linguistic path they will take, the identities they will claim as theirs, and the cultures they will embrace.

Overall, Bilingual Language Acquisition offers a comprehensive longitudinal study of children’s English–Spanish bilingualism in the context of the United States. This original research project successfully merges theory with empirical naturalist data, and skillfully bridges the personal and the scholarly. The book provides a worthwhile perspective for linguistics and psycholinguistic theorists; intercultural, interpersonal, and diversity communication scholars; bilingual and multilingual practitioners; and multicultural families.