A Diary Study of Bilingual Development in Early Childhood by a Non-Native Japanese Couple (2): A Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Language Acquisition in a Japanese Girl, 4 Years 8 Months to 6 Years

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  • 日本人非ネイティブ夫婦による 就学前児のバイリンガル的言語発達におけるダイアリースタディ(2) -ある日本人女児の4歳8ヵ月~6歳間のバイリンガル的言語習得における縦断的研究-
  • ニホンジン ヒネイティブ フウフ ニ ヨル シュウガク ゼン ジ ノ バイリンガルテキ ゲンゴ ハッタツ ニ オケル ダイアリースタディ(2)アル ニホンジン ジョジ ノ 4サイ 8カゲツ~6サイ カン ノ バイリンガルテキ ゲンゴ シュウトク ニ オケル ジュウダンテキ ケンキュウ

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Background and Objectives: This article reports a method and the effectiveness of early childhood bilingual education in Japan implemented by a Japanese couple. In order to clarify the process of language acquisition of the target child, characteristics of her language development were analyzed in comparison with that of bilingual children in the literature. Research Design and Methods: A daughter raised by a Japanese couple in a Japanese context with the father speaking English to her was examined based on the records and observation by the father with an intention to determine the process of bilingual language acquisition （i.e., Japanese and English） in her early childhood. This practice was based on the “one parent; one language” principle in bilingual education. Additional analyses involved the comparison between the target child and another child of the same age raised by a couple with one native English speaker and one native Japanese speaker as well as another child raised by a Japanese couple whose English proficiency was at the beginning level. Results: （1） Even for the Japanese couple, with the “one parent; one language” principle, the target child’s language acquisition process showed nearly the same development compared to Japanese-English bilingual children in the literature.（2） The level of English attained by the target child was almost equivalent to that of the Japanese- English bilingual child raised by a couple with one native English speaker and one native Japanese speaker, with the level of Japanese equivalent to a Japanese native speaker of her age. Particularly for reading comprehension, reaching a high level of reading does not happen just because parents are native speakers of English / Japanese, but it depends greatly on their teaching methods and how they relate to their children when reading books to them. Parents should become facilitators and give children scaffolding for them to become autonomous readers. Discussion and Implications: Bilingual language development and proficiency in preschool children are expected to vary among individuals, so further research is needed to completely assure the early childhood bilingual language development of Japanese children.

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