Acquisition of Multilingualism
The E research area (after the German word for “acquisition”, i.e., “Erwerb”) deals with language acquisition of several languages by individual learners, with a special focus on language representation and language processing. It comprises four projects. Most projects (E3, E4) study the development of two sound languages in multilingual children and one project (E7) has expanded the investigation of multilingual acquisition to the visual modality, namely in the case of deaf subjects using sign language.
The main topic of this research area lies in the linguistic analysis of language data from simultaneous and successive acquisition of two languages, which takes place under very different circumstances and conditions. Some of the languages are typologically very close, like French and Portuguese, whereas other pairs of languages involved have a greater typological distance, like German and French, German and Spanish, German and Turkish, or languages in different modalities, like spoken and written German and German Sign Language (GSL). Similarities and differences between the projects result from the language constellations and the particular areas investigated in each case. The methods applied in general are linguistic analyses of spontaneous data, as well as elicited and experimental data. One of the projects (E7) also uses neurophysiological research methods such as the monitoring of neural correlates during language processing by the multilingual individual.
The results from the projects of the E research area are especially relevant socioculturally and sociopolitically. It has been acknowledged that multilingual children with a migrational background are at a disadvantage in the German school system. Changes in the school system need a scientific foundation; our research and findings offer important insights to that goal, e.g., through the clarification of relevant relationships (simultaneous vs. successive Multilingualism; the role of age in ultimate attainment in language acquisition; influence and transfer, etc.). Thus our project results provide scientific foundations for the development of materials to aid school and pre-school instruction and to create new ways to measure language proficiency and develop language diagnostic tests. Transfer and application of findings takes the form of parent counseling, as well as the organisation of informative and further education sessions in day-care centers, schools and pedagogical institutions, and instruction for speech therapists.
(Coordinator: Tanja Kupisch)
The main topic of this research area lies in the linguistic analysis of language data from simultaneous and successive acquisition of two languages, which takes place under very different circumstances and conditions. Some of the languages are typologically very close, like French and Portuguese, whereas other pairs of languages involved have a greater typological distance, like German and French, German and Spanish, German and Turkish, or languages in different modalities, like spoken and written German and German Sign Language (GSL). Similarities and differences between the projects result from the language constellations and the particular areas investigated in each case. The methods applied in general are linguistic analyses of spontaneous data, as well as elicited and experimental data. One of the projects (E7) also uses neurophysiological research methods such as the monitoring of neural correlates during language processing by the multilingual individual.
The results from the projects of the E research area are especially relevant socioculturally and sociopolitically. It has been acknowledged that multilingual children with a migrational background are at a disadvantage in the German school system. Changes in the school system need a scientific foundation; our research and findings offer important insights to that goal, e.g., through the clarification of relevant relationships (simultaneous vs. successive Multilingualism; the role of age in ultimate attainment in language acquisition; influence and transfer, etc.). Thus our project results provide scientific foundations for the development of materials to aid school and pre-school instruction and to create new ways to measure language proficiency and develop language diagnostic tests. Transfer and application of findings takes the form of parent counseling, as well as the organisation of informative and further education sessions in day-care centers, schools and pedagogical institutions, and instruction for speech therapists.
(Coordinator: Tanja Kupisch)
- Project E3: Prosodic constraints on phonological and morphological development in bilingual first language acquisition (Conxita Lleó)
- Project E4: Specific language impairment and early second language acquisition: Differentiating deviations in morphosyntactic acquisition (Monika Rothweiler)
- Project E7: Critical periods for the acquisition of German and of German Sign Language: Is being multilingual of any advantage? (Brigitte Röder & Barbara Hänel-Faulhaber)
- Project E11: Linguistic Features of First Language Attrition and Second Language Acquisition in Adult Bilinguals (German-French and German-Italian) (Tanja Kupisch)
- Project M1 (Cooperation E4/H8): Gender in first and second language acquisition in bilingual Polish-German children (Bernhard Brehmer and Monika Rothweiler)