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Volume 2 No.1

October 1996

The Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism

多言語多文化研究

A Study of the Initial Codeswitching Stage in the Linguistic Development of an English-Japanese Bilingual Child

Peter John Wanner

Faculty of Engineering and Design,

Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto

There are two common theories concerning language acquisition of more than one language during infancy. The first claims that infants can not differentiate two different languages and therefore develop general specifications. The second claims that infants can differentiate between two languages and therefore have fixed specifications. An alternate theory maintains that some specifications are fixed and some specifications are generalized. This study is the second part of a longitudinal study to determine the language acquisition process for initial differentiation of languages contextually. This study analyzes language differentiation for an English and Japanese bilingual child between 1;9-1;10. The subject was observed in the home with sporadic video coverage and family diaries. This study concludes that the subject shows linguistic differentiation and initial contextual differentiation based on language dominance. Furthermore, this study indicates that Japanese and English are fixed specifications linguistically, but take on general specifications contextually through interaction in the environment.