Bilinguismo infantil: uma análise do comportamento linguístico de uma criança bilíngue brasileira em interações familiares

Abstract

Currently, It has been noticed, many parents would like to raise bilingual kids since the very first days of life; meanwhile, they show quite uncertainness about this subject and if it can confuse the child in the languages’ bilingual acquisition process. The purpose of this study is to analyze a child’s linguistic behavior that has been raised bilingual since gestation in the languages Portuguese and English. Within this scope, the present analysis consists of verifying if and when the bilingual child uses one language (English or Portuguese) to each speaker switching the languages still when interacting with people who speak different languages at the same interaction’s situation. Therefore, interactions are analyzed during the child’s daily play time routine a) with the child’s mother, b) with the child’s father, c) with the child’s mother and father and d) with the child’s godparents, speakers who use different languages with the boy. According to the data, it was verified the child does the distinction and separation related to the language’s choice in line with the person who addresses to in the parents’ interactions. As for the interactions recorded with the child’s godparents, it was checked the child does not use the one person, one language theory but determines the language’s choice according to the adult’s language choice who addresses her, in other words the adult guides the child’s language choice. In addition, from the data recorded it has been remarked the child can respond in both languages and beside that has the same linguistic knowledge in both languages.