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2 - The Development of Childhood Multilingualism in Languages of Different Modalities

from Part One - Becoming and Being a Multilingual Child

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2022

By
Laura Kanto
Edited by
Anat Stavans  and
Ulrike Jessner
Anat Stavans
Affiliation:
Beit Berl College, Israel
Ulrike Jessner
Affiliation:
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria
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Summary

Multilingualism is not only limited to people or communities using multiple spoken languages, and complex linguistic diversity of signing communities is often seen among signers. This chapter focuses on the special type of multilingualism of children who are acquiring both sign language(s) and spoken language(s) from their linguistic environment, also referred to as bimodal multilingualism. As sign languages and spoken languages are partly produced and received in two different modalities (visual-gestural and vocal-auditory), the multilingualism of these children involves two different modalities. This chapter discusses the bimodal multilingualism of hearing and deaf children who are acquiring both sign and spoken languages. The chapter describes the multifaceted linguistic landscape and environment of bimodal multilingual children, the access of bimodal multilingual children to different languages, and the use of different languages in a variety of social contexts. Additionally, the chapter illustrates the process of bimodal multilingual language acquisition and challenges to maintain the acquired language abilities as heritage language users, as well as the attainments and usage of hybrid linguistic resources.

Keywords

bimodal multilingualismKODAkids of deaf adultsCODAheritage signersign language acquisitionlinguistic environmentcode-blending
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Childhood Multilingualism , pp. 38 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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