THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEGMENTAL PHONOLOGICAL PRODUCTION IN A BILINGUAL-CHILD - A CONTRASTING 2ND CASE

A longitudinal diary-and-videotape study of the production of phonolog ical segments by a Spanish-English bilingual child, age 1;6-4;6, revea led a consistent separation of the phonological systems of the two lan guages from the earliest period, with minimal interference at later ti mes. These results are in contrast to results obtained from another ch ild in a similar study (Schnitzer & Krasinski, 1994). The relevance of these data to the issue of whether bilingual children first use a sin gle system before acquiring two discrete languages is discussed, as is the general question of how to interpret the early phonological produ ction of bilinguals.