A. Holm et B. Dodd, A longitudinal study of the phonological development of two Cantonese-English bilingual children, APPL PSYCH, 20(3), 1999, pp. 349-376
Longitudinal case studies of the successive phonological acquisition of two
Cantonese-English bilingual children, aged 2;3 to 3;1 years and 2;9 to 3;5
years, are presented. The children were assessed at 4-week intervals. The
first assessment of their phonology occurred when they had been exposed to
English for three months. Phoneme acquisition and phonological process data
revealed that both children had separate phonological systems for the two
languages. The two phonological systems for each child developed in similar
ways to monolingual children acquiring Cantonese and English. However, a n
umber of error patterns, indicative of disorder in monolingual children, we
re evident in the children's phonological systems in English and in Cantone
se. These patterns have been documented as normal error patterns for succes
sive bilingual Cantonese-English speaking children. The difference between
normal successive bilingual phonological development and normal monolingual
development is addressed.