Modern Childhood Multilingualism: Departing from the monolingual perspective

Terms such as 'native' and 'first language' have seen interchangeable use in describing a speaker's 'L1'. This paper discusses the inception, use, and relevance of aforementioned terminologies, and introduces less known definitions in an attempt to highlight their limitations and possible merits when discussing childhood multilingualism. An improved perception regarding multilingualism compared to linguistics of the 20th century, as well as an increase in linguistic research regarding multilingual speakers, make the relevance of apt terminologies surrounding the topic (which by extension influence the perception of multilingual speakers) more pertinent. The paper highlights how comparison of multilingual speakers to monolingual native speakers ('the monolingual perspective' to depart from) makes 'native' and 'first language' inconducive to accurate representation of modern childhood multilingual speakers. Conversely, 'heritage' and 'dominant language' seem to more accurately...Show moreTerms such as 'native' and 'first language' have seen interchangeable use in describing a speaker's 'L1'. This paper discusses the inception, use, and relevance of aforementioned terminologies, and introduces less known definitions in an attempt to highlight their limitations and possible merits when discussing childhood multilingualism. An improved perception regarding multilingualism compared to linguistics of the 20th century, as well as an increase in linguistic research regarding multilingual speakers, make the relevance of apt terminologies surrounding the topic (which by extension influence the perception of multilingual speakers) more pertinent. The paper highlights how comparison of multilingual speakers to monolingual native speakers ('the monolingual perspective' to depart from) makes 'native' and 'first language' inconducive to accurate representation of modern childhood multilingual speakers. Conversely, 'heritage' and 'dominant language' seem to more accurately represent a multilingual child's language acquisition profile and language use. These conclusions were drawn in accordance with the results of applying various terminologies to represent and/or explicate the language acquisition profile and lexical access of a multilingual child; data collected by means of a Multilingual Image Naming Test (MINT-Sprint) and Language History Questionnaire.Show less

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Modern Childhood Multilingualism: Departing from the monolingual perspective