Early Language acquisition and Development of Italian by a Bilingual Infant - A comparison to Italian Monolinguals

Abstract

This case study aims to investigate the acquisition of Italian language by a bilingual child and compare it to early language acquisition of Italian monolinguals. It is based on the analysis of data collected in a domestic environment. Vocabulary receptivity and production for the child in the case study have been recorded by means of the CDI, MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. Grammar development was analyzed tracking MLUW/MLU. The results have been compared to those of Italian monolinguals, providing evidence of a similar development of early Italian language acquisition in the bilingual child of the study. Morphosyntactic development, evolution of verbs and determiners correlated to bilingualism have been compared to studies on Italian monolinguals. The results obtained seem to be in line with those collected for Italian monolinguals. This is interesting because our case study does not confirm the assumptions on the delay in early vocabulary development by bilinguals. It is in fact often believed that language development in young bilingual children can be delayed in comparison to monolinguals. This result, opens then to further research on what are the main factors inferring this kind of inline development.