Article Review: Perceptual Foundations of Bilingual Acquisition in Infant

Article Review: Perceptual Foundations of Bilingual Acquisition in Infant

In the article, Werker examines the foundations of bilingual acquisition in children where they learn two languages from birth. The paper focuses on how the children acquire two languages as their first language and how parenting styles have an impact on the acquisition process. Werker presents that children are biologically prepared to acquire language in their native language. It is noted that in the first few weeks and months of an infant, they learn about sounds and explore their native language. At this time, they use perceptual knowledge to extract words and start to know grammar. The article provides a review showing that children that grow up bilingual get to learn and know the properties if each of their two languages at the same time while keeping them apart.  It is provided that perceptual learning helps the children break and differentiate the properties of their two native languages.

Of my interest is how Werker concludes by stating that in case there are enough cues to which language is being used, then the infants would benefit from cognitive advantages from language separation. This helps them to move forward in language acquisition. It is recognized that not all children growing up learn a single language, and all most half of the world’s population are bilingual (Fahey & Forman, 2012). Most of the bilinguals are attained at birth and a few months after birth. As the infants grow, their environment plays a key role in language acquisition and contributes to perceptual properties. Further, the author notes that the perceptual properties and the rules of the two native languages are well-defined and shaped by the environment to avoid confusion, especially at an early age. Collins (2012) noted that depending on the language learned, infants tend to acquire rhythmical properties of both the two native languages. They also pose the phonotactic rules plus the word order (Werker, 2012). Once they have a comprehensive two lexical entries for the two native languages, then they can conceptualize and differentiate the two languages successfully.

In Werker’s paper, Perceptual foundations of bilingual acquisition in infant points are well-organized in subtopics explained comprehensively for easy understanding. This forms one of the strengths of the article. The arrangement of ideas, facts, and statistics in a chronological and flowing manner makes it easy to understand the perceptual foundations of bilingual acquisition in children. From the introduction, Werker introduces the primary concepts and his central argument. He provides a clear definition of concepts, ideas, and how they are connected. It starts by providing an example in what is termed as Box A in which bilingual families and how they acquire two native languages in their early life. The next step involves the analysis of language discrimination and preference. In connection, the author provides a comprehensive view of how the world has a different language, with most of them being rhythm. It expounds on the rhythmical language discrimination among infants who had been exposed to different rhythmically different languages.  The strength of Werker’s language discrimination analysis is seen when he presents a filtered example of English speech terms as stress-timed and that of Tagalog or Filipino speech termed as syllable-timed. This was done through the study of neonates in a continent sucking procedure and the results of the research presented in an organized manner.  The presentation of the research and its test in the two languages add to the strength and validity of the paper.

Presentation of the statistics in a well-organized bar graph showing different scores on Tagalog (English) and an increase in a number of amplitude sucks per minute provides a better statistical understanding of bilingual acquisition in children.  The statistics presented consist of if the aggregate of facts that are in line with literature analysis. Further, the statistics are affected by many causes and numerically expressed. The figures in the test are enumerated and estimated accurately for a predetermined purpose.  Language discrimination is discussed in relation to visual information and cognitive advantages. In the third section, Werker, established his argument using native phoneme categories. This section analyses monolingual infants and bilingual infants hence presenting the difference between the two. Lastly, another strength of the paper lies in its comprehensive presentation of impacts on speed and efficiency of processing.

Despite the strength in the statistical presentation of the paper, in its current form, I consider it incomplete and not well balanced. It is superficial in showing how infants perceive the two languages and differentiate them. It does not show as to how the infants differentiate the native languages. In connection, the paper is long in some areas with more than enough explanation in one part. Werker’s review is quite long and contains irrelevant and obvious points. Another weakness is that the article is not up to date, leaving out current issues on bilingual perception in infants — the paper lack proper citations of ideas and concepts borrowed from other authors. Despite the weaknesses noted in the paper, it still presents facts, ideas, and concepts about perceptual foundations of bilingual acquisition in infants backed up with statistical evidence, which makes it valid and authentic.

References

Collins, M. (2012). The importance of discussing 50-cent words with preschoolers. Young Children, 67(5), 66-71.

Fahey, J., & Forman, J. (2012). The journey toward literacy begins in infancy. Childhood Education, 88(4), 217-220.

Werker, J. (2012). Perceptual foundations of bilingual acquisition in infancy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 50-61.