Resumen de Young bilingual children's language selection
This paper considers social and psychological factors in the language choices both of children and adults. It sees this emphasis as similar to the emphasis on pragmatics which is now a common theme among workers on language acquisition. The paper cites evidence in two main sections. The first section is that of language choice among young bilingual children and the emphasis is on the way such children use language in order to influence those around them. The second section considers evidence from a survey, carried out in Wales, of the language choices made by bilingual mothers of young children. The emphasis is particularly on mothers who choose to rear monolingual English rather than bilingual Welsh/English children. The general conclusion is that social factors are a major influence in the language choice of both child and adult bilinguals.
