幼儿三语习得研究:现状、个案及前景

Early Trilingual Development:The State of the Art and a Chinese Case

幼儿三语习得是幼儿在开口说话之前或者3岁以前同时习得三种语言。本文通过对香港幼儿黎偶同时习得普通话、粤语和英语的纵贯研究个案来展示和探讨幼儿三语习得研究领域的现状和前景。黎偶1岁半到2岁11个月的平均话语长度和语码混合模式显示,幼儿能够在3岁前发展出较为均衡的三语产出能力,并根据不同的语境和对话者切换语言。我们认为,幼儿三语习得是整合及利用家庭语言资源以实现推广普通话、保护地方方言和启蒙英语的有效途径。

Infant trilingualism is the acquisition of three languages before the onset of speech or the age of three.This paper reports a longitudinal study on Leo,a Mandarin-Cantonese-English trilingual child in Hong Kong.Analysis of Leo’s mean length of utterance and code-mixing patterns has found balanced development across languages and sensitivity to language context and interlocutor by 2;11.We propose that infant trilingualism is an effective strategy to promote the national language,preserve local dialects and increase early exposure to English through mobilising language resources in the family.