Observations on the Language Acquisition of a Thai/English Bilingual Child

Authors

Michael A. Betcher, School for International Training

Publication Date

1979

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)

First Advisor

Dr. Alvino Fantini

Second Advisor

Alex Silverman

Abstract

A child subject, bilingual in Thai and English, was studied during his 25th months for aspects of transference* and interference in his developing speech. A speach diary was kept on a daily basis. Attention was focused on prosodic features (intonation/tonality), word borrowing and code switching. Examples of all these phenomena were recorded, but the most significant was that of prosodic interference, wherein English intonation indicating stress, excitement or urgency was carried over into the strictly regulated Thai intonation system. * A term which is used to avoid the negative implications of "interference" and to indicate the use of a syncretic language system which is chosen and controlled by the speaker.

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Curriculum and Instruction | First and Second Language Acquisition | Phonetics and Phonology

Recommended Citation

Betcher, Michael A., "Observations on the Language Acquisition of a Thai/English Bilingual Child" (1979). MA TESOL Collection. 285.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/ipp_collection/285