A Case Study Of Children's Bilingual Acquisition In A Chinese-Russian Bilingual Environment

The study of child language acquisition is an interesting topic.However,the study on early childhood’s languages acquisition in bilingual environment is more attractive.This is a case study on a mixed-blood child,Sophia’s bilingual acquisition of Chinese and Russian under macro Chinese language environment.The study intends to answer the following questions.Why does Sophia acquire Russian as her first language under macro Chinese language environment? What is the influence on Sophia’s language from parent’s languages? How do parents’ languages affect Sophia’s language acquisition? Will Sophia change her dominant language? In order to probe these issues,the study detailedly describes the changes of language environment around Sophia and her two languages development process which is divided into five periods.So as to reveal the special rules in Sophia’s bilingual acquisition,the study deeply discusses the influences of language environment and parental input on Sophia’s language acquisition through all the language elements.The thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter one is the preface which introduce the necessity and significance of this thesis,Sophia and her family background.It also summarizes the current status of study on child bilingual acquisition development at home and abroad.The main study object and method and the study bases on are also included.Chapter two is about the investigation on the development of Sophia’s Chinese and Russian acquisition from 0-3 years old which is divided into five periods.The results show that Sophia’s Russian acquisition has developed steadily at all periods,and the development of Chinese acquisition has been greatly affected by changes in the language environment.Chapter three describes the development of Sophia’s Chinese and Russian acquisition which is investigated on the language elements and the language errors.Sophia acquires Russian as a first language and its development is similar to those of Russian-speaking child.Sophia’s Russian acquisition developmental path is: pre-language stage,one-word stage,two-word stage,telegraphic stage,short and simple sentence stage and complex sentence stage.Sophia’s Chinese acquisition is different from Chinese-speaking child and the development of phonetics,vocabulary,and grammar is greatly influenced by her first language,Russian.Her Chinese acquisition developmental path is: pre-language stage,one-word stage,two-word stage,nonverbal stage,language mixing stage.Chapter four to chapter six is the discussion part which summarizes the main conclusions of the study.It also provides some suggestions to teaching Chinese as a second language;the limitations of the study and areas for further study are also pointed out.The present study provides a supplementary case for the studies on early childhood’s language acquisition in bilingual environment and it arouses more accentuations on the studies on the acquisition of Chinese as a second language in bilingual environment of Chinese and Russian.Also,this study provides reference for teaching Chinese as a second language.