Bilingual children with specific language impairment: Theoretical and applied issues

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Paradis, J.

• Bilingualism is often considered an inappropriate developmental choice for children with specific language impairment (SLI) because, according to a widespread belief, these children’s limited capacity for language would be overtaxed by learning two linguistic systems. However, there has not been adequate empirical investigation of SLI in bilingual children to support, or refute, this belief and the professional practices that are based on it. On the theoretical side, two opposing perspectives concerning the nature of the deficit in SLI make different predictions for the outcome of children with SLI learning two languages, and one set of predictions is consistentwith the popular belief stated above. This article is aimed at addressing both the applied concerns and the theoretical debate with evidence from two studies examining the morphological acquisition of French–English bilingual children with SLI as compared to French and English monolinguals with SLI.

• Date created

  2007

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Language impairments
  • Predictions
  • Bilingualism
  • French
  • Second language learning
  • Comparative analysis
  • Child language
  • Language acquisition
  • Monolingualism
  • Beliefs
  • Language research
  • Morphology

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3Q57R

• License

  © 2007 Cambridge University Press