1-098 - Describing and Quantifying “Bilingualism” Part 3; the Need for Consistency and Accuracy for Research and Education

Session Type: Exchange Symposium

Integrative Statement

The effects of multilingualism reach far beyond language development. Understanding the challenges and advantages inherent to multilingualism has important applications for education, clinical treatment, and child development. These applications facilitate researchers from all areas to collaborate. One challenge for this interdisciplinary work is to consistently quantify and report language acquisition history in research. Currently, there is a lack of consistency across research areas in how to accomplish this. This challenge makes it difficult to compare across studies, meta-analyses, and advancing translational knowledge. The inconsistency is largely due to the complexity of quantifying bilingualism and the inherent dynamic nature of language use and language acquisition history. Children acquire different languages through different means, for different purposes, and from different people. Language is also dynamic, with proficiency increasing and decreasing across development. Researchers struggle in how best to quantify, for both report and analyses, this complex and dynamic system. What are the best practices in quantifying and reporting the bilingual experience that can inform and guide researchers across child development?

This Exchange Symposium is a follow-up to Roundtable Discussions from both SRCD 2015 and SRCD 2017 that have moved us forward in understanding this issue. The intention is to add to the previous conversation by tackling the issue of how to quantify and report bilingualism. What measures work? What are the challenges? We will tackle these issues with a group of international bilingual scholars from different disciplines (neuroscience, psychology, education, and linguistics) that study bilingualism across contexts and periods of child development.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Alena G Esposito, Clark University

Discussant

• Gigi Luk, McGill University

Individual Presentations

• MAPLE: A Multilingual Approach to Parent Language Estimates - Presenting Author: Krista Byers-Heinlein, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Esther Schott, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero, Concordia University

• Documenting Children’s Bilingual Language Experiences at Home and the Early Education Setting - Presenting Author: Dina C Castro, University of North Texas; Non-Presenting Author: Carol Scheffner Hammer, Columbia University

• Measuring Bilingualism in United States Schools - Presenting Author: Gladys María Aguilar, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Gigi Luk, McGill University