The importance of parental input and output in bilingual children

Abstract

The quantity and quality of input received from parents is fundamental for children to produce output, they receive information, process the information received and produce knowledge. Lundquist-Mog and Widlok (2015) mention the researcher Gabriele Kniffka (2013) who explains the learning of a language referring that the child’s brain, when contacting a second language, by the age of four, compartments and absorbs the input of a In a creative way, based on the knowledge already acquired including the knowledge of your mother tongue, it defines generalizations in a way that will add the new knowledge acquired to what you have already learned. Generalization helps the child to develop new grammatical rules or nonsense words trying to find new ways to express themselves. The child uses this strategy to experiment with formulating ideas and must be motivated to speak, receiving the correct input from the teacher. In order for a child to develop a repertoire in a foreign language that gives him sufficient linguistic skills to express himself, he needs to receive a great deal of input. This condition will be essential for the child to progress in learning. The authors Lundquist-Mog and Widlok (2015) emphasize that the fact that the child listens first leads to the belief that the more auditory impulses they receive, the more they will be able to imitate and reproduce. This study is carried out with the parents of 31 children and aims to assess the importance of parental input and output in bilingual children. Parents answered a sociolinguistic questionnaire whose collection of informative data served as the basis for studying the amount of linguistic input that bilingual speakers receive in each of their languages, as well as the diversity and quality of the sources of linguistic exposure to which they have access. and which are considered as intervening factors in the bilingual acquisition process.