The developmental trajectory of monolinguals has often been used as the benchmark against which the progress of
all language learners is assessed and understood, and the abilities of monolinguals are used to define the native-like competence
that is widely cited as the ultimate goal for all language learners. Moreover, language learning standards and curricula to guide
language teaching and learning in school, as well as frameworks and strategies for assessing language learner outcomes in school,
have all been shaped in significant ways by a monolingual bias. In this article, I critically examine assumptions underlying the
monolingual bias and review findings from research on preschool and early-school-age learners who acquire language under diverse
circumstances. Explanations that go beyond the monolingual bias are proposed for findings of differences between children who
learn language under diverse circumstances and monolingual children. I argue that current research supports the view that there
are alternative pathways to becoming language competent.
Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2009). Age
of onset and nativelikeness in a second language: Listener perception versus linguistic
scrutiny. Language
Learning,
59
(2), 249–306.
Albareda-Castellot, B., Pons, F., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2011). The
acquisition of phonetic categories in bilingual infants: New data from an anticipatory eye movement
paradigm. Developmental
Science,
14
(2), 395–401.
August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing
literacy in second language learners. Report of the National Literacy Panel on Minority-Language Children and
Youth. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Barratt, L. (2018). Monolingual Bias. In The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching (pp. 1–7).
Bialystok, E. (2015). Bilingualism
and the development of executive function: The role of attention. Child Development
Perspectives,
9
1(
2
1), 117–121.
Bialystok, D., Luk, G., Peets, K. F., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive
vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition,
13
(
4
), 525–53.
Blom, E., & Paradis, J. (2013). Past
tense production by English second language learners with and without language
impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research,
56
1, 281–294.
Bosch, L., Figueras, M., Teixidó, M., & Ramon-Casas, M. (2013). Rapid
gains in segmenting fluent speech when words match the rhythmic unit: Evidence from infants acquiring syllable-timed
languages. Frontiers in
Psychology,
4
1.
Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging
in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics
Review,
2
1, 1–28.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects
of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.
Chung, S. C., Chen, X., & Geva, E. (2019). Deconstructing
and reconstructing cross-language transfer in bilingual reading development: An interactive
framework. Journal of
Neurolinguistics,
50
1, 149–161.
Comeau, L., Genesee, F., & Lapaquette, L. (2003). The
modeling hypothesis and child bilingual codemixing. International Journal of
Bilingualism,
7
(2), 113–126.
Comeau, L., Genesee, F., & Mendelson, M. (2010). A
comparison of bilingual and monolingual children’s conversational repairs. First
Language,
30
(3–4), 354–374.
Conboy, B. T., & Thal, D. J. (2006). Ties
between the lexicon and grammar: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of bilingual
toddlers. Child
Development,
77
(3), 712–735.
Cook, V. (1991). The
poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multi-competence. Second Language
Research,
7
(2), 103–117.
Council of Europe (2000). Common European
framework of references for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Language Policy Division. Strasbourg. Retrieved
from [URL]
Dalen, M., & Rygvold, A.-L. (2006). Educational
achievement in adopted children from China. Adoption
Quarterly,
9
1, 45–58.
David, A., & Li Wei. (2008). Individual
differences in the lexical development of French-English bilingual children. International
Journal of Bilingual Education and
Bilingualism,
11
1(
5
1), 598–618.
Day, E., & Shapson, S. (1991). Integrating
formal and functional appraoches to language teaching in French immersion: An experimental
study. Language
Learning,
41
1, 25–58.
De Bot, K., Wander, L., & Verspoor, M. (2007). A
dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition,
10
1(
1
1), 7–21.
DeGeer, B. (1992). Internationally
adopted children in communication: A developmental study. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Lund University, Sweden.
De Houwer, A. (2009). Bilingual
first language acquisition. Multilingual Matters.
Delcenserie, A., & Genesee, F. (2014). Language
and memory abilities of internationally-adopted children from China. Journal of Child
Language,
41
1, 1195–1223.
de Valenzuela, J., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Parkington, K., Mirenda, P., Cain, K., MacLeod, A. A., & Segers, E. (2016). Access
to opportunities for bilingualism for individuals with developmental disabilities: Key informant
interviews. Journal of Communication
Disorders,
63
1, 32–46.
Fennell, C., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2014). You
sound like Mommy: Bilingual and monolingual infants learn words best from speakers typical of their language
environments. International Journal of Behavioral
Development,
38
(4), 309–316.
García, O., & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging:
Language, bilingualism, and education. Palgrave MacMillan.
Genesee, F. (1989). Early bilingual development: One language or two. Journal of Child Language,
16
1, 161–179.
Genesee, F. (2002). Portrait
of the bilingual child. In V. Cook (Ed.), Portraits
of the Second Language
User (pp. 170–196). Multilingual Matters.
Genesee, F. (2004). What
do we know about bilingual education for majority language
students? In T. K. Bhatia & W. Ritchie (Eds.), Handbook
of bilingualism and
multiculturalism (pp. 547–576). Blackwell.
Genesee, F. (2019). Language
development in simultaneous bilinguals: The early years. In J. von Koss Torkildsen & J. Horst (Eds.) International
handbook on language
development (pp.300–320). Routledge.
Genesee, F., Boivin, I., & Nicoladis, E. (1996). Talking
with strangers: A study of bilingual children’s communicative competence. Applied
Psycholinguistics,
17
(4), 427–442.
Gildersleeve-Newman Kester, C. E., Davis, B. I., & Pena, E. D. (2008). English
speech sound development in preschool-age children from English-Spanish environments. Language,
Speech, and Hearing Services in
Schools,
39
1(
3
1), 314–328.
Grosjean, F. (1985). The
bilingual as a competent but specific speaker-hearer. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development,
6
(6), 467–477.
Hambly, C., & Fombonne, E. (2014). Factors
influencing bilingual expressive vocabulary size in children with autism spectrum
disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum
Disorders,
8
1, 1079–1089.
Harley, B. (1998). The
role of form-focused tasks in promoting child L2
acquisition. In C. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds), Focus
on Form in Classroom Second Language
Acquisition (pp. 156–174). Cambridge University Press.
Hoff, E. (2003). The
specificity of environmental influence: socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal
speech. Child
Development,
74
1(
5
1), 1368–1378.
Hoff, E., Core, C., Place, S., Rumiche, R., Señor, M., & Parra, M. (2012). Dual
language exposure and early bilingual development. Journal of Child
Language,
39
(1), 1–27.
Hoshino, N., & Thierry, G. (2011). Language
selection in bilingual word production: Electrophysiological evidence for cross-language
competition. Brain
Research,
1371
1, 100–109.
Hurtado, N., Gruter, T., Marchman, V., & Fernald, A. (2014). Relative
language exposure, processing efficiency, and vocabulary in Spanish-English bilingual
toddlers. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition,
17
1(
1
1), 189–202.
Jorgensen, J. (2008). Poly-lingual
languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of
Multilingualism,
5
(3), 161–176.
Kay-Raining Bird, E., Genesee, F., & Verhoeven, L. (2016). Bilingualism
in children with developmental disorders. Journal of Communication
Disorders, 631, 1–14.
Kehoe, M., & Havy, M. (2109). Bilingual
phonological acquisition: The influence of language internal, language external, and lexical
factors. Journal of Children
Language,
46
1(
2
1), 292–333.
Kim, H. S. K., Relkin, N. R., Kyoung-Min, L., & Hirsch, J. (1997). Distinct
cortical areas associated with native and second
languages. Nature,
388
1, 171–174.
Kroll, J. (2008). Juggling
two languages in one mind. Psychological Science
Agenda,
22
(1). [URL].
Kroll, J., Bobb, S., & Hoshino, N. (2014). Two
languages in mind: Bilingualism as a tool to investigate language, cognition, and the
brain. Current Directions in Psychological
Science,
23
1, 159–163.
Kuhl, P. K., Williams, K. A., Lacerda, F., Stevens, K. N., & Lindblom, B. (1992). Linguistic
experience alters phonetic perception in infants by 6 months of
age. Science,
255
(5044), 606–608.
Leopold, W. F. (1939–49). Speech
development of a bilingual child: A linguist’s
record. 41 vols. Northwestern University Press.
Lightbown, P. M. (2014). Focus
on content-based language teaching. Oxford University Press.
Lyster, R. (1994). The
effect of functional-analytic teaching on aspects of French immersion students’ sociolinguistic
competence. Applied
Linguistics,
15
1, 263–287.
MacSwan, J. (2017). A
multilingual perspective on translanguaging. American Educational Research
Journal,
54
(
1
), 3–34.
Mady, C. (2015). Immigrants
outperform Canadian-born groups in French immersion: Examining factors that influence their
achievement. International Journal of
Multilingualism,
13
(3), 298–311.
Mady, C. (2017). The
bilingual advantage for immigrant students in French immersion in Canada: Linking advantages to contextual
variables. International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual
Education,
20
(3), 225–251.
Marchman, V. A., & Bates, E. (1994). Continuity
in lexical and morphological development: A test of the critical mass hypothesis. Journal of
Child
Language,
21
(2), 339–366.
Marchman, V. A., Martinez-Sussman, C., & Dale, P.S. (2004). The language-specific nature of grammatical development: Evidence from bilingual language learners. Developmental Science,
7
(
2
), 212–224. .
Macnamara, J. (1966). Bilingualism
and primary education. Edinburgh University Press.
Mehisto, P. (2017). CLIL
essentials for secondary school teachers. Cambridge University Press.
Meisel, J. M. (2011). First
and second language acquisition: Parallels and differences. Cambridge University Press.
Nicoladis, E., Palmer, A., & Marentette, P. (2007). The
role of type and token frequency in using past tense morphemes correctly. Developmental
Science,
10
1, 237–254.
Oller, K., Pearson, B. Z., & Cobo-Lewis, A. B. (2007). Profile
effects in early bilingual language and literacy. Applied
Psycholinguistics,
28
(2). 191–230.
Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying
translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied
Linguistics
Review,
6
1(
3
1), 281–307.
Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2019). a
translanguaging view of the linguistic system of bilinguals. Applied Linguistics
Review,
10
(
4
), 625–651.
Paradis, J., & Genesee, F. (1996). Syntactic
acquisition in bilingual children. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition,
18
(1), 1–25.
Paradis, J., Genesee, F., & Crago, M. (2021). Dual
language development and disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning, 3rd
Edition. Brookes Publishing.
Paradis, J., & Govindarajan. (2018). Bilingualism
and children with language and communication disorders. In D. Miller, F. Bayram, J. Rothman & L. Serratrice (Eds). Bilingual
cognition and language: The state of the science across its subfields (pp. 347–370). John Benjamins.
Paradis, J., & Navarro, S. (2003). Subject
realization and crosslinguistic interference in the bilingual acquisition of Spanish and
English. Journal of Child
Language,
30
1, 371–393.
Paradis, J., Nicoladis, E., Crago, M., & Genesee, F. (2011). Bilingual
children’s acquisition of the past tense: A usage-based approach. Journal of Child
Language,
38
1, 554–578.
Petersen, J. M., Marinova-Todd, S. H., & Mirenda, P. (2012). Brief
report: An exploratory study of lexical skills in bilingual children with autism spectrum
disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental
Disorders,
42
1, 1499–1503.
Pierce, L., Chen, J. K., Delcenserie, A., Genesee, F., & Klein, D. (2015). Past
experience shapes ongoing neural patterns for language. Nature
Communications,
6
1.
Polka, L., & Sundara, M. (2003). Word
segmentation in monolingual and bilingual infant learners of English and French. Paper presented at
the Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic
Sciences, Barcelona, Spain.
Poulin-Dubois, D., Bialystok, E., Blaye, A., Polonia, A., & Yott, J. (2013). Lexical
access and development in very young bilinguals. International Journal of
Bilingualism,
17
(
1
), 57–70.
Reetzke, R., Zoui, X. K., Sheng, L., & Katsos, N. (2015). Communicative
development in bilingually exposed Chinese children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of
Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research,
58
1, 813–835.
Rezzonico, S., Chen, X., Cleave, P., Greenberg, J., Hipfner-Boiucher, K., Johnson, C., et al. (2015). Oral
narratives in monolingual and bilingual preschoolers with SLI. International Journal of
Language and Communication
Disorders,
50
1, 830–841.
Ribot, K.M., Hoff, E., & Burridge, A. (2018). Language use contributes to expressive language growth: Evidence from bilingual children. Child Development,
89
(
3
), 929–940.
Ronjat, J. (1913). Le
developpément du language observe chez un enfant
bilingue. Paris: Librairie Ancienne H. Champion.
Rottschy, C., Langer, R., Reetz, D. K., Laird, A. R., Shulz, J. B., Fox, P. T., & Eickhoff, S. B. (2012). Modelling
neural correlates of working memory: A coordinate-based
meta-analysis. NeuroImage,
60
1, 830–846.
Rutter, M., Sonuga-Barke, E., & Castle, J. (2010). Investigating
the impact of early institutional deprivation on development: Background and research strategy of the English and Romanian
adoptees (ERA) study. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child
Development,
75
(1).
Scott, K. A., & Roberts, J. A. (2016). Language
development during the preschool years. In F. Genesee & A. Delcenserie (Eds), Starting
over – the language development in internationally-adopted
children (pp. 65–94). John Benjamins.
Sebastián-Gallés, N., & Bosch, L. (2002). Building
phonotactic knowledge in bilinguals: Role of early exposure. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and
Performance,
28
(4), 974.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal
Behavior. Copley Publishing Group.
Smith, L. B., & Thelen, E. (2003). Development
as a dynamic system. Trends in Cognitive
Science,
7
(8), 343–348.
Stevens, F. (1983). Activities
to promote learning and communication in the second language classroom. TESOL
Quarterly17
1, 259–272.
Swain, M. (2005). The
output hypothesis: Theory and research. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook
of research in second language teaching and
learning (pp. 471–484). Routledge.
Tedick, D. J., & Lyster, R. (2020). Scaffolding
language development in immersion and dual language
classrooms. Routledge.
Thordardottir, E. (2011). The
relationship between bilingual exposure and vocabulary development. International Journal of
Bilingualism,
15
(4), 426–445.
Valicenti-McDermott, M., Tarshis, N., Schouls, M., Galdston, M., Hottinger, K., Seijo, R., Shulman, L., & Shinnar, S. (2013). Language
differences between monolingual English and bilingual English-Spanish young children with autism spectrum
disorders. Journal of child
neurology,
28
(7), 945–948.
van Ijzendoorn, M., Juffer, F., & Poelhuis, C. (2005). Adoption
and cognitive development: A meta-analytic comparison of adopted and non-adopted children’s IQ and school
performance. Psychological
Bulletin,
131
1, 301–316.
Verhoeven, L., Steenge, J., & van Balkom, H. (2011). Verb
morphology as a clinical marker of specific language impairment: Evidence from first and second language
learners. Research in Developmental
Disabilities,
32
1, 1186–1193.
Volterra, V., & Taeschner, T. (1978). The
acquisition and development of language by bilingual children. Journal of Child
Language,
5
1, 311–326.
Werker, J. F., & Hensch, T. K. (2015). Critical
periods in speech perception: New directions. Annual Review of
Psychology,
66
1, 173–196.
Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language
speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant
Behavior and
Development,
7
(1), 49–63.
Yip, V., & Matthews, S. (2007). The
bilingual child. Early development and language contact. Cambridge University Press.
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Barnes, Emily
2024. Inclusive and Special Education in English-Medium, Irish-Medium, and Gaeltacht Schools. In Inclusive Education in Bilingual and Plurilingual Programs [Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design, ], ► pp. 80 ff.
Truan, Naomi
2024. Whose language counts?. European Journal of Applied Linguistics 12:1 ► pp. 34 ff.
Casalicchio, Jan & Manuela Caterina Moroni
2023. The Syntax–Pragmatics Interface in Heritage Languages: The Use of anche (“Also”) in German Heritage Speakers of Italian. Languages 8:2 ► pp. 104 ff.
De Houwer, Annick
2023. The danger of bilingual–monolingual comparisons in applied psycholinguistic research. Applied Psycholinguistics 44:3 ► pp. 343 ff.
Luk, Gigi
2023. Justice and equity for whom? Reframing research on the “bilingual (dis)advantage”. Applied Psycholinguistics 44:3 ► pp. 301 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.