A case study of a toddler exposed to three languages

(English, Bisaya, Hiligaynon)

Abtract
This case study focuses on a toddler (1-3 year old) language development as an effect
of being exposed to three languages with various kinds of exposure. This aims to
address regarding the child’s present language developments and simultaneous
development. This focuses on her language developments in terms of: a.) early
language development b.) phonological development, c.) semantic and syntactic
development, d.) pragmatic development and e.) vocabulary development.

Introduction

This study is about from 1 to 3-year old child born in Philippines to both Filipino
parents. The mother of a child work as an owner of a small business in Municipality
of Murcia. Both parents came from the same town in the Philippines and both speak
the same Philippine dialect, “Hiligaynon”. Hiligaynon, also often referred to as
Ilonggo, is an Austronesian regional language spoken in the Philippines by about 9.1
million people.

The child is then exposed mainly to English and Hiligaynon as the parents and the
caregivers talk to her in Bisaya. On the other hand, the parents and her caregiver talk
amongst themselves in Bisaya and sometimes they talk to her in bits of Bisaya as well.
The language of the community are Bisaya and Hiligaynon. The child goes to the park
near their house and play with other Ilonggos children her age. The child then is
exposed to Ilonggos during these occasions. But mainly 90% of the time, she is
exposed to English and Hiligaynon at home. This study aims to look at her present
language developments and her exposure to various languages.

Methodology

This research falls under the category of database linguistic research which is a
breakthrough in first language acquisition research because the researcher bases her
assumptions about on her little girl cousin and this was happened on a daily basis
through pursuing and noting down the emergence of naturalistic observation.
Naturalistic observation is a research method that is used in this study. The
technique involves observing subjects in their natural environment. It can be used if
conducting lab research would be unrealistic, cost-prohibitive, or would unduly affect
the subject's behavior. The aim of naturalistic case study is to understand with
minimum intervention the particularity of a case in its ordinary situation from
multiple perspectives. Naturalistic case study relies on a humanistic commitment to
study the world from the human perspective.

Body

Language is a complex phenomenon. Orillos (1997), defined it as essentially human,

systematic, generative, set of primarily vocal, arbitrary symbols used for
communication with conventionalized meaning that operates in a speech community
or culture. The main question arises as to how young children acquire their first
language.

There are many theories that can explain the language acquisition of language by
young children depending on their perspectives (biological, cognitive, psychological,
social, etc.) However, everything starts in the mother’s womb. According to Gleason
(2005) even said that infants learn their language even before birth. Thus, even before
the child is born, he is already exposed to the native language which could help in his
future language acquisition. That is why parents, especially mothers (speech sounds
travel through bone conduction) are encouraged to talk and sing to their children in
the womb. This early prenatal exposure gives the child a head start on language
acquisition.

The controversy starts after the child is born. Many theorists disagree on the
“nature-nurture” debate on how the child acquires the language. The empiricists
believe that language is acquired because they are learned. The environment is an
important tool in language acquisition. Behaviorists regard language as a skill, which
can be conditioned and reinforced. B.F. Skinner (in Gleason, 2005) postulated that
children are conditioned by their environment to respond to various stimuli with
language; wherein they are rewarded when they speak more adult-like thus helps them
become more skillful. Thus, a child who is reared in a language-rich environment
could improve their language communication greatly. Environment is indeed helpful
in improving and developing a child’s linguistic abilities.

The caregiver’s interactive and “happy talk” communication is also a factor as well as
encouraging “joint attention” and “responsive interactional style” in fostering a social
environment for the infant in terms of acquiring a language (Gleason, 2005). These
features provide evidence that social interaction is indeed an important factor in first
language acquisition.

Present Language Development:

What is the present language development of the child (early language development,
phonology, semantic/syntactic, pragmatic and vocabulary)?

Early language developments: When the mother was pregnant, she was aware that
babies in “utero” could hear sounds. Thus, the parents made attempts to “talk” and
“sing” to their baby when she was still in her womb. The parents regularly sang
English songs, with the father playing the guitar. They also “talked” to the baby both
in English and Hiligaynon while she was still in the womb. When, she was born, they
made lots of effort to “talk” to her even though other people thought it strange to be
“talking” to a baby.

When the child was younger (first year) she used lots of “protowords”, vocalizations
and gestures that slowly faded away as she started to learn to say words for them. She
used to say “mammam” if she was hungry or if she wanted something. Then she
started saying “eat” with her hand gesturing food putting into her mouth, while going
to the table and sitting on the chair.

Phonological developments: about the phonological developments of a child, it is

interesting to note that there are many trends and patterns that are actually happening
to the child in the subject. There are similar trends in looking at phonological errors
that many children have in common. These phonological errors were identified by
Gleason (2005) and Lust (2006). With the child as a subject, such errors include:

a. omission of unstressed syllable: “nana” for “banana”, “mato” for “tomato”,

b. assimilation: “ice gream” for “ice cream”

c. assimilation and gliding: “bwack” for “black”

d. omission of unstressed syllable in the middle of the word and omission of final
consonant: “efan” for “elephant”

In all cases, the child pronunciation should not be corrected, instead adults should
repeat everythings they say with the correct pronunciation. To improve a child's
phonemic awareness, parents and caretakers should sing songs and choose words that
rhyme together.

Semantic and Syntactic Development: Children learn the “pragmatic intent” of

people’s words before they can understand the words “by themselves”. When the
child was younger, she learned the meaning of words through “learning theory”.
That’s probably why her first few words include the following: “mommy”, “daddy”,
“dede” (breastmilk), “tea”, “milk” through associative learning. According to Gleason
(2005), learning theory postulates that the words, which have concrete referents, are
easier to distinguish and produce and eventually to associate.

When she was growing up, her semantic development probably leaned more on
“developmental theory” wherein the meaning is derived from “skills on multiple
domains”. That probably explains why when the mother is talking to her about
something then she usually looks at what the mother was referring to.

Nowadays, the mother is sometimes surprised when she says some words that she has
heard only a few times. The child must be exposed to a word many times before it is
learned. For example, the mother was surprised when she said, “Where are you? Here
I come” while playing hide and seek. It was the mother’s first time to hear her say
those words. A classic example of “fast mapping” and moving beyond “2-word
utterances”

Pragmatic developments: It is learning how to use the language in interacting with

the people around. In the case of the child in the study, it can be said that she has
acquired simple pragmatic skills. These are evidenced by her production of use of
polite expressions such as “thank you”, “pease” (please), you’re welcome, “he you
are” (here you are) and “sowee” (sorry).

Vocabulary developments: In fact, children learn many new words once they start
reading and going to school. 1 ½ Toddlers develop around a 20-word
vocabulary during this time. By the time a child is 2 years old, he/she will have a
200–300-word vocabulary. Vocabulary grows to be about 900–1,000 words by the
time a child is 3 years old.
A quick look at the list of words (excluding 2-words and beyond) shows that she has
more than Hiligaynon words than English and Bisaya.

Hiligaynon English Bisaya

209 8 10

She has about 212 words and only 8 English and 10 Bisaya utterances. The reason
could be her frequency of exposure and input to the three languages. People around
her, like her parents and grandmother, talk to her in English and Hiligaynon most of
the time. Her parents and grandmother talk in Bisaya amongst themselves.

The child’s simultaneous bilingualism or multilingualism is an effect of various

factors. Hiligaynon was chosen as the language to be used in communication with
minimal exposure to Bisaya and English. English and Hiligaynon are the language
used at home and the child has no option but be exposed to it. Bisaya and Hiligaynon
on the other hand are the community language. As of now, the parent’s choice and the
prevailing home and community language affect the child’s simultaneous
bilingualism. This would definitely change as the child will grow up and mingle with
the Ilonggos community outside their home.

Conclusion
This case study has looked at the linguistic development of a toddler exposed to three
languages: English, Bisaya and Hiligaynon. The study talked about the child’s
development from infancy to present. Her early language developments included lots
of babbling, sounds, protowords and gestures. Her present phonological development
was analyzed in terms of looking at the phonological errors that normal toddlers
exhibit when learning a language. Her semantic and syntactic development was seen
through the lenses of learning theory, developmental theory and instances of
“fast-mapping”. Her pragmatic development was analyzed through her use of polite
expressions, when not and to speak, her initiation to start a conversation and minimal
ability for waiting for response. Her vocabulary development is analyzed by counting
the total number of words that she could produce.
 Recommendations

Based on the reseacher observation of 1-3 year old child, and based on the latest
theories of language acquisition, the following recommendtaions can be given to
parents who would like to help their children enhance their children's blossoming
language skills:

a) If the parent's native language is Hiligaynon, they should always address their
children with this language and avoid using languages that they do not have
command of with them.
b) It is known that children reach a two-word utterance stage by the end of second
year and a three or more utterance stage by the end of third year. Hence, it is
highly recommended for tha mother or caregiver to read stories clearly aloud,
especially children's favorites towards the end of the third year of life to extend
their sentences.
c) This study opens as well the gate for database linguistic research for other age
groups because the study of teh linguistic developement of children should be
conducted through a continuum process as every age range should be dealt with
differnetly and in accordance with the brain capacity of the child. All age ranges
should be targeted because teh study of the rate at which language development
takes place is a good indicator and a determining factor of how parents and
caretakers should contribute to the enhancement of the children's linguistic skills
and this are of research deserves to be given utmost importace as it guides parents
throughout their children development stages in order to help them interfere by
lowering the affective filter, and practicing the language.

References
Orillos, L. (1997). Language Acquisition, theories and principles. University of the Philippines Open
University
Gleason, J.B. (2005) The development of language. Pearson Education: USA
Lust, B. (2004). Testing effects of bilingualism on executive attention: comparison of cognitive
performance on two non-verbal tests. Poster session presented at the Boston University

Sumingwa, H.J. (2017). A case study of a toddler exposed to three languages (English, Ilocano,
Japanese). University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Osaka Board of Education.