Language functions in early childhood education: The cognitive‐linguistic experiences of bilingual and monolingual children

Abstract

Abstract In this study the differences in language use between bilingual immigrant children with high and low Dutch language proficiency, and monolingual native Dutch children are explored. The language functions of utterances expressed by those bilingual and monolingual children differ in quantity and quality, i.e. the monolingual children tend to use their language ‘multi‐functional’ and for cognitively more complex functions than their bilingual classmates; the ‘high proficiency’, bilingual children express more functions per utterance and more complex functions than their ‘low proficiency’, bilingual classmates. Effects of communicative situation and development in a school year are also studied.