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This study examines the relationship between caregivers' conversational styles in One-Person-One-Language (OPOL) settings and early bilingual development. In particular, it attempts to demonstrate that interrogative styles may have an impact on bilingual children's responsiveness in two language contexts. It is based on longitudinal data of a bilingual child from ages 1;3 to 2;3 interacting with his English-speaking mother and Japanese-speaking grandmother. Results from a functional analysis of caregiver questions based on McDonald and Pien's model revealed that, for a given period of time, the bilingual child was exposed to a more tutorial style of interrogation in English, which frequently used questions to examine his knowledge, and a more child-centered style of interrogation in Japanese, which sought information about his feelings and needs. The contrasting interrogative styles led to varying rates of responses and contributed to faster development in English than in Japanese. (Contains 4 figures and 2 tables.)

In two case studies of trilingual development in the home, it was not the home languages that were the strongest but the language of the respective daycare centres. This paper investigates, first, how well the trilingual children could separate their daycare language from their home languages. Then it explores the kinds of communicative interaction in the daycare setting that promote language development. Data were collected at Japanese daycare centres for a trilingual German-English-Japanese boy from ages 1;1 to 1;10 and for a trilingual Chinese-English-Japanese girl from ages 2;0 to 2;4. Both children demonstrated discourse separation by using more than 90% Japanese in the daycare environment. Notably, two recurring discourse patterns were found in the input--the use of gesture-supported speech and onomatopoeic expressions. Both types of input make communication more transparent for language-learning toddlers. This study of trilingual children in the daycare environment demonstrates that: (1) having fewer opportunities to communicate in multi-party conditions in daycare environments does not necessarily impede language development; and (2) receiving higher levels of caregiver than peer speech does not mean that peers have no role in supporting trilingual children's language development. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

Investigates how early a developing bilingual who is exposed simultaneously to English and Spanish can make appropriate language choices. Kept detailed records of the child's cumulative vocabulary from the first word at 10 months and on weekly audiovideo recording in both Spanish and English contexts from age 1-3. (Author/VWL)