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Copyright of Japan Journal of Multilingualism & Multiculturalism is the property of JALT Bilingualism SIG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite intentions to raise children in two home languages, non-Japanese bilingual homes may be encouraging the development of the societal language in children born in Japan. This article investigates: (1) the language use of two trilingual mothers with their developing trilingual children, and (2) how the mothers respond to their children's use of the societal or majority language in the home environment. Both families considered their toddlers to be dominant in Japanese, although the children have been exposed simultaneously from birth to two other languages at home and did not hear Japanese until they entered community-based daycare centers at ages 0;5 and 0;11, respectively. Both mothers used similar discourse strategies that inadvertently encouraged their children between ages 1;1 and 2;1 to use Japanese in the home context. Although one child was a passive or receptive trilingual, the other became an active one, resulting in the conclusion that parental discourse strategies encouraging bilingual contexts are not absolutely detrimental to active multilingualism, not only because they are necessary for smooth interactions in the earliest stages of language acquisition, but also because they may help support more than one minority language in the home context. (Contains 4 figures and 4 tables.)

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.)

Deaf education is in a period of great transition in Japan as a result of the "Educational Reform Plan for the 21st Century" proposed by the Japanese education ministry. Unfortunately, the communication needs of deaf students have not been taken into account in the Plan's recommendations. One area where deaf students must attain the same achievement goals as their hearing peers is in "English as a foreign language" classes. Since most of the information about English teaching for the deaf in Japan is published in Japanese, the aim of this article is to review otherwise inaccessible sources for an English-speaking audience to show the current state of English education for the Deaf in Japan.

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)

Identifies two versions of the question of whether there is a single initial system in the syntax of developing bilinguals. (Author/VWL)