Elebakarren eta elebidunen euskararen jabekuntzaren erritmoaren inguruan

Abstract

The present study examines the relationship between the linguistic input heard by children and their linguistic development in order to ascertain if the amount of input to which a child is exposed is a determining factor for the onset of language development.The development of Basque was studied in a sample of 950 children aged between 16 and 30 months who were exposed to different amounts of the language in the following proportions: A. monolingual children who only or mostly heard Basque (90-100% of input in Basque), B. bilingual children with high exposure to Basque (60-90% of input in Basque), C. bilingual children with largely equal amounts of exposure to Basque and another language (40-60% of input in Basque) D. bilingual children with low levels of exposure to Basque (less than 40% exposure to Basque).Development in vocabulary, morphology and syntax were analysed in the four groups at different ages. The groups were formed on the basis of parental report obtained by using the adaptation into Basque of the MacArthur Bates Communicative DeveLopment Inventories.The results show that up until the age of 26 months there are no significant differences between the four groups and that these can only be seen when children who only hear Basque, or who have a high degree of exposure to it (more than 60% of the time) are compared with those children with less exposure to Basque (less than 60% of the time).