A longitudinal study of how a pair of opposite-sex twins and a singleton acquire language over the span of a year

Abstract

The thesis discusses the phonological and syntactic aspects of language acquisition of one set of opposite sex twins, aged 3 and a female singleton aged 4. Over a period of one year, the present researcher video recorded her young subjects a number of times at regular intervals in their own homes. The theoretical framework of this study is based on the writings of psycholinguists such as Chomsky (1965), Berko Gleason (2005), Kess (1993), Fletcher & MacWhinney (1994), O'Grady (2005), Clarke (1974) and Lust (2006). Furthermore, since studies such as those carried out by John Field (2004) have documented that at times, the language acquisition process of twins, and in particular, opposite sex pairs is rather different from that of singletons, the boy's' language is compared with that of his sister's. As regards the singleton, her language acquisition process is studied separately. Since this study is, by nature qualitative, it is not representative of all twins and singletons. Instead, it gives us insight as to how these three Maltese, English-speaking children who are immersed in a bilingual setting, acquire their first language.