Acquisition of Numerosity in One English-Spanish Bilingual Child: A Case Study
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
Type
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
en
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
No restrictions
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
This paper analyzes the development of numerosity in one English-Spanish bilingual
two-year old. Using three of Wynn’s 1992 number experiments that have shaped the field of
children’s number-learning, I compare my subject’s results to those found in Wynn’s original
paper as well as studies that have since used her same methods, especially Wagner’s 2015 work
with English-Spanish bilingual children. For this study, a series of sessions was conducted over a
two-month span, and then another series of sessions happened after a two-month break. Between
these two series, my subject showed a jump in ability that is common amongst children during
the numerosity-learning process. At each of these stages, I explored whether my subject’s
experience mirrored that of a typical number-learning process. Specifically, results of previous
studies predicted that my subject would progress through specific stages in his number-learning
process –– starting with being a one-knower, to a two-knower, to a three-knower, and eventually
to a cardinal principle knower. Results of previous studies also suggested that my subject would
learn his early numbers, one, two, and three, separately in each of his languages. Finally, it is
expected that, once a child shows knowledge of the cardinal principle in one of his languages, he
will jump to that same level of knowledge in his other language(s), “skipping” expected
number-learning stages. I found that my subject generally mirrored these patterns, with some
variation based on his age and specific number-learning process. Overall, this case study offers
an opportunity to test whether results from previous group studies are replicated for one bilingual
child as well as to gain more in-depth insights about this child’s acquisition of numerosity.