Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child Development

When two or more languages are part of a child's world, we are presented with a richopportunity to learn something about language in general and about how the mind works. In this book,Norbert Francis examines the development of bilingual proficiency and the different kinds ofcompetence that come together in making up its component parts. In particular, he explores problemsof language ability when children use two languages for tasks related to schooling, especially inlearning how to read and write. He considers both broader research issues and findings from anongoing investigation of child bilingualism in an indigenous language--speaking community in Mexico.This special sociolinguistic context allows for a unique perspective on some of the central themesof bilingualism research today, including the distinction between competence and proficiency,modularity, and the Poverty of Stimulus problem. Francis proposes that competence (knowledge) shouldbe considered as an integral component of proficiency (ability) rather than something separate andapart, arguing that this approach allows for a more inclusive assessment of research findings fromdiverse fields of study. The bilingual indigenous language project illustrates how the concepts ofmodularity and the competence-proficiency distinction in particular might be applied to problems oflanguage learning and literacy. Few investigations of indigenous language and culture approachbilingual research problems from a cognitive science perspective. By suggesting connections tobroader cognitive and linguistic issues, Francis points the way to further research along theselines.

Norbert Francis is Professor of Bilingual and Multicultural Education in the College of Education at Northern Arizona University.