Adriana Weisleder, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Northwestern University
Studying and Supporting Bilingualism in Immigrant Children:
An Integrative Approach
Immigrant children represent a large fraction of multilingual learners in the United States. However, the literature on bilingualism rarely centers the experiences of immigrant children. In this talk, I bring together cognitive science research on bilingualism with the integrative model of adaptation in immigrant-origin children to argue that immigrant children encounter unique contexts – both at the macro and micro level – that shape their opportunities for learning language. Focusing on Latine families, I will argue that immigrant children encounter unique circumstances that result in 1) distinct patterns of dual language exposure across speakers and contexts, and 2) distinct early literacy experiences, that shape their language development. I will then discuss how supporting multilingualism in immigrant children would benefit from considering immigrant children’s unique contexts and intersecting identities—both as immigrants and as learners of minoritized languages.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (1R01HD109291, 1R21DC018357), the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Delaney Family Foundation Fund for Research and Communication.