Article published In: ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 137/138 (2002) ► pp.313–340
The Acquisition of the Plural in Tarifit-Berber
between bilingual and monolingual children
Published online: 1 January 2002
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.137-138.08rra
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.137-138.08rra
Abstract
This paper brings a quantitative and qualitative study of the proficiency of bilingual children in plural formation in Tarifit-berber. These children were born and live in the Netherlands. Besides, a monolingual group in Morocco was submitted to the same plural task. The group in Morocco is used in this study as a reference group.
The expectations about the performances of the two groups are built on two facts. The first, the plural system of Tarifit-Berber is a complex one. Second, children born and grown up in migration (the Netherlands in this case) have a reduced input in their parents' language (Tarifit-Berber). The bilingual children in The Netherlands are expected to have more difficulties in performing the task. The study is intended to show how the two groups performed in the task, types of difficulties faced, commonalities and differences between them.
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