The Use of Directives by a Child in a Sinhala- English Bilingual Household

Abstract

There is less research recorded in the field of first language acquisition on acquisition of Sinhala as a first language in a bilingual environment. Since the languages differ from each other, it is essential to have separate studies to examine the acquisition patterns of each language. “And since languages differ, their acquisition might also be affected by the properties of each language. For example, the type of language could influence the order in which children acquire specific parts of the language and could also make some elements harder or easier to acquire.”(Clark, 2009) It is evident that there is less research on this area in the Sri Lankan context. This study covers how Sinhala bilingual middle class children use directives in a SinhalaEnglish bilingual household where English is the second language of the parents and siblings. This research is done through the study and analysis of the recordings of everyday speech of five children between two years of age to four years of age. The differences, if any, of the speech acts when these occur in the two different languages - Sinhala and English - will be presented.