Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

children was not good for their intellectual development. In the 1970s, on the basis of new
research results, linguists concluded, that there is no single language or several languages as
such in the cognitive system of the child. Instead of there is common underlying proficiency
for the language acquisition and development. Depending on the language or the languages
which are spoken to the child, the child will acquire and learn one, two, three or more
languages, either parallel and at the same time or the one after the other, sequentially.
(illustration 3.2) (Cummins, 2001).
Cummins (1979) developed the "Iceberg" model, the theory of language interdependence.
Instead of having two separate areas for two languages in the cognitive system, this model
posits that the common features of languages are stored together and common knowledge
is linked and can interact. This model shows that the two languages are kept separate only at
the surface level, where they are used for listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Figure 3.4 Iceberg Model of Language Interdependence of languages (Cummins, 1979, 1981)
From 1970s onwards a number of research studies were published on BFLA quality and it
was not always clear whether children were growing up in a BFLA environment or not (De
Houwer, 2009). Volterra & Taeschner(1978) are opposed to the theory of Leopold. They
argue that young bilingual children prefer the mixed language to speaking one of the
languages separately; a position which is no longer upheld according to De Houwer (2009).
However, Grosjean (2010) questions what is meant by “mixing.” Does it refer to
interferences in language-dominant children or to code-switching and borrowings? These
questions are currently (2011) a subject of research.
Some case studies were published in the 1980s. George Saunders (1983) wrote a book on his
bilingual family: he raised his children in German, English, and Australian English. He spoke
German with his children, and his wife spoke Australian English; they were living in
Australian. Saunders described how a bilingual family is not an island, but part of a larger
community, even if that community is monolingual. More recently, Stephen Caldas (2006)
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