Bringing Up Children to Be Bilingual: Perceptions and Attitudes - Two Hungarian Case Studies

Estimates suggest that 75% of the world population speaks more than one language. This means that more than half of the population is bilingual. Language is an everyday notion and activity in the life of human beings, one of the main tools in socialization. This book deals with the framework of first language acquisition (Chomsky, Skinner, Krashen, Piaget) and bilingualism. Different theories are presented concerning children learning to speak and in two case studies the topics are discussed from the point of view of two bilingual families. Individual differences and social contexts make simple generalizations about the development of bilingualism, advantages, and disadvantages difficult. Consequently, researchers emphasize the difficulty of establishing relationship between bilingualism and greater cognitive flexibility. Therefore I am looking for an answer to the question whether the advantages and disadvantages hoped by the parents regarding their children growing up bilingual are fulfilled or not in the present. Whether the advantages and disadvantages examined in the case studies and proved by different studies are the same or not.