Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2010, 32, 157–161.

© Cambridge University Press, 2010 0272-2631/10 $15.00

157

BOOK NOTICES

doi:10.1017/S0272263109990386

CHILDHOOD BILINGUALISM: RESEARCH ON INFANCY THROUGH
SCHOOL AGE . Peggy McCardle and Erika Hoff (Eds.). Clevedon,
UK : Multilingual Matters , 2006 . Pp. x + 170.

This star-studded volume is based on a workshop on childhood bilingualism
held in 2004 with many renowned researchers in the fi eld as contributors. The
emerging fi eld of childhood bilingualism is well served by this timely volume
that aims to establish a foundation and research agenda for years to come. The
volume consists of 11 articles and is divided into fi ve parts that cover (a) language
processing, (b) cognitive and social development, (c) literacy development,
(d) other perspectives from adult bilingualism and crosslinguistic research, and
(e) closing comments.

The fi eld of childhood bilingualism ranges from bilingual fi rst language ac-

quisition to child SLA, from infancy to early and later childhood. Regardless of
the type of childhood bilingualism, the bilingual child is not two monolinguals
in one brain; this message is propounded by more than one contribution in
this volume. An overall theory of childhood bilingualism will need to be devel-
oped to address issues of epistemology and differences between bilinguals
and monolinguals.

A salient issue that at the same time vexes and tantalizes researchers is the

ever-present heterogeneity in the population of bilingual children with regard
to variables such as age of exposure, amount of input in each language, domi-
nance, and outcomes. A challenge that any researcher has to confront is the
role of the dual input in shaping children’s bilingual development and language
dominance. Detailed analysis of the quality and quantity of the input in each
language will promote the understanding of how bilingualism develops in the
child.

With most contributors being from the United States and Canada, the language

pairs investigated overwhelmingly involve English together with other Indo-
European languages, such as French, Spanish, and Welsh, with the exception of
two studies that include Cantonese and one that involves Hebrew. Although the
issues and views presented are of universal validity and amenable to crosslin-
guistic application, the languages under investigation represent a small fraction
of the diversity of languages acquired in bilingual and multilingual contexts.

McCardle and Hoff conclude with an agenda that calls for new measures to

chart bilingualism across the life span. Extending the focus to language pairs
outside of the Indo-European domain can be added to this agenda.

( Received 13 April 2009 )

Virginia Yip

Chinese University of Hong Kong