I have another quiz for you about raising bilingual kids! (This is the third quiz at Bilingual Monkeys. Try the first quiz and the second quiz, too.)
For this new quiz, I’ve created questions based on information found in Annick De Houwer’s book Bilingual First Language Acquisition. To read my impressions of the book, see Recommended Resources: Books on Bilingual Acquisition by Prominent Researcher Annick De Houwer. That post also features an insightful interview with the author.
Ready for the quiz? Good luck!
1. BFLA stands for Bilingual First Language Acquisition and, in Dr. De Houwer’s words, refers to “the development of language in young children who hear two languages spoken to them from birth.” On the other hand, when monolingual children begin to acquire a second language on top of their first language, not from birth but from a young age, as in day care or preschool, what is this process called?
a. ESLA, which stands for Early Second Language Acquisition
b. ESLA, which stands for Early Successive Language Acquisition
c. BSLA, which stands for Bilingual Second Language Acquisition
d. BSLA, which stands for Bilingual Successive Language Acquisition
2. Jules Ronjat, a French linguist, wrote the first book about BFLA, a case study of his son growing up with two languages from birth. When was this book published?
a. 1853
b. 1883
c. 1913
d. 1943
3. What is the term used to describe the exaggerated way of speaking, marked by a higher pitch, that adults tend to use when talking to babies?
a. canonical babbling
b. infant soundscape
c. infant-directed speech
d. floating utterances
4. One similarity between monolingual children and BFLA children involves normal variation: Whether one or two languages are being acquired, there is “a lot of variation between children in when they are able to say certain kinds of things.” What is a second similarity between monolingual children and BFLA children?
a. The absolute frequency of their language input is surprisingly similar.
b. They experience a similar process of uneven development in their language acquisition.
c. They both engage in similar dilingual conversations with others from the time they begin to make two-word combinations.
d. They reach similar milestones in their early language development at around the same ages.
5. At what age do most bilingual children start making two-word combinations?
a. Between the ages of 12 and 17 months
b. Between the ages of 18 and 23 months
c. Between the ages of 24 and 29 months
d. Between the ages of 30 and 35 months
6. At around what age do most bilingual children begin producing complex sentences, which combine simple sentences and “allow children to carry on better conversations and to tell stories.”
a. Around 36 months (age 3)
b. Around 42 months (age 3 and a half)
c. Around 48 months (age 4)
d. Around 54 months (age 4 and a half)
7. In Dr. De Houwer’s view, there are two factors that largely shape the amount of input a young child receives in a given language. One is the amount of time available for interaction in that language. And what is the second factor?
a. The speaking rates of the people interacting with the child
b. The amount of complex sentences used by caregivers
c. The number of people who use that language around the child
d. The number of languages the child hears
8. An important study of monolingual children in the United States, published by Hart and Risley in 1995, shows how parents’ speaking rates lead to significant differences in language input. In fact, by the time a child is three years old, how many more words will a child hear from a parent with a “high” speaking rate compared to a parent with a “low” speaking rate?
a. Twice as many words
b. Three times as many words
c. Four times as many words
d. Five times as many words
9. When a child speaks the “wrong” language to a parent and the parent responds by making efforts to encourage use of the “right” language and discourage use of the “wrong” language, these efforts are called…
a. unilingual utterances
b. mixed utterances
c. monolingual discourse strategies
d. bilingual discourse strategies
10. What is the name of the large public database of transcribed speech, in many languages, available online to researchers and the general public?
a. SPEEECH
b. TALKBASE
c. CHILDES
d. CHATTER
Yay! You’re finished! How did you do?!
Now give the other two quizzes a try…
What Do You Know About Bilingualism? Take This Quiz and Test Your Knowledge! (based on the book Bilingual: Life and Reality by Francois Grosjean)
Another Fun Quiz on Bilingualism! Test Your Knowledge! (based on the book A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker)

4 Responses
This is a great quiz! Tough, though… Occasionally even I had to think hard! Great questions, Adam. All the best to you and bilingual families across the world, Annick De Houwer
Thank you for trying the quiz, Annick! (And, of course, for writing the book that inspired it!)
Cool. Lots of trivia, but some good concepts alluded to as well. Nice to think about.
Question no. 8 is impressive!