Bilingual acquisition data: Natural Interpreting_NI dataset

Abstract

This investigation is focused on determining how bilingual children translate from one of their first languages to the other when they need to communicate. We examine the oral production of bilingual children with different language pairs as available in the CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System) (https://childes.talkbank.org/) project (MacWhinney 2000) (i.e., the FerFuLice, Ticio, Deuchar, Vila, GNP and Pérez-Bazán corpora) as well as in other compilation forms (i.e., Ronjat 1913; Leopold 1939–1949; Swain 1972; Lanza 1988, 1997, 2001; Cossato 2008), covering two types of data: spontaneous, where the children interact with adults in a natural context (e.g., at home); and experimental, where the children act as interpreters between two monolingual researchers. The analysis of how these bilingual children interpret between their two first languages provides valuable information about the linguistic resources and translation strategies that these children use to communicate in a bilingual context through their interpreting performance.