How two English/Spanish bilingual children translate: in search for bilingual competence through natural interpretation

Abstract

Ever since Harris (1973; 1977) put forward the term natural translation/ interpretation (Harris, 1997), research has also been conducted on the relationship between the capacity bilinguals have to translate (Harris & Sherwood, 1978; Harris, 1980; 1997) and the bilingual competence required for it (Malakoff & Hakuta, 1991; Lorscher, 1992; Álvarez de la Fuente, 2006; 2007). The present study aims at contributing to this debate by providing an analysis of the natural translations that appear in the data from two English/Spanish balanced bilingual chil­ dren from the Ferfulice corpus (Femández Fuertes & Liceras, 2009) in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000). We address the issue of bilingual competence and, in particular, of how the analysis of oral translation cases can provide informa­ tion regarding the pattems that govem this kind of translation; the constraints that govem the interpretative and contextual mapping between the two languages; and the relationship that exits between bilingual competence and performance in the translation activity. In order to do so we have analysed the spontaneous and experimental production of these two bilingual children (age range: 1;11-6;3 years old) and we have also proposed a series of variables that render the linguistic and contextual pattems that the children follow when they interpret naturally.