Early Incidental Second Language Acquisition through Cartoons

This fascinating open access study explains and describes the process by which young children can acquire a second language incidentally, via joyful and regular exposure to animated cartoons. This multi-year activity can replicate some aspects of the mother-tongue acquisition process, especially when supported by a co-viewing caregiver.

Rosalia Di Nisio emphasises two important elements in the acquisition process: the mediation of co-viewing adults as a motivating factor, and the multimodal nature of cartoons as a facilitator of extensive comprehension through sounds and images. She gives evidence to this multimodality by first focusing on the ‘dual coding’ interaction between cartoons’ verbal and non-verbal dimensions, then broadening her analysis to a more complex meaning-making discourse. Combining cognitive, relational and language perspectives, Di Nisio also demonstrates the near-native language acquisition phases: singing and acting out, which mark the baby’s involvement accompanied by a caregiver; the silent, but fertile phase, during which listening skills reach surprising levels; speech development, which is prompted by opportunities to interact with a native speaker.

Underpinned by foundational theory from cognitive psychology, multimodality and applied linguistics, this is an essential study of a fertile but overlooked mode of language acquisition.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com