Competence and Performance: Is a Child's Native Language Affected by the Acquisition of a Second Language?

Abstract

This study examines interference as it occurs in the speech of a 12-year-old bilingual child whose languages are Arabic and English. The subject spoke only Arabic before his arrival in the United States at the age of 8. The analysis of his speech shows interference on the syntactic and the lexical levels of the child's native language.

The analysis of the child's speech also shows that performance, with its apparent interference, is not a reflection of the bilingual's competence in Arabic. Performance, which is rarely a total manifestation of competence, presents different aspects of interference according to which the speaker can be classified as a native or nonnative speaker of a language. These aspects and their amount are examined, and performance is used as data to be investigated in order to determine the subject's level of competence.

Data were recorded for the subject under study over a period of six months. The material consists of systematized as well as spontaneous recorded speeches, both of which measure the impact of one linguistic system on the other concerning the quality and quantity of the subject's knowledge of Arabic.

This article demonstrates that the passive knowledge of the bilingual child is greater than his active knowledge. This finding supports the view that bilingualism is more than a study of the speaker's performance. An analysis of the speaker's level of competence and performance would give a complete picture of the bilingual's consciousness of his language.