Statements like Ich kann doch nicht shufflen! or other language mixings belong to the everyday
life of bilingual children. This book deals exactly with this topic and contains a case study
about English-German bilinguals having lived in Great Britain and the U.S. and now growing up
in Germany. Thereby the study is based on the current theory of bilingualism. The study was
conducted with a family living in Germany whereby the children were 8 10 and 12 years old.
They were studied for 2 weeks in their everyday lives and the results should be of interest
for all kinds of readers who are interested in languages and their acquisition or who are
personally involved in bilingualism. In chapter 1 the term 'bilingualism' is described briefly
the reasons for the chosen topic are portrayed and the family of the case study and their
special situation is introduced. In the next chapter a general overview about the theoretical
background of bilingualism is given. Important sub items of this chapter are the current status
of research the ways in which bilinguals can be categorized the 'one person one language
principle' and interferences and code-mixing as important components of bilingualism. In
chapter 3 the case study itself is presented. Here the aims methodology and materials of the
study are described. Subsequently the results of the case study are brought into relation with
the underlying linguistic theory. At the end of the book the findings of the study are
summarized and further the consequences for the three children's language acquisition
processes are drawn.
