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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Early Incidental Second Language Acquisition Through Cartoons

Early Incidental Second Language Acquisition Through Cartoons

Nisio, Rosalia Di

Hardcover

LinguisticsGeneral Education

ISBN10: 1350513792
ISBN13: 9781350513792
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Jul 23 2026
Pages: 286
Weight: 1.27
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

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 Bloomsbury Collections

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