Fikriani Aminun Omolu, Yazid Basthomi, Nunung Suryati
Language development in bilingual children presents a complex and fascinating area of study, especially regarding syntactic acquisition in understudied language pairings like English and Indonesian. This case study explores the syntactic development of Kaka, a six-year-old sequential bilingual child (English L1, Indonesian L2) living in an Indonesian-speaking environment. Data were collected using naturalistic observation and structured interviews, then analysed using Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) and qualitative structural analysis. Addressing the research questions regarding syntactic manifestation and dominance, the results show that Kaka's English MLU (9.29) exceeds the monolingual age norm, while her Indonesian MLU (6.17) remains lower. Dominant syntactic structures were found in English, with evident cross-linguistic influence (CLI) from English to Indonesian, manifested as unnatural grammatical constructions (e.g. redundant plural markers). By applying Brown’s Order of Acquisition and the Usage-Based Theory framework, this study refines existing theories by demonstrating that in sequential bilingualism, strong L1 dominance established through consistent home input can dictate the direction of syntactic transfer (L1 to L2) and override the influence of the societal language environment. Finally, the study proposes a preliminary conceptual framework for early sequential bilingual syntactic development, offering a new theoretical lens for understanding syntactic transfer in typologically distinct language pairs. © 2026 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
English Literature Faculty, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia
