The effects of dual language exposure on executive function in Spanish–English bilingual children with different language abilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 188 ◽  
pp. 104663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Crespo ◽  
Megan Gross ◽  
Margarita Kaushanskaya
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Language Exposure

scholarly journals Do Bilingual Children Have an Executive Function Advantage? Results From Inhibition, Shifting, and Updating Tasks

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genesis D. Arizmendi ◽  
Mary Alt ◽  
Shelley Gray ◽  
Tiffany P. Hogan ◽  
Samuel Green ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Bayes Factor ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Potential Factors

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine differences in performance between monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual second graders (aged 7–9 years old) on executive function tasks assessing inhibition, shifting, and updating to contribute more evidence to the ongoing debate about a potential bilingual executive function advantage. Method One hundred sixty-seven monolingual English-speaking children and 80 Spanish–English bilingual children were administered 7 tasks on a touchscreen computer in the context of a pirate game. Bayesian statistics were used to determine if there were differences between the monolingual and bilingual groups. Additional analyses involving covariates of maternal level of education and nonverbal intelligence, and matching on these same variables, were also completed. Results Scaled-information Bayes factor scores more strongly favored the null hypothesis that there were no differences between the bilingual and monolingual groups on any of the executive function tasks. For 2 of the tasks, we found an advantage in favor of the monolingual group. Conclusions If there is a bilingual advantage in school-aged children, it is not robust across circumstances. We discuss potential factors that might counteract an actual advantage, including task reliability and environmental influences.

scholarly journals Dislocations in French–English bilingual children: An elicitation study

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 987-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
CORALIE HERVÉ ◽  
LUDOVICA SERRATRICE ◽  
MARTIN CORLEY
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Production ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Input Quantity ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
French And English ◽  
Language Exposure

This paper presents the results of two sentence production studies addressing the role of language exposure, prior linguistic modelling and discourse-pragmatic appropriateness on the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in bilingual 5-year-olds. We investigated whether French–English bilingual children would be as likely as monolingual children to use a left-dislocation structure in the description of a target scene. We also examined whether input quantity played a role in the degree of accessibility of these syntactic constructions across languages. While the results indicate a significant effect of elicitation condition only in French, the relative amount of language exposure in each language predicted the likelihood of producing a left-dislocation in both French and English. These findings make a new contribution to the role of language exposure as a predictor of CLI. The data also support the recent proposal that CLI arises out of processing mechanisms.

Relations between vocabulary and executive functions in Spanish–English dual language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
VRINDA KALIA ◽  
M. PAULA DANERI ◽  
MAKEBA PARRAMORE WILBOURN
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Dual Language Learners ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Dual Language Immersion ◽  
English Only

The role of dual language exposure in children's cognitive development continues to be debated. The majority of the research with bilingual children in the US has been conducted with children becoming literate in onlyoneof their languages. Dual language learners who are becoming literate in both their languages are acutely understudied. We compared dual language learners (n = 61) in a Spanish–English dual language immersion program to monolingual English speaking children (n = 55) who were in a traditional English only school. Children (kindergarten to 3rdgrade) completed standardized vocabulary tasks and two measures of executive functions. Despite having significantly smaller English vocabularies, the dual language learners outperformed the monolingual children on the executive function measures. Implications for our understanding of the relations between oral language development and executive function in bilingual children are discussed.

scholarly journals “¿Cómo estas?” “I’m good.” Conversational code-switching is related to profiles of expressive and receptive proficiency in Spanish-English bilingual toddlers

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystal M. Ribot ◽  
Erika Hoff
Keyword(s):  
Dual Language ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Switching Patterns ◽  
Who Code ◽  
The U.S

Relations between bilingual children’s patterns of conversational code-switching (responding to one language with another), the balance of their dual language input, and their expressive and receptive proficiency in two languages were examined in 115 2½-year-old simultaneous Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S. Children were more likely to code-switch in response to Spanish than English. Children’s expressive vocabulary scores were higher in English than in Spanish, while their English and Spanish receptive language scores were not different. Analyses of subgroups of children with different but consistent patterns of code-switching confirmed that children who code-switched to English showed greater English skills, specifically in the expressive domain. Children who did not code-switch were more balanced bilinguals in both expressive and receptive skills. Children with other code-switching patterns showed still different profiles of dual language expressive and receptive proficiency. These findings reveal that some, but not all, bilingual children show different profiles of expressive and receptive skill in their two languages and that these proficiency profiles are related to their language choices in conversation.

scholarly journals Executive Function in Korean-English Bilingual Children with and without Vocabulary Delay

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongsun Yim ◽  
Yeonjoo Jo ◽  
Jiyun Han ◽  
Jimin Seong
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual

scholarly journals A GENERAL OVERVIEW ON THE EFFECT OF BILINGUALISM ON EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS IN CHILDREN: INCONSISTENT RESULTS AND MODERATOR FACTORS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Task Classification ◽  
Interactional Context ◽  
Language Exposure

In this study, we reviewed recent studies comparing executive function performance of bi and monolingual children. In that respect, we came across 27 studies. Most of these studies report “partial” executive function advantage for bilingual children (i.e., a bilingual advantage is reported only for some tasks within the same study). In this regard, we examined in detail whether the executive function advantage in bilingual children is general or this advantage appears only in specific executive function tasks. Upon this evaluation, we observed that the bilingual advantage is not specific to a particular executive function paradigm or executive function task classification. To better explain these inconsistencies, we assessed and discussed the moderator factors (i.e., second language age of acquisition, language proficiency, language exposure, language interactional context, minority status, and socioeconomic status) that potentially could affect the outcome of studies examining the executive function skills of bilingual children. We concluded that the bilingual advantage on executive functions is linked to the general executive function system rather than a single executive function task; however, these effects cannot consistently be demonstrated due to the ignored moderator factors. Thus, to obtain more precise results, we offered suggestions for future studies that will compare bi and monolingual children on executive function performance. Keywords Bilingualism, childhood period, executive functions

Can a novel word repetition task be a language-neutral assessment tool? Evidence from Welsh–English bilingual children

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn M Sharp ◽  
Virginia C Mueller Gathercole
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Word Repetition ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Specific Assessment ◽  
Atypical Development ◽  
Repetition Task ◽  
At Home

In recent years, there has been growing recognition of a need for a general, non-language-specific assessment tool that could be used to evaluate general speech and language abilities in children, especially to assist in identifying atypical development in bilingual children who speak a language unfamiliar to the assessor. It has been suggested that a non-word repetition task (NWRT) may be a suitable candidate to fill this role, as it does not rely on knowledge of particular words for performance, and it may be possible to devise non-words that are not specific to any given language. The current study reports performance on a Welsh non-word repetition task by typically developing Welsh–English bilingual children with varying levels of exposure to Welsh in the home (Only Welsh at Home, Only English at Home, or Welsh and English at Home). The focus of the study was on repetition of initial consonants and consonant clusters in novel words. Both quantitative and qualitative differences were found across groups, according to level of exposure to Welsh, on sounds unique to Welsh, but not on sounds shared by Welsh and English. The data suggest that level of knowledge of the language tested has an important impact on children’s performance on non-word repetition and that the use of the NWRT as a universal speech and language assessment tool should be adopted with caution.

scholarly journals Language abilities in bilingual children: The effect of family background and language exposure on the development of Turkish and Dutch

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 931-951
Author(s):  
Feyza Altinkamis ◽  
Ellen Simon
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Children's Home ◽  
Home Context ◽  
Bilingual Language Development ◽  
Language Exposure

Aims and objectives: The study investigates the effects of family background and language exposure on the language abilities of Turkish-Dutch bilingual children in their heritage language, Turkish, as well as in the majority language, Dutch. Methodology: Thirty-five children (3;01-6;11) participated in the study. All children took two standardized proficiency tests: CELF-Preschool 2 in Dutch and TEDİL in Turkish. Parents were interviewed on the family background and on the children’s use of and exposure to Dutch and Turkish. Data and analysis: Children’s test scores in Dutch and Turkish were analyzed in relation to the amount of exposure to Dutch and Turkish and the socio-economic and linguistic background of the parents. Findings: The results reveal that the children’s home context—both the linguistic background of the parents and the socio-educational level of the mother—affected the children’s scores, especially for Dutch. The amount of exposure to and use of Dutch and Turkish was correlated to the Dutch and Turkish scores. A qualitative discussion of children’s profiles revealed that children’s performance can only be fully understood when details of the home context, obtained through interviews with the parents, are taken into account. Originality: To date, few studies on bilingual children from families with a migration background have examined young children’s general language abilities in both the heritage language and the majority language. Implications: The study raises awareness of the importance of evaluating bilingual children’s language proficiencies in both languages, considering the effects of family background and language exposure on children’s bilingual language development. Limitations: The children’s language abilities were mapped on the basis of widely recognized standardized tests originally developed for the assessment of monolingual children. As more bilingual instruments are being tested and developed, future research will benefit from these tools.

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