Why jumped is so difficult: tense/aspect marking in Mandarin–English bilingual children

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1073-1083
Author(s):  
Elena NICOLADIS ◽  
Yuehan YANG ◽  
Zixia JIANG
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Aspect Marker

AbstractLearning to mark for tense in a second language is notoriously difficult for speakers of a tenseless language like Chinese. In this study we test two reasons for these difficulties in Chinese–English sequential bilingual children: (1) morphophonological transfer (i.e., avoidance of complex codas), and (2) interpretation of –ed as an aspect marker of completion, like the Mandarin –le. Mandarin–English bilingual children and age-matched monolinguals did a cartoon retell task. The verbs used in the stories were coded for accuracy in English, telicity, and suppliance of –ed or –le. The results were consistent with morphophonological transfer: the bilingual children were more accurate with irregular past forms in English than regular forms. The results were also consistent with the bilingual children's interpretation of –ed as an aspect marker: most of their production of –ed was on telic verbs. We discuss possible reasons for the children's interpretation of –ed as an aspect marker.

Some cases of linguistic interference in Bulgarian in English-Bulgarian bilingual children and english native speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language

Proglas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliyana Dimitrova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
Children's Speech

he study examines some linguistic errors in the process of learning Bulgarian by Bulgarian-English bilingual children and by native English speakers who study Bulgarian as a second language. The emphasis is on some typical interference errors which are common (identical) for both the bilingual children’s speech and the speech of native English speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language. Based on the analyzed aberration corpus, the opinion we give is that many of the processes taking place during the acquisition of the Bulgarian language are the same for both bilingual children with English and native English speakers.

scholarly journals Neural Mechanism of Second Language Processing in Korean-English Bilingual Children

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (6) ◽  
pp. 1160
Author(s):  
Yun Young Lee ◽  
Byung Hyun Baek ◽  
Seul Kee Kim ◽  
Il-woo Park ◽  
Gwang Woo Jeong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
English Bilingual

Narrative Discourse in Bilingual Children

2004 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E. Fiestas ◽  
Elizabeth D. Peña
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Static Picture ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Task Conditions

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of language on Spanish-English bilingual children’s production of narrative samples elicited in two ways. Method: Twelve bilingual (Spanish-English-speaking) children ranging in age from 4;0 (years;months) to 6;11 who were fluent speakers of English as a second language produced two narratives—one elicited by using a wordless picture book and another by using a static picture. The children produced stories for each task in each language, for a total of four stories. For the book task, the story complexities were compared across both languages. Stories were scored for complexity of story grammar and the inclusion of specific narrative elements. Both stories in each language were further analyzed for productivity (total words, number of C-units, and mean length of C-unit). The grammaticality (proportion of grammatically acceptable C-units) and the proportion of utterances influenced by the nontarget language was compared across each language and story task. Results: Children produced narratives of equal complexity for the book task regardless of language. However, children used more attempts and initiating events in Spanish, while producing more consequences in English. The picture task yielded mixed results, and these were not compared quantitatively. There were differences in the two task conditions with respect to the children’s use of Spanish influenced English and English-influenced Spanish. Although children were equally productive in both languages, they used proportionally more Spanish-influenced utterances in the book task. Clinical Implications: The results demonstrate the importance of considering the test language when eliciting narratives from bilingual children and the type of the narrative task for eliciting a productive and complex narrative.

Comparison of VOTs in Mandarin–English bilingual children and corresponding monolingual children and adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Jing Yang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
First Language ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Difference ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Phonetic Realization ◽  
Time Continuum

Word-initial stops in Mandarin and English show a distinctive phonological categorization but a similar phonetic realization along the VOT (Voice Onset Time) continuum. Previous research reported that native Mandarin adults produce measurably longer long-lag VOTs than native English adults. The present study examined whether and how the difference between Mandarin and English VOTs is manifested in monolingual children and Mandarin–English bilingual children. The participants included 15 five- to six-year-old sequential bilingual children, 24 corresponding monolingual children (15 Mandarin, 9 English), and 22 monolingual adults (12 Mandarin, 10 English). The bilingual children were divided into two groups (Bi-low and Bi-high) based on the amount of experience in English. Each participant was recorded producing 18 Mandarin words and/or 18 English words containing six stops in each language. The VOT values were measured from the beginning of stop burst to the onset of the voicing. The results showed that the language difference in VOT in the monolingual children was manifested in a pattern similar to the monolingual adults. However, Mandarin and English VOTs showed less separable distributions in the two groups of bilingual children. Further analysis suggested that both groups of bilingual children tended to separate Mandarin and English short-lag VOTs but only the Bi-low children showed different long-lag VOTs between the two languages. These results suggested that due to the bilingual effects and L1–L2 (first language – second language) interactions, even though the bilingual children tried to separate the two VOT systems, they implemented the separation in a different manner than the monolingual speakers.

Narrative competence of Italian–English bilingual children between 5 and 7 years

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAJA ROCH ◽  
ELENA FLORIT ◽  
CHIARA LEVORATO
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Story Retelling ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Mental State Terms

ABSTRACTThe study explored narrative production and comprehension in typically developing Italian–English sequential bilinguals. Thirty 5- to 6-year-olds and 32 6- to 7-year-olds were presented with story telling and retelling tasks, each followed by comprehension questions in Italian (their first language) and English (their second language). The macrostructure of narratives produced was analyzed, considering total amount of relevant information, story complexity, and mental state terms. Comprehension questions focused on implicit story information (i.e., characters’ mental states and goals). The results indicated that (a) older children outperformed younger ones on all measures; (b) an advantage of first language (Italian) over second language (English) emerged for younger children; and (c) comprehension and production were both more accurate in story retelling than in telling. Theoretical and methodological implications of these results are discussed.

scholarly journals Bilingual children's lexical strategies in a narrative task

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
POLIANA BARBOSA ◽  
ELENA NICOLADIS ◽  
MARGAUX KEITH
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Developmental Delay ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Compensatory Strategies ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
French And English ◽  
Target Words

AbstractWe investigated how bilinguals choose words in a narrative task, contrasting the possibilities of a developmental delay vs. compensatory strategies. To characterize a developmental delay, we compared younger (three to five years) and older (seven to ten years) children's lexicalization of target words (Study 1). The younger children told shorter stories, omitting many of the target concepts. To characterize compensatory strategies, we compared late second language learning adults to (seven- to ten-year-old) monolingual children (Study 2). The adults often lexicalized the target concepts even when not producing the target words. Finally, we compared French–English bilingual children with French and English monolinguals, all seven to ten years old (Study 3). The bilinguals produced fewer target words than the monolinguals. However, when not producing the target words, the bilinguals often lexicalized the concepts, sharing more in common with the adults (Study 2) in their use of compensatory strategies than with the younger children (Study 1). This interpretation was further corroborated by comparisons across studies (Study 4).

An Introductory Examination of Speech Disfluencies in Spanish–English Bilingual Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter During Narratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-141
Author(s):  
Cristina Rincon ◽  
Kia Noelle Johnson ◽  
Courtney Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Diagnostic Information ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Developmental Stuttering ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency and type of speech disfluencies (stuttering-like and nonstuttering-like) in bilingual Spanish–English (SE) children who stutter (CWS) to SE children who do not stutter (CWNS) during narrative samples elicited in Spanish and English to provide further diagnostic information for this population and preliminary data toward an expansion of this study. Method Participants included six bilingual SE children (three CWS, three CWNS) ranging in age from 5 years to 7;5 (years;months) and recruited from the surrounding Houston, Texas area. Participants provided a narrative sample in English and Spanish. The frequency of speech disfluencies was tabulated, and mean length of utterance was measured for each sample. Results Results indicate that both talker groups exceed the diagnostic criteria typically used for developmental stuttering. Regardless of the language being spoken, CWS participants had a frequency of stuttering-like speech disfluencies that met or exceeded the diagnostic criteria for developmental stuttering that is based on monolingual English speakers. The CWNS participants varied in meeting the criteria depending on the language being spoken, with one of the three CWNS exceeding the criteria in both languages and one exceeding the criteria for percentage of stuttering-like speech disfluencies in one language. Conclusion Findings from this study contribute to the development of more appropriate diagnostic criteria for bilingual SE-speaking children to aid in the reduction of misdiagnoses of stuttering in this population.

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