scholarly journals Cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading is item specific

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Marie Lallier ◽  
Clara D. Martin ◽  
Joana Acha ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Grain Size ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Orthographic Representations ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Bilingual Reading ◽  
Item Properties ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

Abstract The grain size of orthographic representations prompted by a consistent orthography (like Spanish or Basque) increases if reading is simultaneously learned in another language with an inconsistent orthography (like French). Here, we aimed to identify item properties that trigger this grain-size accommodation in bilingual reading. Twenty-five French–Basque and 25 Spanish–Basque bilingual children attending Grade 3 read Basque words and pseudowords containing “complex” letter clusters mapping to one sound in French but several sounds in Basque or Spanish, and “simple” letter clusters mapping to the same sound structure in all three languages. Only French speaking children read “complex” Basque words faster than “simple” ones, suggesting that they accessed multi-letter “French” units to boost lexical processing. A negative complexity effect was found for pseudowords across groups. We discuss the existence of flexible cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading, proposing that the grain size of orthographic representations adjusts to item-specific characteristics during reading.

scholarly journals The acquisition of lexical tones by Cantonese–English bilingual children

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1357-1376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Pik Ki MOK ◽  
Albert LEE
Keyword(s):  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Lexical Tones ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Pitch Pattern ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Auditory Analysis ◽  
Early Interaction ◽  
Time Point

AbstractPrevious studies on bilingual children found intact tonal development at the initial stages of interaction between Cantonese and English in successive bilingual children, whereas children exposed to both languages from birth have not been studied in this regard. We examined the production of Cantonese tones by five simultaneous bilingual children longitudinally at 2;0 and 2;6, and compared them with age-matched monolingual children using auditory analysis. Our results showed that some bilingual children had a delay at 2;0, compared to their monolingual peers. Some bilingual children also exhibited a ‘high–low’ template in their production, resembling the pitch pattern of English trochaic words. These findings suggest a possible early interaction of the Cantonese and English prosodic systems in which bilingual children adopted the English stress pattern in Cantonese production. The time-point along the trajectory of phonological development is important in modulating whether cross-linguistic transfer can be observed.

Intraword Variability in French-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Kehoe ◽  
Emilie Cretton
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Phonological Complexity

Purpose This study examines intraword variability in 40 typically developing French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, aged 2;6–4;8 (years;months). Specifically, it measures rate of intraword variability and investigates which factors best account for it. They include child-specific ones such as age, expressive vocabulary, gender, bilingual status, and speech sound production ability, and word-specific factors, such as phonological complexity (including number of syllables), phonological neighborhood density (PND), and word frequency. Method A variability test was developed, consisting of 25 words, which differed in terms of phonological complexity, PND, and word frequency. Children produced three exemplars of each word during a single session, and productions of words were coded as variable or not variable. In addition, children were administered an expressive vocabulary test and two tests tapping speech motor ability (oral motor assessment and diadochokinetic test). Speech sound ability was also assessed by measuring percent consonants correct on all words produced by the children during the session. Data were entered into a binomial logistic regression. Results Average intraword variability was 29% across all children. Several factors were found to predict intraword variability including age, gender, bilingual status, speech sound production ability, phonological complexity, and PND. Conclusions Intraword variability was found to be lower in French than what has been reported in English, consistent with phonological differences between French and English. Our findings support those of other investigators in indicating that the factors influencing intraword variability are multiple and reflect sources at various levels in the speech processing system.

A Window Into Bilingual Reading: The Bilingual Reading Practices of Fourth-Grade, Mexican American Children Who Are Emergent Bilinguals

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia Earnest García ◽  
Heriberto Godina
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Emergent Bilingual ◽  
Bilingual Reading ◽  
American Children ◽  
Social Literacies ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

A qualitative think-aloud study, informed by social literacies and holistic bilingual perspectives, was conducted to examine how six emergent bilingual, Mexican American, fourth graders approached, interacted with, and comprehended narrative and expository texts in Spanish and English. The children had strong Spanish reading test scores, but differed in their English reading and oral proficiency test scores. All but one of them varied their cognitive and bilingual strategy use according to the demands and genre of the text and their oral English proficiency. The most frequent bilingual strategies demonstrated were translating and code-mixing. Only two children used cognates. The children often employed one language to explain their reading in the other language. They displayed a wider range of strategies across two languages compared with a single language, supporting the use of a holistic bilingual perspective to assess their reading rather than a parallel monolingual perspective. Their reading profiles in the two languages were similar, suggesting cross-linguistic transfer, although the think-aloud procedures could not determine strategy transference. The findings supported a translanguaging interpretation of their bilingual reading practices. Future research on how emergent bilingual children of different ages develop translanguaging and use it to comprehend texts was recommended.

What factors influence phonological production in French-speaking bilingual children, aged three to six years?

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 945-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret KEHOE ◽  
Chloé GIRARDIER
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
First Languages ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Score

AbstractThis study examines the influence of bilingual status, language-internal (complexity of L1 phonology), language-external (dominance), and lexical (L2 vocabulary score) factors on phonological production in French-speaking monolingual (n = 37) and bilingual children (n = 64) aged three to six years. Children participated in an object and picture naming task which tested different phonological features. The bilinguals’ first languages were coded in terms of the complexity of these phonological features. In addition, the parents completed a questionnaire on their child's language dominance and the children were administered a vocabulary test in their L2. Results indicated that vocabulary was the principal predictor of phonological accuracy across both age groups. Apparent monolingual–bilingual differences and dominance effects could largely be explained by vocabulary scores: children who scored better on a vocabulary test obtained superior phonological accuracy. Language-internal effects were minimal and marginally influenced vowel accuracy only.

Vocabulary Gains in Bilingual Narrative Intervention

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Sharon Armon-Lotem ◽  
M. Adelaida Restrepo ◽  
Minna Lipner ◽  
Peer Ahituv-Shlomo ◽  
Carmit Altman
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Support ◽  
Hebrew School ◽  
Narrative Intervention ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Word Definition

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of bilingual narrative intervention on vocabulary gains in Hebrew (school language) and English (home language) among English–Hebrew bilinguals, using a block design (one language at a time), and to determine whether there was cross-linguistic transfer to the language that was not receiving intervention. Method Sixteen English–Hebrew bilingual children participated in the study using an adaptation of the Puente de Cuentos intervention. Vocabulary was examined using a word definition task before the intervention, post English intervention, post Hebrew intervention, and 4 weeks after the interventions ended to examine maintenance of skills. Results Repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed that children made significant gains in vocabulary in the language of intervention as expected. In addition, children made cross-linguistic gains in Hebrew during the English intervention, but made no gains in English following Hebrew intervention. Conclusion These results underscore the need to provide language support in the home language to ensure growth and that intervention in the home language does not hinder growth in the school language.

The combination of words in compound nouns by Spanish-Japanese bilingual children: Transfers in unambiguous structure

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 256-274
Author(s):  
Aya Kutsuki
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Compound Nouns ◽  
Nominal Compounds ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

Aims and Objectives: The current study’s aim was to test the ambiguity and dominance theories of transfer by examining compound noun production and comprehension by bilinguals acquiring Spanish and Japanese, as the word order of nominal compounds in these languages is always reversed, making them grammatically and theoretically unambiguous. Methodology: Ten Spanish-Japanese bilingual preschoolers completed production and comprehension elicitation tasks. Data and Analysis: The research subjects’ reversal rates were compared with those of age- and vocabulary-matched Japanese monolinguals. Findings/Conclusions: The results demonstrate that transfers occur from Spanish to Japanese in both production and comprehension, and that there are no dominance effects on the degree of cross-linguistic influence. Originality: There have been no previous studies on cross-linguistic transfer in Spanish-Japanese bilingual children. Significance/Implications: Transfer and directionality are not affected by relative vocabulary level; the concept of dominance should be (re)considered carefully especially for young bilinguals whose language inputs are greatly imbalanced and variable. Moreover, what is considered grammatically unambiguous by adults may be ambiguous for children acquiring such knowledge bilingually, which raises the need to consider structures in both languages as affecting the acquisition of language in young bilinguals.

Cross-linguistic transfer in adjective–noun strings by preschool bilingual children

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELENA NICOLADIS
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Spontaneous Production ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Unidirectional Transfer

One hypothesis holds that bilingual children's cross-linguistic transfer occurs in spontaneous production when there is structural overlap between the two languages and ambiguity in at least one language (Döpke, 1998; Hulk and Müller, 2000). This study tested whether overlap/ambiguity of adjective–noun strings in English and French predicted transfer. In English, there is only one order (adjective–noun) while in French both adjective–noun and noun–adjective order are allowed, with the latter as the default. Unidirectional transfer from English to French was predicted. 35 French–English preschool bilingual children (and 35 age-matched English monolinguals and 10 French monolinguals) were asked to name pictures by using an adjective–noun string. In addition to the reversing adjective–noun strings in French as predicted by the overlap/ambiguity hypothesis, the bilingual children reversed more adjective–noun strings in English than monolinguals. It is proposed that cross-linguistic transfer might better be understood as an epiphenomenon of speech production.

scholarly journals Effects on L1 during early acquisition of L2: Speech changes in Spanish at first English contact

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA E. GILDERSLEEVE-NEUMANN ◽  
ELIZABETH D. PEÑA ◽  
BARBARA L. DAVIS ◽  
ELLEN S. KESTER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Negative Transfer ◽  
First Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Consonant Cluster ◽  
Cluster Accuracy ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system.

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