Storytelling in bilingual Turkish-Swedish children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Bohnacker ◽  
Josefin Lindgren ◽  
Buket Öztekin
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Oral Narratives ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Carry Over

Abstract The empirical evidence for whether narrative macrostructure skills are shared between a bilingual child’s two languages is inconclusive, and it is not known how macrostructure (overall story structure) is influenced by general language proficiency and amount of exposure. The present study investigates these issues in 100 Turkish-Swedish bilingual 4-to-7-year-old children growing up in Sweden. Oral narratives were elicited in both Turkish and Swedish with two picture-based tasks from the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) in the telling mode. We investigated to what extent the language of elicitation influences bilingual children’s macrostructure (story structure, episodic complexity), and explored effects of age, narrative task, narrative length, expressive vocabulary and language exposure, both separately and combined, on macrostructure in the respective language. Story structure and episodic complexity were found to increase similarly with age in both Turkish and Swedish from 4 to 7 years. Scores did not differ between the two MAIN storytelling tasks. Expressive vocabulary and narrative length influenced story structure scores positively and similarly in both languages. Daily language exposure and length of exposure to Swedish did not show any significant effect. The results can be interpreted in support of a carry-over of narrative macrostructural skills between the two languages.

How do age, language, narrative task, language proficiency and exposure affect narrative macrostructure in German-Swedish children aged 4 to 6?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefin Lindgren ◽  
Ute Bohnacker
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Language Exposure

Abstract Previous studies show mixed findings concerning whether higher-order story structure (macrostructure) is similar across bilinguals’ two languages. It is not known how macrostructure is influenced by general language proficiency and amount of exposure. The present study investigates these issues in 46 German-Swedish bilingual 4- to 6-year-olds. Narratives were elicited in both languages with two picture-based tasks from the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) in the telling mode. We investigate to what extent the language of elicitation (Swedish vs German) influences bilingual children’s macrostructure (story structure, episodic complexity) and explore effects of narrative task, age, narrative length, expressive vocabulary and estimated language exposure, both separately and combined, on macrostructure in the respective language. Results show that macrostructural skills developed measurably with age from 4 to 6 years in both languages, with no task effects. Story structure scores were higher in the majority language Swedish than in German and developed differently with age. The effect of narrative length on story structure was similar in the two languages. Language exposure did not have any significant effect. Macrostructure scores were significantly affected by expressive vocabulary in German only. Generally, the results may be linked to slightly higher language proficiency in Swedish.

Macrostructure in the narratives of Indonesian-Dutch bilinguals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Tribushinina ◽  
Mila Irmawati ◽  
Pim Mak
Keyword(s):  
Internal State ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Input Current ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Cross Lingual ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract There is no agreement regarding the relationship between narrative abilities in the two languages of a bilingual child. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that such cross-language relationships depend on age and language exposure by studying the narrative skills of 32 Indonesian-Dutch bilinguals (mean age: 8;5, range: 5;0–11;9). The narratives were elicited by means of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) and analysed for story structure, episodic complexity and use of internal state terms (ISTs) in the home language (Indonesian) and majority language (Dutch). The results demonstrate that story structure scores in the home language (but not in the majority language) were positively related to age. Exposure measures (current Dutch/Indonesian input, current richness of Dutch/Indonesian input, and length of exposure to Dutch) did not predict the macrostructure scores. There was a significant positive cross-language relationship in story structure and episodic complexity, and this relationship became stronger as a function of length of exposure to Dutch. There was also a positive cross-lingual relation in IST use, but it became weaker with age. The results support the idea that narrative skills are transferable between languages and suggest that cross-language relationships may interact with age and exposure factors in differential ways.

scholarly journals Verb-Mediated Prediction in Bilingual Toddlers

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Theimann ◽  
Ekaterina Kuzmina ◽  
Pernille Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Predictive Ability ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Predictive Skill

Prediction is an important mechanism for efficient language processing. It has been shown that as a part of sentence processing, both children and adults predict nouns based on semantically constraining verbs. Language proficiency is said to modulate prediction: the higher proficiency, the better the predictive skill. Children growing up acquiring two languages are often more proficient in one of them, and as such, investigation of the predictive ability in young bilingual children can shed light on the role of language proficiency. Furthermore, according to production-based models, the language production system drives the predictive ability. The present study investigates whether bilingual toddlers predict upcoming nouns based on verb meanings in both their languages, and whether this ability is associated with expressive vocabulary. Seventeen Norwegian-English bilingual toddlers (aged 2;5–3;3), dominant in Norwegian, participated in the study. Verb-mediated predictive ability was measured via a visual world paradigm (VWP) experiment, including sentences with semantically constraining and neutral verbs. Expressive vocabulary was measured by MacArthur-Bates CDI II. The results suggested that the toddler group predicted upcoming noun arguments in both their dominant and non-dominant languages, but were faster in their dominant language. This finding highlights the importance of language dominance for predictive processing. There was no significant relationship between predictive ability and expressive vocabulary in either language.

The Diagnostic Accuracy of Four Vocabulary Tests Administered to Preschool-Age Children

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Gray ◽  
Elena Plante ◽  
Rebecca Vance ◽  
Mary Henrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Test Validity ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Preschool Age Children

This study examined the empirical evidence for using four vocabulary tests (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III [Dunn & Dunn, 1997], Receptive One-Word Vocabulary Test [Gardner, 1985], Expressive Vocabulary Test [Williams, 1997], Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test-Revised [Gardner, 1990]) to screen or identify specific language impairment (SLI) in preschool-age children. Tests were administered to 31 4- and 5-year-old children with SLI and 31 age-matched controls with normal language (NL). All children spoke General American English. Despite moderate to strong inter-test correlations, no test was a strong identifier of SLI. The group with SLI scored lower than the NL group on each test; however, the individual scores of children with SLI typically fell within the normal range. Vocabulary tests are frequently administered to determine whether a child’s language skills require further evaluation (screening), as a method of identifying SLI in children, or simply to describe aspects of language functioning. These purposes for administering a vocabulary test require various forms of empirical evidence in support of their use. Our data support construct validity for the four vocabulary tests examined, but do not support their use for identification purposes. Clinicians must apply a degree of sophistication in evaluating the evidence presented for test validity relative to the purposes for which the test will be administered. Unfortunately, although many test manuals offer inter-test correlations or statistically significant group differences as evidence of construct validity, they often omit data that would support common clinical uses, such as screening or identification.

scholarly journals THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AS A GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT SKILL: THE VIEWPOINT OF PAKISTANI ACADEMIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1071-1077
Author(s):  
Furrakh Abbas ◽  
Abdul Majid Khan Rana ◽  
Irfan Bashir ◽  
Azhar Munir Bhatti
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
Employment Skills ◽  
The Status

Purpose of the Study: The current research aims at exploring the need of effective English skill as a global employment skill and its various reasons, as there are various Pakistani institutes which are dedicated to The English language teaching and reinforce its relationship with employability. The importance of the study being conducted in Pakistan becomes more evident as English enjoys the status of the second language in the country. Methodology: Current study uses a mixed-method research design and employs both questionnaires and interviews as research instruments. The questionnaire was administrated on a sample of 392 university students while a sample of 13 informants from university faculty participated in an interview for data collection. Main Findings: The study concludes that the importance of English was associated with increased connectivity due to globalization. The study also concludes that the importance of English for finding jobs and making a career was well-established. To conclude, it can be said that English language proficiency is amongst the top global employment skills in the viewpoint of Pakistani academia. Application of this Study: The study implicates that the importance of English for employment across the globe and a successful career will further lead to the formulation of English Specific courses for different professional and occupational groups in Pakistan. The originality of the Study: There is a scarcity of empirical evidence in terms of the importance of English as an employment skill though English is considered very important as an elite language and a status symbol. The study proposes to fill in the gap by providing empirical evidence, therefore, the research is being conducted to assess the status of English and its importance for global employment skills.

scholarly journals The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN): Adding Kam to MAIN

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 147-151
Author(s):  
Wenchun Yang ◽  
Angel Chan ◽  
Natalia Gagarina
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Narrative Development ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children ◽  
Minority People

This paper introduces the Kam version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN). Kam is a minority language in southern China which belongs to the Kam-Tai language family and is spoken by the Kam ethnic minority people. Adding Kam to MAIN not only enriches the typological diversity of MAIN but also allows researchers to study children’s narrative development in a sociocultural context vastly distinctly different from the frequently examined WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies. Moreover, many Kam- speaking children are bilingual ethnic minority children who are “left-behind” children living in Mainland China, growing up in a unique socio-communicative environment.

Internal and external factors contributing to variability in consonant accuracy of Arabic–French simultaneous bilingual children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Rabia Sabah MEZIANE ◽  
Andrea A.N. MACLEOD
Keyword(s):  
Naming Task ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Word Repetition ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal And External Factors

Abstract This study aims to describe the relationships between child-internal and child-external factors and the consonant accuracy of bilingual children. More specifically, the study looks at internal factors: expressive and receptive vocabulary, and external factors: language exposure and language status, of a group of 4-year-old bilingual Arabic–French children. We measured the consonant accuracy of the children by the percentage of correct consonants in a Picture-Naming Task and a Non-Word Repetition Task in each language. The results suggest a significant relationship between vocabulary and consonant accuracy. A cross-language correlation was observed between the expressive vocabulary level of the majority language (French) and the consonant accuracy of the minority language (Arabic). Also, a significant correlation was found between Arabic language exposure and Arabic consonant accuracy. Finally, consonant accuracy was significantly higher in French tasks than in Arabic, despite the individual differences of the children.

Breastfeeding, Cognitive and Noncognitive Development in Early Childhood: A Population Study

2018 ◽  
pp. 111-125
Author(s):  
Lisa-Christine Girard ◽  
Orla Doyle ◽  
Richard E. Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Propensity Score ◽  
Propensity Score Matching ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Multiple Testing ◽  
Standardized Assessments ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Maternal Report ◽  
Teacher Reports

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES There is mixed evidence from correlational studies that breastfeeding impacts children’s development. Propensity score matching with large samples can be an effective tool to remove potential bias from observed confounders in correlational studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of breastfeeding on children’s cognitive and noncognitive development at 3 and 5 years of age. METHODS Participants included ∼8000 families from the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal infant cohort, who were identified from the Child Benefit Register and randomly selected to participate. Parent and teacher reports and standardized assessments were used to collect information on children’s problem behaviors, expressive vocabulary, and cognitive abilities at age 3 and 5 years. Breastfeeding information was collected via maternal report. Propensity score matching was used to compare the average treatment effects on those who were breastfed. RESULTS Before matching, breastfeeding was associated with better development on almost every outcome. After matching and adjustment for multiple testing, only 1 of the 13 outcomes remained statistically significant: children’s hyperactivity (difference score, –0.84; 95% confidence interval, –1.33 to –0.35) at age 3 years for children who were breastfed for at least 6 months. No statistically significant differences were observed postmatching on any outcome at age 5 years. CONCLUSIONS Although 1 positive benefit of breastfeeding was found by using propensity score matching, the effect size was modest in practical terms. No support was found for statistically significant gains at age 5 years, suggesting that the earlier observed benefit from breastfeeding may not be maintained once children enter school.

Growing up in Diverse Societies

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Children Of Immigrants ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Ethnic Minority Groups ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Wide Range

Growing up in Diverse Societies provides a comprehensive analysis of the integration of the children of immigrants in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, based on the ‘Children of immigrants longitudinal survey in four European countries’ (CILS4EU), including harmonised interviews with almost 19,000 14- to 15-year-olds. The book studies the life situation, social relations, and attitudes of adolescents in different ethnic minority groups, and compares these systematically to majority youth in the four countries. The chapters cover a wide range of aspects of integration, all addressing comparisons between origin groups, generations, and destination countries, and elucidating processes accounting for differences. The results challenge much current thinking and simplified views on the state of integration. In some aspects, such as own economic means, delinquency, and mental health, children of immigrants are surprisingly similar to majority youth, while in other aspects there are large dissimilarities. There are also substantial differences between ethnic minority groups, with the economic and cultural distance of the origin regions to the destination country being a key factor. For some outcomes, such as language proficiency or host country identification, dissimilarities seem to narrow over generations, but this does not hold for other outcomes, such as religiosity and attitudes. Remaining differences partly depend on ethnic segregation, some on socioeconomic inequality, and others on parental influences. Most interestingly, the book finds that the four destination countries, though different in their immigration histories, policy approaches, and contextual conditions, are on the whole similar in the general patterns of integration and in the underlying processes.

Measuring English language proficiency across subgroups: Using score equity assessment to evaluate test fairness

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanwook Yoo ◽  
Venessa F. Manna ◽  
Lora F. Monfils ◽  
Hyeon-Joo Oh
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
English Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Test Taker ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Test Fairness ◽  
Educational Backgrounds ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Language Exposure

This study illustrates the use of score equity assessment (SEA) for evaluating the fairness of reported test scores from assessments intended for test takers from diverse cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds, using a workplace English proficiency test. Subgroups were defined by test-taker background characteristics that research has shown to be associated with performance on language tests. The characteristics studied included gender, age, educational background, language exposure, and previous experience with the assessment. Overall, the empirical results indicated that the statistical and psychometric methods used in producing test scores were not strongly influenced by the subgroups of test takers from which the scores were derived. This result provides evidence in support of the comparability and meaning of test scores across the various test-taker groups studied. This example may encourage language testing programs to incorporate SEA analyses to provide evidence to inform the validity and fairness of reported scores for all groups of test takers.

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