Early emergence of syntactic awareness and cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children’s judgments

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
French And English ◽  
Better Than

Bilingual children sometimes perform better than same-aged monolingual children on metalinguistic awareness tasks, such as a grammaticality judgment. Some of these differences can be attributed to bilinguals having to learn to control attention to language choice. This study tested the hypothesis that bilingual children, as young as preschool age, would score overall higher than monolingual children on a grammaticality judgment test. French–English bilingual preschoolers judged the acceptability of three constructions in French and English (i.e. adjective–noun ordering, obligatoriness of a determiner, and object pronoun placement). Their performance was compared with that of a group of age-matched English monolinguals. The results showed that the bilingual children scored higher than the monolingual children. These results demonstrate that syntactic awareness develops quite early for bilinguals. Additionally, the bilingual children demonstrated cross-linguistic influence of core syntactic structure in French, as their judgments were affected by English acceptability.

Bilingual Advantage

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Qalil Althobaiti ◽  
Eirini Sanoudaki ◽  
George Kotzoglou
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Mismatch Correction ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
First Time ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Language Pair

A finding that has not received much attention in the metalinguistic awareness literature is that bilingual children may be better at identifying gender mismatches between a subject and a predicate. This phenomenon is not well understood, nor has it been studied systematically. In the present study we present a systematic investigation of the phenomenon involving all three levels of metalinguistic awareness (identification of the mismatch, correction and explanation) in a language pair that has not been tested previously. We tested a group of six-year-old Arabic–English bilingual children in comparison with two monolingual control groups. Results reveal that bilinguals performed better than monolinguals at the correction level. The study reveals a bilingual advantage in this population for the first time, while enhancing our knowledge of the development of metalinguistic awareness.

Metalinguistic aspects of bilingual processing

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 169-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Bialystok
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Alternate Conception ◽  
Bilingual Processing ◽  
And Control ◽  
Metalinguistic Ability

This chapter examines differences in metalinguistic development between monolingual and bilingual children in terms of three subcategories: word awareness, syntactic awareness, and phonological awareness. In each case, some studies have reported advantages for bilingual children, but equally, other studies have found either no difference between the groups, or, in some cases, monolingual advantages. In the discussion of each of these areas, the kinds of tasks for which bilingual and monolingual children perform differently are identified. In none of these three subcategories of metalinguistic awareness do bilingual children exhibit a uniform and consistent advantage over monolinguals. An alternate conception of metalinguistic ability is proposed in which two cognitive processes, analysis and control, are directly responsible for task performance. These processes are involved in all metalinguistic tasks but to different degrees. Re-examining the results in this way reveals that bilingual advantages occur reliably on tasks that make high demands on control but are not evident in tasks that make high demands on analysis. The implications of this pattern for metalinguistic ability are considered.

Metalinguistic contribution to reading comprehension: A comparison of Primary 3 students from China and Singapore

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-684
Author(s):  
Sun Baoqi ◽  
Guangwei Hu ◽  
Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Syntactic Awareness

AbstractThis study examined the within- and cross-language metalinguistic contribution of three components of metalinguistic awareness (i.e., phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness) to reading comprehension in monolingual Chinese-speaking children from Mainland China (n = 190) and English–Chinese bilingual children from Singapore (n = 390). Moreover, the effect of home language use on the relationship between metalinguistic awareness and reading performance was investigated. For monolingual children, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after partialing out the effects of age, nonverbal intelligence, and oral vocabulary, syntactic awareness uniquely predicted 7%–13% of the variance in reading comprehension measures, whereas this relationship was not observed between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. For the bilingual children, within-language regression analyses revealed that English/Chinese morphological awareness and syntactic awareness both contributed significantly to English/Chinese reading measures over and above vocabulary and phonological awareness. Cross-linguistically, structure equation modeling results demonstrated that the bilingual children’s English and Chinese metalinguistic awareness were closely related and jointly supported reading comprehension in both languages, thus lending support to Koda’s transfer facilitation model. Furthermore, home language use was found to contribute to the bilingual children’s reading proficiency via its impact on metalinguistic awareness. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy and pedagogical implications that can be drawn from these findings.

High proficiency across two languages is related to better mental state reasoning for bilingual children

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHERINE R. GORDON
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Preschool Age Children ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTPast research suggests that bilingualism positively affects children's performance in false belief tasks. However, researchers have yet to fully explore factors that are related to better performance in these tasks within bilingual groups. The current study includes an assessment of proficiency in both languages (which was lacking in past work) and investigates the relationship between proficiency and performance in a variety of mental state tasks (not just false belief). Furthermore, it explores whether the relationship between language proficiency and performance in mental state tasks differs between bilingual and monolingual groups. Twenty-six Spanish–English bilingual and twenty-six English monolingual preschool-age children completed seven mental state tasks. Findings provide evidence that high proficiency in English is related to better performance in mental state tasks for monolinguals. In contrast, high proficiency in both English and Spanish is related to better performance in mental state tasks for bilinguals.

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.

scholarly journals French-English bilingual children’s motion event communication shows crosslinguistic influence in speech but not gesture

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-100
Author(s):  
Nadia Miller ◽  
Reyhan Furman ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Age Related ◽  
French And English ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Age Related Changes ◽  
English Monolingual

Abstract Bilinguals sometimes show crosslinguistic influence from one language to another while speaking (or gesturing). Adult bilinguals have also shown crosslinguistic influence in gestures as well as speech, suggesting an underlying conceptualization that is similar for both languages. The primary purpose of the present study is to test if the same is true of simultaneous French-English bilingual children in speaking and gesturing about motion. If so, they might show different patterns from both French and English monolinguals. Furthermore, we examined whether there were developmental changes between early and middle childhood. French-English bilingual and French and English monolingual children watched two cartoons and described them. In speech, the bilinguals differed from the English monolinguals, using more lexicalizations of the Path of motion in token numbers but not in type. They did not differ from the French monolinguals. In gestures, all children used a majority of Path gestures. There were few age-related changes. We argue that in speech, the bilinguals conceptualize their two languages differently, but show some crosslinguistic influence due to processing. Gestures may not show this same pattern, because they serve to highlight the important parts of the discourse.

Cross-linguistic influence in French–English bilingual children's possessive constructions

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELENA NICOLADIS
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Production Model ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
French And English ◽  
Age Range

The purpose of this article was to test the predictions of a speech production model of cross-linguistic influence in French–English bilingual children. A speech production model predicts bidirectional influence (i.e., bilinguals’ greater use of periphrastic constructions like the hat of the dog relative to monolinguals in English and reversed possessive constructions like *chien chapeau to refer to a dog's hat). In contrast, other explanations predict unidirectional influence from French to English. Possessive constructions were elicited from preschool French–English bilingual children as well as preschool French and English monolinguals within the same age range. The results showed bidirectional influence, consistent with a speech production model.

Bilingualism and receptive vocabulary achievement: Could sociocultural context make a difference?

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 810-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA SMITHSON ◽  
JOHANNE PARADIS ◽  
ELENA NICOLADIS
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Test ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
Early Elementary ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
French And English ◽  
Vocabulary Assessment ◽  
Vocabulary Achievement

The purpose of this study was to investigate receptive vocabulary achievement among French–English bilinguals in Canada. Standardized test scores of receptive vocabulary were measured in both languages from preschool, early-elementary, and late-elementary French–English bilingual children, and French–English bilingual adults. Mean vocabulary scores across all bilingual age groups were statistically equivalent to or above the standard mean in French and English with the exception of the early-elementary bilinguals who scored below the standard mean on the English vocabulary assessment. Mean vocabulary scores of the preschool and adult bilingual groups were not significantly different from those of their monolingual peers in either language. However, early-elementary and late-elementary bilingual children scored significantly lower than monolinguals on the English vocabulary assessment. The positive sociocultural context for French–English bilingualism in Canada as well as language input changes in school are discussed as underlying reasons for these findings.

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