3. Assessment of Language Abilities in Sequential Bilingual Children: The Potential of Sentence Imitation Tasks

2013 ◽  
pp. 56-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shula Chiat ◽  
Sharon Armon-Lotem ◽  
Theodoros Marinis ◽  
Kamila Polišenská ◽  
Penny Roy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Sentence Imitation

scholarly journals “Which mouse kissed the frog?” Effects of age of onset, length of exposure, and knowledge of case marking on the comprehension of wh-questions in German-speaking simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE DOROTHEE ROESCH ◽  
VASILIKI CHONDROGIANNI
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Error Patterns ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
German Speaking

AbstractStudies examining age of onset (AoO) effects in childhood bilingualism have provided mixed results as to whether early sequential bilingual children (eL2) differ from simultaneous bilingual children (2L1) and L2 children on the acquisition of morphosyntax. Differences between the three groups have been attributed to other factors such as length of exposure (LoE), language abilities, and the phenomenon to be acquired. The present study investigates whether four- to five-year-old German-speaking eL2 children differ from 2L1 children on the acquisition of wh-questions, and whether these differences can be explained by AoO, LoE, and/or knowledge of case marking. The 2L1 children outperformed the eL2 children in terms of accuracy; however, both bilingual groups exhibited similar error patterns. This suggests that 2L1 and eL2 bilingual children are sensitive to the same morphosyntactic cues, when comprehending wh-questions. Finally, children's performance on the different types of wh-questions was explained by a combination of knowledge of case marking, LoE, and AoO.

scholarly journals Nonword Repetition and Sentence Imitation as Clinical Markers for Primary Language Impairment in bilingual French-English- and English-French-speaking children in Northern Ontario

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 61-69
Author(s):  
Sara Dubreuil-Piché ◽  
Jenna Lachance ◽  
Chantal Mayer-Crittenden
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Clinical Markers ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Primary Language Impairment

Studies indicate that nonword repetition and sentence imitation are useful tools when assessing bilingual children. Bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) typically score lower on these two tasks than their typically developing counterparts. Studies show that bilingual children are not disadvantaged during nonword repetition if they have limited language exposure. However, since sentence imitation tasks are constructed with words from the target language, it is expected that it would be more influenced by previous language exposure. The goal of this article will be to review the influence of bilingual exposure on both tasks. This review provides the theoretical background for future studies that will compare the accuracy of both tasks when identifying PLI in bilingual children.

scholarly journals The Morphosyntactic Abilities of Bilingual Malay Preschool Children Based on the Malay and English Sentence Repetition Tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zur Hanis Hamim ◽  
Rogayah Abdul Razak ◽  
Badrulzaman Abdul Hamid
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Function Words ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Language Difficulties ◽  
Age Factor ◽  
And Function ◽  
Repetition Task

Sentence repetition task has been proven to be a tool that can detect language difficulties and is indicative of abnormal language. In Malaysia, studies on the language abilities of bilingual children in sentence repetition (SR) tasks are sparse. Therefore, this study is aimed at examining the morphosyntactic abilities of 60 bilingual Malay children aged 4;0 to 6;11 based on SR tasks in Malay (L1) and English (L2). In the SR task, participants were asked to listen carefully to sentences being read out and then repeat verbatim the sentences heard. Their responses were scored based on accuracy, syntax, grammar, and word categories. The findings demonstrated a significant difference between the two languages in terms of accuracy [df= 118, t=1.990, p= .049]; the Malay language had statistically higher scores compared to English scores. There was also a significant difference on the performance based on age factor, [Malay (df5,54=3.561, p= .007); English (df5,54=2.894, p= .022)]. The results also revealed that the omission of both content and function words was more prominent compared to other error types. A triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data was done. The findings highlighted the morphosyntactic abilities of the bilingual children in both languages and error patterns produced.

scholarly journals Novel Morpheme Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Kaushanskaya ◽  
Megan Gross ◽  
Enanna Sheena ◽  
Rachel Roman
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Standardized Measures ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Language Characteristics

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of a novel morpheme learning task for indexing typical language abilities in children characterized by diverse language backgrounds. Method Three groups of 5- to 6-year-old children were tested: monolingual speakers of English, native speakers of Spanish who also spoke English (Spanish-L1 bilinguals), and native speakers of English who also spoke Spanish (English-L1 bilinguals). All children were taught a new derivational morpheme /ku/ marking part–whole distinction in conjunction with English nouns. Retention was measured via a receptive task, and sensitivity and reaction time (RT) data were collected. Results All three groups of children learned the novel morpheme successfully and were able to generalize its use to untaught nouns. Furthermore, language characteristics (degree of exposure and levels of performance on standardized measures) did not contribute to bilingual children's learning outcomes. Conclusion Together, the findings indicate that this particular version of the novel morpheme learning task may be resistant to influences associated with language background and suggest potential usefulness of the task to clinical practice.

The Language Abilities of Bilingual Children With Down Syndrome

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird ◽  
Patricia Cleave ◽  
Natacha Trudeau ◽  
Elin Thordardottir ◽  
Ann Sutton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome

First Language Attrition and Developmental Language Disorder

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-120
Author(s):  
Elma Blom ◽  
Tessel Boerma ◽  
Jan de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
First Language ◽  
Immigrant Children ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
First Language Attrition

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is an impairment specific to language that affects about 5% to 7% of all children, monolingual as well as bilingual. In this chapter, we aim to demonstrate that knowing more about attrition is important for accurately diagnosing bilingual children whose language abilities raise concerns and who may have DLD. The focus is on bilingual children who are raised in a migration context and whose home language, which is also their first language (L1), may be subject to attrition. We discuss whether the effects of attrition and DLD are expected to show overlap, whether they would accumulate, and whether DLD would influence attrition. In so doing, we often refer to research that has looked at the second language (L2) of bilingual immigrant children, as much less is yet known about their L1. We conclude by summarizing the main issues and suggesting promising avenues for future research.

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.

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