1 At the Intersection of Language, Learning, and Disability in the Education of Young Bilingual Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Dina C. Castro ◽  
Alfredo J. Artiles
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Bilingual Children

Interpreting phonological memory performance in bilinguals

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1333-1336
Author(s):  
Margarita Kaushanskaya
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Phonological Memory ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
The Relationship

The central hypothesis in the Pierce, Genesee, Delcenserie, and Morgan article is that phonological memory is key to explaining the relationship between early language experience (more specifically, less and more optimal ends of the language-experience continuum) and language learning outcomes. One piece of evidence offered is that phonological memory skills are enhanced by bilingualism, with bilingualism representing enriched experience. Here, I propose that data from bilingual children may contradict Pierce et al.’s central hypothesis, rather than support it.

Decontextualized language production in two languages: An investigation of children's word definition skills in Korean and English

2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENNIFER YUSUN KANG
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Korean And English ◽  
Schooling Experience ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Word Definition

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to identify factors that contribute to bilingual children's decontextualized language production and investigate how schooling experience and bilingualism affect the development of this skill. The word definition skills of seventy Korean–English bilingual children whose first language was Korean, yet who had been schooled in English, were analyzed. The findings indicate that contrary to the results from previous studies, the participants' decontextualized language production was much better in their home language than in their school language, when considering both the formal linguistic structure and the communicative adequacy of their word definitions. In addition, limited cross-language transfer across tasks was present and cross-language contribution was observed only in the children's ability to achieve communicative adequacy, but not in their ability to construct conventional definition syntax. The results are discussed in terms of the linguistic and typological distance between the two languages and the potential effects of language-learning contexts.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of Teaching Bilingual Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-345
Author(s):  
Marina A. Pastushkova ◽  
Oxana V. Savateeva
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Practical Recommendations

The article is focused on the problem of teaching bilingual children. To solve this issue, the authors use the vast experience in addressing it in the Russian and British pedagogical thought in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The authors believe that the comparison of diverse approaches makes it possible to use the ideas of various researchers for resolving the current issues of teaching bilinguals. Besides, the authors of the article try to present the key recommendations and learning approaches for teaching a second language to preschool children. The article stresses the importance of foreign language learning. The authors consider that it is very important to pay attention to the peculiarities of mastering foreign languages and the influence of the bilingual environment on the mental, speech, and personal development of the child. The article further analyses the main approaches to language learning and gives practical recommendations to bilingual children’s parents for teaching a second language. Finally, the article touches upon the problem of learning content. In the authors’ opinion, the latter should be as close as possible to children's understanding. It should be noted that early learning of a foreign language has many advantages in the modern multicultural world. More and more parents want to raise their children as bilinguals, to allow them to communicate in several languages. The authors hope that the recommendations given in the article will help parents of bilingual children and teachers find their approach to teaching a child a second language.

scholarly journals Differences in word learning: bilingualism or linguistic experience?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Borragan ◽  
Angela de Bruin ◽  
Viktoria Havas ◽  
Ruth de Diego-Balaguer ◽  
Mila Dimitrova Vulchanova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Recall Task ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Similar Performance ◽  
Better Than

AbstractBilinguals may be better than monolinguals at word learning due to their increased experience with language learning. In addition, bilinguals that have languages that are orthotactically different could be more used to dissimilar orthotactic patterns. The current study examines how bilinguals with languages that are orthotactically similar and dissimilar and monolinguals learn novel words that violate or respect the orthotactic legality of the languages they know and how this learning may be affected by the similarity between the bilinguals’ two languages. In Experiment 1, three groups of children were tested: monolinguals, Spanish-Basque bilinguals (dissimilar orthotactic languages), and Spanish-Catalan bilinguals (similar orthotactic languages). After an initial word learning phase, they were tested in a recall task and a recognition task. Results showed that Spanish-Basque bilingual children performed differently than the other two groups. While Spanish monolinguals and Spanish-Catalan bilinguals recognized illegal words worse than legal words, Spanish-Basque bilinguals showed equal performance in learning illegal and legal patterns. A replication study conducted with two new groups of Spanish-Basque children (one group with high Basque proficiency and one group with a lower proficiency) indicated that the effects were not driven by the proficiency in the second language since a similar performance on legal and illegal patterns was observed in both groups. In Experiment 2, two groups of adults, monolinguals and Spanish-Basque bilinguals, were tested with the same task used in Experiment 1. The effect seen in children seems to be absent in adults. Spanish-Basque bilingual adults showed better overall learning performance than monolinguals, irrespective of the illegality of the items. Differences between groups could be due to the effect of having acquired literacy and linguistic competence.

scholarly journals The home language environment of monolingual and bilingual children and their language proficiency

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA F. SCHEELE ◽  
PAUL P. M. LESEMAN ◽  
AZIZA Y. MAYO
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Dutch Children

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the relationships between home language learning activities and vocabulary in a sample of monolingual native Dutch (n= 58) and bilingual immigrant Moroccan–Dutch (n= 46) and Turkish–Dutch (n= 55) 3-year-olds, speaking Tarifit-Berber, a nonscripted language, and Turkish as their first language (L1), respectively. Despite equal domain general cognitive abilities, Dutch children scored higher than the bilingual children on a L1 vocabulary test, and Moroccan–Dutch children had higher second language (L2) vocabulary skills compared to Turkish–Dutch children. Multigroup analyses revealed strong impact on both L1 and L2 skills of language specific input in literate and oral activities. Finally, indications were found of positive cross-language transfer from L1 to L2 as well as competition between L1 and L2 input.

scholarly journals Using MAIN in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 207-210
Author(s):  
Daleen Klop ◽  
Monique Visser
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Learning Problems ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Cultural And Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Official Languages

South Africa is a country marked by cultural and linguistic diversity with 11 official languages. The majority of school children do not receive their formal schooling in their home language. There is a need for language assessment tools in education and rehabilitation contexts to distinguish between children with language learning problems and/or SLI, and language delay as a result of limited exposure to the language of learning. The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN) provides clinicians and researchers with an appropriate and culturally relevant tool to assess bilingual children in both languages. So far MAIN has been widely used in Afrikaans- English bilingual children. However, translating and adapting MAIN to our other nine official languages to achieve functional and cultural equivalence is more challenging.

Amount trumps timing in bilingual vocabulary acquisition: Effects of input in simultaneous and sequential school-age bilinguals

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin Thordardottir
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Timing Of Exposure

Objectives: This study examined the extent to which the language performance of school-age bilingual children is impacted by the amount of language exposure they have received in each language versus the timing of this exposure in terms of the age of first exposure (AoE). Methods: Receptive and expressive vocabulary and word morphology measures were administered in both languages to school-age simultaneous and sequential learners of French (other language English), and to their monolingual counterparts. Data and analysis: The study included 64 children in first grade and 68 children in third grade in French schools in Montreal. Within each grade level, simultaneous bilinguals, sequential bilinguals, and monolinguals were equivalent in age, nonverbal cognition and socio-economic status (maternal education). Detailed information on previous language exposure was gathered by parent report. Conclusions: Simultaneous bilinguals performed somewhat better than sequential bilinguals; however both groups overall performed significantly more poorly than monolinguals. Differences in performance between simultaneous and sequential bilinguals were mediated by differences in amount, not timing, of exposure. Sequential learners in grade 1 required lower amounts of input to reach high French scores than did their simultaneous counterparts; sequential and simultaneous learners in grade 3 did not differ in this respect. This finding suggests that the recency of bilingual exposure is a significant determiner of the rate of second language learning. The amount of exposure to each language since birth predicted performance in each language of the bilingual children. Originality: Bilingual children with different AoEs were compared while also controlling for differences in amount of exposure. Significant implications: The results call into question the traditional separation between simultaneous and sequential bilinguals and shows that an early start of bilingualism does not in and of itself predict better performance or performance within the monolingual range. Better performance was more strongly related to amount than timing of exposure.

scholarly journals Using dual language picturebooks with children in an after school club

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 76-82
Author(s):  
Nicola Daly ◽  
Dorea Kleker ◽  
Kathy Short
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
After School ◽  
Curricular Framework ◽  
School Club ◽  
Inquiry Cycle

Dual language picturebooks use more than one language in the text of the book. There is increasing literature showing the potential of such books to support language learning, and recent studies explore their use in classrooms to raise awareness of multilingualism. This article describes the ways in which dual language picturebooks were used in an after school club of 8-11 year olds in a Latinx neighbourhood in Arizona. Over a six week period an inquiry cycle was used as a curricular framework for exploring dual language picturebooks featuring both familiar and unfamiliar languages for the children. Findings showed the importance of providing time for connection with the books, followed by demonstrations or readings  of the picturebooks, and the importance of invitations for the children to explore ideas from the picturebooks. The article provides guidelines for using dual language picturebooks in classrooms, and ends with a provocation suggesting that bilingual picturebooks are not necessarily only for bilingual children.

Relative language exposure, processing efficiency and vocabulary in Spanish–English bilingual toddlers

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
NEREYDA HURTADO ◽  
THERES GRÜTER ◽  
VIRGINIA A. MARCHMAN ◽  
ANNE FERNALD
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
English Bilingual

Research with monolingual children has shown that early efficiency in real-time word recognition predicts later language and cognitive outcomes. In parallel research with young bilingual children, processing ability and vocabulary size are closely related within each language, although not across the two languages. For children in dual-language environments, one source of variation in patterns of language learning is differences in the degree to which they are exposed to each of their languages. In a longitudinal study of Spanish/English bilingual children observed at 30 and 36 months, we asked whether the relative amount of exposure to Spanish vs. English in daily interactions predicts children's relative efficiency in real-time language processing in each language. Moreover, to what extent does early exposure and speed of lexical comprehension predict later expressive and receptive vocabulary outcomes in Spanish vs. English? Results suggest that processing skill and language experience each promote vocabulary development, but also that experience with a particular language provides opportunities for practice in real-time comprehension in that language, sharpening processing skills that are critical for learning.

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