scholarly journals Language and Decoding Skills in Greek-English Primary School Bilingual Children: Effects of Language Dominance, Contextual Factors and Cross-Language Relationships Between the Heritage and the Majority Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Papastefanou ◽  
Daisy Powell ◽  
Theodoros Marinis
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Decoding Skills ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Cross Language

Language Strength in Bilingual Children: The Child HALA Test

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Bozena Dubiel ◽  
Eithne Guilfoyle
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Reliable Method ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Potential Shifts

This study investigates potential shifts in relative language dominance in early sequential bilinguals across the primary school years. The subjects are thirty-eight Polish-English speaking children. We introduce a new test, the Child HALA, which measures shifts in relative language strength by comparing lexical accuracy and access between two languages. This test has been designed specifically for use with children, and is based on the HALA psycholinguistic tool (O'Grady, Schaffer, Perla, Lee, & Wieting, 2009). The aim is to examine its suitability, reliability and applicability in research on language acquisition and maintenance in young bilinguals. In particular, we attempt to evaluate whether the test will show a pattern of shifts in language dominance comparable to the outcomes of previous research (Kohnert, Bates & Hernandez, 1999; Kohnert & Bates, 2002, among others). We find that the Child HALA test discovers reliable results across age groups and languages when compared with other studies that investigated lexical accuracy and access, and therefore may be considered as a reliable method in assessing language strength and maintenance in children. The results show that the children’s relative language dominance shifts from the initially stronger Polish to the more dominant English between the age of eight and eleven.

Vowel development in young Mandarin-English bilingual children

Phonetica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yang
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
High Group ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Vowel Systems ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract This study examined the development of vowel categories in young Mandarin -English bilingual children. The participants included 35 children aged between 3 and 4 years old (15 Mandarin-English bilinguals, six English monolinguals, and 14 Mandarin monolinguals). The bilingual children were divided into two groups: one group had a shorter duration (<1 year) of intensive immersion in English (Bi-low group) and one group had a longer duration (>1 year) of intensive immersion in English (Bi-high group). The participants were recorded producing one list of Mandarin words containing the vowels /a, i, u, y, ɤ/ and/or one list of English words containing the vowels /i, ɪ, e, ɛ, æ, u, ʊ, o, ɑ, ʌ/. Formant frequency values were extracted at five equidistant time locations (the 20–35–50–65–80% point) over the course of vowel duration. Cross-language and within-language comparisons were conducted on the midpoint formant values and formant trajectories. The results showed that children in the Bi-low group produced their English vowels into clusters and showed positional deviations from the monolingual targets. However, they maintained the phonetic features of their native vowel sounds well and mainly used an assimilatory process to organize the vowel systems. Children in the Bi-high group separated their English vowels well. They used both assimilatory and dissimilatory processes to construct and refine the two vowel systems. These bilingual children approximated monolingual English children to a better extent than the children in the Bi-low group. However, when compared to the monolingual peers, they demonstrated observable deviations in both L1 and L2.

scholarly journals Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children: a meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Chantal VAN DIJK ◽  
Elise VAN WONDEREN ◽  
Elly KOUTAMANIS ◽  
Gerrit Jan KOOTSTRA ◽  
Ton DIJKSTRA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Effect Size ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Uniform Method ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Average Effect Size ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Bilingual Development

Abstract Although cross-linguistic influence at the level of morphosyntax is one of the most intensively studied topics in child bilingualism, the circumstances under which it occurs remain unclear. In this meta-analysis, we measured the effect size of cross-linguistic influence and systematically assessed its predictors in 750 simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children in 17 unique language combinations across 26 experimental studies. We found a significant small to moderate average effect size of cross-linguistic influence, indicating that cross-linguistic influence is part and parcel of bilingual development. Language dominance, operationalized as societal language, was a significant predictor of cross-linguistic influence, whereas surface overlap, language domain and age were not. Perhaps an even more important finding was that definitions and operationalisations of cross-linguistic influence and its predictors varied considerably between studies. This could explain the absence of a comprehensive theory in the field. To solve this issue, we argue for a more uniform method of studying cross-linguistic influence.

Factors Influencing Break-Time Physical Activity of South African Primary School Learners From Low-Income Communities

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 618-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Uys ◽  
Catherine Elizabeth Draper ◽  
Sharief Hendricks ◽  
Anniza de Villiers ◽  
Jean Fourie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Primary School ◽  
South African ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Low Income ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Break Time

Background:The purpose of this study was to assess factors that influence physical activity (PA) levels during break-times in South African primary school children.Methods:The System for Observing Play and Leisure Activities in Youth (SOPLAY) was used to observe PA levels during break-times at low-income schools (4 intervention, 4 control). The intervention was based on action-planning including: school environment, curriculum, and family involvement. Categories of observed activity included Sedentary, Eating, Walking, or Vigorous PA. Contextual factors assessed included teacher supervision, equipment, and crowding. Chi-square tests were used to determine associations between PA levels and contextual factors.Results:In the 970 observations made, 31% of learners were sedentary, 14% were eating, 29% were walking, and 26% were engaged in vigorous PA. There were no differences in break-time PA between intervention and control groups (NS). With supervision, children were more likely to eat and less likely to do vigorous PA (P = .035). Playground crowding was associated with lower levels of vigorous activity and more sedentary behavior (P = .000).Conclusions:PA during break-time was adversely affected by over-crowding and lower with supervision. The results suggest that interventions may be targeted at the school policy environment to reduce these barriers to PA.

scholarly journals Do parents provide a helping hand to vocabulary development in bilingual children?

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valery LIMIA ◽  
Şeyda ÖZÇALIŞKAN ◽  
Erika HOFF
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Parental Response ◽  
Children's Speech ◽  
Child Gesture ◽  
Do So

AbstractMonolingual children identify referents uniquely in gesture before they do so with words, and parents translate these gestures into words. Children benefit from these translations, acquiring the words that their parents translated earlier than the ones that are not translated. Are bilingual children as likely as monolingual children to identify referents uniquely in gesture; and do parental translations have the same positive impact on the vocabulary development of bilingual children? Our results showed that the bilingual children – dominant in English or in Spanish – were as likely as monolingual children to identify referents uniquely in gesture. More importantly, the unique gestures, when translated into words by the parents, were as likely to enter bilingual and monolingual children's speech – independent of language dominance. Our results suggest that parental response to child gesture plays as crucial of a role in the vocabulary development of bilingual children as it does in monolingual children.

Polish–English bilingual children overuse referential markers: MLU inflation in Polish-language narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 014272372093376
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Otwinowska ◽  
Marcin Opacki ◽  
Karolina Mieszkowska ◽  
Marta Białecka-Pikul ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Dp Structure ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Cross Language

Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of referential markers by Polish–English bilingual children and Polish monolingual children. Using the LITMUS-MAIN picture stories, the authors collected speech samples of Polish–English bilinguals raised in the UK ( n = 92, mean age 5;7) and compared them with matched Polish monolinguals ( n = 92, mean age 5;7). The analyses revealed that the bilinguals’ mean length of utterance (MLU) in Polish was significantly higher than that of the monolinguals because the bilinguals produced significantly more referential markers (especially pronouns) which inflated their MLU. The authors posit that the non-standard referentiality used by the bilinguals in Polish is caused by cross-language transfer at the syntax–pragmatics interface. When producing narratives in Polish, Polish–English bilinguals overuse referential markers as cohesive devices in their stories, which is not ungrammatical, but pragmatically odd in Polish. Bilinguals tend to do this because they are immersed in English-language input, rich in overt pronouns. Thus, in the process of realizing the surface features of the Polish DP they partly rely on an underlying English DP structure.

scholarly journals Code-switching in young bilingual toddlers: A longitudinal, cross-language investigation

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-518
Author(s):  
Erin Smolak ◽  
Stephanie de Anda ◽  
Bianka Enriquez ◽  
Diane Poulin-Dubois ◽  
Margaret Friend
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
San Diego ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Important Predictor ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Preschool Period ◽  
Cross Language

AbstractAlthough there is a body of work investigating code-switching (alternation between two languages in production) in the preschool period, it largely relies on case studies or very small samples. The current work seeks to extend extant research by exploring the development of code-switching longitudinally from 31 to 39 months of age in two distinct groups of bilingual children: Spanish–English children in San Diego and French–English children in Montréal. In two studies, consistent with previous research, children code-switched more often between than within utterances and code-switched more content than function words. Additionally, children code-switched more from Spanish or French to English than the reverse. Importantly, the factors driving the rate of code-switching differed across samples such that exposure was the most important predictor of code-switching in Spanish–English children whereas proficiency was the more important predictor in French–English children.

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