Abstract
This study investigated the lexical development of English–Chinese bilingual children in a Chinese immersion program in the US. Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks in American English and Mandarin Chinese were given to 20 English–Chinese bilingual six-year-olds. They did better in English than in Chinese, even with Chinese-speaking parents. Their proficiency in Chinese is comparable to that of two- or three-year-old native speakers after one year of Chinese exposure. Lexical development correlates with both the learner’s Age of Acquisition and the estimated age of acquisition of the target words. The results of this study will enhance our understanding of bilingual lexical development and give us insight into providing support to foster bilingual lexical development.
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