Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between nonword repetition (NWR) and vocabulary in 2-year-olds. Questions addressed are whether (1) NWR and vocabulary are associated, (2) phonotactic probability affects NWR, and (3) there is an interaction effect between phonotactic probability and vocabulary on NWR performance. The general aim of the study is to investigate whether NWR, as a task of phonological storage, assesses the quality of phonological representations in children as young as 2 years of age. 557 Dutch 2-year-olds performed a NWR task containing items of varying phonotactic probability as well as a receptive vocabulary task. The results showed a moderate, significant correlation between NWR and vocabulary. Phonotactic probability had an effect on NWR performance. Further analyses showed that there was a significant interaction between phonotactic probability and vocabulary for part of the items. These results support previously reported effects of vocabulary and phonotactic probability on NWR in older, English-speaking children for a large sample of Dutch-speaking 2-year-olds, and provide evidence that NWR assesses the quality of phonological representations already in very young children.
Highlights
Nonword repetition (NWR) has gained considerable attention in the literature on first and second language acquisition, language disorders, and dyslexia
Differences in age did not strongly associate with differences in nonword repetition (NWR) ability. Another explanation of the high variability in NWR scores is the early stage of development the 2-year-olds are in, which is likely to coincide with high inter-child variation in language abilities
The results reported so far were based on children who had responded to all items in the NWR task, and might present an overestimate of 2-year-olds’ NWR skill
Summary
Nonword repetition (NWR) has gained considerable attention in the literature on first and second language acquisition, language disorders, and dyslexia. To date, few studies have investigated how NWR and vocabulary are associated in young children. By examining how phonotactic probability and vocabulary impact on NWR performance in these children, our aim is to investigate whether NWR assesses the quality of phonological representations already at early stages of language development. Previous research has shown an association between NWR and vocabulary knowledge that is especially strong during early stages of language learning, that is, around the age of three or four (Gathercole et al 1992). The few studies looking at NWR in younger children suggest that this association holds for 2-year-olds (Gathercole and Adams 1993; Hoff et al 2008; Stokes and Klee 2009; Zamuner 2009). To explain why NWR performance is positively correlated with children’s vocabulary knowledge, two views have been put forth
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