Abstract
The acquisition of languages by children using two languages is a matter of debate as many factors contribute to the success of this type of acquisition. We focus on how the competence of dual-language children changes in their two languages as a function of length of exposure and establish whether there are reciprocal influences during language development. We examined the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in a group of 6-year-old (younger) and 8-year-old (older) Mandarin–Italian dual-language children. After 3 years of regular and intensive exposure to Italian, the younger group reached the same level of competence in the comprehension of relative clauses in their two languages, and after 5 years of exposure to Italian, the older group had a better comprehension of relative clauses in Italian than in Mandarin. Acquiring two languages leads to bidirectional influence, beyond a reciprocal support. Finally, some penalty may be observed in the acquisition of subject head-final relative clauses, which is not evident in that of subject head-initial relative clauses.
Highlights
The unique way in which dual-language children1 develop is difficult to characterize because many variables contribute to shaping their competence
After an initial screening done by the first author together with parents and teachers, all the parents of selected children completed a questionnaire that was an adaptation of the one used in Kidd et al (2015) and the UBiLEC (Unsworth, 2013; Unsworth et al, 2014) to measure children’s language use and background. They were asked to indicate: (i) whether their child was born in Italy; (ii) the amount of time per year they had visited China since birth; (iii) the first time they attended Italian schools; (iv) the average amount of time the child spent in Mandarin- and Italian-speaking environments; (v) how often the child spoke each language at home on a 5point scale (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always); (vi) how well the child understood each language on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = poor, 7 = excellent); and (vii) whether they were able to read Chinese
We examined the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses (RCs) in Mandarin and Italian using a character-sentence matching task
Summary
The unique way in which dual-language children develop is difficult to characterize because many variables contribute to shaping their competence. The age of onset of dual-language acquisition impacts on several aspects of late language competence (e.g., Flege et al, 1999; Kovelman et al, 2008; Unsworth, 2013). The input, such as which language is most commonly spoken around the child, may determine language dominance (David and Wei, 2008; Hoff et al, 2012; Unsworth et al, 2014; Unsworth, 2016). In the light of this complicated array of factors at play
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call