Abstract
Aims and objectives:This study examines multiple associations between language domains in bilingual children with a focus on phonology. Previous studies indicate within- but not cross-language associations between vocabulary and grammar in bilingual children. We investigate whether the relation between phonology and other language domains differs from the one reported between vocabulary and grammar.Methodology:Canadian French-English bilingual children (n = 31), aged 31 months, participated in 2 free-play sessions, from which lexical, grammatical and phonological information was extracted. The children’s parents completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories and its Canadian French adaptation providing additional information on vocabulary and grammar in each of the children’s languages. They also completed a questionnaire on their children’s exposure to French and English.Data analysis:Within and cross-language relations between phonology, vocabulary and grammar were investigated using correlational analyses and mixed logistic regression.Findings:Correlational analyses did not reveal significant cross-language relations between phonology, vocabulary and grammar. However, mixed logistic regression, which controlled for language exposure effects, indicated that phonology was influenced by vocabulary and grammar both within and across languages.Originality:This study is one of the first to study cross-domain relations involving phonology in young bilingual children.Implications:Overall, the findings suggest that phonology displays a pattern of relations that is different from other language domains engendering between-language effects due to a language-general component.
Highlights
Researchers in child language development have long recognized the importance of studying the relation between different language domains as well as focusing on a single domain (StoelGammon, 2011)
The bulk of the studies examining between-language correlations in phonology have focused on older children, whereas this study examines relations between language domains in younger children selecting an age-range similar to that of Marchman et al (2004) and Conboy and Thal (2006) in their studies of vocabulary-grammar connections
Language exposure had a significant influence on phonology measures in one of the two relations tested (i.e. Fr percent consonants correct (PCC)); on vocabulary in three of the four relations tested (i.e., En MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories (MCDI), French MCDI (Fr MCDI), Fr number of different words (NDW)); and on grammar in four of the six relations tested (En mean length of utterances-in words (MLU), En ML3, En GramCom, Fr ML3)
Summary
Researchers in child language development have long recognized the importance of studying the relation between different language domains as well as focusing on a single domain (StoelGammon, 2011). Studying cross-domain relations is of interest in bilingual children because there is the potential to study multiple connections, within- and between-language, while holding the child (i.e. general language) factor constant (Marchman et al, 2004; Pearson et al, 1997). The link between vocabulary and grammar (i.e. morphosyntax) in bilingual children has already been the subject of some attention (Conboy & Thal, 2006; Marchman et al, 2004). Studies show strong within- but weak between-language associations. Vocabulary in one language influences grammar in the same but not in the other language
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