Development Of Bilingual Children Research Articles

Large-scale investigation of white matter structural differences in bilingual and monolingual children: An adolescent brain cognitive development data study.

Emerging research has provided valuable insights into the structural characteristics of the bilingual brain from studies of bilingual adults; however, there is a dearth of evidence examining brain structural alterations in childhood associated with the bilingual experience. This study examined the associations between bilingualism and white matter organization in bilingual children compared to monolingual peers leveraging the large-scale data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Then, 446 bilingual children (ages 9-10) were identified from the participants in the ABCD data and rigorously matched to a group of 446 monolingual peers. Multiple regression models for selected language and cognitive control white matter pathways were used to compare white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) values between bilinguals and monolinguals, controlling for demographic and environmental factors as covariates in the models. Results revealed significantly lower FA values in bilinguals compared to monolinguals across established dorsal and ventral language network pathways bilaterally (i.e., the superior longitudinal fasciculus and inferior frontal-occipital fasciculus) and right-hemispheric pathways in areas related to cognitive control and short-term memory (i.e., cingulum and parahippocampal cingulum). In contrast to the enhanced FA values observed in adult bilinguals relative to monolinguals, our findings of lower FA in bilingual children relative to monolinguals may suggest a protracted development of white matter pathways associated with language and cognitive control resulting from dual language learning in childhood. Further, these findings underscore the need for large-scale longitudinal investigation of white matter development in bilingual children to understand neuroplasticity associated with the bilingual experience during this period of heightened language learning.

Parents’ System for Developing Bilingual Children in Makassar

This research is a qualitative descriptive study that aims to find out the system used by parents in developing their children to become bilingual in English. There are 2 research questions in this study, namely parents’ system implementation in Makassar in developing their children to be bilingual and the factors that influence the system used by parents in developing their children to be bilingual. The subjects in this study were 5 parents who developed their children to be bilingual and 5 children who were developed to be bilingual by their parents aged 3-5 years. Research data were obtained through in-depth observation and interviews. Data analysis techniques, namely data condensation, data display, and drawing/checking conclusions. Based on data analysis, it was found that there is one system most often used by parents in Makassar, namely Mixed language. It is different with previous research which said that the most parent system used by parents is One Parent One Language (1P1L). It is different because the subjects in previous study are immigrants, while the subject in this research are not immigrants. Then, most of the subject work outside the house, so it is impossible for parents to share two languages. Then, there are 3 factors that influence the system used by parents in developing their children to become bilingual, namely age, media use, and community factors. Based on findings and discussion, it can be concluded that the five parents who were the subjects of this study chose to use the Mixed Language system in the development of bilingual children. Then, the factor that most influences the system used is the media usage factor, especially handphone.

Longitudinal Examination of Potential Bilingual Advantage Effects for Selective Attention and Cognitive Functioning in Young Children

ABSTRACT A good deal of research purports that bilingualism has a positive effect on some aspects of cognitive functioning. However, this effect is not consistent, and little research examines trajectories of cognitive skill development in bilingual children. Moreover, it remains unclear whether different types of bilingualism impact how cognitive abilities unfold. The reported study investigates children’s data from three linguistic groups (179 sequential bilingual, 96 simultaneous bilingual and 57 monolingual German-speaking children) and examines differences (1) regarding cognitive outcome measures pertaining to selective attention, visuospatial thinking and abstract thinking and (2) searches for substantial developmental trajectory differences regarding said measures. Children were tested at 3 points in time; at age 4;10, 6;2 and 7;4. Results indicate no significant linguistic group differences in selective attention, visuospatial thinking and abstract thinking when controlling for gender, language comprehension of the child, and families’ socioeconomic status. Moreover, the three linguistic groups did not differ in developmental trajectories. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

What Really Matters in Early Bilingual and Biliteracy Acquisition?

Home language and literacy input (HLLI) is critical for linguistic and literacy development in bilingual children. This exploratory study investigated home oral, and print input for Chinese heritage language learners between four and six years old in the United States and aimed to identify salient types of input associated with speaking and reading abilities in the heritage language (Chinese) and the societal language (English). Fifty-three parents completed a HLLI questionnaire and rated the speaking and reading competencies in Chinese and English of their children. The relationships between HLLI and bilingual abilities were examined via principal component analysis and regression. There were two major findings: first, Chinese speaking ability mainly depended on oral language exchange between parents and their children, as well as print exposure to Chinese; Chinese reading ability was associated with oral language exchange between parents and their children, as well as pinyin/bopomofo practice at home. Second, both speaking and reading abilities in English were significantly and positively related to children’s interest in reading English only. Evidence-based recommendations are provided regarding home language and literacy practices for young Chinese heritage language learners in the United States.

Bilingualism and Development of Literacy in Children: A Systematic Review.

The importance of biliteracy in bilingual children's development has been widely investigated and discussed for the last several decades, suggesting beneficial effects of writing and reading in two languages for bilingual children as well as for adult second language learners. To analyze research on the link between bilingualism and literacy development in two or more languages and the factors that may influence a successful or problematic biliteracy acquisition. RQ (1): What is the relationship between bilingualism and literacy of bilingual children? RQ (2): What strategies are used to develop biliteracy? The review analyzes 50 studies of literacy development in bilingual children. The selected articles have been separated based on their methodology: 25 articles gave a critical analysis of more than 1,100 studies on the topic, strengthening the theoretical basis of existing research, and 25 other articles were empirical research articles demonstrating practical evidence for the former. Our analysis revealed that literacy in bilinguals, or biliteracy, can be seen as a necessary condition for fluent development of bilingualism, though it is not a necessary condition (which is explained by the difference between structures of specific languages and writing systems, instruction in literacy, and cognitive baggage invoked by the task used to measure the skill) (Bialystok, 2002). Research suggests that bilingualism impacts children's ultimate acquisition of literacy via the beneficial effects of bilingualism overall: advanced biliteracy boosts the development of phonological and phonemic awareness and metacognitive abilities. Thus, biliteracy can be considered as an advantage in terms of maintaining bilingual acquisition in general and developing writing skills in particular. There is a lack of studies on the development of writing skills in different educational contexts, across countries and cultures, which must be addressed and complemented by new empirical research. Research will enable policymakers to improve educational programs in accordance with the needs of bilingual children, who are the majority in the current global population.

Is There a Cognate Effect in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder?

Cognates, words in two languages that share form and meaning, can be used to support vocabulary development in bilingual children. Typically developing bilinguals have shown better performance on cognates versus noncognates. Of key interest is whether bilinguals with developmental language disorder (DLD) also show a cognate effect and, if so, which factors are related to their cognate performance. Thirty-five Spanish-English bilingual children (5-11 years old) with DLD completed the Expressive and Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Tests, third edition, in English (EOW, ROW) to measure cognate performance. Test items were divided by difficulty level (easy, medium, and hard) and classified as cognates or noncognates using the Cross-Linguistic Overlap Scale for Phonology. On average, children showed clear and robust cognate effects on EOW across difficulty levels with medium-to-large effect sizes. Results on the ROW showed minimal effects that varied by difficulty. Individually, 80% of participants (28 of 35) demonstrated a cognate effect in EOW, whereas only 31% (11 of 35) showed an effect in ROW. A cognate effect in ROW was positively correlated with age and English proficiency, whereas no factors correlated with the EOW cognate effect. Bilingual children with DLD show higher performance on cognates than noncognates, at least in expressive vocabulary. Participants who did show a receptive cognate effect tended to be older and have higher English proficiency. Further investigation is needed to identify factors underlying cognate performance in order to tailor intervention strategies that promote bilingual vocabulary development.

Emotion Word Development in Bilingual Children Living in Majority and Minority Contexts

Abstract The lexicon of emotion words is fundamental to interpersonal communication. To examine how emotion word acquisition interacts with societal context, the present study investigated emotion word development in three groups of child Korean users aged 4–13 years: those who use Korean primarily outside the home as a majority language (MajKCs) or inside the home as a minority language (MinKCs), and those who use Korean both inside and outside the home (KCs). These groups, along with a group of L1 Korean adults, rated the emotional valence of 61 Korean emotion words varying in frequency, valence, and age of acquisition. Results showed KCs, MajKCs, and MinKCs all converging toward adult-like valence ratings by ages 11–13 years; unlike KCs and MajKCs, however, MinKCs did not show age-graded development and continued to diverge from adults in emotion word knowledge by these later ages. These findings support the view that societal context plays a major role in emotion word development, offering one reason for the intergenerational communication difficulties reported by immigrant families.

Emotion word development in bilingual children living in majority and minority contexts

Emotion word development in bilingual children living in majority and minority contexts

Directions in Addressing the Language and Literacy Needs of Children Across the Bilingual Continuum

One of the most widespread and harmful myths in our society is that very young children will learn a second language automatically, quickly, and easily—with no special attention to their needs for an optimal learning environment. —Catherine Snow There are many myths or misconceptions about bilingual children. One myth that we have come across frequently is that bilingual children experience the phenomenon of language confusion, an imagined condition in which children cannot separate their first language (L1) from their second language (L2) (Espinosa, 2013; Guiberson, 2013). In such instances, educators may erroneously view code-switching, a normal bilingual behavior in which children draw upon both languages within a given utterance, as evidence for language confusion or a general deficit in the ability to separate languages. The myth of language confusion is frequently used to justify an English-only approach to educational programming and discussions with families about choosing a language. Unfortunately, this line of flawed reasoning is applied to both typically developing children and those with language disorders. Language confusion does occur when educators become confused about bilingual children and their development. Bilingual children can be perplexing because there is a tremendous amount of variability in bilingualism, with L1 and L2 proficiencies that are dynamic across time and settings. That is, bilingualism operates on a continuum and the quantity, quality, and context of L1 and L2 exposure and usage are major sources of variability and influence on a child's bilingual profile. In this issue of Topics of Language Disorders, we hope to advance the understanding of the bilingual continuum across ages and educational settings. We have assembled original research and clinical tutorials with the goal of highlighting the unique language and literacy needs of children with diverse proficiencies in L1 and L2. In two of the articles, vocabulary teaching and learning for bilingual children is the focus. Ehren, Rosa-Lugo, and Hagan present an adapted version of the promising Vocabulary Scenario Technique that taps into L1 strengths while teaching L2. Roseberry-Mckibbin presents a clinical tutorial on ways to differentiate academic vocabulary instruction for bilingual children with developmental language disorders. This article also presents the use of L1 as a cross-linguistic tool to teach L2 vocabulary, as well as several other innovations to enrich vocabulary instruction. Two of the articles focus on addressing both language and literacy development in bilingual children. Guiberson reviews extant research and presents a descriptive study of early literacy behaviors of Spanish-speaking caregivers of 2- and 3-year-old children. Findings from the review and the descriptive study are combined, and 26 early literacy and language strategies are described. Fiestas and colleagues describe a packaged literacy and language intervention for primary- grade bilingual children. Incidentally, this intervention also targets vocabulary and the use of L1 to support new L2 development through both oral and print activities. It also includes narrative comprehension and production instruction and goals. The final study describes the use of English learner case simulations with graduate students in speech–language pathology to practice a strategy used with bilingual children that considers their language proficiency. Findings from this work show general benefits in graduate students' overall engagement and preparedness to consider English learners and their specific needs. Although we recognize there is a need for more research, particularly treatment research with bilingual children, it is our hope that this issue of Topics in Language Disorders will demonstrate that meeting the language and literacy needs of bilingual learners requires careful consideration and specialized instruction. We also hope this issue provides educators and researchers direction in addressing the complex and varied language and literacy profiles of bilingual children across the bilingual continuum. —Mark Guiberson, PhD —Linda I. Rosa-Lugo, EdD Issue Co-Editors

A peer-mediated approach to support emergent bilingual preschoolers

Peer-mediated intervention, an approach emphasizing student-to-student interaction, is a promising approach to support emergent bilingual children's development of positive peer relationships and language development; however, there is little empirical evidence documenting peer-mediated interventions for preschool-aged emergent bilingual preschoolers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a peer-mediated intervention on preschool-aged emergent bilinguals’ and their peer buddies’ social interactions in the classroom.Three emergent bilinguals were paired with 3 English-only peer-buddies. Children were typically-developing and 3.9–5.2 years old. Each dyad was trained using an Invite-Play-Talk model, followed by 10, 20-minute-intervention play sessions. A staggered multiple baseline design across participants was used to measure the effect of this peer-mediated intervention on emergent bilingual and peer buddy interactions. Interactions were coded as verbal or nonverbal.All dyads of emergent bilingual and peer buddy children exhibited increases in their initiations and responses throughout the intervention phase over-time. Gains were maintained with a slight decrease in interactions at 2-weeks postintervention.Results suggest the benefit of a peer-mediated intervention using an Invite-Play-Talk model to support communication in emergent bilingual preschoolers and encourage the provision of inclusive supports for emergent bilingual children in early childhood classrooms.

Evidence of phonological transfer in bilingual preschoolers who speak Arabic and French

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to document evidence of phonological transfer in bilingual preschoolers. Specifically, we focus on the phonological development of bilingual children acquiring French and Arabic. Method: Nine children who spoke Arabic and French, aged three years old, participated in a picture-naming task in both languages. Three types of measurement were used to examine the interaction between the two systems: consonants accuracy; inventory of acquired consonants; and types of errors. Data and analysis: The accuracy of shared and unshared consonants between Arabic and French were compared with a repeated measures analysis of variance, and error patterns were analyzed. Conclusions: Two main results suggest that these bilingual children have two phonological systems that interacted. First, the children had an inventory of acquired consonants that differed according to language. Second, they produced shared consonants more accurately than unshared consonants, indicating positive interactions and low accuracy for unshared consonants, indicating negative interactions. Originality: This study contributes much-needed research relating to the development of bilingual children, particularly children who are acquiring Arabic and French. Implications: These findings enrich the understanding of bilingual phonological development and contribute to understanding how two phonological systems interact. This study also has clinical implications for evaluation and intervention with bilingual children.

Home literacy practices that support language and literacy development in bilingual children: a longitudinal case study

ABSTRACT In the past few decades, literature has consistently suggested that bilingual children are at risk for academic failure due to their limited language skills. However, many of these studies included underprivileged bilingual children, and few of them attempted to disentangle the effects of bilingualism from the effects of socio-economic status. Critically, it is not clear how the language and literacy skills of bilingual children develop when they benefit from home support. This paper presents the case study of a child who emigrated from Romania to the United States at the age of 4.8 and enrolled in preschool with no prior knowledge of English. With support from his family, by the end of the 4th grade, his English vocabulary was 2.5 standard deviations above national norms (11th grade level equivalent), and all other standardized language and reading comprehension measures placed him between the 82nd and the 99th percentile. This study suggests that the socio-economic status (in general) and the home language and literacy environment (in particular) has the potential to play an important role in the language and literacy development of bilingual children.

Non-word repetition in bilingual children: the role of language exposure, vocabulary scores and environmental factors

ABSTRACT Assessing language development in bilingual children is challenging in geographical areas where bilinguals have different native languages. Lexical development measures are often used as a starting point to study linguistic abilities in bilingual children. Non-word repetition (NWR) has been found to be very informative in detecting variation. The present study contributes to the broader research aim of documenting bilinguals’ language skills. In a sample of 19 Italian-speaking bilingual children with different native languages, correlations among performance on an Italian-like NWR and receptive vocabulary score (Italian PPVT-R), cumulative exposure, age of first exposure to Italian, current Italian exposure, maternal education, parental concerns and vocabulary in toddlerhood (MB-CDI) were calculated. NWR performances correlated with PPVT-R and parental concerns, but not with maternal education and language exposure measures. Neither NWR scores nor PPVT-R scores were related to Italian vocabulary size in toddlerhood (MB-CDI). We integrate our results with those of others and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of administering NWR to bilingual children, and more generally how to perform early bilingual language assessments.

Is There an Association between Executive Function and Receptive Vocabulary in Bilingual Children? A Longitudinal Examination.

Dual language management has been proposed as the reason for bilingual children’s sometimes enhanced executive functioning (EF). We sought to identify the directionality of the relation between language proficiency and EF, using measures of receptive vocabulary, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Data were collected twice, a year apart, on 35- to 66.8-month-old bilingual (n = 41, M = 49.19 months) and monolingual preschool children (n = 37, M = 47.82 months). The longitudinal results revealed that while the monolingual children’s vocabulary at Time 1 predicted EF at Time 2, EF at Time 1 did not predict vocabulary at Time 2. In contrast, for bilingual children the relation was not present at all. The results were similar after the one-time analyses. The absence of relations between EF and language in bilinguals, while present in monolinguals, challenges the current conceptualization of the EF advantage in bilinguals, and emphasizes the need for more research on the development of bilingual children.

Organizational and pedagogical conditions for the development of bilingualism in preschool children

The article is devoted to the problem of speech development in bilingual children. Preschool age is a favorable period for the development of speech. The main attention in the article is paid to teaching Russian and Mordovian languages (Erzya/Moksha) to bilingual children, since their speech development has a certain specificity that affects the proficiency of both languages (this specificity determines the peculiarities of speech development and teaching methods). On the basis of a theoretical analysis of the problem and their own experience, the authors determine the pedagogical conditions for the development of the speech of bilingual children in the process of forming elementary mathematical concepts. Research methods: the research is based on the analysis, generalization and systematization of modern achievements of pedagogical theory and practice in the development of the speech of bilingual children.

Grammatical Characteristics of Vietnamese and English in Developing Bilingual Children.

Purpose Defining parameters for typical development in bilingual children's first and second languages can serve as the basis for accurate language assessment. This is the first study to characterize Vietnamese and English grammatical development in a sample of bilingual children. Method Participants were 89 Vietnamese-English bilingual children, aged 3-8 years. Children completed story retell tasks in Vietnamese and English. Stories were transcribed and analyzed for grammaticality, error patterns, subordination index, and types of subordinating clauses. Of key interest were associations with age and identifying developmental patterns that were shared across languages or unique to a given language. Results Age correlated with more measures in English than in Vietnamese, suggesting that older children had higher grammaticality and greater syntactic complexity in English than younger children. Children also produced greater syntactic complexity with age in Vietnamese, but not higher grammaticality. There were a set of error patterns shared across languages (e.g., object omission) and patterns specific to each language (e.g., classifier errors in Vietnamese, tense errors in English). While children produced nominal, adverbial, and relative clauses in Vietnamese and English, the proportion of each clause type differed by language. Conclusions Results from this typically developing sample provide a reference point to improve clinical practice. Characterizing developmental patterns in sentence structure in Vietnamese and English lays the groundwork for investigations of language disorders in this bilingual population.

Early shifts in the heritage language strength: A comparison of lexical access and accuracy in bilingual and monolingual children

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions:This study examines the characteristics of the child heritage language during the period of its relative dominance in early sequential bilinguals. Our objectives are twofold: to compare lexical accuracy and access in heritage and monolingual speakers across the primary school years, and to examine whether the results point to any early shifts in the heritage language strength.Design/methodology/approach:The participants are 38 Polish–English early sequential bilinguals and 24 Polish monolinguals aged 4;7–13;2, divided into four age groups. We use a new psycholinguistic tool, the Child HALA, to measure shifts in language strength by comparing lexical accuracy and access between the heritage and monolingual Polish. This picture-naming test is based on the HALA tool.Data and analysis:The data consists of accuracy and response time scores. The results are compared between the age groups and between the heritage and monolingual speakers to document any changes as a function of age and type of acquisition.Findings/conclusions:The heritage speakers achieve similar accuracy scores as the monolinguals; however, their rate of acquisition is slower. Their response time scores are lower across all age spans, which points to a slower language access. The results may suggest that the heritage language displays early shifts in its strength before a switch to a more dominant L2 between the mean age of 8–11;5.Originality:We document early changes in the heritage language strength that occur during a period of its relative dominance in bilingual children. The study employs a new psycholinguistic test applicable in the assessments of language maintenance in children.Significance/implications:The study provides insights into the heritage language maintenance during the early years of exposure to the majority language. The results may offer a greater understanding of the characteristics of the heritage language development in bilingual children.

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

Monolingual 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.

Mother Tongue of Turkish Immigrant Children in Berlin: to Be or not to Be?

How do bilingual Turkish children develop their mother tongue knowledge in German kindergartens and what are some of the difficulties they face? These are the questions which this paper tries to answer. For this purpose, a study with Turkish kindergarten children from Berlin, Germany was conducted. A total of 40 children were divided into two groups between 3 and 6 years old and tested twice in a year with the TEDIL Test . The test consists of pictures and measures the knowledge of Turkish nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and syntax. All of the children were tested individually by a native Turkish speaker and by the researcher. The testing was done in the kindergarten setting. The results showed that the knowledge of both age groups on different grammatical categories in Turkish was equal on the first test and there were no statistical differences. However, during the second test the group of older children showed a decrease in their knowledge of the grammatical categories in their mother tongue. This paper discusses the factors that influenced the regression in the knowledge of Turkish. This study is one of only a few on bilingual Turkish children and it presents new information about mother tongue loss among kindergarten children, discusses the reasons, and suggests that kindergartens and families should cooperate and work together in order to prevent mother tongue loss from a very early age as well as its effect on the cognitive development of bilingual children.

Mother Tongue of Turkish Immigrant Children in Berlin: to Be or not to Be?

How do bilingual Turkish children develop their mother tongue knowledge in German kindergartens and what are some of the difficulties they face? These are the questions which this paper tries to answer. For this purpose, a study with Turkish kindergarten children from Berlin, Germany was conducted. A total of 40 children were divided into two groups between 3 and 6 years old and tested twice in a year with the TEDIL Test . The test consists of pictures and measures the knowledge of Turkish nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and syntax. All of the children were tested individually by a native Turkish speaker and by the researcher. The testing was done in the kindergarten setting. The results showed that the knowledge of both age groups on different grammatical categories in Turkish was equal on the first test and there were no statistical differences. However, during the second test the group of older children showed a decrease in their knowledge of the grammatical categories in their mother tongue. This paper discusses the factors that influenced the regression in the knowledge of Turkish. This study is one of only a few on bilingual Turkish children and it presents new information about mother tongue loss among kindergarten children, discusses the reasons, and suggests that kindergartens and families should cooperate and work together in order to prevent mother tongue loss from a very early age as well as its effect on the cognitive development of bilingual children.