Dual Language Input Research Articles

Welsh–English bilingual adolescents’ performance on verbal analogy and verbal classification tasks: the role of language exposure and use on vocabulary knowledge

ABSTRACT Numerous studies suggest that bilinguals demonstrate smaller vocabularies than monolinguals, and that bilinguals’ breadth of vocabulary knowledge – both expressive and receptive – is linked to input frequencies in each language [e.g. Hoff, E., S. Welsh, S. Place, and K. Ribot. 2014. “Properties of Dual Language Input That Shape Bilingual Development and Properties of Environments That Shape Dual Language Input.” In Input and Experience in Bilingual Development, edited by T. Grüter, and J. Paradis, Vol. 13, 119–140. Amserdam: John Benjamins]. However, relatively little is known about the quality of bilinguals’ knowledge of the words they do know (e.g. their understanding of how words relate to each other semantically) and how input frequencies influence that knowledge. Using the Cognitive Abilities Tasks – 4 (CAT-4), this study explored the potential links between three types of input sources – home language exposure, self-reported rates of language use in general, and language use with friends – and bilinguals’ performance on two types of vocabulary tests in both Welsh and English: verbal analogy and verbal categorisation. Results revealed similar performance across-the-board in relation to their knowledge of English vocabulary, regardless of their exposure to and use of Welsh and/or English in general and with friends, but their knowledge of the links between words in Welsh was related to home language exposure and rates of language use. The implications and application of these results in practice are discussed.

Heterogeneity in the trajectories of US Latine mothers’ dual-language input from infancy to preschool

We longitudinally examined the trajectories of Latine mothers’ ( N = 116) language input to their children during book-sharing interactions at four points in development, when children were between ages 2 and 5 years. Mother–child dyads were video-recorded sharing a wordless picture book, and transcriptions of mothers’ and children’s language yielded word types in Spanish and English at each assessment wave. Three distinct trajectories of change in mothers’ dual-language use were identified. Some mothers shifted from Spanish-dominant input to more balanced input between English and Spanish; other mothers provided English-dominant input and used more English and less Spanish over time; and the remaining mothers were stable in their Spanish-dominant input across child ages. Mothers’ immigration background, educational level, and children’s preschool language experiences each uniquely predicted trajectories of maternal language input. In general, children showed similar trajectories as their mothers, although mismatch occurred for some dyads at the later ages. The dual-language environments of Latine children are dynamic and shaped by individual and contextual factors.

Compensation for Phonological Assimilation in Bilingual Children

ABSTRACTWe investigate bilingual children’s perception of assimilations, i.e. phonological rules by which a consonant at a word edge adopts a phonological feature of a neighboring consonant. For instance, English has place assimilation (e.g., green is pronounced with a final [m] in green pen), while French has voicing assimilation (e.g., sac is pronounced with a final [g] in sac vert “green bag”). Previous research has shown that French and English monolingual toddlers compensate for the assimilation rule of their language, correctly recovering the intended words, but not for a rule that does not exist in their language. Using a word recognition videogame with French sentences, we show that French-English bilingual 6-year-olds perform exactly like French monolinguals of the same age: they compensate for voicing but not for place assimilation. Thus, despite their dual language input they have acquired French voicing assimilation and show no interference from English place assimilation.

What do bilingual infants actually hear? Evaluating measures of language input to bilingual-learning 10-month-olds.

Examining how bilingual infants experience their dual language input is important for understanding bilingual language acquisition. To assess these language experiences, researchers typically conduct language interviews with caregivers. However, little is known about the reliability of these parent reports in describing how bilingual children actually experience dual language input. Here, we explored the quantitative nature of dual language input to bilingual infants. Furthermore, we described some of the heterogeneity of bilingual exposure in a sample of French-English bilingual families. Participants were 21 families with a 10-month-old infant residing in Montréal, Canada. First, we conducted language interviews with the caregivers. Then, each family completed three full-day recordings at home using the Language Environment Analysis recording system. Results showed that children's proportion exposure to each language was consistent across the two measurement approaches, indicating that parent reports are reliable for assessing a bilingual child's language experiences. Further exploratory analyses revealed three unique findings: (a) there can be considerable variability in the absolute amount of input among infants hearing the same proportion of input, (b) infants can hear different proportions of language input when considering infant-directed versus overheard speech, (c) proportion of language input can vary by day, depending on who is caring for the infant. We conclude that collecting naturalistic recordings is complementary to parent-report measures for assessing infant's language experiences and for establishing bilingual profiles.

Dual language input and the impact of language separation on early lexical development.

We examined properties of the input and the environment that characterize bilingual exposure in 11-month-old infants with a regular exposure to French and an additional language, and their possible effects on receptive vocabulary size. Using a diary method, we found that a majority of the families roughly followed a one-parent-one-language approach. Yet, the two languages co-occurred to various extents within the same half-hour both within and across speakers. We used exploratory correlation analyses to examine potential effects of the dual input on the size of infants' vocabularies. The results revealed some evidence for an impact of language separation by speakers.

The effects of dual language exposure on executive function in Spanish–English bilingual children with different language abilities

The current study examined the effects of dual language exposure on executive function in 5- to 11-year-old Spanish–English bilingual children with different language skills. Dual language exposure was measured via parent report and was operationalized as the proportion of time spent in an environment where both English and Spanish were present. Executive function was measured via the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task. Shifting costs, switching costs, and mixing costs were derived to index executive function performance. A significant interaction between extent of dual language exposure and language skills was observed such that children showed smaller shifting and mixing costs with increased dual language input as their language skills increased. The results suggest a graded effect of dual language exposure on executive function, where a robust language system may be required for dual language exposure to influence executive function.

Acquisition of Classifier Constructions in HKSL by Bimodal Bilingual Deaf Children of Hearing Parents.

The current study focuses on the acquisition of classifier constructions in Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) by a group of Deaf children of hearing parents, aided or implanted. These children have been mainstreamed together since kindergarten; but their learning environment supports dual language input in Cantonese and HKSL on a daily basis. Classifier constructions were chosen because previous research suggested full mastery at a late age when compared with other verb types, due to their morphosyntactic complexity. Also, crosslinguistic comparison between HKSL and Cantonese reveals differences in verb morphology as well as word order of the structures under investigation. We predicted that verb root and word order were the two domains for crosslingusitic interaction to occur. At the general level, given the specific learning environment and dual input condition, we examined if these Deaf child learners could ultimately acquire classifier constructions. Fifteen Deaf children divided into four groups based on duration of exposure to HKSL participated in the study. Two Deaf children born to Deaf parents and three native HKSL signers served as controls. A picture description task was designed to elicit classifier constructions containing either a transitive, a locative existential or a motion directional predicate. The findings revealed Deaf children's gradual convergence on the adult grammar despite late exposure to HKSL. Evidence of crosslinguistic influence on word order came from the Deaf children's initial adoption of a Cantonese structure for locative existential and motion directional predicates. There was also a prolonged period of adherence to the SVO order across all grades. However, within this SVO structure, the verb revealed increasing morphological complexity as a function of longer duration of exposure. We interpreted the findings using Language Synthesis, arguing that it was the selection of morphosyntactic features in Numeration that triggered crosslinguistic interaction between Cantonese and HKSL with bimodal bilinguals.

CROSSLINGUISTIC INFLUENCE IN ENGLISH AS THE WEAKER LANGUAGE OF FRENCH-ENGLISH AND POLISH-ENGLISH BILINGUAL CHILDREN

This study aims to assess the extent of crosslinguistic influence in English as the weaker language of unbalanced bilingual children, and to compare the extent of such influence to that reported in the second language acquisition (SLA) literature. Additionally, by comparing children from different L1 backgrounds, we aim to see if typological distance impacts crosslinguistic influence. We collected elicited speech samples from 16 Polish-English and 44 French-English children who have had dual language input from birth, but whose English is weaker mostly because it is absent outside the home environment. The crosslinguistic error rates (an average of 6%) are lower for our participants than averages found in SLA literature, but still considerably high. Although French- and Polish-dominant children present comparable error profiles, the extent of crosslinguistic influence tends to be greater in the case of French-English bilinguals than for Polish-English bilinguals, which may reflect the perceived distance between the languages.

What Clinicians Need to Know about Bilingual Development.

Basic research on bilingual development suggests several conclusions that can inform clinical practice with children from bilingual environments. They include the following: (1) Dual language input does not confuse children. (2) It is not necessary for the two languages to be kept separate in children's experience to avoid confusion. (3) Learning two languages takes longer than learning one; on average, bilingual children lag behind monolingual children in single language comparisons. (4) A dominant language is not equivalent to an only language. (5) A measure of total vocabulary provides the best indicator of young bilingual children's language learning capacity. (6) Bilingual children can have different strengths in each language. (7) The quantity and quality of bilingual children's input in each language influence their rates of development in each language. (8) Immigrant parents should not be discouraged from speaking their native language to their children. (9) Bilingual environments vary enormously in the support they provide for each language, with the result that bilingual children vary enormously in their dual language skills. Empirical findings in support of each conclusion are presented.

The Amount of Language Exposure Determines Nonlinguistic Tone Grouping Biases in Infants From a Bilingual Environment

Duration‐based auditory grouping preferences are presumably shaped by language experience in adults and infants, unlike intensity‐based grouping that is governed by a universal bias of a loud‐soft preference. It has been proposed that duration‐based rhythmic grouping preferences develop as a function of native language phrasal prosody. Additionally, it has been suggested that phrasal prosody supports syntax acquisition (e.g., prosodic bootstrapping of word order within phrases). Using a looking preference procedure, in the current study, 9‐to‐10‐month‐old Spanish‐dominant and Basque‐dominant bilingual infants’ rhythmic preferences in response to nonlinguistic tones alternating in duration or intensity were assessed. In the intensity‐based condition no effects of language experience was present. In the duration‐based condition, however, infants exhibited grouping patterns as predicted by the phrasal prosody of their dominant input. Considering the proposed link between syntactic bootstrapping and perceptual tone grouping, our overall results suggest that syntax acquisition (e.g., learning the rules of word order) is supported by different auditory perceptual mechanisms for the dominant syntax than for the less dominant syntax in the infant's dual language input.

“¿Cómo estas?” “I’m good.” Conversational code-switching is related to profiles of expressive and receptive proficiency in Spanish-English bilingual toddlers

Relations between bilingual children’s patterns of conversational code-switching (responding to one language with another), the balance of their dual language input, and their expressive and receptive proficiency in two languages were examined in 115 2½-year-old simultaneous Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S. Children were more likely to code-switch in response to Spanish than English. Children’s expressive vocabulary scores were higher in English than in Spanish, while their English and Spanish receptive language scores were not different. Analyses of subgroups of children with different but consistent patterns of code-switching confirmed that children who code-switched to English showed greater English skills, specifically in the expressive domain. Children who did not code-switch were more balanced bilinguals in both expressive and receptive skills. Children with other code-switching patterns showed still different profiles of dual language expressive and receptive proficiency. These findings reveal that some, but not all, bilingual children show different profiles of expressive and receptive skill in their two languages and that these proficiency profiles are related to their language choices in conversation.

Within‐rhythm Class Native Language Discrimination Abilities of Basque‐Spanish Monolingual and Bilingual Infants at 3.5 Months of Age

Language rhythm determines young infants' language discrimination abilities. However, it is unclear whether young bilingual infants exposed to rhythmically similar languages develop sensitivities to cross‐linguistic rhythm cues to discriminate their dual language input. To address this question, 3.5‐month‐old monolingual Basque, monolingual Spanish and bilingual Basque‐Spanish infants' language discrimination abilities (across low‐pass filtered speech samples of Basque and Spanish) have been tested using the visual habituation procedure. Although falling within the same rhythmic class, Basque and Spanish exhibit significant differences in their distributions of vocalic intervals (within‐rhythmic class variation). All infant groups in our study successfully discriminated between the languages, although each group exhibited a different pattern. Monolingual Spanish infants succeeded only when they heard Basque during habituation, suggesting that they were influenced by native language recognition. The bilingual and the Basque monolingual infants showed no such asymmetries and succeeded irrespective of the language of habituation. Additionally, bilingual infants exhibited longer looking times in the test phase as compared with monolinguals, reflecting that bilingual infants attend to their native languages differently than monolinguals. Overall, results suggest that bilingual infants are sensitive to within‐rhythm acoustic regularities of their native language(s) facilitating language discrimination and hence supporting early bilingual acquisition.