Bilingualism In Early Childhood Research Articles

A Study of Bilingual Development of Subject Realization of a Mandarin-English Bilingual Preschool Child from China to Australia

This article traces the developmental trajectory of bilingual subject realization of a Mandarin-English bilingual child from China to Australia from age 3;04 to 5;05. There is an assumption that age 3 is the dividing line between Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA) and Early Second Language Acquisition (ESLA). Determining similarities and differences between them is of great theoretical and methodological significance. While BFLA studies show consistent results under the condition of adequate input and meaningful interaction, ESLA studies indicate that these children proceed their early English differently from BFLA. Previous studies mainly focused on young children’s English development in English-speaking countries without prior English input. However, an increasing number of children migrate to English-speaking countries after age 1 with limited English input. This study examines whether there is qualitative difference between BFLA and ESLA children’s bilingual subject realization. Drawing upon the naturalistic data before and after the child’s migration from China to Australia and CLAN analysis, the 25-month longitudinal case study indicates that the ESLA child’s bilingual subject realization developmental trajectories are qualitatively similar but quantitatively different from Mandarin-English BFLA peers. This study could be the first of its kind by investigating a bilingual child who acquires two languages with changed environmental language (Lε), contributing theoretically and practically to early childhood bilingualism.

Leveraging AI Tools for Discourse Analysis in Early Childhood Bilingual Education: Enhancing Language Development

The implementation of AI tools in education has become increasingly popular and brought transformative potential, particularly in the field of language education because of its powerful functions on designing immersive and personalized activities and offering real-time feedback. This study explores the role of AI tools in discourse analysis and the impact on enhancing bilingual skills among early childhood students. It investigates two key questions: (1) How do AI tools impact young childrens bilingual skills in early childhood classrooms? (2) How can discourse analysis of AI tools assist educators with bilingual teaching? A qualitative case study, including an in-depth interview with a bilingual educator, reveals insights into the effectiveness of AI tools in promoting bilingual language acquisition and engaging young learners in meaningful and enjoyable learning environment. Furthermore, the discourse analysis of AI tools offers immediate, actionable insights on each students academic performance, helping educators better understand the language learning process and the specific challenges students face. However, considerations and challenges of AI in education, such as privacy risks and misuse, still need to be considered. The findings of this study bridge the gap and highlight the potential for discourse analysis of AI tools in early childhood bilingual education. Further study can focus on exploring other AI tools in bilingual education and conducting long-term research with a large example size.

The Impact Of Early Childhood Bilingualism On Cognitive Development: Comparative Studies

The Impact Of Early Childhood Bilingualism On Cognitive Development: Comparative Studies

Degree of bilingualism and executive function in early childhood

Abstract This study explores the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and degree of bilingualism in a sample (N = 79) of 5- to 7-year-old monolingual and bilingual children. The bilingual group included children who are fully fluent in two languages (balanced bilinguals) and children who are still learning their second language (dual-language learners (DLLs). In general, findings revealed mixed associations between bilingualism and EF. There were no language group differences for one type of simple inhibitory control (i.e., go or no-go task). However, a bilingual advantage was demonstrated for another type of simple inhibitory control (the Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders task), for complex inhibitory control (i.e., the Simon effect), and for cognitive flexibility (Dimensional Change Card Sort). Effects were found when DLLs and balanced bilinguals were analyzed separately, and the latter two effects were found when both types of bilinguals were compared to monolinguals. The findings contribute to the growing literature examining a possible bilingual effect in early childhood.

REVIEW OF (CRITICAL) LITERATURE ABOUT BILINGUALISM

The topic of bilingualism has always been an object of interest in linguistic circles, especially today in the time of globalisation or the “third epoch”, when borders of states haven’t always implied the boundary of the use of a particular language. In addition to the fact that research on this phenomenon covers a wide range of hypotheses and perspectives from which bilingualism is analysed, it increasingly involves developing countries, multicultural and multilingual environments. Numerous scientists have investigated the process of first and second language acquisition, some have observed in which environments and under what conditions bilingualism occurs, and this group includes scientists who have done research on bilingual children in the school system whose attitudes will be stated in this paper.
 This work provides an overview of the basic conclusions from theoretical and empirical studies on the topic of bilingualism, through a review of research in which attention is drawn to the traditionally neglected or insufficiently explored extralinguistic factors and their influence on the development or obstruction of bilingualism. The aim is to come to a conclusion about the different competences of bilingual children and the conditions that affect the development of bilingualism in early childhood and in children of school age. Some of the definitions of bilingualism are primarily listed, then the functions of language as well as the relationship between the first and second languages, the influence of parents and culture on the early development of bilingualism are explained. In the final part of the paper, practical advice for helping bilingual children is given, based on a literature review on this topic. Therefore, we conclude that the article discusses current and scientifically relevant issues: types of bilingualism, as well as its socio-pedagogical implications.

Research on Early Childhood Bilingual Education in China from the Perspective of Cognitive Neuroscience

With the rapid development of globalization and the world economy, English, as the universal language, plays a pivotal role in the international political, economic and cultural fields. English non-native speakers are paying more and more attention to popularizing English education as an important part of basic education, and English learning is also showing a trend of becoming younger and younger. However, the early childhood language acquisition process is influenced and controlled by various complex factors, including acquisition age, acquisition methods, family ecological environment and socio-cultural factors. At present, the early childhood bilingual education in China is booming, but due to the mentality of most parents and the immaturity and incompleteness of various conditions, combined with the lack of scientific theoretical basis and empirical research on early childhood bilingual learning, the bilingual education in early childhood There have been many problems in the development process. In recent years, the development of brain development in the field of cognitive neuroscience has made important progress, prompting people to continuously explore how to more effectively promote early childhood language development and bilingual ability. Starting from the concept of bilingual education, this paper expounds the latest research results of early childhood bilingual ability development and brain development, the current situation, existing problems and development path of bilingual education for preschool children in China, and provides a large number of parents, educators and educational decision-making departments. Useful lessons are learned from experience.

Multimodal Communication in an Early Childhood Bilingual Education Setting: A Social Semiotic Interaction Analysis

Bilingual learners often integrate semiotic resources and communicative modes across the languages they speak. Unfortunately, current approaches to researching such a phenomenon assign pragmatic functions to individual discourse moves at best or to isolated utterances at worst. Thus, using a social semiotic multimodal interaction analysis, this study examined actions in interac­tions of a group of six transnational students participating in a second-grade literacy circle at a school in western New York, USA. The purpose of this was to account for the complex reciprocities among their multimodal ways of communicating, their learning climate, and ultimately their learning as mediated and evidenced in their integrated multimodal communicative action. Data included four audio recordings of four literacy circle reading activities that took place during a four-day period. Findings sug­gest that, first, learning results from communication. Second, learning can only be evidenced through communication in interaction. Finally, communication is always multimodal and emergent while, at the same time, culturally governed. This presents direct implications for instruction and learning regarding the social conditions afforded to students to access their full repertoire of semiotic resourc­es and modes to participate and act on their own behalf and in pursuit of their learning.

The Tatar-Russian Bilingualism in Early Childhood

The paper presents findings from psycholinguistic research with normally developing preschool Tatar-Russian bilingual children between the age of 4;0 to 6;0 years old. Forty children in total- twenty children between the age of 4;0 -5;0, and twenty children between the age of 5;0-6;0 were tested. Children with language impairment and mental disabilities were excluded from the study. All children attend a polylingual kindergarten, where the children learn in organized way the following three languages: their mother tongue - the state language of the Tatarstan - the Tatar language, Russian - the official language of the Russian Federation to which Tatarstan belongs, and English. The children were tested with two types of language tests: Syntactic test (wh-complement tests) and mix Tatar-Russian vocabulary test (comprehension and production). They were also tested with a psychological non-verbal Knock Tap test. All children were tested individually in a separate room by a native Tatar speaking and Russian speaking researcher. In order to avoid the influence of the language of testing on the results half of the children were tested with part of the tests in Tatar language and the other part in Russian language. The next day they were changing the languages and the tests. The research question we try to answer is: Do the children develop balanced bilingualism in the kindergarten age having in mind the educational system they are involved in or they are dominant in one of the two languages. The results of the children are analyzed with the ANOVA and SPSS Statistics. They show that the older children are better in all test. Regarding the language the younger children show poor results in Tatar and better results in Russian. The older children show equally good results in both languages. The paper discusses the classical theory of Skutnabb-Kangas (1981) and newest findings of Bialystok (2020) regarding the bilingualism and bilingual education from early ages and which factors play important role in successful development of balanced bilingualism from early age.

The Debate upon Acquiring Bilingualism Brings Excessive Advantages or Burdensome to Young Learners

Nowadays, controversy of bilingual education system program still exist. Bilingualism remains as an issue particularly whether or not it is appropriate to be taught for young learners. Learning two languages in the same time is seen to create damaging effect into confusion for children in their age. In spite of the criticism, there are advantages which is offered from bilingual education. Seeing on how bilinguals have good deals as across many aspects such as cognitive control and linguistic knowledge whose the learners are better in problem solving and high order thinking skills, the purpose of the study is going to focus on how bilingualism is suitable or not to learn for young learners. Since young learners are in the golden age to acquire new language, linguistic knowledge and cognitive skills are effective enough to be taught. Therefore, the study focuses more on the discussion of previous research on whether or not bilingualism give difficulties or advantages to children. It will discuss by introducing English to young learners who will meet benefits or problems of bilingualism in early childhood. Keywords: Bilingual education; bilingualism; young learners; second language; early childhood.

Profiles of bilingualism in early childhood: A person-centred Latent Profile Transition Approach

AbstractBilingualism as it occurs in current societies is a complex, multidimensional and dynamic phenomenon, calling for new approaches to capture this concept. This study shows the feasibility of a person-centred approach by combining measures of the use of and proficiency in the first and second language from 110 young Turkish–Dutch children at two measurement waves, using two existing datasets. Latent Profile Analysis revealed four profiles, equivalent at age four and six: 1) Dominant L1 use, relatively low L1 and L2 proficiency, 2) Dual L1 and L2 use, around average L1 and L2 proficiency, 3) Dominant L1 use, relatively high L1 and L2 proficiency and 4) Dominant L2 use, relatively high L2 proficiency. Latent Transition Analysis indicated that children changed in profiles over time. Regression analyses showed that profiles were differently related to the family's socioeconomic status and children's nonverbal intelligence at age four. No relations were found at age six.

Early childhood bilingualism: effects on brain structure and function.

Growing up in a bilingual environment is becoming increasingly common. Yet, we know little about how this enriched language environment influences the connectivity of children's brains. Behavioural research in children and adults has shown that bilingualism experience may boost executive control (EC) skills, such as inhibitory control and attention. Moreover, increased structural and functional (resting-state) connectivity in language-related and EC-related brain networks is associated with increased executive control in bilingual adults. However, how bilingualism factors alter brain connectivity early in brain development remains poorly understood. We will combine standardised tests of attention with structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in bilingual children. This study will allow us to address an important field of inquiry within linguistics and developmental cognitive neuroscience by examining the following questions: Does bilingual experience modulate connectivity in language-related and EC-related networks in children? Do differences in resting-state brain connectivity correlate with differences in EC skills (specifically attention skills)? How do bilingualism-related factors, such as age of exposure to two languages, language usage and proficiency, modulate brain connectivity? We will collect structural and functional MRI, and quantitative measures of EC and language skills from two groups of English-Greek bilingual children - 20 simultaneous bilinguals (exposure to both languages from birth) and 20 successive bilinguals (exposure to English between the ages of 3 and 5 years) - and 20 English monolingual children, 8-10 years old. We will compare connectivity measures and attention skills between monolinguals and bilinguals to examine the effects of bilingual exposure. We will also examine to what extent bilingualism factors predict brain connectivity in EC and language networks. Overall, we hypothesize that connectivity and EC will be enhanced in bilingual children compared to monolingual children, and each outcome will be modulated by age of exposure to two languages and by bilingual language usage.

Early childhood bilingualism: effects on brain structure and function

Growing up in a bilingual environment is becoming increasingly common. Yet, we know little about how this enriched language environment influences the connectivity of children’s brains. Behavioural research in children and adults has shown that bilingualism experience may boost executive control (EC) skills, such as inhibitory control and attention. Moreover, increased structural and functional (resting-state) connectivity in language-related and EC-related brain networks is associated with increased executive control in bilingual adults. However, how bilingualism factors alter brain connectivity early in brain development remains poorly understood. We will combine standardised tests of attention with structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in bilingual children. This study will allow us to address an important field of inquiry within linguistics and developmental cognitive neuroscience by examining the following questions: Does bilingual experience modulate connectivity in language-related and EC-related networks in children? Do differences in resting-state brain connectivity correlate with differences in EC skills (specifically attention skills)? How do bilingualism-related factors, such as age of exposure to two languages, language usage and proficiency, modulate brain connectivity? We will collect structural and functional MRI, and quantitative measures of EC and language skills from two groups of English-Greek bilingual children - 20 simultaneous bilinguals (exposure to both languages from birth) and 20 successive bilinguals (exposure to English between the ages of 3 and 5 years) - and 20 English monolingual children, 8-10 years old. We will compare connectivity measures and attention skills between monolinguals and bilinguals to examine the effects of bilingual exposure. We will also examine to what extent bilingualism factors predict brain connectivity in EC and language networks. Overall, we hypothesize that connectivity and EC will be enhanced in bilingual children compared to monolingual children, and each outcome will be modulated by age of exposure to two languages and by bilingual language usage.

Probability of Heritage Language Use at a Supportive Early Childhood Setting in Australia

© Copyright © 2020 Escudero, Jones Diaz, Hajek, Wigglesworth and Smit. Despite well-established research that documents the intellectual, linguistic, sociocultural and familiar benefits of early childhood bilingualism, Australia's provision of heritage language (HL) support in early childhood (EC) settings is fairly minimal, resulting in little to no access to the HL outside of the home. We report on language data from a long day care preschool that has an open bilingual policy, where two languages (HL and English) are used in naturalistic interactions between children and educators. While the quantity of language input and output is known to impact on language proficiency, there are no prior studies which focus on establishing the quantitative nature of naturalistic language production in a bilingual preschool. Our goal was to document the relative language input and output of HL and English and to examine whether there are differences across age groups in the EC setting, and during different activity types. We followed a quantitative approach in data analysis, with child and educator observations over a period of 8 weeks and an analysis of targeted videos amounting to close to an hour of recordings per child. We used Bayesian modeling to test the probability of HL use in the different age groups and per activity type. Overall, HL input was higher for toddlers than preschoolers and toddlers received more HL input than English, while preschoolers received comparable input in both languages. The higher probability of HL input in toddlers was particularly evident during story time and playing activities. Our results indicate a high level of HL use in this EC setting, suggesting success in HL maintenance and promotion of early bilingualism. Further research should explore the children's relative language output in relation to their input, individual differences, as well as extending the current methodology to other similar settings in Australia.

Early childhood bilingualism: effects on brain structure and function.

Growing up in a bilingual environment is becoming increasingly common. Yet, we know little about how this enriched language environment influences the connectivity of children's brains. Behavioural research in children and adults has shown that bilingualism experience may boost executive control (EC) skills, such as inhibitory control and attention. Moreover, increased structural and functional (resting-state) connectivity in language-related and EC-related brain networks is associated with increased executive control in bilingual adults. However, how bilingualism factors alter brain connectivity early in brain development remains poorly understood. We will combine standardised tests of attention with structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in bilingual children. This study will allow us to address an important field of inquiry within linguistics and developmental cognitive neuroscience by examining the following questions: Does bilingual experience modulate connectivity in language-related and EC-related networks in children? Do differences in resting-state brain connectivity correlate with differences in EC skills (specifically attention skills)? How do bilingualism-related factors, such as age of exposure to two languages, language usage and proficiency, modulate brain connectivity? We will collect structural and functional MRI, and quantitative measures of EC and language skills from two groups of English-Greek bilingual children - 20 simultaneous bilinguals (exposure to both languages from birth) and 20 successive bilinguals (exposure to English between the ages of 3 and 5 years) - and 20 English monolingual children, 8-10 years old. We will compare connectivity measures and attention skills between monolinguals and bilinguals to examine the effects of bilingual exposure. We will also examine to what extent bilingualism factors predict brain connectivity in EC and language networks. Overall, we hypothesize that connectivity and EC will be enhanced in bilingual children compared to monolingual children, and each outcome will be modulated by age of exposure to two languages and by bilingual language usage.

Early Childhood Bilingualism: The Myths, Truths, and Implications in English Language Learning in Pontianak

The paper explicates the immediate concern of gaining a deeper insight of language acquisition in the early childhood bilingualism in the setting of Pontianak city, a multi-ethnic city located in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is written through descriptive method or library research to provide the readers, especially the parents and teachers with better insights into a basis for decision making about raising and educating children bilingually. The first part elaborates on four myths, namely the myth of the monolingual brain, the myth of time investment, the myth of bilingualism and language impairment; and the myth of minority language children. It is followed by the argumentative support by the experts in the fields based on the literature review. Next, discussions are presented as a whole, pointing out some of significant implications for parents and teachers. Finally, an overall conclusion of the paper coverage is provided.

Developing Bilingualism and Biliteracy in Early and middle Childhood

In this column, the author synthesizes key findings about bilingual and biliterate development in childhood, specifically how bilingualism is related to children’s language and literacy development.

Early Mixing in Bilingual Children: A Psycholinguistics View

Most studies on Bilinguals First Language Acquisition (BFLA) are concerned with giving explanation for language mixing in young bilinguals. It is commonly stated that language mixing in children has to be interpreted as evidence for confusions in the bilingual’s language acquisition, in the sense that the two languages are not acquired separately but start out as a single system. In other words, it is in contrast to adults’ code-switching. In this article, early mixing in bilingual children is explored based on psycholinguistics view. This article will first discuss the language acquisition, then the theories and assumptions on bilingualism in early childhood, and last the early mixing in bilingual children. According to the review of related literature, it can be inferred that from psycholinguistics view, language mixing cannot indicate the bilingual children’s lack of ability to differentiate the two language system. Spontaneous translation employed by the bilingual children shows that bilingual awareness and language differentiation is possible at an early stage. Bilingual infants can do language mixing as an evidence of their meta-linguistic awareness and language differentiation. As language mixing may be a good indicator of bilingual fluency, we can say that children who become bilingual in their early childhood will reach their fluency in the two languages by doing language mixing according to the two languages they have acquired.

Bilingualism and Creative Abilities in Early Childhood

The present study was motivated by a scarcity of knowledge about the impact of early bilingualism on the development of general creativity and mathematical creativity. Two groups of bilingual and monolingual preschoolers (mean age = 60.9 months, SD= 3.1) from the same monolingual kindergarten participated in this study: 15 Russian/Hebrew balanced bilinguals and 15 native Hebrew-speaking monolinguals. All children were administered the Figural Form A ( Thinking Creatively with Pictures ) from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, the Pictorial Multiple Solution Task assessing general creativity, and the Creating Equal Number task measuring mathematical creativity. Bilingual children showed higher creative ability than their monolingual peers. It seems, however, that bilingualism affects various domains of creative ability differently. Consistent with findings of an earlier study (M. Leikin, 2013) the results demonstrate that relationships between creativity components and bilingualism are task dependent, and when differences between bilingual and monolingual children are revealed, they are in favor of bilinguals. In other words, advantages in creative ability in bilinguals are specific rather than general.

Bilingualism and Creativity in Early Childhood

This study examined the possible effect of bilingualism on creativity in nonmathematical and mathematical problem solving among bilingual and monolingual preschoolers. Two groups of children (M age = 71.9 months, SD = 3.6) from the same monolingual kindergartens participated in this study: 15 Russian/Hebrew balanced bilinguals and 16 native Hebrew-speaking monolinguals. All children were administered the Working Memory Test, the Verbal (Semantic) Fluency Test, the Pictorial Multiple Solution Task on general creativity, and the Creating Equal Number Task on mathematical creativity. The results showed that balanced bilingualism has a positive effect on the development of creativity in problem solving, but that the effect differs according to the domain: verbal, general, or mathematical creativity.

Conflict resolution in the context of Early Childhood Bilingual Education: towards a multicultural development

This article discusses how young children learn to deal with conflicts from a multicultural standpoint. The present work is based on the view that, in a world of multiple demands and perspectives, children learn to deal with life in a variety of ways that will enable them to choose who they will become. The main underlying concepts of this article include: multiculturalism, linked to multilingualism and multimodality, as well as collaborative intervention for the creation of zones of proximal development and children's oral argumentation. The data consists of a multimodally transcribed episode of a snack time situation among two-year-old children, showing the multicultural development of kids in their way of dealing with conflict resolution.