Morphosyntactic Skills Research Articles

Average change in sentence repetition by Spanish-English speaking children: kindergarten to first grade

ABSTRACTPurpose: This study aimed to describe change in dual language learners’ (DLLs) morphosyntactic skills from kindergarten to first grade based on a sentence repetition task in English and Spanish.Methods: The sample included Spanish-English speaking children (n = 25). Investigators employed a repeated measures analysis of variance with one within-subjects effect (time).Results: Overall there was a significant difference in sentence repetition accuracy between time points showing growth in English (p < .001, d = 1.24), and no significant change in Spanish. Results highlight malleable English grammatical forms (e.g. conditional (if-then); question inversion of auxiliaries; and subordinating conjunctions) and forms that remained challenging for DLLs in first grade (e.g. irregular past).Conclusion: Findings support the use of a sentence repetition task as a progress monitoring tool for young DLLs. Highlighted grammatical errors may be informative for planning intensified instructional support in kindergarten and first grade.

Componential Skills in Second Language Development of Bilingual Children With Specific Language Impairment

In this study, we investigated which componential skills can be distinguished in the second language (L2) development of 140 bilingual children with specific language impairment in the Netherlands, aged 6–11 years, divided into 3 age groups. L2 development was assessed by means of spoken language tasks representing different language skills organized into 4 categories based on prior research. Factor analyses were consistent with this system, identifying 4 types of componential skills included in our original assessment battery: (i) speech production/phonological memory; (ii) auditory perception/phonological conceptualization; (iii) lexical-semantic skills; and (iv) morphosyntactic skills. Structural equation modeling showed the 4 types of componential skills to be reasonably stable over time. Moreover, empirical evidence for a lexical bootstrapping effect was found in that children's syntactic development at the age of 8 years could be predicted from their level of lexical-semantic development at the age of 7 years.

Early predictors of phonological and morphosyntactic skills in second graders with cochlear implants

PurposeNewborn hearing screening has made it possible to provide early treatment of hearing loss to more children than ever before, raising expectations these children will be able to attend regular schools. But continuing deficits in spoken language skills have led to challenges in meeting those expectations. This study was conducted to (1) examine two kinds of language skills (phonological and morphosyntactic) at school age (second grade) for children with cochlear implants (CIs); (2) see which measures from earlier in life best predicted performance at second grade; (3) explore how well these skills supported other cognitive and language functions; and (4) examine how treatment factors affected measured outcomes. MethodsData were analyzed from 100 second-grade, monolingual English-speaking children: 51 with CIs and 49 with normal hearing (NH). Ten measures of spoken language and related functions were collected: three each of phonological and morphosyntactic skills; and four of other cognitive and language functions. Six measures from preschool and seven from kindergarten served as predictor variables. The effects of treatment variables were examined. ResultsChildren with CIs were more delayed acquiring phonological than morphosyntactic skills. Mean length of utterance at earlier ages was the most consistent predictor of both phonological and morphosyntactic skills at second grade. Early bimodal stimulation had a weak, but positive effect on phonological skills at second grade; sign language experience during preschool had a negative effect on morphosyntactic structures in spoken language. ConclusionsChildren with CIs are delayed in language acquisition, and especially so in phonological skills. Appropriate testing and treatments can help ameliorate these delays.

Beyond Early Intervention: Supporting Children With CIs Through Elementary School.

The development of cochlear implants (CIs) and the broader availability of early intervention, made possible by newborn hearing screening, have raised prospects that deaf children can be mainstreamed at the start of elementary school and fare well with minimal support. This report examines the veracity of that perspective. This report specifically: (1) reviews progress made by deaf children in spoken language acquisition over the past 25 years; (2) presents data collected from 104 children in the early elementary grades (49 with normal hearing (NH) and 55 with severe-to-profound hearing loss who use CIs); (3) describes language acquisition that typically occurs in elementary school; and (4) highlights intervention strategies for school-age deaf children with CIs. The spoken language skills of deaf children have improved thanks to CIs and early intervention, but remain below those of children with NH. The amount of deficit varies across the language construct examined, with the greatest deficit found for skills dependent upon phonological (speech-sound) sensitivity, and the mildest associated with morphosyntactic (grammatical) skills. There is substantial development in both phonological and morphosyntactic skills that typically occurs during the elementary school years. Both the data and theoretical models of language acquisition indicate that even with the availability of CIs and early intervention, deaf children are behind their peers with NH when they enter school. And there is much language learning that lies ahead for them. Thus, there is a need for us to enhance our intervention with deaf children during the early elementary grades.

Development of word order and morphosyntactic skills in reading comprehension among Chinese elementary school children

The present paper reported two studies which compared the roles of word order and morphosyntactic skills in reading comprehension among Chinese elementary school children. In Study 1, we found that over and above the effects of age, nonverbal intelligence and word reading, word order skill was a stable predictor of reading performance throughout grades 1 to 6, whereas morphosyntactic skill was associated with reading comprehension at grades 3 and 4. Study 2 was a three-year longitudinal study which showed that morphosyntactic but not word order skill at grade 2 longitudinally predicted sentence comprehension at grade 3 beyond the control variables and the auto-regressor; word order rather than morphosyntactic skill at grade 2 contributed significant variances to passage comprehension at grades 3 and 4. The findings suggested a differential dependence of reading on word order and morphosyntactic skills at different ages and in reading comprehension at different levels.

Measuring pragmatic skills: early detection of infants at risk for communication problems.

For the early detection of children who are at risk of communication problems, we need appropriate assessment instruments. Two Dutch-language standardised screening instruments are available: the Dutch version of the Non Speech Test (NNST) and the Dutch version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (N-CDIs). These instruments gauge the precursors of language development, early vocabulary and early morphosyntactic skills. However, they do not adequately assess pragmatic skills. To develop a norm-referenced instrument to examine the pragmatic skills of Dutch-speaking infants that is translatable into other languages. The instrument 'Lists for the Evaluation of Pragmatic Skills in Infants' is based on 'The Pragmatics Profile of Everyday Communication Skills in Children' Dewart and Summers (1995). We translated the instrument into Dutch and transformed the structured interview format into a parent questionnaire. The parent questionnaire-Evaluatie van Pragmatische Vaardigheden (EPV)-was created following extensive research on item selection, norm table development, and reliability and validity studies. The EPV1 is applicable to children 6-15 months old; EPV2 is applicable to children 16-30 months old. We developed norm tables for the number of pragmatic skills achieved by the child and also for how and to what extent the skills are exhibited. For the norming study of EPV1 and EPV2 we included 390 and 534 infants respectively. The reliability scores are high for both lists. Concept validity and criterion validity studies demonstrate adequate results for the overall lists, the subscale components and specific items. The parent questionnaire is a valuable tool that specifically targets pragmatic skills in infants. The instrument can detect communication delays in infants. It is translatable into other languages and avoids having the infant examined directly by a stranger.

Components of reading comprehension in adolescent first-language and second-language students from low-track schools

Based on the Simple View of Reading, the present study investigates whether component skills of reading differ between adolescents from low-track schools speaking German as a first (L1) versus as a second language (L2). In our study, 479 9th-grade students completed the Programme for International Student Assessment reading test as well as measures of working memory, reading fluency, reading vocabulary, morpho-syntactic skills, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension. Results indicate that L2 students lagged behind their L1 peers on most measures. After controlling for students’ socioeconomic status, only L2 students with Turkish as a first language continued to show weaknesses in linguistic skills. Linguistic comprehension as well as reading fluency were associated with reading comprehension in all groups of students. We observed only a few group differences in the relationships between component skills of reading and reading comprehension. The results suggest that reading fluency is important for reading comprehension of L1 and L2 readers from low-track schools and that socioeconomic background partially accounts for group differences in component skills of reading.

School children with low birth weight inserted in system of Embu's education: construction of sentences.

To characterize the construction of sentences in schoolchildren born with low weight. We selected 413 students from Embu das Artes (SP), Brazil. Application of Recreating Speech Acts of Test of Language Competence sub-test. We analyzed the number of words and the holistic score. Age group of 6-10 years old, female/male, with low birth weight (<2,500 g) in Study Group (SG; n=238), and birth weight above or equal to 2,500 g composing the Control Group (CG; n=175). Children with anomalies were excluded. The both groups' responses were considered as well as the association of the responses with variables birth weight, gender, age of child and maternal age and education, through Student's t-test, χ2test and linear regression. The SG scored less on the total number of words and had worst performance in items that involved prepositions with a sense of temporality and place, with adverb functions. There was no difference between groups regarding the holistic score. It was found positive impact of the variables birth weight (p=0.002), age of child, age of mother and maternal education on standard test scores in both groups. The SG had fewer words compared to CG. The higher the birth weight, the higher the score test pattern. It was evident the age-related changes in morpho-syntactic skills addressed in the study, and protection factors mother's schooling and age had a positive impact on language performance.

Preschool speech articulation and nonword repetition abilities may help predict eventual recovery or persistence of stuttering

PurposeIn preschool children, we investigated whether expressive and receptive language, phonological, articulatory, and/or verbal working memory proficiencies aid in predicting eventual recovery or persistence of stuttering. MethodsParticipants included 65 children, including 25 children who do not stutter (CWNS) and 40 who stutter (CWS) recruited at age 3;9–5;8. At initial testing, participants were administered the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd edition (TACL-3), Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test, 3rd edition (SPELT-3), Bankson–Bernthal Test of Phonology-Consonant Inventory subtest (BBTOP-CI), Nonword Repetition Test (NRT; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998), and Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills-Revised (TAPS-R) auditory number memory and auditory word memory subtests. Stuttering behaviors of CWS were assessed in subsequent years, forming groups whose stuttering eventually persisted (CWS-Per; n=19) or recovered (CWS-Rec; n=21). Proficiency scores in morphosyntactic skills, consonant production, verbal working memory for known words, and phonological working memory and speech production for novel nonwords obtained at the initial testing were analyzed for each group. ResultsCWS-Per were less proficient than CWNS and CWS-Rec in measures of consonant production (BBTOP-CI) and repetition of novel phonological sequences (NRT). In contrast, receptive language, expressive language, and verbal working memory abilities did not distinguish CWS-Rec from CWS-Per. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that preschool BBTOP-CI scores and overall NRT proficiency significantly predicted future recovery status. ConclusionResults suggest that phonological and speech articulation abilities in the preschool years should be considered with other predictive factors as part of a comprehensive risk assessment for the development of chronic stuttering.Educational objectives: At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (1) describe the current status of nonlinguistic and linguistic predictors for recovery and persistence of stuttering; (2) summarize current evidence regarding the potential value of consonant cluster articulation and nonword repetition abilities in helping to predict stuttering outcome in preschool children; (3) discuss the current findings in relation to potential implications for theories of developmental stuttering; (4) discuss the current findings in relation to potential considerations for the evaluation and treatment of developmental stuttering.

Language use affects proficiency in Italian–Spanish bilinguals irrespective of age of second language acquisition

The role of age of acquisition (AoA) in reaching native-like proficiency in second language is controversial. The existence of a critical period and the effect of AoA have been questioned by studies testing lexical and/or morphosyntactic skills, and by functional brain exploration. The aim of this study was to verify the effect of AoA and language practice on proficiency in a bilingual pragmatic task and its relationship with cognitive skills. The study involved a group of Italian–Spanish bilinguals, classified according to their AoA and language use. All participants performed a pragmatic bilingual test and a battery of cognitive tests. A multivariate analysis showed significant effects of language use and cognitive skills and a non-significant effect of AoA. These results indicate that continued language practice is a major factor influencing high bilingual proficiency, irrespective of AoA, suggesting that proficiency may be weakened when bilingual experience becomes occasional or ceases.

Can Vocabulary Size Predict Narrative Abilities in Children with SLI

Correlating expressive vocabulary skills with narrative microstructure measures such as morphosyntactic skills revealed that both are powerful tools to assess language-impaired children. However, for expressive vocabulary to have a predictive value on narrative performance, younger children with SLI should be investigated. Our results lend support to a unified model of SLI (Rice 2003) revealing that both expressive vocabulary and narrative re-tell microstructure are delayed in school-aged Greek Cypriot children with SLI compared to their typically developing peers.

The Role of Morphosyntactic Awareness in Conventional Lexical Segmentation

Starting with the alphabetic stage of writing acquisition, the learner struggles with issues related to spelling, including the segmentation of writing in graphic words. This study examined the conventional segmentation of words and its relation to morphosyntactic awareness in a sample of students in the 4th and 5th years of elementary education in public schools. Results reveal a discrepancy between the oral identification of words and performance in the segmentation of writing, with three criteria being used by students to define “word”: (1st) full meaning; (2nd) sequence of letters, not only one or two; (3rd) frequency of word use. Statistical analyses revealed significant positive correlations between conventional segmentation and morphosyntactic awareness. It is inferred that morphosyntactic skills support the establishment of the conventional notion of the word, and it is suggested that teachers promote the development of these skills, in order to ensure a greater command of the written language.

Can individuals with Down syndrome improve their grammar?

Morphosyntax constitutes one of the most complex areas of language. It takes into account the structure of the word and that of the sentence, and its development allows one to establish adequately agreements both within the nominal phrase and in the rest of the sentence. Morphosyntax is particularly impaired in individuals with Down syndrome. To improve their morphosyntactic skills, an intervention programme was designed and carried out with a total of 20 Spanish-speaking children with Down syndrome; half of them composed the experimental group and the other half the control group. The results obtained show that the children in the experimental group improved more than the children in the control group in the areas of syntax, morphology and semantics, but not in pragmatics, where both groups improved to the same extent. Overall, the results obtained support the effectiveness of the programme implemented as a clinical and educational tool for intervention in individuals with Down syndrome.

The role of oral language skills in reading and listening comprehension of text: a comparison of monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) speakers of English language

The study examined the role of oral language skills in reading comprehension and listening comprehension levels of 125 monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) English‐speaking learners (M = 121.5 months, SD = 4.65) in England. All testing was conducted in English. The L1 learners outperformed their L2 peers on the measures of oral language and text comprehension, but the two groups performed at comparable levels on word‐reading accuracy and speed. Oral language, indexed by vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, emerged as the most powerful unique predictor of both reading and listening comprehension levels. Although there was a tendency of oral language to be more strongly related to L2 reading comprehension, its relationship with listening comprehension was comparable across the two language groups. Finally, individual differences in oral language skills emerged as the primary factor that explained the language group differences in text comprehension levels. Educational implications of these findings were discussed.

Gestural development and its relation to language acquisition in very preterm children

This longitudinal study examined the development of communicative gesture in 16 preterm children and two groups of full term children at 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Children's spontaneous communicative gestures were analyzed during mother–child observation sessions. Preterm children's motor, mental and linguistic development were also measured. The development of gestural communication did not significantly differ between the groups except for the use of gesture-plus-word combinations at 18 and 24 months, when full term children produced significantly more combinations than preterm children. For preterm children, the production of pointing at 12 months was positively associated with lexical skills at 24 months as was the use of gestures-plus-word utterances at 18 months with morphosyntactic skills at 24 months. Our analyses also revealed a subgroup of preterm children characterized by a low birth-weight and mental scores who demonstrated an enduring increase in communicative gesture production over time. This profile could be associated with later delays in language acquisition.

The Componential Model of Reading

This study, framed by the component model of reading (CMR), examined the relative importance of kindergarten-entry predictors of first grade reading performance. Specifically, elements within the ecological domain included dialect, maternal education, amount of preschool, and home literacy; elements within the psychological domain included teacher-reported academic competence, social skills, and behavior; and elements within the cognitive domain included initial vocabulary, phonological, and morpho-syntactic skills, and alphabetic and word recognition skills. Data were obtained for 224 culturally diverse kindergarteners (58% Black, 34% White, and 8% Hispanic or other; 58% received free or reduced-price lunch) from a larger study conducted in seven predominantly high poverty schools (n = 20 classrooms) in a midsized city school district in northern Florida. Results from a hierarchical multiple regression (with variables in the ecological domain entered first, followed by the psychological and cognitive domains) revealed a model that explained roughly 56% of the variance in first grade reading achievement, using fall-of-kindergarten predictors. Letter-word reading and morpho-syntactic skill were the strongest significant predictors. The findings largely support the CMR model as a means to understand individual differences in reading acquisition and, in turn, to support data-based instructional decisions for a wider range of children.

Cochlear Implant in the Second Year of Life: Lexical and Grammatical Outcomes

The authors studied the effect of the cochlear implant (CI) on language comprehension and production in deaf children who had received a CI in the 2nd year of life. The authors evaluated lexical and morphosyntactic skills in comprehension and production in 17 Italian children who are deaf (M = 54 months of age) with a CI and in 2 control groups of children with normal hearing (NH; 1 matched for chronological age and the other whose chronological age corresponded to the duration of CI activation). The authors also compared children with unilateral CI to children with bilateral CI. Children with CI appeared to keep pace with NH children matched for time since CI activation in terms of language acquisition, and they were similar to same-age NH children in lexical production. However, children with CI showed difficulties in lexical comprehension when a task required phonological discrimination as well as in grammar comprehension and production. Children with bilateral CI showed better comprehension than did children with unilateral CI; the 2 groups were similar for production. Activation of CI in the 2nd year of life may provide children who are deaf with a good opportunity to develop language skills, although some limitations in phonological and morphological skills are still present 3 years after auditory reafferentation.

Expressive Language Skills in Finnish Two-Year-Old Extremely- and Very-Low-Birth-Weight Preterm Children

Objective: Preterm children with low birth weight are at greater risk of experiencing speech and language difficulties than full-term children. The aim of the current study was to investigate expressive language skills of Finnish-speaking preterm children with low birth weight [extremely-low-birth-weight (ELBW) children: n = 8; very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) children: n = 10] at 2 years of corrected age and to compare their language results with full-term controls (n = 18), using spontaneous speech samples. Methods: The children were video recorded in semistructured free-play sessions with their mothers. From these video samples, expressive vocabulary size and maximum sentence length (MSL) were analyzed. In addition, the possible effect of children’s gender on language measures as well as associations between different language measures were examined. Results: The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the preterm and full-term groups in the size of expressive vocabulary. In contrast, the MSL, which measures morphosyntactic skills, was significantly shorter in preterm children. A positive correlation was found between MSL and expressive vocabulary. Children’s gender was not associated with language skills measured. Conclusion: The findings indicate that Finnish-speaking preterm children, especially ELBW children, experience difficulties in morphosyntactic skills.

Relações entre capacidade de segmentação lexical, consciência morfossintática e desempenho em leitura e escrita

A partir do estágio alfabético de aquisição da escrita o aprendiz precisa enfrentar questões relativas à ortografia, entre elas a segmentação do escrito em palavras gráficas. Este estudo investiga relações entre a segmentação convencional de palavras, a consciência morfossintática, a ortografia e a compreensão da leitura de alunos do 4º e 5º anos do ensino fundamental em escolas públicas de Curitiba. Resultados revelam maior dificuldade na identificação oral de palavras do que na segmentação da escrita. Análises estatísticas mostraram correlações positivas e significativas entre todas as variáveis investigadas. Infere-se que as habilidades morfossintáticas favorecem o estabelecimento da noção convencional de palavra e sugere-se que os professores promovam o desenvolvimento dessas habilidades, para garantir aos alunos maior domínio na linguagem escrita.

Verbal inflection, articles and object clitics in Italian specific language impairment

Morphosyntactic skills in spontaneous and elicited production of a 7-year-old boy with specific language impairment (SLI) were examined and compared to those of younger, mean length of utterance (MLU)-matched, typically-developing children. This study focused on inflectional phrase structures as well as complex constructions in order to investigate hypotheses which suggest verbal inflection is a key deficit underlying SLI. It analysed the most affected morphemes in Italian: articles and direct and indirect object clitics. A deficit was found in verbal inflection as well as in articles and object clitics. The difficulties with verbal inflection found were expected given the child's MLU. Problems with articles and clitics were unexpected for MLU, presenting a challenge for hypotheses that focus on verbal inflection.