4. Bilingual Construction of Two Systems

Socioeconomic level and bilinguals’ performance on language and cognitive measures

“…The general performance on the language measures is totally in line with what has been reported previously (Gathercole et al, 2013; Gathercole et al, 2014a; Thomas et al, 2013). First, on every measure, performance improves significantly with age.…”

“…The tests were administered in conjunction with a battery of other tests exploring cognitive abilities and performance on executive function tasks, not reported here (see Gathercole, Thomas, Jones, Viñas Guasch, Young & Hughes, 2010; Gathercole et al, 2013, Gathercole et al, 2014a, 2014b). Tests were administered on 2 or 3 different days, the English and Welsh language tests always on distinct days.…”

“…Bilinguals came from homes in which only or mostly English was spoken (“OEH”), both Welsh and English were spoken (“WEH”), or only or mostly Welsh was spoken (“OWH”). Performance on the vocabulary and grammar tasks at each age and for each home language group are reported elsewhere (Gathercole et al, 2013; Gathercole et al, 2014a; Thomas, Gathercole & Hughes, 2013).…”

“…Such results on normally developing bilinguals are striking, and could have important ramifications for bilinguals growing up under less favorable socioeconomic conditions. In order to examine the effects of SES more closely, data on Welsh–English bilinguals’ performance on receptive vocabulary and receptive grammar in their two languages (Gathercole, Pérez-Tattam, Stadthagen-González & Thomas, 2014a; Gathercole & Thomas, 2007; Gathercole, Thomas & Hughes, 2008; Gathercole, Thomas, Roberts, Hughes & Hughes, 2013), as well as performance on independent cognitive measures, are re-examined here in relation to socioeconomic status. The following questions were addressed: To what extent do SES differences, as judged by parents’ education and professions, correlate with performance on linguistic and cognitive tasks in a population of bilingual speakers (and their monolingual counterparts) from a range of SES levels but from homogeneous cultural and educational backgrounds? Does SES influence both linguistic and cognitive performance in equivalent fashion? If SES correlates positively with performance on either linguistic or cognitive tasks, how influential is SES relative to level of exposure to the languages, as judged by home language? …”

How (not) to cross a boundary: Crosslinguistic influence in simultaneous bilingual children's event construal

“…The majority of studies investigating CLI in 2L1 settings have centred on the acquisition of morphosyntactic phenomena (see Serratrice, 2013 for a review), whilst research on CLI in bilingual children's semantic and conceptual development is relatively scarce (for exceptions, see Gathercole, Pérez-Tattam, Stadthagen-Gonzalez & Thomas, 2014; Nicoladis, Rose & Foursha-Stevenson, 2010). Most studies that address CLI in the semantic domain have been conducted with adult bilinguals (e.g., Alferink & Gullberg, 2014; Ameel, Malt, Storms & van Assche, 2009; Brown & Gullberg, 2013).…”