COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains.

Kartushina, Natalia; Mani, Nivedita; Aktan-Erciyes, Aslı; Alaslani, Khadeejah; Aldrich, N. J.; Almohammadi, Alaa; Alroqi, Haifa; Anderson, L.; Andonova, Elena; Aussems, Suzanne; Babineau, Mireille; Barokova, Mihaela; Bergmann, Christina; Cashon, Cara H.; Custode, S.; Carvalho, Adriano; Dimitrova, Nevena; Dynak, A.; Farah, Ra’fat I.; Fennell, Christopher T.; Fiévet, Anne‐Caroline; Frank, Marie; Gavrilova, Marina L.; Gendler-Shalev, Hila; Gibson, Shannon P.; Golway, Katherine G; Gonzalez‐Gomez, Nayeli; Haman, Ewa; Hannon, E. E.; Havron, Naomi; Hay, Joel W.; Hendriks, Cielke; Horowitz‐Kraus, Tzipi; Kalashnikova, Marina; Kanero, Junko; Keller, Christina; Krajewski, Grzegorz; Laing, Charles; Lundwall, Rebecca A.; Łuniewska, Magdalena; Mieszkowska, Karolina; Munoz, L.; Nave, Karli; Olesen, Nonah M.; Perry, Lauren M; Rowland, Caroline F.; Oliveira, Danilo Santos de; Shinskey, Jeanne L.; Veraksa, Аleksander; Vincent, Katy; Zivan, Michal; Mayor, Julien

doi:10.31234/osf.io/5ejwu

Cited by 24 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This pattern of overall gains is consistent with recent reports of first and second language learning during the COVID era ( Hopp and Thoma, 2020 ; Kartushina et al, 2021 ). Hopp and Thoma (2020) compared cross-sectional samples of German primary school learners of English: one group experienced 15 weeks of foreign language instruction interruption secondary to COVID-induced school closure and curricular reduction, the other group was assessed the year prior and had continuous English instruction.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The group that experienced instruction suspension made as much gains in English as the group that had continuous instruction. Kartushina et al (2021) conducted a large-scale multinational study of vocabulary development in monolingual infants and toddlers using various versions of the Communicative Development Inventories ( Fenson et al, 2007 ). They found that children gained more words than expected (based on normative data) during lockdown, a result that could be explained by either the parents’ increased awareness of their children’s vocabulary knowledge or more intense caregiver-child interactions during lockdown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Bilingual Home Language Boost Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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Usage-based accounts of language acquisition suggest that bilingual language proficiency is dynamic and susceptible to changes in language use. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented modifications in the language learning environment of developing bilinguals. Drawing on this unique opportunity, we analyzed existing data of two matched groups of Mandarin-English bilingual children (ages 4 to 8 years, n = 38), one tested before (pre-COVID group) and the other during (COVID group) the pandemic. The dataset comprises responses to a language environment questionnaire, and scores on a sentence comprehension task and a sentence recall task in the bilinguals’ two languages. Questionnaire data revealed a richer Mandarin language environment for children in the COVID group compared to peers in the pre-COVID group. On both comprehension and production tasks, the two groups performed comparably in English but the COVID group showed better performance in Mandarin than the pre-COVID group. Within the pre-COVID group, English was stronger than Mandarin in both comprehension and production. Within the COVID group, the two languages were balanced in comprehension and Mandarin was stronger than English in production. Moreover, language use variables were correlated with production performance in both languages. These patterns illustrate the intimate relationships between language use and bilingual language proficiency through the lens of COVID-19 induced language environment modification.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bilingual Home Language Boost Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This pattern of overall gains is consistent with recent reports of first and second language learning during the COVID era (Hopp & Thoma, 2020;Kartushina et al, 2021). Hopp and Thoma (2020) compared cross-sectional samples of German primary school learners of English: one group experienced 15 weeks of foreign language instruction interruption secondary to COVID-induced school closure and curricular reduction, the other group was assessed the year prior and had continuous English instruction.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

The bilingual home language boost through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic

Sheng¹,

Wang²,

Walsh³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Usage-based accounts of language acquisition suggest that bilingual language proficiency is dynamic and susceptible to changes in language use. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented modifications in the language learning environment of developing bilinguals. Drawing on this unique opportunity, we analyzed existing data of two matched groups of Mandarin-English bilingual children (ages 4 to 8 years, n=40), one tested before (pre-COVID group) and the other after (COVID group) the pandemic. The dataset comprises responses to a language environment questionnaire, and scores on a sentence comprehension task and a sentence recall task in the bilinguals’ two languages. Questionnaire data revealed that children in the COVID group read more in English but spoke less English with their mothers and friends compared to peers in the pre-COVID group. On the comprehension task, the two groups performed comparably in English but the COVID group showed better performance in Mandarin than the pre-COVID group. On the production task, the pre-COVID group showed better English performance than the COVID group, whereas the COVID group showed better Mandarin performance than the pre-COVID group. Within the pre-COVID group, English was stronger than Mandarin in both comprehension and production. Within the COVID group, the two languages were balanced in comprehension and Mandarin was stronger than English in production. Moreover, language use variables were correlated with production performance in both languages. These patterns illustrate the intimate relationships between language use and bilingual language proficiency through the lens of COVID-19 induced language environment modification.

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“…One hundred (53%) target children were male, 89 female. Vocabulary scores and a similar measure of ECEC attendance at the Spring observation point for most of our sample ( N = 163) are also reported in Kartushina et al (2021), which investigates separate questions on the impact of the home environment on language development.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) during COVID‐19 boosts growth in language and executive function

Davies

Hendry

Gibson

et al. 2021

Infant and Child Development

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High‐quality, centre‐based education and care during the early years benefit cognitive development, especially in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. During the COVID‐19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns, access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) was disrupted. We investigate how this period affected the developmental advantages typically offered by ECEC. Using parent‐report data from 189 families living in the UK, we explore associations between time spent in ECEC by 8‐to‐36‐month‐olds, their socioeconomic background, and their growth in language and executive functions between Spring and Winter 2020. Receptive vocabulary growth was greater in children who continued to attend ECEC during the period, with a stronger positive effect for children from less advantaged backgrounds. The growth of cognitive executive functions (CEFs) was boosted by ECEC attendance during the period, regardless of socioeconomic background. Our findings highlight the importance of high‐quality ECEC for the development of key skills and for levelling socioeconomic inequalities.

show abstract

COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains.

Cited by 24 publications

References 24 publications

The Bilingual Home Language Boost Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Bilingual Home Language Boost Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The bilingual home language boost through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) during COVID‐19 boosts growth in language and executive function

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