Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) of Lexical Breadth and Depth in the Vocabulary of Bilingual Kindergarten Children – A Bilingual Intervention Study

Abstract

Introduction: Research in recent years has explored the vocabulary size (lexical breadth) of bilingual children, but less is known about the richness of bilingual word knowledge (lexical depth), and about how knowledge of words in the two languages interact. This study explores how bilingual narrative intervention with vocabulary instruction in each language may modulate crosslinguistic influence (CLI) between the languages of bilingual kindergarten children, focusing on CLI of lexical knowledge, and which factors modulate performance.Methods: Forty-one typically developing English-Hebrew bilingual children (M = 64.63 months) participated. A bilingual adaptation of Story Champs narrative intervention program (Spencer and Petersen, 2012) was used to deliver vocabulary instruction in separate blocks of home language (HL) and school language (SL) sessions. Different intervention words were targeted in each language, but the children were tested on all target words in both languages. Lexical knowledge was assessed with a definition task four times throughout the study: prior to intervention, after each intervention block, and 4–6 weeks later. Learner characteristics (chronological age, age of onset of bilingualism and length of exposure) and proficiency in each language (standardized tests, familiarity with the vocabulary introduced in the intervention at baseline) were examined as possible modulators of performance.Results: Children showed growth in lexical breadth and depth in their HL/English after HL intervention and in lexical breadth in the SL/Hebrew following SL intervention, with CLI for semantic depth observed via a qualitative analysis, but not quantitatively. Better HL/English performance was correlated with later AoB (and shorter SL exposure) and higher HL language proficiency scores. Children with higher HL/English proficiency responded better to the SL/Hebrew intervention, gaining more than those with lower English proficiency. Children with SL/Hebrew vocabulary dominance at the outset of the study also gained more from the HL/English intervention. No correlations were found between learner characteristics and SL performance.Discussion: The current study indicates that bilingual narrative intervention with vocabulary instruction may be efficacious for improving the lexical breadth and depth of bilingual kindergarten children. It suggests that CLI may enhance bilingual children’s language learning success, and points to the importance of strengthening both languages of bilingual children.

A comparative study on the development of Chinese and English abilities of Chinese primary school students through two bilingual reading modes: human-AI robot interaction and paper books

“…Additionally, good literacy practices like parent–child reading aloud together and the number of books in the home are linked favorably to the development of the English language ( Wei, 2020 ; Li H. et al, 2022 ). First language learning influenced the acquisition of new words in the second language ( Xue et al, 2022 ), and bilingual narrative treatments and vocabulary training were successful in expanding and enhancing children’s bilingual vocabulary ( Lipner et al, 2021 ). ABRA (an acronym for A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All), encompasses an assortment of interactive activities to cultivate foundational literacy proficiencies and writing skills, developed by the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University, carried out a comparative study in 339 students.…”

Effect of a Group-Based Narrative Language Training in Typically Developing Turkish-Dutch Children

“…Narrative tasks involve several language aspects as lexicon, morphosyntaxis, and pragmatics and require higher order language abilities. As different language aspects are stimulated by the narrative intervention, there might be an increase in general language performances after the intervention [29,30]. However, as the language development of every child is a different process, we expect to find large individual differences between children.…”

“…Although the target groups in these studies differ from the target group of the present study, the results are interesting to consider. The studies of Armon-Lotem et al [29] and Lipner et al [30] investigated the effect of a Hebrew-English bilingual narrative intervention on the expressive vocabulary of Hebrew-English preschool children and found that vocabulary knowledge in both languages can be enhanced by the intervention in the corresponding language, but that cross-linguistic influence can improve vocabulary knowledge across languages as well. A frequently used English narrative intervention program is Story Champs [27,28,31].…”

“…Narrative tasks involve several language aspects as lexicon, morphosyntaxis, and pragmatics and require higher order language abilities. As different language aspects are stimulated by the narrative intervention, there might be an increase in general language performances after the intervention [29, 30]. However, as the language development of every child is a different process, we expect to find large individual differences between children.Is the effect of the intervention on the narrative macrostructure and general language abilities related to age at the onset of the intervention, on the one hand, and/or the initial language abilities of the children, on the other hand?…”

“…The effect of a language training using a narrative approach has been investigated in monolingual children with and without a language impairment [22][23][24][25], and in children with an autism spectrum disorder [26]. In addition, a number of authors have examined the effect of a narrative intervention in bilingual children [22,[27][28][29][30]. The results of these studies demonstrated that the narrative interventions were all beneficial for the language performances of the participants.…”