Designing a Normed Receptive Vocabulary Test for Bilingual Populations: A Model from Welsh

Gathercole, Virginia C. Mueller; Thomas, Enlli Môn; Hughes, Emma K.

doi:10.1080/13670050802149283

Cited by 55 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Similarly, Duursma et al (2007) found that children in US families who used Spanish had higher Spanish proficiency levels, whereas those who used English had higher English proficiency levels. Gathercole et al (2008) also found that school-aged Welsh-English bilingual children's Welsh vocabulary differed according to how much exposure the children had to Welsh at home. In the Singapore context, Dixon et al (in press) found that children with parents who spoke mostly ethnic language had higher ethnic language vocabulary than children with parents who spoke both English and ethnic language or mostly English, controlling for socioeconomic status.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Frequency of exposure affects the amount of vocabulary bilingual children will know, because multiple exposures to a word cement it into a child's retrievable vocabulary (Gathercole et al 2008). The amount of input in a particular language is strongly related to a young bilingual child's proficiency in it; the more input a child is exposed to, the better the performance on skills, such as vocabulary, reading and writing, in that language (Duursma et al 2007;Scheele et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Dixon

Daraghmeh

2011

Early Childhood Educ J

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Three common assumptions concerning bilingual children's language proficiency are: (1) their proficiency in two languages is usually unbalanced; (2) low socioeconomic status (SES) indicates low proficiency in both languages; and (3) encouraging parents to speak some societal language at home will promote its development. Examining the vocabulary scores of 282 bilingual Singaporean kindergartners (167 Chinese, 70 Malay, and 45 Tamil), the current study found that these young children were evenly divided among four language profiles: strong in ethnic language (Chinese, Malay or Tamil) or English, strong in both languages, or weak in both. Children with high proficiency in both languages were proportionally represented in the low, middle and high SES groups, demonstrating the achievability of strong vocabulary in two languages for children of different SES. However, low SES children were most at risk for low proficiency in both languages, although many achieved high proficiency in ethnic language or both. Middle and high SES children were most likely to demonstrate low ethnic language with high English proficiency. Children mostly exposed to one language from different sources generally showed strength in that language. Children exposed to both languages at home were most likely to show low proficiency in both languages, although plenty of children exposed to both languages developed high proficiency in English or both. These results affirm previous findings that SES and home language exposure influence bilingual children's proficiency. Implications include the importance of teachers assessing bilingual children's proficiency in both languages and collaborating with parents to develop bilingual children's vocabulary.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Dixon

Daraghmeh

2011

Early Childhood Educ J

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“…It is useful as a measure for screening language abilities (Gathercole, Thomas, and Hughes 2008) and in identifying late-talking children at risk for subsequent language impairment (Ellis and Thal 2008). Previous studies using the CDIs in a variety of bilingual contexts have shown that bilingual parents can reliably observe and report on the words a child can say in each language (Gatt 2007;Marchman and Martínez-Sussmann 2002;O'Toole and Fletcher 2010).…”

Section: Vocabulary Development In Bilingualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent report of early lexical production in bilingual children: a cross-linguistic CDI comparison

O’Toole

Gatt

Hickey

et al. 2016

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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This paper compared the vocabulary size of a group of 250 bilinguals aged 24-36 months acquiring six different language pairs using an analogous tool, and attempted to identify factors that influence vocabulary sizes and ultimately place children at risk for language delay. Each research group used adaptations of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Sentences and a specially designed developmental and language background questionnaire to gather information on risk factors for language impairment, demographic and language exposure variables. The results showed a wide range in vocabulary development which could be somewhat attributed to mothers' education status, parental concerns about language development and amount of exposure to the second language. We looked at those children performing below the 10th and above the 90th percentile to determine what factors were related to their vocabulary size. Features of the entire group of lower performing children were fewer than 50 words and the absence of two-word combinations by 24 months, lower levels of parental education and parental concerns about language development. The implications for identifying bilingual children at risk for language impairment as well as the language enrichment that might be needed for young bilinguals are outlined. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…However, with increased proficiency in the new language, the argument is that such children will gain confidence in their use of L2. Whilst there are gains in children's proficiency in Welsh via Welsh-medium education Gathercole, Thomas, and Hughes 2008;cf. Harris et al 2006 for Irish), what is not clear is why these children are unwilling to allow Welsh to become their natural language of conversation when speaking to another Welsh-speaker.…”

Section: Intrapersonal Factors: Children's Social Use Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring bilinguals’ social use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom

Roberts

2011

Language and Education

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This paper examines bilingual children's use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom. A total of 145 children between 8 and 11 years of age, attending 16 bilingual Welsh-English primary schools in North Wales, responded to questionnaires (supplemented by classroom observations) requesting information about their language backgrounds, their use of language at school (inside and out of the classroom) and in the wider community, their self-ratings about their linguistic competence in Welsh and in English and their attitudes towards Welsh and English and towards bilingualism per se. Whilst the results, in general, demonstrated a positive attitude towards bilingualism, there was a clear trend towards favouring the use of English outside the classroom. This pattern was mediated by language experiences and perceived language abilities within the individual. The implications of the findings for language policy and planning in education and in minority situations are discussed.

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Designing a Normed Receptive Vocabulary Test for Bilingual Populations: A Model from Welsh

Cited by 55 publications

References 30 publications

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Parent report of early lexical production in bilingual children: a cross-linguistic CDI comparison

Exploring bilinguals’ social use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom

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