How language environment, age, and cognitive capacity support the bilingual development of Syrian refugee children recently arrived in Canada

Abstract

Research on the bilingual development of refugee children is limited, despite this group having distinct characteristics and migration experiences that could impact language development. This study examined the role of language environment factors, alongside age and cognitive factors, in shaping the Arabic as a first/heritage language and English as a second language of recently arrived Syrian refugee children in Canada (N = 133; mean age = 9 years old; mean family residency = 23 months). We found that Arabic was the primary home language with some English use among siblings. Children did not engage frequently in language-rich activities in either language, especially not literacy activities in Arabic. Parent education levels were low: most had primary school only. Hierarchical regression models revealed that stronger nonverbal reasoning skills, more exposure to English at school, more sibling interaction in English, more frequent engagement in language-rich activities in English, and higher maternal and paternal education were associated with larger English vocabularies and greater accuracy with verb morphology. Arabic vocabulary and morphological abilities were predicted by older age (i.e., more first/heritage language exposure), stronger nonverbal reasoning skills and maternal education. We conclude that proximal environment factors, like language use at home and richness, accounted for more variance in the second language than the first/heritage language, but parent factors accounted for variance in both languages.

Morphosyntactic Development in First Generation Arabic—English Children: The Effect of Cognitive, Age, and Input Factors over Time and across Languages

“…Similarly, Sorenson Duncan and Paradis (2020b) found that L2 input-output with older siblings positively influenced lexical and morphosyntactic skills in 5-year-old English L2 learners from diverse L1 backgrounds, but there was limited evidence that L2 input-output from mothers had an effect. Paradis et al (2020a) also found that more sibling interaction in English was associated with larger English-L2 vocabularies and morphological abilities among Arabic heritage-L1 children (see also Hamann et al 2020).…”

“…Pham and Tipton (2018) found that superior verbal short-term memory skills were associated with larger vocabularies in both the Vietnamese heritage-L1 and English-L2 of school age bilingual children in the United States (see also, Collins et al 2014 for Spanish-English bilinguals). Regarding studies with Arabic heritage-L1 bilinguals, Paradis et al (2020a) reported a robust relationship between non-verbal analytic reasoning abilities and Arabic-L1 and English-L2 vocabulary knowledge and morphological abilities in school age bilinguals. Similarly, Hamann et al (2020) found that differences in working memory abilities were predictive of differences in Arabic-L1 German-L2 children's performance on a sentence repetition task in both languages (but see Andreou et al 2020 who did not find evidence of a relationship).…”

“…Similarly, Meir, Walters, and Armon-Lotem (Meir et al 2017) found that Russian-Hebrew bilingual children with an older AOA displayed higher morphosyntactic accuracy in their Russian heritage-L1 than in their Hebrew L2. Regarding Arabic heritage-L1 bilinguals, both Albirini (2018) and Paradis et al (2020a) found that children with older AOAs had larger vocabularies and better morphosyntactic skills in Arabic than their peers who began learning the L2 at younger ages.…”

“…Richness refers to the amount of diverse and complex input and output children experience, for example, the frequency of children's engagement in L1 or L2 print and audiovisual media, extra-curricular activities in the L1 or L2, and socializing with friends in the L1 or L2. Studies including a composite L2 richness variable have shown this to positively promote stronger L2 vocabulary, morphology, syntax and narrative skills (Govindarajan and Paradis 2019;Jia and Aaronson 2003;Jia and Fuse 2007;Paradis 2011;Paradis et al 2017;Paradis et al 2020a). Regarding home literacy practices in particular, the frequency of reading and other literacy-related activities in the L2 can enhance L2 development in school-age bilinguals (Kaltsa et al 2019;Prevoo et al 2014).…”

“…Sorenson Duncan and Paradis (2020a) and Prevoo et al (2014) found that the relationships between maternal education and children's L2 development were mediated by mothers' L2 fluency and mothers' engagement with home literacy activities, respectively. Turning to studies of Arabic heritage-L1 children, both Paradis et al (2020a) and Hamann et al (2020) found higher maternal education to be associated with stronger L2 lexical and morphosyntactic abilities.…”