Input and Language Development in Bilingually Developing Children

Hoff, Erika; Core, Cynthia

doi:10.1055/s-0033-1353448

Cited by 124 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…The subsamples consisted of all bilingual children for whom we had the data on the task of interest and a group of monolinguals matched one-to-one to the bilingual group on age, SES (years of mother’s education), gender, non-verbal IQ (Raven scores), and STM (as measured by forward digit span). The matching procedure served to ensure that any differences between the groups can be attributed to language status (bilingual or monolingual), and not to other factors known to affect the performance in the tasks of interest, such as environmental differences related to SES (see Hoff, 2006 ; Qi et al, 2006 ; Hoff and Core, 2013 ), or children’s cognitive abilities (see Kail, 2000 ). The characteristics of the overall sample and the task-specific subsamples are presented in Table 1 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The observed discrepancy in the results on L1 vocabulary in bilinguals may stem from methodological issues (e.g., the lack of well-matched control groups), but also from the variability in exposure to languages. Previous research indicates that L1 vocabulary size is closely connected to the reported amount of L1 exposure, while L2 vocabulary size is related to exposure to L2 ( Pearson et al, 1997 ; Vermeer, 2001 ; Patterson, 2002 ; De Houwer, 2007 ; Thordardottir, 2011 ; Hoff et al, 2012 ; Hoff and Core, 2013 ). This relationship is especially strong for the productive vocabulary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Does L1 and L2 Exposure Impact L1 Performance in Bilingual Children? Evidence from Polish-English Migrants to the United Kingdom

et al. 2017

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Most studies on bilingual language development focus on children’s second language (L2). Here, we investigated first language (L1) development of Polish-English early migrant bilinguals in four domains: vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing, and discourse. We first compared Polish language skills between bilinguals and their Polish non-migrant monolingual peers, and then investigated the influence of the cumulative exposure to L1 and L2 on bilinguals’ performance. We then examined whether high exposure to L1 could possibly minimize the gap between monolinguals and bilinguals. We analyzed data from 233 typically developing children (88 bilingual and 145 monolingual) aged 4;0 to 7;5 (years;months) on six language measures in Polish: receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary, receptive grammar, productive grammar (sentence repetition), phonological processing (non-word repetition), and discourse abilities (narration). Information about language exposure was obtained via parental questionnaires. For each language task, we analyzed the data from the subsample of bilinguals who had completed all the tasks in question and from monolinguals matched one-on-one to the bilingual group on age, SES (measured by years of mother’s education), gender, non-verbal IQ, and short-term memory. The bilingual children scored lower than monolinguals in all language domains, except discourse. The group differences were more pronounced on the productive tasks (vocabulary, grammar, and phonological processing) and moderate on the receptive tasks (vocabulary and grammar). L1 exposure correlated positively with the vocabulary size and phonological processing. Grammar scores were not related to the levels of L1 exposure, but were predicted by general cognitive abilities. L2 exposure negatively influenced productive grammar in L1, suggesting possible L2 transfer effects on L1 grammatical performance. Children’s narrative skills benefitted from exposure to two languages: both L1 and L2 exposure influenced story structure scores in L1. Importantly, we did not find any evidence (in any of the tasks in which the gap was present) that the performance gap between monolinguals and bilinguals could be fully closed with high amounts of L1 input.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does L1 and L2 Exposure Impact L1 Performance in Bilingual Children? Evidence from Polish-English Migrants to the United Kingdom

et al. 2017

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“…The issue of how language input affects language acquisition in monolingual children has been a focus of broad scientific interest (e.g., Hart and Risley, 1995 ; Rowe, 2012 ; see Hoff, 2006 for review). Similarly, many studies have looked at how bilingual upbringing impacts the patterns of language input and how bilingual input influences language acquisition, especially in the area of vocabulary development (e.g., De Houwer, 2007 ; Gathercole and Thomas, 2009 ; Thordardottir, 2011 ; Hoff et al, 2012 ; Hoff and Core, 2013 ; Gollan et al, 2015 ; Unsworth, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home Language Will Not Take Care of Itself: Vocabulary Knowledge in Trilingual Children in the United Kingdom

et al. 2017

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Language input is crucial for language acquisition and especially for children’s vocabulary size. Bilingual children receive reduced input in each of their languages, compared to monolinguals, and are reported to have smaller vocabularies, at least in one of their languages. Vocabulary acquisition in trilingual children has been largely understudied; only a few case studies have been published so far. Moreover, trilingual language acquisition in children has been rarely contrasted with language outcomes of bilingual and monolingual peers. We present a comparison of trilingual, bilingual, and monolingual children (total of 56 participants, aged 4;5–6;7, matched one-to-one for age, gender, and non-verbal IQ) in regard to their receptive and expressive vocabulary (measured by standardized tests), and relative frequency of input in each language (measured by parental report). The monolingual children were speakers of Polish or English, while the bilinguals and trilinguals were migrant children living in the United Kingdom, speaking English as a majority language and Polish as a home language. The trilinguals had another (third) language at home. For the majority language, English, no differences were found across the three groups, either in the receptive or productive vocabulary. The groups differed, however, in their performance in Polish, the home language. The trilinguals had lower receptive vocabulary than the monolinguals, and lower productive vocabulary compared to the monolinguals. The trilinguals showed similar lexical knowledge to the bilinguals. The bilinguals demonstrated lower scores than the monolinguals, but only in productive vocabulary. The data on reported language input show that input in English in bilingual and trilingual groups is similar, but the bilinguals outscore the trilinguals in relative frequency of Polish input. Overall, the results suggest that in the majority language, multilingual children may develop lexical skills similar to those of their monolingual peers. However, their minority language is weaker: the trilinguals scored lower than the Polish monolinguals on both receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and the bilinguals showed reduced expressive knowledge but leveled out with the Polish monolinguals on receptive vocabulary. The results should encourage parents of migrant children to support home language(s), if the languages are to be retained in a longer perspective.

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“…Therefore, it is not surprising that the vocabulary these children know in a given language is usually restricted to the context in which its acquisition typically occurs. Thus, just as it is normal for bilingual children to have, for example, a larger vocabulary of academic terms in the language of schooling (usually the majority language) than in the language spoken at home, it is also normal for them to show a better knowledge of vocabulary related to the home environment in the language that is spoken in this context [38,39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Input Factors in the Lexical Development of European Portuguese as a Heritage Language in Portuguese–German Bilingual Speakers

Correia

Flores

2017

Languages

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In light of previous research on early bilingualism, this study investigates whether 6-11-year-old child heritage speakers (HSs) of European Portuguese (EP), living in Germany, show patterns of lexical development similar to those of monolingual EP children, both in terms of vocabulary size and of lexical composition. Moreover, it assesses the role of factors related to the quantity and quality of the input in the HSs' lexical development in EP. Twenty-three bilingual and 21 monolingual children were tested on a semi-spontaneous oral production task. The collected data were used to build a corpus composed of three subcorpora (nouns, verbs, adjectives), which served as a basis for between-and within-group comparisons. Information regarding the HSs' language experience was collected by means of a parental questionnaire. Results revealed significant between-group differences concerning the total corpus and the subcorpora of nouns and verbs. Within-group comparisons showed that both groups produced significantly more nouns than verbs and more verbs than adjectives. Correlation analyses revealed that the HSs' lexical knowledge is significantly correlated with the input and output quantity at home as well as with the number of EP-speaking parents. Parents emerge as the key players in the acquisition of EP as a heritage language.

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Input and Language Development in Bilingually Developing Children

Cited by 124 publications

References 58 publications

How Does L1 and L2 Exposure Impact L1 Performance in Bilingual Children? Evidence from Polish-English Migrants to the United Kingdom

How Does L1 and L2 Exposure Impact L1 Performance in Bilingual Children? Evidence from Polish-English Migrants to the United Kingdom

Home Language Will Not Take Care of Itself: Vocabulary Knowledge in Trilingual Children in the United Kingdom

The Role of Input Factors in the Lexical Development of European Portuguese as a Heritage Language in Portuguese–German Bilingual Speakers

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