Telling stories in two languages: Narratives of bilingual preschool children with typical and impaired language

Iluz-Cohen, Peri; Walters, Joel

doi:10.1017/s1366728911000538

Cited by 133 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This may provide further evidence on the role of exposure and specifically on whether syntax and discourse transfer more easily across the two languages of bilinguals, as suggested in some previous studies (e.g., Gagarina, 2012;Iluz-Cohen & Walters, 2012).…”

Section: Bilingualssupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Exposure effects can also be expected at the intersection of macro-and microstructure, so that bilinguals may show correlation between the macro-and microstructure measures in Russian, but not in Norwegian (cf. the discussion by Iluz-Cohen & Walters, 2012). In addition, the relationship between narrative proficiency and bilingual language exposure will be considered at the individual level.…”

Section: Bilingualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Narrative abilities of preschool bilingual Norwegian-Russian children

Rodina

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aim and objectives/purpose/research questions:The study aims at conducting a comprehensive examination of the initial stages of narrative development in both languages of typically developing Norwegian-Russian simultaneous bilinguals. The objective of the study was to investigate whether narrative structure (macrostructure) and narrative productivity (microstructure) are language-dependent abilities (cf. The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis) and to explore language exposure effects on the narrative composites. Design/methodology/approach: The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives was used to assess narrative comprehension and production in preschool Norwegian-Russian children (N = 16, M = 4;6) as well as in Norwegian-(N = 16, M = 4;5) and Russian monolinguals (N = 16, M = 4;5). Data and analysis: Multiple regression and correlation analysis was conducted to establish the relationship between the narrative macro-and microstructure in bilinguals and through the bilingual-monolingual comparison. In addition, more detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis at each level was performed. Individual bilingual children's data were also considered. Findings/conclusions: Overall the comparison of the narrative macro-and microstructure in the two languages of bilinguals supports the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis. NorwegianRussian children's ability to compose and especially understand a story is equally developed in both languages. Exposure effects revealing the superiority of Norwegian, the majority language, are found primarily for microstructure measures. The complete picture is achieved through the bilingual-monolingual comparison, which suggests that narrative abilities in the minority language are sensitive to the amount of exposure and their acquisition can be vulnerable. Originality and significance/implications: The study provides new evidence on bilinguals' narrative abilities in a previously unstudied language combination. The new evidence contributes to better understanding of the initial stages of narrative development in typically developing simultaneous bilinguals and establishing the norms for the relevant abilities. Importantly, the study highlights the importance of examining language data in both languages of a bilingual child.

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Section: Bilingualssupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Bilingualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative abilities of preschool bilingual Norwegian-Russian children

Rodina

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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“…These children have a history of delayed language acquisition (Restrepo, 1998) and perform significantly below their unaffected bilingual peers in various language areas, including lexical-semantics (Sheng, Peña, Bedore, & Fiestas, 2012), morphosyntax (Gutierrez-Clellen, Restrepo, & Simon-Cereijido, 2006), and code-switching in discourse production (Iluz-Cohen & Walters, 2012). Spanish-English bilingual children with PLI also perform more poorly than typically developing bilingual children on language processing tasks, including nonword repetition (Windsor, Kohnert, Lobitz, & Pham, 2010), rapid automatic naming (Kohnert & Windsor, 2012), and novel morpheme learning (Jacobson & Schwartz, 2005).…”

Section: Language In Bilingual Children With Plimentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Treatments for Bilingual Children With Primary Language Impairment: Examining Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Domain Effects

Ebert

Kohnert

Pham

et al. 2014

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose This study examines the absolute and relative effects of three different treatment programs for school-aged bilingual children with primary or specific language impairment (PLI). It serves to expand the evidence base on which service providers can base treatment decisions. It also explores hypothesized relations between languages and cognition in bilinguals with PLI. Method Fifty-nine school-aged Spanish-English bilingual children with PLI were assigned to receive nonlinguistic cognitive processing, English, bilingual (Spanish-English), or deferred treatment. Participants in each of the three active treatments received treatment administered by nationally certified speech-language pathologists. Pre- and post-treatment assessments measured change in nonlinguistic cognitive processing, English, and Spanish skills, and analyses examined change within and across both treatment groups and skill domains. Results All active treatment groups made significant pre- to post-treatment improvement on multiple outcome measures. There were fewer significant changes in Spanish than in English across groups. Between group comparisons indicate that the active treatment groups generally outperformed the deferred treatment control, reaching statistical significance for two tasks. Conclusions Results provide insight into cross-language transfer in bilingual children and advance understanding of the general PLI profile with respect to relationships between basic cognitive processing and higher level language skills.

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“…The large majority of studies indicate that story telling is difficult for children with LI, but differences in measures of macro‐structure between children with and without LI have not always been found. Studies by Iluz‐Cohen and Walters () and Norbury and Bishop () indicated that the macro‐structure of stories told by children with LI was not weaker than those told by children with TD. Even though it is possible that some of these divergent findings stem from methodological issues, such as a small sample size or the use of different inclusion criteria for LI (for a discussion, see Duinmeijer et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Although some studies suggest that story structure is not necessarily poor for all children with LI (Iluz‐Cohen and Walters , Norbury and Bishop ), most studies report weaker performance of children with LI compared with children with TD on measures of macro‐structure. This has been found in monolingual (e.g., Bishop and Donlan , Reilly et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%