The metalinguistic benefits of limited contact with a second language

Abstract

This study examined whether the often-reported metalinguistic benefits of childhood bilingualism extend to children whose experience with a second language is considerably more limited, and if so, whether this metalinguistic advantage flows on to reading acquisition. Its purpose was to provide direct evidence of a causal role for metalinguistic awareness in reading acquisition. The study focused on the developing word awareness skills of two groups of preparatory and grade 1 children: one group was strictly monolingual in English; the other, the “marginal bilingual” group, consisted of English monolingual who were participating in a second language program that provided I hour of Italian instruction each week.After only 6 months of instruction in Italian, the marginal bilingual children showed a significantly higher level word awareness than their monolingual counterparts. This advantage weakened across grade 1, as both groups approached ceiling levels of performance. Nonetheless, the initial advantage flows through to the first major step in reading acquisition, with the grade 1 marginal bilinguals showing significantly greater word recognition skill than the monolinguals, thus strengthening the argument for a causal role in reading acquisition for word awareness.

Impact of Foreign Language Learning on Children’s Language Competence

“…This conclusion was later repeated in many studies with different language groups and evaluation methods, such as in the tasks of word segmentation (word count) and word judgment. Yelland (1993) found that even English children aged five to seven, after studying Italian one hour a week lasting for six months, performed better than English monolinguals in the tasks of word segmentation and words judgment, which was confirmed by Min's study (2009).…”

“…), independent of the features of the signified , namely the arbitrary nature between words and the signified (Yelland, 1993).…”

“…Therefore, in essence, word awareness develops first among children's metalinguistic abilities; while children's phonological awareness results from the development of word awareness, particularly from the awareness of word-the signified distinction (Tunmer, 1989). If learning a second language can advance the normal developing course of children's word awareness (Yelland, Pollard, & Mercuri, 1993), accordingly, it can also advance the development of children' phonological awareness.…”

Habla Privada en Los Mensajes De Niñas Y Niños Bilingües Y Monolingües

“…Son diversos los trabajos, en tareas comunicativas y no comunicativas, que muestran un incremento del habla privada cuando el/la niño/a encuentra conflictos o dificultades en el desarrollo de una tarea (e.g., Díaz et al, 1991;Fernyhough y Fradley, 2005;Montero y De Dios, 2006;San Martín et al, 2011;Varenne y Beaudichon, 1996). La consideración del bilingüismo como situación que favorece el conflicto es algo reseñado a nivel de investigación (Bialystok, 2001(Bialystok, , 2004Yelland et al, 1993). Ello puede resultar favorecedor de la activación de ciertos procesos cognitivos reflexivos, en este caso evidentes por la mayor emergencia del habla privada en la condición de bilingüismo moderado a los seis años.…”

“…Si bien inicialmente el bilingüismo se consideraba una potencial fuente de distorsión psicológica (BIE Luxembourg Conference, 1928), el grueso de la investigación realizada hasta la fecha muestra que la actuación lingüística de los bilingües y monolingües se sitúa en niveles equivalentes, planteándose que la condición de bilingüismo puede favorecer ciertos aspectos del desarrollo metalingüístico y metacognitivo (Meisel, 2004). Bialystok (2001Bialystok ( , 2004) muestra, de manera particular, los efectos favorecedores del bilingüismo en la toma de conciencia metalingüística tal y como también indicaban Yelland, Pollard y Mercuri (1993), en relación a la toma de conciencia del significado de las palabras. En el terreno del desarrollo comunicativo, algunos estudios sugieren que la condición de bilingüismo plantea un conflicto cognitivo que influencia de manera diferencial a bilingües y monolingües .…”