Using Parent Report to Measure Vocabulary in Young Bilingual Children: A Scoping Review

Abstract

A large number of children are exposed to more than one language. One well‐established method of assessing early vocabulary development in monolingual children is parent report; however, its use in bilingual/multilingual contexts is less established and brings unique challenges. In this methodological scoping review, we reviewed studies of early vocabulary development using parent report with bilingual/multilingual children (January 1980–March 2022). A total of 576 articles were screened, yielding 101 studies for analysis. The number of studies on bilingual/multilingual vocabulary has grown in the last two decades; yet representation of the world's languages remains sparse. The majority of studies assessed bilingual/multilingual children's vocabulary in each language and used instruments adapted for linguistic and cultural characteristics. However, the field could benefit from standardized reporting practices regarding definitions of bi/multilingualism, selection of reporters, and tool development and is in critical need of studies that develop, validate, and norm parent report instruments specifically for the bilingual/multilingual case.

The role of translation equivalents in bilingual word learning

“…The use of CDIs has been extended to bilingual children, most typically by administering CDIs in different languages (see Weisleder et al, 2023 for a scoping review). The two-CDI approach is the most accessible and most commonly used method of measuring bilingual children's vocabularies (Weisleder et al, 2023). Typically, caregivers are asked to reflect on and fill out a CDI on the child's ability in each language independently.…”

“…Analyses like these provide preliminary evidence that reporters can report on each language independently; however, it is often the case that studies do not report which or how many caregivers complete the CDIs and more analyses are needed (Weisleder et al, 2023). TE knowledge is assessed by measuring the conceptual overlap between the two forms, such as by mapping items on each form onto "universal lemmas", or "unilemmas" (see Braginsky et al, 2019); these are approximate cross-linguistic conceptual mappings of words, verified by the judgement of native or advanced proficient speakers of the language.…”

“…Therefore, not all words on one language form will have a TE on another language form. There have been a few forms specifically adapted for the bilingual use case (e.g., De Anda et al, 2022;O'Toole et al, 2017;Reese et al, 2018), and this method is growing in popularity (Weisleder et al, 2023).…”