•English nouns are obligatorily marked for singular/plural; Mandarin nouns only rarely so.•English learners learn the meaning of the word for one earlier than Mandarin learners.•The English number ...word learning advantage is specific to the number word for one.•Mandarin learners have better number word input (e.g., they hear them more often).•This suggests that singular/plural morphology supports number word learning.
Previous studies showed that children learning a language with an obligatory singular/plural distinction (Russian and English) learn the meaning of the number word for one earlier than children learning Japanese, a language without obligatory number morphology (Barner, Libenson, Cheung, & Takasaki, 2009; Sarnecka, Kamenskaya, Yamana, Ogura, & Yudovina, 2007). This can be explained by differences in number morphology, but it can also be explained by many other differences between the languages and the environments of the children who were compared. The present study tests the hypothesis that the morphological singular/plural distinction supports the early acquisition of the meaning of the number word for one by comparing young English learners to age and SES matched young Mandarin Chinese learners. Mandarin does not have obligatory number morphology but is more similar to English than Japanese in many crucial respects. Corpus analyses show that, compared to English learners, Mandarin learners hear number words more frequently, are more likely to hear number words followed by a noun, and are more likely to hear number words in contexts where they denote a cardinal value. Two tasks show that, despite these advantages, Mandarin learners learn the meaning of the number word for one three to six months later than do English learners. These results provide the strongest evidence to date that prior knowledge of the numerical meaning of the distinction between singular and plural supports the acquisition of the meaning of the number word for one.
The current study examined the age of learning effect on second language (L2) acquisition. The research goals of the study were twofold: to test whether there is an independent age effect controlling ...for other potentially confounding variables, and to clarify the age effect across L2 grammar and speech production domains. The study included 118 Mandarin-speaking immigrants and 24 native English speakers. Grammar knowledge was assessed by a grammaticality judgment task, and speech production was measured by native English speaking raters’ ratings of participants’ foreign accents. Results from the study revealed that the age of learning effect was robust for both L2 domains even after controlling for the influences of other variables, such as length of residence and years of education in the United States. However, the age of learning variable had a stronger impact on speech production than on grammar. The current results support the framework of multiple critical/sensitive periods (Long in Int Rev Appl Linguist 43(4):287–317,
2005
; Newport et al. in Language, brain and cognitive development: Essays in honor of Jacques Mehler. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA,
2001
; Werker and Tees in Dev Psychobiol 46(3):233–251,
2005
).
Purpose: Systematic reviews of bilingual children's reading development are very limited, and none of which solely focus on predictors of reading difficulties among those with developmental language ...disorder (DLD). The present scoping review fills an important need by analyzing the recent research literature on the reading outcomes of bilingual children with DLD. Specifically, this study aims to identify predictors of reading difficulties among bilingual children with DLD to improve early identification. Method: The search parameters used in this scoping review included peer-reviewed journal articles written in English from 2000 to 2022 in order to synthesize the most recent empirical work, a focus on early childhood through early adolescent (pre-K to eighth grade) bilinguals with DLD, and research designs that included case study, descriptive, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and qualitative methods. Results: The present review yielded nine articles, which all examined the predictive validity of either a measure or task with the ultimate goal of improving early identification of reading difficulties. Significant predictors of reading difficulties, such as rapid naming and blending in first language (L1), were found to aid in identifying bilingual children who have DLD. Conclusions: To conclude, this review demonstrates that this is a highly under-researched topic. To have ended up including only nine articles that fit the criteria of our search reveals a large gap in the research and a limitation of this review.
Purpose: The study examined the contributions of Spanish and English oral narrative skills to English reading among 95 early elementary dual language learners (DLLs) from Spanish-speaking homes in ...the United States. This sample of first- and third-grade DLL children attended Spanish-English dual language immersion programs and received language and literacy instruction in both English and Spanish. Method: All participants completed a storytelling task in both languages and two English reading tests in decoding and reading comprehension. The story narratives were analyzed for microstructures (number of different new words, lexical diversity D, mean length of utterance, subordination index SI) using the Computerized Language ANalysis program. The narrative samples were also evaluated for macrostructures (i.e., discourse-level features) using the Narrative Scoring Scheme. Results: Grade, English D, and Spanish SI significantly predicted English reading. Grade level was the strongest predictor of the three for both decoding and comprehension. However, Spanish SI was more robust than English D for decoding whereas English D was a stronger predictor than Spanish SI for comprehension. Conclusions: Young DLL children's oral narrative skills in English as well as in their home language Spanish contributed to their English reading outcomes. The study further specified the contributions of narrative elements to different reading skills. Microstructural elements appeared to play a stronger role in English reading than macrostructural elements for DLLs in dual language programs in early elementary grades. The results provided support for the "simple view of reading" and the "linguistic interdependence hypothesis." The results also implicated that maintaining young DLL children's home language skills may be beneficial, rather than harmful, to their English reading development.
Early foreign language (FL) programmes have grown rapidly worldwide in the past two decades, resting on the assumption that 'earlier is better' for learning a FL. However, the majority of empirical ...studies that investigated the 'earlier is better' hypothesis were conducted in naturalistic immersion contexts. Given the substantial differences in the quality and quantity of input and instruction, whether or not the results in immersion contexts can be generalised to FL learning contexts remains unknown. The current study aimed to fill this gap by reviewing and synthesising 42 empirical studies published in the past 50 years that examined the age of learning effect in FL learning contexts. Overall, the synthesis revealed no solid evidence for a younger learner advantage in short-term or long-term linguistic outcomes. We conclude with implications for research and practice.
Purpose: The present scoping review seeks to fill an important need in the bilingual research and education community by analyzing the recent research literature on how teacher factors potentially ...influence young bilingual children's language outcomes. The research aims are twofold: synthesize the research findings on teacher factors that influence bilinguals' language development, and identify gaps in the literature to determine future research directions. Method: The search parameters used in this review included peer-reviewed journal articles from 2000 to 2019 in order to synthesize the most recent empirical work on this topic, a focus on typically developing bilinguals from the age of 3 to 8 years, and research designs that included case studies, descriptive, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental, experimental, longitudinal, mixed methods, and qualitative methods. Results: A search of major databases for studies on young bilinguals and teachers between 2000 and 2019 combined with multiple levels of screening and review yielded 21 peer-reviewed articles. Four major themes emerged: (a) teacher characteristics, (b) teacher quality, (c) teacher talk, and (d) teacher emotional support. Conclusions: Overall, the results of this synthesis suggest that teachers do in fact influence the language development of young bilinguals. Teacher talk and teacher quality were found to be the two themes that were of most interest in the research community, and the results generally supported the positive effect of teacher quality and teacher talk on language outcomes among bilinguals, with some variability. This review has important implications for teacher training and education in an effort to better serve the growing population of bilingual children.
Rater effects, defined as the construct-irrelevant variation associated with rater characteristics, are critical to the reliability and validity of speaking assessments (Bachman et al., 1995; Kunnan, ...2000). The current study investigates two under-explored characteristics among untrained raters: familiarity with the speakers' non-native accents and experience in teaching English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL). This study is the first to use a novel, objective measure of accent familiarity, i.e., an accent identification task. It included three groups of raters (n = 22 in each group) who varied on the two characteristics. All raters assigned holistic and three analytical ratings (foreign accents, grammar and vocabulary, and content) to 26 speech files. They also filled out a survey reporting their demographic information, perceived impacts of their background on their ratings, and evaluative features they used for rating.
Although there were no significant differences in the three groups' ratings, ESL/EFL teachers self-reported that their background affected their rating decisions, and one third of them also felt that they were more lenient. Compared to non-teachers, ESL/EFL teachers were also better able to separate the analytical dimensions and were less biased by speakers' foreign accents when judging the overall proficiency or the content of their speech.
The population of young language minority (LM) students is rapidly growing worldwide due to global migration and immigration trends. The increasing representation of young LM students in school ...settings creates high demand for the language assessment of LM students in order to meet the needs of stakeholders, such as governments and language programs. This special issue thus focuses on the validity considerations for assessing young LM students, defined as school-
age
children and adolescents between the ages of 5 to 15 who speak a
language at home that is different from the majority/societal language or the primary language of schooling. We conceptualize validity following the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and we focus on assessments for young LM students who have not been discussed sufficiently in the previous studies: LM children who learn an additional language other than English (Study 1 by Butler & Sakurai, a
case of Japanese); indigenous learners of so-
called
standard English in Australia (Study 2 by Hudson & Angelo), multilingual children in Norway (Study 3 by Flognfeldt, Tsagari, Šurkalović, & Tishakov), and bilingual children with language disorder in the United States (Study 4 by Peña, Bedore, Lugo-
Neris,
& Albudoor). The four empirical studies examined different dimensions of validity considerations and the unique challenges for assessing young LM students. They represent multi-
disciplinary
perspectives and a
variety of methodological orientations and techniques. They also provide rich representations of validity considerations in language assessments in different regions of the world as well as majority-
minority
language combinations. The special issue not only informs test validity theories but has practical implications for promoting educational opportunities and equity for young LM students in various parts of the world.
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions:
The current study examined the language-reading relationship for bilingual students in two grade levels (grades 1 and 3) and for two reading outcomes ...(decoding and comprehension) to understand the contribution of oral language in English reading. The study also explored the potential mediating role of oral language between language use, reading frequency, and reading outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach:
The study included 60 bilingual students from bilingual households that speak a language other than, or in addition to, English. All participants completed a battery of language and reading assessments and a background survey.
Data and analysis:
Three separate confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to derive an Oral Language factor (from oral language assessments), a Language Use factor, and a Reading Frequency factor (from survey items). A multivariate regression was conducted to investigate whether the language-reading relationship differed by grade and reading outcome. A multivariate mediation analysis was also conducted to examine whether the Oral Language factor mediates the effect of Language Use and Reading Frequency on reading outcomes.
Findings/conclusions:
Oral language proficiency significantly predicted both decoding and comprehension for both grades. Oral language also mediated the relationship between reading frequency and reading outcomes.
Originality:
This study investigates the contributions of oral language in young bilingual students’ English reading outcomes, which is an under-explored topic.
Significance/implications:
The results demonstrated the importance of oral language proficiency in bilingual students’ reading outcomes. Oral language plays a robust role in not only reading comprehension but also decoding. The study also clarified that the effects of reading frequency on reading outcomes are indirect and mediated via oral language. Improving bilingual students’ oral language proficiency coupled with promoting their reading frequency can help promote their reading outcomes.
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