Bilingual preschool children’s second-language vocabulary development: The role of first-language vocabulary skills and second-language talk input

Author
Grøver, V., Lawrence, J., Rydland, V.
Source
International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(2):234-250.
Year
2018

Purpose

The study investigates whether bilingual children who have a well-developed mother tongue benefit more from the language environment in kindergarten when developing Norwegian as a second language, compared to bilingual children who have a less well-developed mother tongue. The three research questions are: 1) How do bilingual kindergarten children with varying competence in their mother tongue benefit from adult-led conversations when learning the second language? 2) How do bilingual kindergarten children with varying competence in their mother tongue benefit from conversations between children at play when learning the second language?  3) After checking the parents’ level of education, how do bilingual kindergarten children with varying competence in their mother tongue benefit from adult-led conversations and conversations between children when learning the second language?

Result

The results show that the bilingual children with a well-developed mother tongue, and who were exposed to the second language in kindergarten, developed their second language the most. The results remained unchanged after the researchers checked their parents’ level of education. Varied language proved to be more important for the children’s second language development than the amount of language exposure. 

Design

26 bilingual kindergarten children, with Turkish as their first language and Norwegian as a second language, participated in the longitudinal study that followed the children from kindergarten to Year 5 in primary and lower secondary school. When the children were five years old, they participated in language tests that measured their vocabulary in the first language. The results showed that the children had different levels of competency in their mother tongue. The children were then observed and filmed while taking part in kindergarten activities where they were exposed to the second language of Norwegian. The children’s Norwegian vocabulary was measured when the children were four, five, six, seven and eleven years old. The parents’ level of education was also mapped. 

References

Grøver, V., Lawrence, J. & Rydland, V. (2018). “Bilingual preschool children’s second-language vocabulary development: The role of first-language vocabulary skills and second-language talk input”. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(2):234-250.

Financed by

The Research Council of Norway, Norway