Bilingualism and Language Development in Children

How Bilingualism Affects Children’s Language Development

• Bilingual children have diverse language experiences influenced by:
  • Exposure to two languages.
  • Contexts of interaction.
  • Languages used by people they interact with.
  • Age of exposure to two languages.
• Simultaneous Language Learners: Exposed to both languages from birth.
• Sequential Language Learners: Exposed to a second language later, often upon entering school.
• Bilingual children often learn a heritage language and the majority language of their country.
• Abilities in two languages vary:
  • Stronger in heritage language, weaker in majority language.
  • Relatively equal abilities in both languages.
  • Stronger in majority language, weaker in heritage language.
• Bilingual children are often compared to monolingual children in schools, which is problematic.
• Reasons for comparison to monolinguals:
  • Monolinguals are the majority in classrooms (though this is changing).
  • Bilinguals are the fastest-growing population entering the US educational system; approximately 30% speak a language other than English at home (US Census Bureau, 2013).
  • Bilingual education is relatively new in the US; The Bilingual Education Act was passed in 1968.
  • Some states have passed English-only education laws, limiting heritage language education, though some reversed this.
  • Many teachers have limited training on bilingual children’s development.
  • Few states require pre-service teachers to take courses on multiculturalism and multilingualism, which often focus on broader cultural topics.
  • Research on language development has primarily focused on monolingual children.
  • A review from 2000-2011 found only 182 articles in English on bilingual children's development from birth through age 5 (Hammer et al., 2014).
  • A companion review found only 25 studies on classroom-based interventions for bilingual children in the US during the same period (Buysse et al., 2014).
  • Limited understanding of bilingual children’s language development due to lack of research.
  • Few assessments are normed on bilingual children, and most are for Spanish speakers.
  • Most English language ability tests are not normed on bilingual children; only one English test is normed on bilinguals in the US.
  • High-stakes state-level assessments are not standardized on bilingual samples.
  • This makes it difficult to study bilingual development without using monolingual children as a reference group.
• Bilinguals should not be expected to perform like monolinguals; they are not "two monolinguals in one" (Grosjean, 1989).
• The chapter aims to support this point by presenting key findings on bilingual children’s language development.

Bilingual Children’s Language Development

• Focus on phonological, vocabulary, grammatical, and pragmatic development.
• Research comparing bilinguals to monolinguals is included due to the lack of assessments for bilinguals.

Phonological Development

• Bilingual infants can discriminate between speech sounds of their two languages early in life (Bosch & Sebastián-Gallés, 2001), indicating two language systems.
• Toddlers' phonological development progresses similarly to monolinguals in their dominant language (Kehoe, 2002), but slower in the less dominant language.
• Bilingual toddlers may be better at learning complex speech sound patterns (Kovács & Mehler, 2009).
• Bilingual children catch up to monolinguals in speech sound development during preschool years.
• Children learning languages like Spanish, Russian, and Chinese have similarly sized speech sound repertoires as monolinguals (e.g., Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010; Gildersleeve-Neumann & Wright, 2010; Lin & Johnson, 2010).
• Accuracy in producing speech sounds is high, especially for shared sounds between languages (Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010).

Vocabulary Development

• Early vocabulary development predicts later grammatical and cognitive skills (Conboy & Thal, 2006; Marchman et al., 2004; Parra et al., 2011; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2014).
• Bilingual children’s individual vocabularies may be smaller than monolinguals when only one language is considered (Hoff et al., 2012; Place & Hoff, 2011; Poulin-Dubois et al., 2013; Vagh et al., 2009).
  • e.g., 24-month-old French-English bilinguals had smaller expressive vocabulary in their first language than monolinguals (Poulin-Dubois et al., 2013).
• Individual vocabularies are typically within the normal range of variation for monolingual children (Pearson et al., 1993; Vagh et al., 2009).
• Some studies find no difference between bilingual toddlers’ vocabulary size in their dominant language and monolinguals (De Houwer et al., 2014).
• Vocabulary size is comparable to monolinguals when conceptual vocabulary is measured (Pearson et al., 1993; Poulin-Dubois et al., 2013).
  Conceptual vocabulary: Takes into account the number of concepts known across languages.
• Measuring total vocabulary may be more appropriate (Hoff et al., 2014).
  Total vocabulary: The number of words produced in each language.
• Rationale: Conceptual vocabulary may underestimate word knowledge (Core et al., 2013).
  • Knowing "pan" in Spanish receives one point, similar to knowing both "pan" and "bread."
  • Total score gives credit for both words, acknowledging learning two phonological forms.
• 22–30-month-old Spanish-English bilinguals had similar vocabulary size and growth rate to monolinguals when total vocabulary was used (Core et al., 2013).
• Total vocabulary may be preferable during the toddler period to capture individual word knowledge.
• Differences in vocabulary development emerge in preschool years depending on socioeconomic status (SES) and input.
  • Studies in Head Start (low-SES) showed Spanish-English bilinguals start and end preschool with lower vocabulary scores than monolinguals (e.g., Hammer et al., 2008; Tabors et al., 2003).
  • High-SES families: Spanish-English bilingual children with two native Spanish-speaking parents had higher total vocabulary gains from 22 to 48 months (Hoff et al., 2014).
• Differences also depend on when children were first exposed to English.
  • Sequential language learners had higher rates of growth in both Spanish and English than simultaneous language learners during two years in preschool (Hammer et al., 2008).

Grammatical Development

• Fewer studies compared to phonological and vocabulary development.
• Bilingual children learn grammatical rules of both languages and do not confuse them.
  • Children speaking languages without required subjects (e.g., Spanish) learn that subjects need to be expressed in English (Juan-Garau & Pérez-Vidal, 2000; Serratrice et al., 2004; Silva-Corvalán, 2007).
• Morphemes are generally acquired in the same order as monolinguals (Bland-Stewart & Fitzgerald, 2001; Nicoladis & Marchak, 2011).
  • One study found some differences in the order of acquisition of English morphemes for Spanish-English bilinguals (Davison & Hammer, 2012).
• Grammatical development follows the same general progression but may be slower than monolinguals.
  • Russian morphological development of 4–5-year-old bilingual children was similar to that of 3–4-year-old monolinguals (Schwartz et al., 2015).
• Grammatical errors made by bilingual children acquiring English are similar to errors made by monolingual children with developmental language disorder (Paradis et al., 2011).
• Grammatical development in each language is strongly influenced by the degree of exposure.
  • French-English bilingual children with equal exposure had similar morphological skills to monolinguals (Thordardottir, 2015).
  • Unequal exposure leads to unequal morphological skills, stronger in the language with more exposure.

Pragmatic Development

• Less research attention.
• Differences exist in how bilingual children use pragmatic cues to understand a speaker’s message (e.g., Brojde et al., 2012; Yow & Markman, 2011).
• Bilingual children realize they need to adapt their language to meet the needs of conversational partners.
• This heightens sensitivity to pragmatic cues like gestures, facial expression, and tone of voice.
• Both monolingual and bilingual children use congruent pragmatic cues to understand messages (Yow & Markman, 2011).
• Communication becomes more challenging with multiple cues or inconsistent verbal and non-linguistic cues.
  • Bilingual children were better at judging emotion when content conflicted with tone of voice (Yow & Markman, 2011).
  • Bilingual children were more likely to attend to pragmatic cues compared to monolingual children when there were conflicting cues (Brojde et al., 2012).
• Neurological level: bilingual children process pragmatic cues differently from monolingual children, with heighted sensitivity during word learning (Groba et al., 2018).
• Bilingual children appear to have an advantage in pragmatics.

Relations Between Children’s Languages

• Bilingual children have two language systems developed early in life.
• Evidence from phonological, lexical, grammatical, and pragmatic development studies.
• Speech sound systems are separate (e.g., Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010; Fabiano & Goldstein, 2010; Gildersleeve-Neumann et al., 2009; Goldstein et al., 2005), but there are cross-linguistic effects.
  Cross-linguistic effects: Characteristics of one language observed when speaking the other.
• Dominant language has greater effects on the non-dominant language, but these effects disappear over time (Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010; Gildersleeve-Neumann & Wright, 2010; Lin & Johnson, 2010).
• Vocabulary: Bilingual children may learn words in each language representing a single concept (Pearson et al., 1995; Schelletter, 2002), demonstrating two language systems.
• Semantic representation of a concept may differ in each language due to cultural and linguistic differences.
• Grammatical and pragmatic development studies also support two language systems.
• Children can learn and apply grammatical and pragmatic rules appropriately (e.g., Comeau et al., 2007; Serratrice et al., 2004; Silva-Corvalán, 2007).
• Code switching: Bilingual children use adult-like structural constraints of their two languages (Paradis et al., 2011).
• Language dominance affects code switching: children use their stronger language to fill gaps in their weaker language (Bernardini & Schylter, 2004).
• Code switching may be a compensatory strategy, using a word from one language when they do not know it in the other (Wei & Lee, 2001).

Language Interdependence Theory

• Cummins (1979) proposes that abilities in one language may transfer to the other once a level of proficiency is reached.
• Bilinguals have common cross-linguistic proficiencies underlying surface structures.
  Types of relations:
  Language independent:
  * Underlying cognitive-linguistic skills independent of language structure, functioning similarly across languages.
  * Example: Phonological sensitivity transfers across languages (Durgunoğlu et al., 1993).
  Language dependent:
  * Skills shared across languages with similar features.
  * Example: Grammatical structure transfer depends on the similarity of structures (Edele & Stanat, 2016).
  * Spanish and English similarities: articles before nouns, gendered pronouns, singular/plural nouns.
  * Mandarin differences: rarely used pronouns, same word for he and she, nouns not marked as plural.
  * As a result, transfer of these structures is not possible, because these structures do not exist in Mandarin.

Language Disorders in Bilingual Children

• Research focuses on specific language impairment and developmental disorders.
• No evidence that bilingualism causes language disorders (Kohnert, 2013).
• Children with language disorders would have a disorder whether monolingual or bilingual.

Developmental Language Disorder in Bilingual Children

• Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a deficit in language learning with typical cognitive abilities and hearing .
• Approximately 7% of monolingual children have DLD, with likely the same percentage of bilingual children affected (Kohnert, 2013).
• Underlying deficit in processing language causes DLD, resulting in expressive and receptive language difficulties.
• Deficits in morphosyntactic or grammatical skills are primary characteristics.
• Nature of grammatical errors reflects the language spoken.
  • English-speaking children with DLD struggle with verbal morphology (e.g., third person singular –s); sparse verb morphology means these are easily omitted.
  • Spanish-speaking children with DLD do not have problems with verb morphology given the saliency of the Spanish verb morphology. Instead experience problems with less salient morphemes, such as articles and clitic pronouns (Restrepo & Gutiérrez-Clellen, 2012).
• Bilingual children with DLD produce morphosyntactic errors similar to monolingual peers with DLD (e.g., Armon-Lotem et al., 2015; Bedore & Peña, 2008; Kay-Raining Bird, 2016; Restrepo & Gutíerrez-Clellen, 2012).
  • This holds for both simultaneous and sequential learners, once sequential learners have received sufficient exposure to the second language (Paradis et al., 2011).
• The gap between the language skills of bilingual children with DLD and their bilingual peers with typical development is similar to the gap between the skills of monolingual children with DLD and their peers with typical development.
• Similar to monolingual children with DLD, bilingual children with DLD may have difficulty with vocabulary development, having shallow semantic representations and poorly linked semantic networks (Bedore & Peña, 2008).
• They can also have difficulty producing narratives.
• Specifically, children may not provide sufficient background information and may have problems expressing temporal, causal, spatial, or referential relations to create coherence (Gutiérrez-Clellen, 2012).
• Children with DLD also display difficulties performing non-linguistic cognitive processing tasks (Kohnert, 2013); however, their pragmatic and code-switching abilities are often not affected (Gutiérrez-Clellen et al., 2009).

Language Disorders in Bilingual Children with Developmental Disorders

• Commonly studied: Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
• Limited research suggests language development is similar to monolingual children with these disorders.
• Learning two languages does not delay language development of bilingual children with DS and ASD (e.g., Kay-Raining Bird, 2016; Marinova-Todd & Mirenda, 2016).

Factors that Affect Bilingual Children’s Language Abilities

• Children’s experience with language, exposure to and usage of two languages, influences abilities.
• Family characteristics and home literacy environment also play a role.

Bilingual Children’s Language Experiences

• Abilities in two languages vary due to:
  • Age of first exposure to the second language.
  • Frequency of exposure and usage of two languages.
• Age of exposure affects abilities and growth.
  • Longitudinal study of preschoolers: Simultaneous learners began preschool with higher English and lower Spanish abilities than sequential learners.
  • Sequential learners had faster vocabulary growth in both languages (Hammer et al., 2008).
  • Later exposure to English was associated with faster vocabulary growth rates in English (Golberg et al., 2008).
• Amount of each language used by family members and teachers has a strong effect.
  • Children from low-income homes with mothers speaking more Spanish had higher Spanish abilities.
  • Children whose mothers spoke more English had higher English abilities (Bohman et al., 2010; Hammer et al., 2012; Place & Hoff, 2011; Quiroz et al., 2010).
  • Similar results found for children from high-income homes (Hoff et al., 2012).
• Continued usage of more Spanish than English by mothers resulted in faster Spanish vocabulary growth.
• Continued usage of more or all English did not result in higher rates of English vocabulary or emergent literacy growth.
  • Sufficient English exposure in preschool and kindergarten classrooms may negate the impact of English usage at home (Hammer et al., 2009).
• Amount of Spanish and English that fathers speak to their children impacts abilities (Hammer et al., 2012).
  • Fathers’ Spanish usage positively impacted children’s Spanish vocabulary abilities (Hammer et al., 2012).
  • When fathers spoke English and mothers spoke Spanish, children were more likely to be English monolinguals (Veltman, 1983).
• Whether parents are native speakers impacts their influence.
  • Children with two native Spanish-speaking parents showed steeper gains in total vocabulary (Hoff et al., 2014).
  • Greater growth in Spanish vocabulary for children with two native Spanish-speaking parents.
  • Consistently higher English vocabularies for children with one native Spanish-speaking and one native English-speaking parent (Hoff et al., 2014).
• Language exposure provided by siblings:
  • Young bilingual children with school-age bilingual siblings had smaller Spanish vocabularies and larger English vocabularies (Bridges and Hoff, 2014).
• Settings outside the home, particularly school, affect language abilities.
  • Teachers’ usage of children’s heritage language supports vocabulary development (Hammer et al., 2012).
  • Teacher usage of the majority language negatively impacts children’s heritage language abilities (Hammer et al., 2012).
• Children’s usage of their languages also affects language development.
  • Bilingual kindergartners who used more English had more advanced semantic and morphosyntactic abilities in English.
  • Children who used more Spanish exhibited greater Spanish language abilities (Bohman et al., 2010).
  • Children’s usage of English with fathers and teachers and usage of Spanish with mothers had the largest impact on vocabularies (Hammer et al., 2012).
  • Using a language forces the learner to process it more than just hearing it (Bohman et al., 2010).

Characteristics of the Family and Home

• Maternal education relates to higher English language development (Bohman et al., 2010; Golberg et al., 2008; Hammer et al., 2012).
• Paternal education has not been found to make a significant contribution.
• Maternal and paternal education has not been found to be related to children’s heritage language abilities (Hammer et al., 2012).
• Higher maternal education may reflect familiarity with the educational system that emphasizes English.
• Generational status impacts bilinguals’ abilities.
  • First generation sustains heritage language usage.
  • Second generation often acquires both languages.
  • Third generation uses English as their primary language; many have lost their heritage language (Hurtado & Vega, 2004; Portes & Hao, 1998; Veltman, 1983).
• Children from families who arrived more recently had stronger Spanish abilities (Hammer et al., 2012).
• Mothers’ English language proficiency impacts bilingual children’s abilities.
  • Parents’ proficiency in two languages was related to the language(s) used by parents and children when speaking to one another (Gathercole & Thomas, 2007).
  • Mothers’ self-rated English proficiency was positively related to children’s English vocabulary and negatively related to children’s Spanish vocabulary (Hammer et al., 2012).
• Maternal depression can negatively affect children’s language growth, particularly in their heritage language.
  • Maternal depressive symptomology slowed growth of heritage language vocabulary (Cycyk et al., 2015; Willard et al., 2019).
  • Depressed mothers provide fewer interaction opportunities; manner can be more abrupt and irritable.
  • No impact on children’s English development due to school support (Cycyk et al., 2015).
• Home literacy environment promotes children’s language development.
  • Frequency of book reading, telling stories, library visits, and language/emergent literacy activities promotes vocabulary, comprehension, and narrative skills (Bitetti & Hammer, 2016; Farver et al., 2006; Gonzalez & Uhing, 2008; Lewis et al., 2016).

Implications

• Bilingual children’s language development is distinct from monolingual children.
• Comparisons should not be made between bilinguals and monolinguals.
• Bilingual children's language development may progress at a different rate than monolinguals.
• Bilinguals’ development may follow a slightly different progression.
• Not deficient or problematic; children are simply becoming bilingual.
• In areas such as pragmatics, bilingual children may be at an advantage over monolingual children.
• Having knowledge of two languages provides occupational and economic opportunities.
• Because bilingual children have two separate language systems starting very early in life, they are not confused by learning two languages and can use their abilities in one language to support the development of their other language.
• Bilingual children should not be discouraged from using their two languages.
• Encouraged to learn both languages and should receive high quality language instruction in both languages.
• Applies to typically developing children and children with language disorders.
• Being bilingual does not change the nature of the language disorder nor does it affect children’s abilities to learn two languages (Kay- Raining Bird, 2016).
• Discouraging bilingual children with language disorders from speaking one of their languages does not improve their abilities in their remaining language, nor does it remediate the disorder (Kohnert, 2013).
• Bilingual children need both of their languages to communicate in their schools, homes, and communities.
• Taking away their heritage languages may impede their ability to interact with family and members of their community.
• This, in turn, may harm their relationships with those individuals and may negatively impact children’s cultural identities (Patterson, 2016).
• If concerns exist about a child’s development, skills should be compared to a normative sample of bilingual children who speak the same languages.
• Tests normed on monolinguals should not be used.
• To understand bilingual children’s language development, information about their language experiences and their families’ characteristics must be gathered.
• Determine ages at which children were first exposed to their languages on a regular basis and the current amount of exposure and usage.
• Learn about mother’s level of education, generational status, and language proficiency.
• Determine frequency with which family members engage children in language and literacy activities.
• Look for signs of maternal depression and make referrals as appropriate.
• Through all this information, a better understanding of bilinguals’ development can be achieved.