Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:57:05.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The English referencing behaviors of first- and second-grade Spanish–English emergent bilinguals in oral narrative retells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2021

Audrey Lucero Open the ORCID record for Audrey Lucero [Opens in a new window] ,
Kevin Donley  and
Bobbie Bermúdez
Audrey Lucero*
Affiliation:
College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR97403, USA
Kevin Donley
Affiliation:
College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR97403, USA
Bobbie Bermúdez
Affiliation:
College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR97403, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigated differences in the English referencing behaviors in the context of oral narrative retell between typically developing first- and second-grade Spanish–English emergent bilingual children in dual language immersion and English-only instructional contexts (N = 105). Children heard and retold Mercer Mayer wordless picture books, and analyses were conducted to examine how they used nominals and pronominals to maintain and switch reference to potential thematic protagonists in the story. Multivariate analysis of variance showed significant grade-level differences in the proportion of pronominals used to switch and maintain reference to BOY/S (boy and dog or frog), as well as to switch to BOY. In contrast, instructional context differences were significant only for reference to the DOG or FROG. The finding that second graders in both dual language immersion and English-only programs continued to demonstrate an overreliance on pronominal forms to switch reference in a second language suggests that differences in literacy and oral language development may extend beyond the grades that we investigated. It is therefore important to continue investigating the referencing behaviors of emergent bilingual children throughout the elementary years of schooling.

Keywords

emergent bilingualsSpanish–Englishoral narrative retellsreferencing
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 42 , Issue 5 , September 2021 , pp. 1243 - 1261
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aksu-Koc, A., & Nicolopoulou, A. (2015). Character reference in young children’s narratives: A crosslingustic comparison of English, Greek, and Turkish. Lingua, 155, 62–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2014.04.006 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvear, S. A. (2019). The additive advantage and bilingual programs in a large urban school district. American Educational Research Journal, 56(2), 477–513. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218800986 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M. (1986). A functional approach to the acquisition of anaphoric relationships. Linguistics, 24(227-284), 227–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M. (1997). Narrative development: Six approaches. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bayley, R., & Pease-Alvarez, L. (1994). Null and expressed pronoun variation in Mexican-descent children’s Spanish. In Arnold, J., Blake, R., Davidson, B., Schwenter, S., & Soloman, J. (Eds.), Sociolinguistic variation: Data, theory, and analysis (pp. 85–99). Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Bedore, L.M., Peña, E.D., Gillam, R.B., & Tsung-Han, H. (2010). Language sample measures and language ability in Spanish-English bilingual kindergarteners. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 498–510. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.05.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berman, R. A. (1997). Developing form/function relations in narrative texts. Lenguas Modernas, 24, 45–60.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (2009). Language development in narrative contexts. In Bavin, E. L. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language (pp. 355–375). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R.A., & Slobin, D.I. (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Boyd, S., & Nauclér, K. (2001). Sociocultural aspects of bilingual narrative development in Sweden. In Verhoeven, L. T. & Strömqvist, S. (Eds.), Narrative development in a multilingual context (Vol. 23, pp. 129–151). John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvalho, A. M., Orozco, R., & Shin, N. L. (2015). Subject pronoun expression in Spanish: A cross-dialectical perspective. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Chen, L., & Lei, J. (2013). The production of referring expressions in oral narratives of Chinese-English bilingual speakers and monolingual peers. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29(1), 41–55. doi: 10.1177/0265659012459527 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, L., & Pan, N. (2009). Development of English referring expressions in the narrative of Chinese-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(4), 429–445. doi: 10.1017/S1366728909990216 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, V., & Thomas, W. (2017). Validating the power of bilingual schooling: Thirty-two years of large-scale, longitudinal research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 203–217. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190517000034 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, B. A. (2014). Dual language development of Latino children: Effect of instructional program type and the home and school language environment. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 389–397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.04.009 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colozzo, P., & Whitely, C. (2015). The interplay of referential function and character primacy on referring expressions in children’s narratives. First Language, 35(2), 137–162. doi: 10.1177/014272371557321 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F. (2002). Narratives in two languages: Assessing performance of bilingual children. Linguistics and Education, 12(2), 175–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., & Heinrichs-Ramos, L. (1993). Referential cohesion in the narratives of Spanish-speaking children: A developmental study. Journal of Speech, language, & Hearing Research, 36(3), 559–567. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3603.559 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., & Hofstetter, R. (1994). Syntactic complexity in Spanish narratives: A developmental study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 645–654. doi:0022-4685/94/3703-0645CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London, U.K.: Longman Group Limited.Google Scholar
Hammer, C. S., Hoff, E., Uchikoshi, Y., Gillanders, C., Castro, D. C., & Sandilos, L. E. (2014). The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 715–733. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.05.0080885-2006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilmann, J., Miller, J. F., Nockerts, A., & Dunaway, C. (2010). Properties of the narrative scoring scheme using narrative retells in young school-age children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19, 154–166. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2009/08-0024)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendriks, P., Koster, C., & Hoeks, J. C. J. (2014). Referential choice across the lifespan: Why children and elderly adults produce ambiguous pronouns. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, 29(4), 391–407. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2013.766365 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hickmann, M. (2003). Children’s discourse: Person, space, and time across languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hickmann, M., & Hendriks, H. (1999). Cohesion and anaphora in children’s narratives: A comparison of English, French, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 26, 419–452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hickmann, M., Hendriks, H., Roland, F., & Liang, J. (1996). The marking of new information in children’s narratives: A comparison of English, French, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 23(3), 591–619.10.1017/S0305000900008965CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickmann, M., Schimke, S., & Colonna, S. (2015). From early to late mastery of reference. In Serratrice, L. & Allen, S. E. M. (Eds.), The acquisition of reference (pp. 181–212). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulk, A., & Müller, N. (2000). Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 3(3), 227–244.10.1017/S1366728900000353CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iluz-Cohen, P., & Walters, J. (2012). Telling stories in two languages: Narratives of preschool bilingual children with typical and impaired language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 58–74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728911000538 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Justice, L. M., Bowles, R. P., Kaderavek, J. N., Ukrainetz, T. A., Eisenberg, S. L., & Gillam, R. B. (2006). The index of narrative microstructure: A clinical tool for analyzing school-age children’s narrative performance. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15, 177–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Justice, L. M., Bowles, R. P., & Gosse, C. (2010). A scalable tool for assessing children’s language abilities within a narrative context: The NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol). Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 218–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kail, M., & Hickmann, M. (1992). French children’s ability to introduce referents in narratives as a function of mutual knowledge. First Language, 12, 73–94.10.1177/014272379201203405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1981). The grammatical marking of thematic structure in the development of language production. In Deutsch, W. (Ed.), The child’s construction of language (pp. 121–147). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1985). Language and cognitive processes from a developmental perspective. Language and Cognitive Processes, 1(1), 61–85.10.1080/01690968508402071CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindholm-Leary, K. (2012). Success and challenges in dual language education. Theory Into Practice, 51(4), 256–262. doi: 10/1080/00405841.2012.726053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loban, W. (1976). Language development: Kindergarten through grade twelve (Research report). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, where are you? New York, NY: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. (1973). Frog on his own. New York, NY: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. (1974). Frog goes to dinner. New York, NY: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Miller, J. F., Andriacchi, K., & Nockerts, A. (2015). Assessing language production using SALT software. Middleton, WI: SALT Software LLC.Google Scholar
Miller, J. F., Heilmann, J., Nockerts, A., Iglesias, A., Fabiano, L., & Francis, D. J. (2006). Oral language and reading in bilingual children. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 21, 30–43. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5826.2006.00205.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishina-Mori, S., Nagai, Y., & Yujobo, Y. J. (2018). Cross-linguistic influence in the use of referring expressions in school-age bilingual Japanese-English bilinguals. In Bertolini, A. B. & Kaplan, M. J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 546–557). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Montrul, S., & Sánchez-Walker, N. (2015). Subject expression in bilingual school-age children in the United States. In Carvalho, A. M., Orozco, R., & Shin, N. L. (Eds.), Subject pronoun expression in Spanish: A cross-dialectical perspective (pp. 231–247). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Muranaka-Vuletich, H. (2017). Is bilingual language development different from monolingual? Evidence from the use of ellipsis in narrative. Journal of Child Language Acquisition and Development, 5(1), 1–21.Google Scholar
National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). The Condition of Education (NCES 2019-144). Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019144.pdf.Google Scholar
Orsolini, M., Rossi, F., & Pontecorvo, C. (1996). Re-introduction of referents in Italian children’s narratives. Journal of Child Language, 23, 465–486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Qi, R. (2010). Pronoun acquisition in a Mandarin-English bilingual child. International Journal of Bilingualism, 14(1), 37–64. doi: 10.1177/1367006909356649 Google Scholar
Reese, E., Suggate, S., Long, J., & Schaughency, E. (2010). Children’s oral narrative and reading skills in the first three years of reading instruction. Reading and writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 23, 627–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L. (2007). Referential cohesion in the narratives of bilingual English-Italian children and monolingual peers. Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 1058–1087. doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2006.10.001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L. (2008). The role of discourse and perceptual cues in the choice of referential expressions in English preschoolers, school-age children, and adults. Language Learning and Development, 4(4), 309–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475440802333619 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L., & Hervé, C. (2015). Referential expressions in bilingual acquisition. In Serratrice, L. & Allen, S. E. M. (Eds.), The acquisition on reference (Vol. 15, pp. 311–333). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., & Paoli, S. (2004). Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax-pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English-Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7(3), 183–205. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728904001610 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, N.L. & Cairns, H.S. (2012). The development of NP selection in school-age children: Reference and Spanish subject pronouns. Language Acquisition, 19, 3–38. doi: 10/1080/10489223.2012.633846 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, N. L., & Otheguy, R. (2007). Shifting sensitivity to continuity of reference: subject pronoun use in Spanish in New York City. In Lacorte, M. & Leeman, L. (Eds.), Español en estados unidos y otros contextos de contacto (Vol. 21, pp. 111–136). Madrid, Esp.: Iberoamericana.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. (2014). Bilingual Language Acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon-Cereijido, G., & Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F. (2009). A cross-linguistic and bilingual evaluation of the interdependence between lexical and grammatical domains. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 315–337. doi: 10.1017/S0142716409090134 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sorace, A., Serratrice, L., Filiaci, F., & Baldo, M. (2009). Discourse conditions on subject pronoun realization: Testing the linguistic intuitions of older bilingual children. Lingua, 119, 460–477. doi: 10.1016/j.lingua.2008.09.008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squires, K. E., Lugo-Neris, M. J., Peña, E. D., Bedore, L. M., Bohman, T. M., & Gillam, R. B. (2014). Story retelling by bilingual children with language impairments and typically developing controls. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 49(1), 60–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strong, C. J. (1998). Strong narrative assessment procedure. Thinking Publication.Google Scholar
Suggate, S., Schaughency, E., & Reese, E. (2011). The contribution of age and reading instruction to oral narrative and pre-reading skills. First Language, 31(4), 379–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, W., & Collier, V. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students. NCBE Resource Collection series, no. 9.Google Scholar
Thomas, W., & Collier, V. (2002). A national study of school effectiveness for language minority students’ long term academic achievement. Center for Research, Education, Diversity and Excellence, University of CA, Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Uccelli, P., & Paéz, M. M. (2007). Narrative and vocabulary development of bilingual children from kindergarten to first grade: Developmental changes and associations among English and Spanish skills. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38, 225–236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vion, M., & Colas, A. (1999). Maintaining and reintroducing referents in French: Cognitive constraints and development of narrative skills. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 72, 32–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wigglesworth, G. (1997). Children’s individual approaches to the organization of narrative. Journal of Child Language, 24, 279–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong, A. M.-Y., & Johnston, J. R. (2004). The development of discourse referencing in Cantonese-speaking children. Journal of Child Language, 31, 633–660. https://doi.org/10.1017/S030500090400604X CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Lucero et al. supplementary material

Lucero et al. supplementary material

Download Lucero et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 871.5 KB