Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:59:54.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Narrative abilities in early successive bilingual Slovak–English children: A cross-language comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2015

SVETLANA KAPALKOVÁ ,
KAMILA POLIŠENSKÁ ,
LENKA MARKOVÁ  and
JAMES FENTON
SVETLANA KAPALKOVÁ
Affiliation:
Comenius University
KAMILA POLIŠENSKÁ*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
LENKA MARKOVÁ
Affiliation:
Comenius University
JAMES FENTON
Affiliation:
University of Westminster and De Montfort University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Kamila Polišenská, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigates macrostructure skill transfer in successive bilingual children speaking Slovak and English, a new language combination for narrative research. We examined whether narrative performance reflected language dominance and assessed relationships between nonword repetition (NWR) and narrative skills within and across languages. Forty typically developing Slovak–English bilingual children (mean age = 5 years, 10 months) were evaluated for microstructure and macrostructure performance in both languages through story telling and retelling tasks. In addition, NWR was assessed in Slovak, the children's first language (L1). Macrostructure scores were higher in their L1 than in their second language (L2), but comprehension did not differ across languages. L1 NWR was significantly related to L1 microstructure scores, but not to L1/L2 macrostructure or L2 microstructure. Implications for assessing bilingual children's language are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 1: Narrative abilities in bilingual children , January 2016 , pp. 145 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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

REFERENCES

Adams, A. M., & Gathercole, S. E. (1995). Phonological working memory and speech production in preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 403–414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E. (1993). Comprehension and production in early language development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58, 222–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E., Dale, P. S., & Thal, D. (1995). Individual differences and their implications for theories of language development. In Fletcher, P. & MacWhinney, B. (Eds.), The handbook of child language (pp. 96–151). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Craik, F. I. M. (2010). Cognitive and linguistic processing in the bilingual mind. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 19–23. doi:10.1177/0963721409358571CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, D. V., Holt, G., Line, E., McDonald, D., McDonald, S., & Watt, H. (2012). Parental phonological memory contributes to prediction of outcome of late talkers from 20 months to 4 years: A longitudinal study of precursors of specific language impairment. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 4, 1–12. doi:10.1186/1866-1955-4-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bortolini, U., Arfé, B., Caselli, C. M., Degasperi, L., Deevy, P., & Leonard, L. B. (2006). Clinical markers for specific language impairment in Italian: The contribution of clitics and non-word repetition. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 41, 695–712.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botting, N. (2002). Narrative as a clinical tool for the assessment of linguistic and pragmatic impairments. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 18, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boudreau, D. M. (2007, June). A comparison of narrative abilities in subgroups of children with language impairment. Poster presented at the Symposium for Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Boudreau, D. M. (2008). Narrative abilities: Advances in research and implications for clinical practice. Topics in Language Disorders, 28, 99–114. doi:10.1097/01.TLD.0000318932.08807.daCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calderón, J. (2003). Working memory in Spanish–English bilinguals with language impairment. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University.Google Scholar
Chiat, S. (2015). Nonword repetition. In Armon-Lotem, S., de Jong, J., & Meir, N. (Eds.), Methods for assessing multilingual children: Disentangling bilingualism from language impairment (pp. 123–148). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Chiat, S., Armon-Lotem, S., Marinis, T., Polišenská, K., Roy, P., & Seeff-Gabriel, B. (2013). Assessment of language abilities in sequential bilingual children: The potential of sentence imitation tasks. In Gathercole, V. C. M. (Ed.), Issues in the assessment of bilinguals (pp. 56–89). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiat, S., & Polišenská, K. (2015). A framework for crosslinguistic nonword repetition tests: Evidence of monolingual and bilingual children’s performance on the English version. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Chiat, S., Polišenská, K., & Szewczyk, J. (2012). Crosslinguistic nonword repetition tasks: British English version. A part of LITMUS COST IS0804 Battery. Unpublished material.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6, 284–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleave, P. L., Girolametto, L. E., Chen, X., & Johnson, C. J. (2010). Narrative abilities in monolingual and dual language learning children with specific language impairment. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 511–522. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.05.005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coady, J. A., & Evans, J. L. (2008). Uses and interpretations of nonword repetition tasks in children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 43, 1–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conti-Ramsden, G., Botting, N., & Faragher, B. (2001). Psycholinguistic markers for specific language impairment (SLI). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 741–748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eadie, P., Nguyen, C., Carlin, J., Bavin, E., Bretherton, L., & Reilly, S. (2014). Stability of language performance at 4 and 5 years: Measurement and participant variability. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 49, 215–227. doi:10.1111/1460–6984.12065CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebert, K. D., Pham, G., & Kohnert, K. (2014). Lexical profiles of bilingual children with primary language impairment. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fiestas, C. E., & Pena, E. D. (2004). Narrative discourse in bilingual children: Language and task effects. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35, 155–168. doi:10.1044/0161–1461(2004/016)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gagarina, N. V., Klop, D., Kunnari, S., Tantele, K., Välimaa, T., Balčiūnienė, I., et al. (2012). MAIN: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives. ZAS papers in linguistics 56. Berlin: ZAS.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (1990). The role of phonological memory in vocabulary acquisition: A study of young children learning new names. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 439–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S., & Baddeley, A. (1989). Evaluation of the role of phonological STM in the development of vocabulary in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 200–213. doi:10.1016/0749-596X(89)90044-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M. (2013). Assessment of multi-tasking wonders: Music, Olympics and language. In Gathercole, V. C. M. (Ed.), Issues in the assessment of bilinguals (pp. 1–19). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girbau, D., & Schwartz, R. G. (2007). Non-word repetition in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 42, 59–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Girbau, D., & Schwartz, R. G. (2008). Phonological working memory in Spanish–English bilingual children with and without specific language impairment. Journal of Communication Disorders, 41, 124–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F. (2002). Narratives in two languages: Assessing performance of bilingual children. Linguistics and Education, 13, 175–197. doi:10.1016/S0898-5898(01)00061-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., & Simon-Cereijido, G. (2010). Using nonword repetition tasks for the identification of language impairment in Spanish-English-Speaking children: Does the language of assessment matter? Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 25, 48–58. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5826.2009.00300.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halamová, M. (2013). Porovnanie naratívnej schopnosti u monolingválnych a bilingválnych detí v predškolskom veku. Unpublished thesis, Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Komenského, Bratislava.Google Scholar
Hoff, E., Core, C., & Bridges, K. (2008). Non-word repetition assesses phonological memory and is related to vocabulary development in 20- to 24-month-olds. Journal of Child Language, 35, 903–916. doi:10.1017/S0305000908008751CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iluz-Cohen, P., & Walters, J. (2012). Telling stories in two languages: Narratives of bilingual preschool children with typical and impaired language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 58–74. doi:10.1017/S1366728911000538CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K., & Vicenová, Z. (2013). Non-word repetition performance in Slovak-speaking children with and without SLI: Novel scoring methods: Non-word repetition: Novel scoring methods. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 48, 78–89. doi:10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00189.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kapalková, S., Slančová, D., Bónová, I., Kesselová, J., & Mikulajová, M. (2010). Hodnotenie komunikačných schopností v ranom veku [Evaluation of communication skills in early age]. Bratislava: Slovenská asociácia logopédov.Google Scholar
Kesselová, J., & Slančová, D. (2010). Slovak. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 88, 873–896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kit-Sum To, C., Stokes, S. F., Cheung, H.-T., & T'sou, B. (2010). Narrative assessment for Cantonese-speaking children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 648–669. doi:10. 1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0039)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K. (2010). Bilingual children with primary language impairment: Issues, evidence and implications for clinical actions. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 456–473. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.02.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leonard, L. (2009). Is expressive language disorder an accurate diagnostic category? American Journal of Speech–Language Pathology, 18, 115–123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Marková, M. (2011). Mapovanie naratívnych schopností slovensky hovoriacich detí vo veku 3–6 rokov. Unpublished thesis, Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Komenského, Bratislava.Google Scholar
Messer, M. H., Leseman, P. P. M., Boom, J., & Mayo, A. Y. (2010). Phonotactic probability effect in nonword recall and its relationship with vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 306–323. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2009.12.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montgomery, J. W. (1995). Sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment: The role of phonological working memory. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 187–199.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norbury, C., & Bishop, D. V. M. (2003). Narrative skills of children with communication impairments. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 38, 287–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paradis, J. (2010). The interface between bilingual development and specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 227–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J. (2011). Individual differences in child English second language acquisition: Comparing child-internal and child-external factors. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1, 213–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paris, A. H., & Paris, S. G. (2003). Assessing narrative comprehension in young children. Reading Research Quarterly, 38, 36–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, R., & Roth, F. (2010). Characterizing and predicting outcomes of communication delays in infants and toddlers: Implications for clinical practice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 42, 331–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearson, B. Z. (2002). Narrative competence among monolingual and bilingual school children in Miami. Language and Literacy in Bilingual Children, 2, 135–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polišenská, K., & Kapalková, S. (2014a). Language profiles in children with Down syndrome and children with language impairment: Implications for early intervention. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 35, 373–382. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.11.022CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polišenská, K., & Kapalková, S. (2014b). Improving child compliance on a computer-administered nonword repetition task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57, 1060–1068. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2013/13-0014)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory, and foreign language learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology, 45, 21–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skarakis-Doyle, E., & Dempsey, L. (2008). Assessing story comprehension in preschool children. Topics in Language Disorders, 28, 131–148. doi:10.1097/01.TLD.0000318934.54548.7fCrossRefGoogle 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, 60–74. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12044CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stein, N. L., & Glenn, C. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In Freedle, R. O. (Ed.), New directions in discourse processing (pp. 53–120). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Stokes, S. F., & Klee, T. (2009). The diagnostic accuracy of a new test of early nonword repetition for differentiating late talking and typically developing children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 872–882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Streiner, D. L., & Norman, G. R. (1995). Health measurement scales: A practical guide to their development and use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Summers, C., Bohman, T. M., Gillam, R. B., Peña, E. D., & Bedore, L. M. (2010). Bilingual performance on nonword repetition in Spanish and English. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 45, 480–493.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thal, D., Tobias, S., & Morrison, D. (1991). Language and gesture in late talkers: A 1-year follow-up. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 34, 604–612.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thordardottir, E. (2008). Language-specific effects of task demands on the manifestation of specific language impairment: A comparison of English and Icelandic. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 922–937.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thordardottir, E., & Brandeker, M. (2013). The effect of bilingual exposure versus language impairment on nonword repetition and sentence imitation scores. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46, 1–16. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2012.08.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed