Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T03:59:26.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How do bilingual dyslexic and typically developing children perform in nonword repetition? Evidence from a study on Italian L2 children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2019

Maria Vender Open the ORCID record for Maria Vender [Opens in a new window] ,
Denis Delfitto  and
Chiara Melloni
Maria Vender*
Affiliation:
University of Verona
Denis Delfitto
Affiliation:
University of Verona
Chiara Melloni
Affiliation:
University of Verona
*
Address for correspondence: Maria Vender, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nonword repetition is typically impaired in dyslexia. Conversely, native-like performance is early achieved by bilingual children whose second language has a simple phonotactic system, like Italian. Our study aimed at comparing the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without dyslexia in a nonword repetition task modeled after Italian. We assessed nonword repetition in 111 school-aged children: 24 Italian L2 bilingual dyslexics, 24 Italian monolingual dyslexics, 30 Italian L2 bilingual controls and 33 Italian monolingual controls. We administered an original task composed of 40 nonwords ranging from two to five syllables; the complexity of the syllables was also manipulated. Results showed that both groups of dyslexics underperformed controls at each syllable length. No differences were found between monolingual and bilingual controls. Conversely, bilingual dyslexics underperformed monolingual dyslexics only with four-syllable nonwords. The possible use of nonword repetition tasks to assist in the identification of dyslexia in bilingual children is also discussed.

Keywords

Bilingualismdevelopmental dyslexianonword repetitionbilingualism and dyslexia interactionidentification of dyslexiaidentification of dyslexia in bilingualism
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Special Issue 4: Interpreting: A window into bilingual processing , August 2020 , pp. 884 - 896
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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

Adesope, OO, Lavin, T, Thompson, T and Ungerleider, C (2010). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the cognitive correlates of bilingualism. Review of Educational Research, 80, 207–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
August, D and Shanahan, T (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the national literacy panel on language minority children and youth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bedore, L and Peña, E (2008). Assessment of bilingual children for identification of language impairment: Current findings and implications for practice. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belacchi, C, Scalisi, TG, Cannoni, E and Cornoldi, C (2008). Manuale CPM. Coloured Progressive Matrices. Standardizzazione Italiana. Firenze: Giunti OS Organizzazioni Speciali.Google Scholar
Bellocchi, S, Bonifacci, P and Burani, C (2016). Lexicality, frequency and stress assignment in bilingual children reading Italian as a second language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19, 89–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beneventi, H, Tønnessen, FE, Ersland, L and Hugdahl, K (2010). Working memory deficit in dyslexia: behavioural and FMRI evidence. International Journal of Neuroscience, 120, 51–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhardt, E (2003). Challenges to reading research from a multilingual world. Reading Research Quarterly, 38, 112–117.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E, Luk, G, Peets, KF and Yang, S (2010). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 525–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E, Peets, KF and Moreno, S (2014). Producing Bilinguals Through Immersion Education: Development of Metalinguistic Awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 177–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bishop, DVM, North, T and Donlan, C (1996). Nonword repetition as a behavioural marker for inherited language impairment: Evidence from a twin study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 391–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boerma, T, Chiat, S, Leseman, P, Timmermeister, M, Wijnen, F and Blom, E (2015). A Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition Task as a Diagnostic Tool for Bilingual Children Learning Dutch as a Second Language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, 1747–1760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brizzolara, D, Chilosi, A, Cipriani, P, Di Filippo, G, Gasperini, F, Mazzotti, S, Pecini, C and Zoccolotti, P (2006). Do phonological and rapid automatized naming deficits differentially affect dyslexic children with and without a history of language delay? A study of Italian Dyslexic children. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 19, 141–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, M (1992). Persistence of dyslexics' phonological awareness deficits. Developmental Psychology, 28, 874–886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catts, HW, Adlof, SM, Hogan, TP and Weismer, SE (2005). Are Specific Language Impairment and Dyslexia distinct disorders? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1378–1396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coady, JA and Evans, JL (2008). Uses and interpretations of non-word repetition tasks in children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 43, 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conti-Ramsden, G, Botting, N and Faragher, B (2001). Psycholinguistic markers for specific language impairment (SLI). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 741–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornoldi, C, Tressoldi, PE and Perini, M (2010). Valutare la rapidità e la correttezza della lettura di brani: Nuove norme e alcune chiarificazioni per l'uso delle prove MT. Dislessia, 7, 89–100.Google Scholar
Couture, AE and McCauley, RJ (2000). Phonological working memory in children with phonological impairment. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 14, 499–517.Google Scholar
Cummins, J (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy. Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Bree, E, Wijnen, F and Gerrits, E (2010). Non-word Repetition and Literacy in Dutch Children At-risk of Dyslexia and Children with SLI: Results of the Follow-up Study. Dyslexia, 16, 36–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deevy, P, Wisman Weil, L, Leonard, LB and Goffman, L (2010). Extending the use of the NRT to preschool-age children with and without specific language impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 277–288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dispaldro, M, Leonard, LB and Deevy, P (2013). Real-Word and Nonword Repetition in Italian-Speaking Children with Specific Language Impairment: A Study of Diagnostic Accuracy. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 56, 323–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dollaghan, C and Campbell, TF (1998). Nonword repetition and child language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41, 1136–1146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, LM and Dunn, LM (2000). Manuale Peabody. Test di vocabolario recettivo PPVT – Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Revised, a cura di G. Stella, con la collaborazione di C Pizzoli e PE Tressoldi. Torino: Omega Edizioni.Google Scholar
Gathercole, SE (1995). Is nonword repetition a test of phonological memory or long-term knowledge? It all depends on the nonwords. Memory and Cognition, 23, 83–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Girbau, D and Schwartz, 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
Gollan, TH, Fennema-Notestine, C, Montoya, RI and Jernigan, TL (2007). The bilingual effect on Boston Naming Test performance. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13, 197–208.Google ScholarPubMed
Graf Estes, K, Evans, J and Else-Quest, N (2007). Differences in nonword repetition of children with and without specific language impairment: A meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 177–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grivol, MA and Hage, SR (2011). Phonological working memory: a comparative study between different age groups. Jornal de Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia, 23, 245–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guasti, MT, Maggioni, A and Vernice, M (2013). Disturbi specifici del linguaggio, bilinguismo e acquisizione di L2. In Grassi, R (ed.), Nuovi contesti d'acquisizione e insegnamento: l'italiano nelle realtà plurilingui. Atti del Convegno CIS 2012 – Bergamo (vol. 9), pp. 189–197. Perugia: Guerra Edizioni.Google Scholar
Hilchey, MD and Klein, RM (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 625–658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kamhi, AG and Catts, HW (1986). Toward an understanding of developmental language and reading disorders. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 337–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K, Windsor, J and Yim, D (2006). Do language-based processing tasks separate children with language impairment from typical bilinguals? Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 21, 19–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, M (2009). The phonology of Italian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T and Rothman, J (2018). Terminology matters! Why difference is not incompleteness and how early child bilinguals are heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22, 564–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, L (2014). Children with specific language impairment. Second edition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masoura, EV and Gathercole, SE (1999). Phonological short-term memory and foreign language learning. International Journal of Psychology, 34, 383–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melloni, C and Vender, M (forthcoming). Phonological processing and nonword repetition: a critical tool for the identification of dyslexia in bilingualism. In Babatsouli, E and Ball, MJ (eds.), An anthology of bilingual child phonology. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Messer, MH, Leseman, PPM, Boom, J and Mayo, AY (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.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Metz, CE (1978). Basic principles of ROC analysis. Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, 8, 283–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murineddu, M, Duca, V and Cornoldi, C (2006). Difficoltà di apprendimento degli studenti stranieri. Difficoltà di apprendimento, 12, 49–70.Google Scholar
Nespor, M and Bafile, L (2008). I suoni del linguaggio. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Nicolson, RI and Fawcett, AJ (2008). Dyslexia, Learning and the Brain. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oller, DK, Pearson, BZ and Cobo-Lewis, AB (2007). Profile effects in early bilingual language and literacy. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 191–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paap, KR (2018). The bilingual advantage debate: quantity and quality of the evidence. In Schwieter, JW (ed.), The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism, pp. 701–735. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Paradis, J (2005). Grammatical morphology in children learning English as a second language: Implication of similarities with Specific Language Impairment. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in School, 36, 172–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulesu, E, Démonet, JF, Fazio, F, McCrory, E, Chanoine, E, Brunswick, N, Cappa, SF, Cossu, G, Habib, M, Frith, CD and Frith, U (2001). Dyslexia: cultural diversity and biological unity. Science, 291, 2165–2167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pickering, SJ and Gathercole, SE (2001). Working Memory Test Battery for Children. London: Pearson Assessment.Google Scholar
Primativo, S, Rinaldi, P, O'Brien, S, Paizi, D, Arduino, LS and Burani, C (2013). Bilingual vocabulary size and lexical reading in Italian. Acta Psychologica, 44, 554–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramus, F (2003). Developmental dyslexia: specific phonological deficit or sensorimotor dysfunction? Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 13, 212–218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramus, F and Szenkovits, G (2008). What phonological deficit? The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 129–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramus, F, Pidgeon, E and Frith, U (2003). The relationship between motor control and phonology in dyslexic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 712–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raven, J, Court, JH and Raven, JC (1998). Raven Manual, Section 1 (General Overview) and Section 2 (Coloured Progressive Matrices). Oxford, UK: Oxford Psychologist Press.Google Scholar
Ray, P, Le Manach, Y, Riou, B and Houle, TT (2010). Statistical evaluation of a biomarker. Anesthesiology, 112, 1023–1040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sartori, G, Job, R and Tressoldi, PE (2007). Batteria per la Valutazione della Dislessia e della Disortografia Evolutiva-2 [Battery for the Assessment of Dyslexia and Developmental Dysorthography-2]. Firenze: Giunti OS Organizzazioni Speciali.Google Scholar
Scarborough, HS (1990). Very early language deficits in dyslexic children. Child Development, 61, 1728–1743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scortichini, F, Stella, G and Morlini, I (2012). La diagnosi di dislessia e disortografia evolutiva nei bambini bilingui (L2). Evidenze sul ruolo del lessico. Dislessia, 3, 319–339.Google Scholar
Seymour, PHK, Aro, M and Erskine, JM (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snowling, MJ (1981). Phonemic deficits in developmental dyslexia. Psychological Research, 43, 219–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snowling, MJ (1995). Phonological processing and developmental dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 18, 132–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snowling, MJ, Chiat, S and Hulme, C (1991). Words, nonwords, and phonological processes: Some comments on Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, and Baddeley. Applied Psycholinguistics, 12, 369–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A, Serratrice, L, Filiaci, F and Baldo, M (2009). Discourse conditions on subject pronoun realization: Testing the linguistic intuitions of older bilingual children. Lingua, 119, 460–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stella, G, Pizzioli, C and Tressoldi, P (2000). PEABODY – Test di vocabolario recettivo – P.P.V.T. – R. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Revised. Torino: Omega Edizioni.Google Scholar
Stella, V and Job, R (2001). Le sillabe PD/DPSS. Una base di dati sulla frequenza dell'italiano scritto. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 3, 633–639.Google Scholar
Szenkovits, G and Ramus, F (2005). Exploring dyslexics’ phonological deficit I: Lexical vs. sub-lexical and input vs. output processes. Dyslexia, 11, 253–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tamburelli, M, Sanoudaki, E, Jones, G and Sowinska, M (2015). Acceleration in the bilingual acquisition of phonological structure: Evidence from a Polish-English bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 713–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thordardottir, E and 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.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorn, ASC and Gathercole, SE (1999). Language-specific knowledge and short-term memory in bilingual and non-bilingual children. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52A, 303–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tijms, J (2004). Verbal memory and phonological deficit in dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 27, 300–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vender, M, Krivochen, DG, Phillips, B, Saddy, D and Delfitto, D (2019). Implicit learning, bilingualism, and dyslexia: Insights from a study assessing AGL with a modified Simon Task. Frontiers in Psychology, 10:1647.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vender, M (2017). Disentangling Dyslexia: phonological and processing impairment in Developmental Dyslexia. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vender, M and Guasti, MT (forthcoming). L'apprendimento della letto-scrittura nei bambini con italiano L2. In Bidese, E, Casalicchio, J and Moroni, M (eds.), Linguistics: Views From the Alps. Language Theory, Didactics and Society. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Vender, M and Melloni, C (submitted). Phonological abilities in Italian L2 children: Evidence from nonword repetition, rhyme detection and spoonerism.Google Scholar
Vender, M, Delfitto, D and Melloni, C (2018). Clitic production and bilingualism: When exposure matters. Languages, 3, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vender, M, Garraffa, M, Sorace, A and Guasti, MT (2016). How early L2 children perform on Italian clinical markers of SLI: A study of clitic production and nonword repetition. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 30, 150–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vender, M, Hu, S, Mantione, F, Delfitto, D and Melloni, C (2018). The production of clitic pronouns: A study on bilingual and monolingual dyslexic children. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:2301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vender, M, Hu, S, Mantione, F, Savazzi, S, Delfitto, D and Melloni, C (2018). Bilingualism, Dyslexia and Morphological Awareness: Evidence for an advantage of bilingualism in dyslexia. Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2018.1450355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (2004). International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems (ICD-10, 2nd ed.). Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Zweig, MH and Campbell, G (1993). Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) plots: A fundamental evaluation tool in clinical medicine. Clinical Chemistry, 39, 561–577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed