Aspect acquisition in Russian as the weaker language: Evidence from a Turkish–Russian child

Antonova-Ünlü, Elena; Wei, Li

doi:10.1177/1367006914552138

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Similar results were obtained for Russian–English bilinguals by Polinsky (2006). However, a study of one Russian–Turkish bilingual’s speech suggests that successful acquisition of Russian grammar can happen even in a restricted environment situation (Antonova-Ünlü & Li, 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s language exposure and parental language attitudes in Russian-as-a-heritage-language acquisition by bilingual and multilingual children in Canada

Makarova

Terekhova

Mousavi

2017

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The research study presented in this paper aims to describe some aspects of the maintenance of Russian as a heritage language among bilingual/multilingual children in Saskatchewan, Canada. The study focuses on the relationship between parents’ language attitudes and children’s language exposure on the one hand and child language proficiency on the other hand. The research questions are as follows. What are the language attitudes of Russian-speaking parents in minority settings? Is there a connection between parents’ language attitudes and children’s language proficiency? What is the scope of Russian language exposure of bilingual/multilingual children within and outside of the family? Is there a connection between this exposure and children’s language proficiency? Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted within a Variationist Sociolinguistics framework. The following methods were employed in the study: a questionnaire study of parents’ language attitudes and of language use within and outside the family; an assessment of children’s speech production based on narratives elicited from children with the help of pictures (language proficiency parameters). Data and Analysis: Thirty parents (aged 31–43) and children (aged 5–7) participated in the study. The questionnaire addressed to parents included 52 demographic and research questions. A statistical analysis of parents’ language attitudes and language use by parents and their children as measured against language proficiency parameters was conducted with the help of correlation analysis. Findings/Conclusions: Study results indicate that Russian-speaking parents in Saskatchewan are interested in passing Russian to their children. The study also suggests that language exposure parameters, as well as language attitudes held by parents, correlate with children’s heritage language fluency. Originality: The study indicates that even in environments unfavorable for heritage language maintenance, a child can still successfully acquire Russian as a heritage language. Significance/Implications: The study clarifies the set of parameters relevant for heritage language maintenance among bilingual/multilingual children. It also suggests the importance of bilingualism/multilingualism for some groups of the immigrant population in Canada.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s language exposure and parental language attitudes in Russian-as-a-heritage-language acquisition by bilingual and multilingual children in Canada

Makarova

Terekhova

Mousavi

2017

International Journal of Bilingualism

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“…Yet, previous studies brought conflicting evidence with respect to qualitative differences between bilinguals in the Weaker Language and monolinguals and BB and bilinguals in the Dominant Language. Some studies have shown that the acquisition patterns in the Weaker Language are similar to the ones of BB and bilinguals in the Dominant Language and even monolinguals (e.g., Müller and Kupisch, 2003 ; Bernardini and Schlyter, 2004 ; Antonova Ünlü and Li, 2016 , 2017 , 2018 ). Alternatively, the Deviance Hypothesis was supported by findings indicating that grammars of unbalanced bilinguals in their Weaker Language differ qualitatively from the monolingual baseline grammars (e.g., Yip and Matthews, 2000 ; Argyri and Sorace, 2007 ; Ringblom, 2012 ; Janssen, 2016 ; Meir et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In the same vein, Bernardini and Schlyter (2004) noted that the developmental trajectory of the Weaker Language of simultaneous Swedish–Italian/German bilingual children followed the same milestones as in the Dominant Language, but the lexical realization was delayed. Several recent studies investigating language development in a simultaneous bilingual child with the Weaker HL-Russian and the Dominant SL-Turkish show that despite reduced input in HL-Russian, the acquisition of grammatical categories in the Weaker HL-Russian (e.g., aspect marking, case morphology and grammatical gender assignment) follows the same pattern as in monolingual acquisition ( Antonova Ünlü and Li, 2016 , 2017 , 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Previous studies report contradicting findings on the nature of the Weaker Language development. Some studies suggest that unbalanced bilinguals in the Weaker Language show similar trajectories to the ones observed in monolingual children, balanced bilinguals (BB) and unbalanced bilinguals in the Dominant Language, yet this pattern is delayed (e.g., Müller and Kupisch, 2003 ; Bernardini and Schlyter, 2004 ; Antonova Ünlü and Li, 2016 , 2017 , 2018 ). Conversely, some studies show that the Weaker Language development does not follow the monolingual trajectory, i.e., it resembles adult L2 acquisition or it is influenced by the Dominant Language.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Morpho-Syntactic Abilities of Unbalanced Bilingual Children: A Closer Look at the Weaker Language

Meir

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Previous studies evaluating morpho-syntactic abilities in the Weaker Language of unbalanced bilingual children are scarce; and they bring inconclusive evidence on the nature of the Weaker Language development. The current study looked into morpho-syntactic profiles of bilingual Russian–Hebrew speaking children in the Weaker Language [the Weaker Heritage Language (HL-Russian) and the Weaker Societal Language (SL-Hebrew)] as compared to balanced bilinguals, unbalanced bilinguals in the Dominant Language and bilinguals with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Four groups of bilingual children aged 5;5–6;5 participated: unbalanced bilinguals with the Weaker HL-Russian and the Dominant SL-Hebrew (HL-weak: n = 39), unbalanced bilinguals with the Weaker SL-Hebrew and the Dominant HL-Russian (SL-weak: n = 19); balanced bilinguals (BB: n = 38), and bilinguals with SLI (biSLI: n = 23). Children’s morpho-syntactic abilities in both languages were investigated using LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) Sentence Repetition Tasks (based on Marinis and Armon-Lotem, 2015). Quantitative analysis of morpho-syntactic abilities showed that unbalanced bilinguals scored lower in the Weaker Language as compared to balanced bilinguals and unbalanced bilinguals in the Dominant Language, yet, higher than bilinguals with SLI. Error patterns were similar across bilingual groups with TLD and could be traced to cross-linguistic influence. By contrast, error profiles of unbalanced bilinguals in the Weaker Language and bilinguals with SLI bore fundamental differences. Whereas unbalanced bilinguals in the Weaker Language opted for complex structures, relying on the available resources from the Dominant Language; bilinguals with SLI simplified complex syntactic structures. To conclude, the study shows that the Weaker Language of unbalanced bilinguals with TLD develop qualitatively similarly to the languages of balanced bilinguals and the Dominant Language in unbalanced bilinguals, albeit delayed or influenced by the Dominant Language to a larger extent. Conversely, the study brings evidence that linguistic profiles of unbalanced bilinguals with TLD in the Weaker Language and bilinguals with SLI differ, pointing at a deviant pattern of acquisition in children with SLI.

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“…Mikhailova (2012) also demonstrated that heritage adult speakers with early bilingualism onset interpreted Russian aspectual forms significantly poorer than monolinguals. Similarly, Gagarina, Armon-Lotem, and Gupol (2005) found that the number of aspectual errors increased significantly with age in the speech of successive Russian-Hebrew bilingual children; Ceytlin (2009) demonstrated considerable confusion in the Russian aspectual system in Azerbaijani-Russian bilingual children’s production (but see Antonova-Ünlü and Li (2014) and Bar-Shalom and Zaretsky (2008), who reported a monolingual-like performance on Russian aspect for Russian-Turkish and Russian-American bilingual children).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Aspect and tense attrition in Russian-German bilingual speakers

Dragoy

Virfel

Yurchenko

et al. 2017

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Purpose: The impact of second language (L2) on first language (L1), known as L2 transfer, has been suggested as a fundamental driving force of L1 attrition. The goal of this study was to test the differential attrition of verb aspect and tense in L1 (Russian) under the influence of L2 (German) grammatical properties. We also investigated whether the age of bilingualism onset and the amount of exposure to L1 modulate this L2 transfer effect. Methodology: We tested sentence processing in 30 adult Russian monolingual participants and 30 L1 attritors – Russian-German bilingual speakers – with early versus late bilingualism onset and with low versus high amounts of exposure to L1. Participants heard grammatically correct sentences, sentences with aspect violations and sentences with tense violations, and were asked to detect errors. Data and Analysis: The accuracy of participants’ responses was analysed using generalized linear mixed-effects modelling in R. Findings: The L2 transfer effect was found, but was strongly modulated by the amount of L1 exposure: only bilinguals with little exposure to L1 showed greater attrition of L1 aspect compared to L1 tense. Moreover, the age of bilingualism onset proved to be more critical than the L2 transfer effect: an earlier bilingualism onset resulted in greater attrition of both aspect and tense in L1. Originality: The study provided new evidence about the differential impact of the grammatical similarity between L1 and L2, the age of bilingualism onset and the amount of L1 exposure on aspect and tense processing in L1 attritors. Implications: Our findings suggest that greater L1 use after immigration helps bilingual speakers to be less susceptible to L2 transfer and prevents attrition of L1-specific grammatical categories. Also, a general decline in processing verbal morphology is more likely to occur in speakers with an early rather than a late onset of bilingualism.

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Aspect acquisition in Russian as the weaker language: Evidence from a Turkish–Russian child

Cited by 23 publications

References 18 publications

Children’s language exposure and parental language attitudes in Russian-as-a-heritage-language acquisition by bilingual and multilingual children in Canada

Children’s language exposure and parental language attitudes in Russian-as-a-heritage-language acquisition by bilingual and multilingual children in Canada

Morpho-Syntactic Abilities of Unbalanced Bilingual Children: A Closer Look at the Weaker Language

Aspect and tense attrition in Russian-German bilingual speakers

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