BILEX: A new tool measuring bilingual children’s lexicons and translational equivalents

Abstract

The current study describes the development and validation of a novel scale (BILEX) designed to assess young bilingual children's receptive vocabulary in both languages, their conceptual vocabulary, and translational equivalents. BILEX was developed to facilitate the assessment of vocabulary size for both of the children's languages within one session without any transfer from one language to the other. One-hundred-andeighty-two 3-year-old children participated in the studies of reliability and validity. Psychometric properties have very good consistency and reliability, along with good concurrent, construct, and criteria validity.

Sometimes larger, sometimes smaller: Measuring vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual infants and toddlers

“…Nevertheless, as noted by the authors, it is important to replicate these findings in other contexts and populations (Floccia et al, 2018). Moreover, as it stands, no CDI norms are available for bilingual children older or younger than 2 years (although see Gampe, Kurthen, & Daum, 2018, for a different bilingual instrument normed for 3-year-olds).…”

Cross-language distance influences receptive vocabulary outcomes of bilingual children

“…Effects of cross-linguistic distance were expected beforehand based on several studies using a within-child design showing that bilingual children perform better on words that are very similar across the children’s two languages (Bosch & Ramon-Casas, 2014; Bosma et al, 2019; Gampe et al, 2018; Kelley & Kohnert, 2012; Malabonga et al, 2008; Schelletter, 2002). Floccia and colleagues (2018) are, to our knowledge, the first to establish that linguistic distance has repercussions for between-child differences within the bilingual population.…”

“…We verified in two ways whether the binary split between Close and Distant languages was justified. First, we calculated normalized Levenshtein distances using a custom-made computer program that calculates the distances between pairs of languages by comparing words on a 40-item word list using an algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Automated Similarity Judgment Program, asjp62; Bakker et al, 2009; Wichmann et al, 2016; see also Gampe et al, 2018, who used a similar procedure). The Levenshtein distance is an index of the least costly set of operations (changes and additions) needed to transform one transcription into another (Heeringa, 2004); the fewer manipulations are needed the closer two languages are, e.g., it takes fewer operations to get from Limburgish tandj to Dutch tand than to get from Dutch tand to Polish ząb and even more operations are needed to get to from Dutch tand to Turkish diş ).…”

Do you understand what I want to tell you? Early sensitivity in bilinguals' iconic gesture perception and production

“…Children's receptive and conceptual vocabulary in their mother tongue(s) was assessed via BILEX, a tool for the assessment of bilingual children's lexicons (Gampe, Kurthen, & Daum, ). All procedures were approved by the local research committee and performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.…”