Bilingual acquisition of reference: The role of language experience, executive functions and cross-linguistic effects

Torregrossa, Jacopo; Ανδρέου, Μαρία; Bongartz, Christiane; Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria

doi:10.1017/s1366728920000826

Cited by 36 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“… Serratrice and De Cat (2020) reported that working memory positively correlated with 5-7-year-old bilingual children’s ability to use informative REs for anaphoric reference in English in the presence of a discourse competitor. Torregrossa et al (2021) , however, did not observe any correlation between updating skill (which hinges on working memory) and the production of underspecified pronouns (null subjects and clitics) in Greek in an elicited narration task with Greek-Albanian, Greek-English, and Greek-German bilingual children (7-13-year-old).…”

Section: Reference Production: Linguistic Input and Cognitive Factorsmentioning

confidence: 65%

“… Nilsen and Graham (2009) and Serratrice and De Cat (2020) studied preschoolers performing referential communication tasks, and measured cognitive skills by memory of objects and/or backward digit span (BDS). Torregrossa (2017) and Torregrossa et al (2021) elicited oral narratives from school-age children, with cognitive skills measured by BDS and a 2-back task, respectively.…”

Section: Reference Production: Linguistic Input and Cognitive Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reference production in Mandarin–English bilingual preschoolers: Linguistic, input, and cognitive factors

Zhou

Mai²,

Cai³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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Reference in extended discourse is vulnerable to delayed acquisition in early childhood. Although recent research has increasingly focused on effects of linguistic, input, and cognitive factors on reference production, these studies are limited in number and the results are mixed. The present study provides insight into bilingual reference production by investigating how production of referring expressions in the two languages of preschool bilingual children may be influenced by structural similarities and differences between the languages, frequency of referring expressions in maternal input, amount of exposure to each of the languages, and working memory capacity. Using two stories in the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN), we examined character introduction and re-introduction in oral narratives of 4–6-year-old Singaporean bilingual children acquiring Mandarin Chinese and English (n = 21), and in child-directed speech of the mothers (n = 17). The children’s language exposure, executive function, and general bilingual proficiency were also recorded or directly tested through structured interviews with the parents or standardized assessments with the children. Data collection was conducted remotely in real time over a video-conferencing platform, supplemented by on-site audio recording to ensure sound quality. Results showed prolonged development in the production of felicitous REs for first mentions and over-reliance on overt marking of definiteness in our bilingual children. Mixed modeling revealed that frequency of felicitous REs in the input predicted children’s production of felicitous REs across languages and discourse functions, with a modulating effect of working memory. Overall, our findings are consistent with previous ones in that reference production is vulnerable in early Mandarin-English bilinguals in a multilingual society. This study also presents novel evidence that structural frequency in the input interacts with working memory in shaping patterns of reference production in bilingual children.

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Section: Reference Production: Linguistic Input and Cognitive Factorsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Reference Production: Linguistic Input and Cognitive Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reference production in Mandarin–English bilingual preschoolers: Linguistic, input, and cognitive factors

Zhou

Mai²,

Cai³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…Bilingual children in Andreou et al’s (in press) study exhibited extensive use of null subject pronouns in Italian and this effect was modulated by language dominance, which was measured through current language and literacy activities. Similarly, Torregrossa et al’s (2021) study has examined the use of under-informative and over-informative referring expressions in Greek with bilingual children speaking three different language pairs, namely, Greek–Albanian, Greek–English and Greek–German. Their study revealed that language experience and proficiency in the non-target language (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reference maintenance in the narratives of Albanian–Greek and Russian–Greek children with Developmental Language Disorder: A study on crosslinguistic effects

2020

Self Cite

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Although a considerable number of studies have shown D(eterminer) elements, i.e. determiners and pronominal clitics, to be particularly vulnerable to impairment in monolingual children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), little is known about the use of appropriate or/and grammatically correct referring expressions in the children’s narrative production. Grammars of languages that differ in the way they encode and realize their D system may be viewed as the ideal context to disentangle the contribution of language (L1) transfer and morpho-syntactic impairment to reference use in the L2. The aim of the current study is to examine L1 effects in the use of referring expressions of 5- to 11-year-old Albanian–Greek and Russian–Greek children with DLD, along with typically developing (TD) bilingual groups speaking the same language pairs when maintaining reference to characters in their narratives. The three languages differ in their D elements, since Albanian and Greek have morphologically rich D systems in contrast to Russian, which lacks a definiteness distinction. Children produced oral narratives in Greek by using the Greek versions of two stories ( Cat and Dog) which have been designed within the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) tool of the COST Action IS0804. Results show that the groups did not differ in referential appropriateness. Regarding grammatical correctness, both groups with DLD produced more ungrammatical forms than TD children, while Russian–Greek children with DLD produced more ungrammatical article-less NPs than the other groups. The overall results reflect the joint contribution of language impairment and L1-specific typological properties in the definite forms used for character maintenance by bilingual children with DLD.

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“…In contrast, a recent study investigated bilingual children acquiring Greek as their societal language. It reported over-informativeness and under-informativeness of referential expressions in referential use as related to the child's language experience (Torregrossa, Andreou, Bongartz & Tsimpli, 2021). This finding might question the assumption of language-universality of referential expressions.…”

Section: Bilingualism and Informativenessmentioning

confidence: 94%

Referential expressions in monolingual and bilingual children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A study of informativeness and definiteness

Meir

Novogrodsky

2021

J. Child Lang.

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The current study evaluated the separate and combined effects of bilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on informativeness and definiteness marking of referential expressions. Hebrew-speaking monolingual children (21 with ASD and 28 with typical language development) and Russian–Hebrew-speaking bilingual children (13 with ASD and 30 with typical language development) aged 4–9 years participated. Informativeness, indexed by referential contrasts, was affected by ASD, but not by bilingualism. Definiteness use was non-target-like in children with ASD and in bilingual children, and it was mainly predicted by children’s morpho-syntactic abilities in Hebrew. Language-universal and language-specific properties of referential use are discussed.

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Bilingual acquisition of reference: The role of language experience, executive functions and cross-linguistic effects

Cited by 36 publications

References 74 publications

Reference production in Mandarin–English bilingual preschoolers: Linguistic, input, and cognitive factors

Reference production in Mandarin–English bilingual preschoolers: Linguistic, input, and cognitive factors

Reference maintenance in the narratives of Albanian–Greek and Russian–Greek children with Developmental Language Disorder: A study on crosslinguistic effects

Referential expressions in monolingual and bilingual children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A study of informativeness and definiteness

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