Bilingualism and phonological awareness: the case of bilingual (French–Occitan) children

Abstract

The present study investigated the development of linguistic awareness in children exposed to the early learning of a second language in Grades 3-5 of primary school, i.e. between the ages of 8 and 10. The aim was to determine whether this bilingual experience enhanced the development of phonological awareness in beginning readers in a bilingual French-regional language school programme compared with a population of monolingual children receiving traditional education. More specifically, in light of research promoting the hypothesis of a ''bilingual advantage'', we set out to determine exactly how long children need to be exposed to a second language before bilingualism starts to influence the development of their phonological awareness. Tasks designed to assess phonological awareness were administered to more than a hundred children. Results suggest that children who have undergone a bilingual school programme display a more highly developed phonological awareness than their monolingual peers from age 9 onwards, i.e. in Grade 4. These results are discussed in the light of ongoing research on bilingualism, bilingual education and threshold theory.

Emergent literacy in children of immigrants coming from a primarily oral literacy culture

“…In addition, proficiency of mothers in spoken Hebrew enabled their children to master more letter names. These findings suggest that when mothers are more literate in L2 they can promote the early development of literacy skills of their children (Aram et al 2005;Evans, Shaw & Bell 2000;Leseman & de Jong 1998;Lonigan 1994). It is important to note, however, that these correlation-based findings cannot shed light on the causal relations between parental literacy and development of literacy in children.…”

“…Parent engagement in pre-literacy activities with their children (e.g. book reading, exposure to letter names and sounds, language games) fosters the growth of phonological awareness skills in children (Evans, Shaw & Bell 2000;Leseman & de Jong 1998;Lonigan 1994), though families differ in how they deliver the importance of written language and mediate linguistic sophistication to their young children (Aram et al 2005). Parental involvement also varies as a function of differences in cultural attributions, different expectations about the nature of the relations between schools and families, and the role that parents should undertake to foster the literacy related skills of their children (e.g.…”

Cognitive Skill Transfer in English Reading Acquisition: Alphabetic and Logographic Languages Compared

“…Dixon, Stuart, and Masterson (2002) reported that children who received training and exposure to phonological awareness acquired reading skills and vocabulary faster than did children who did not receive such training. It is probably best described as a linguistic cognitive skill that can be transferred between languages, and which can serve as a key predictor of reading abilities not only in the mother tongue, but for L2 and L3 as well Adams, 1990;Alshaboul, Asassfeh, Alshboul, & Alodwan, 2014;Ball, 1993;Chiang & Rvachew, 2007;De Jong & Van der Leij, 1999;Durgunoğlu & Öney, 1999;Laurent & Martinot, 2010;Mann, 1998;Sun-Alperin & Wang, 2009;Al-Tamimi & Rabab'ah, 2007). The importance of phonological awareness as a reading predictor is not restricted to languages with alphabetical orthography but holds also for languages with logographic characteristics, like the Chinese language and the Japanese kanji orthography (Chan & Siegel, 2001;Gottardo et al, 2001;Ho & Bryant, 1997;Keung & Ho, 2009;So & Siegel 1997;Wang et al, 2005;Yeung & Chan, 2013).…”

Développement métalinguistique chez de jeunes enfants bilingues comparés à des monolingues

“…: Ben Zeev, 1977;Cummins, 1978;Ianco-Worrall, 1972;Laurent & Martinot, 2010), b. la conscience syntaxique et grammaticale, sous forme de jugements de grammaticalité (ex. : Bialystok, 1986;Bialystok & Majumder, 1998;Bialystok et al, 2014;Gathercole, 1997), et c. la conscience phonologique, principalement sous forme de détection ou de substitution de phonèmes initiaux (ex.…”

“…: Bialystok, 1986;Bialystok & Majumder, 1998;Bialystok et al, 2014;Gathercole, 1997), et c. la conscience phonologique, principalement sous forme de détection ou de substitution de phonèmes initiaux (ex. : Ahmadian, Bahrami, & Amini, 2016;Bialystok, Majumder, & Martin, 2003;Bruck & Genesee, 1995;Campbell & Sais, 1995;Laurent & Martinot, 2010;Poarch & Bialystok, 2015;Verhoeven, 2007 (Bialystok, 2004), bien que ce résultat ne soit pas toujours vérifié dans ses propres études (Friesen & Bialystok, 2012). Pour résumer, pour Bialystok (2004Bialystok ( , 2007Bialystok ( , 2009Bialystok ( , 2011, la conscience mé-talinguistique est positivement influencée par le bilinguisme grâce à l'exercice systématique de processus attentionnels s'appliquant à chacune des deux langues, mais cette influence est modulée par d'autres facteurs.…”