Combined effects of age of onset and input on the development of different grammatical structures

Abstract

This study investigates the combined effects of Age of Onset of Acquisition (AOA) and quality and quantity of input on the development of three grammatical structures in French. In a longitudinal and multiple case study including successive (L2) Swedish-French bilingual children (n = 3), simultaneous (2L1) Swedish-French bilingual children (n = 3) and monolingual French children (n = 3), we examine the development of finite verb forms, object pronouns and subject-verb agreement. A distinction is made between structures that are early/late in different modes of acquisition and less/more difficult. The operationalization of quantity and quality of input is based on individual input profiles. The results show that AOA affects the development of less difficult and early grammatical structures whereas AOA has no influence on more difficult structures that are acquired late. An effect of input is found in the 2L1 children, and in some of the L2 children. This effect is most clear with more difficult and late structures.

The development of gender in simultaneous and successive bilingual acquisition of French – Evidence for AOA and input effects

“…When returning to Table 4 above we see that even if the whole data collection period is considered and a group-level analysis is performed there is no positive significant correlation between quantity and quality of input as measured by the input profile score and gender assignment. The finding that input profile scores correlate better with the rate of linguistic development in 2L1 than in cL2 was also found in a previous study on these children (Ågren et al, 2014). I return to this observation in the discussion below.…”

“…Since input at school is overall the same, the individual input profile thus focuses on the main characteristics of each child's input situation outside school and aims to operationalise differences in the quality and quantity of input in French that the children are exposed after school has finished, during weekends and during holidays. We developed this measure in a previous publication (Ågren et al, 2014) and the results from this procedure are reused in this study but some new children have been analyzed and added to the database. The input profile score of each child (see below) was established on the basis of interviews with the parents.…”

“…In the input profile each factor was quantified (scores 0, 1 or 2) in order to obtain a global score of the quantity and quality of input for each individual child outside school. For more details of the scoring procedure and the reasoning behind it, I refer to Ågren et al (2014).…”

“…In this study input conditions within school were similar for all included children since they all attended one and the same French-speaking school. Moreover, input outside school was measured for each bilingual child individually through the establishment of a detailed input profile (see details below and in Ågren et al, 2014).…”

Effets de l'âge d’immersion sur la compréhension initiale d’expressions modales épistémiques en français L2

“…Toutefois nous avons cherché au moyen d'un questionnaire sociolinguistique à établir une mesure plus précise de leur expérience individuelle d'exposition au français. La littérature récente sur l'effet de l'âge a en effet souligné l'importance de distinguer la durée de séjour dans la communauté linguistique ou durée de résidence et le volume d'exposition à la langue cible (Schmidt, 2014;Ågren et al, 2014). Cette dernière donnée constitue une mesure des données entrantes plus pertinente que la précédente dans la mesure où le séjour dans une communauté linguistique, même prolongé, n'implique pas des contacts langagiers avec ses membres et donc un apprentissage.…”