Language experiences and vocabulary development in Dominican and Mexican infants across the first 2 years.

Abstract

We longitudinally investigated parental language context and infants' language experiences in relation to Dominican American and Mexican American infants' vocabularies. Mothers provided information on parental language context, comprising measures of parents' language background (i.e., childhood language) and current language use during interviews at infants' birth. Infants' language experiences were measured at ages 14 months and 2 years through mothers' reports of mothers' and fathers' engagement in English and Spanish literacy activities with infants and mothers' English and Spanish utterances during videotaped mother-infant interactions. Infants' vocabulary development at 14 months and 2 years was examined using standardized vocabulary checklists in English and Spanish. Both parental language context and infants' language experiences predicted infants' vocabularies in each language at both ages. Furthermore, language experiences mediated associations between parental language context and infants' vocabularies. However, the specific mediation mechanisms varied by language.

The Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science

“…Although 95% of authorized immigration to the United States from Mexico occurs for reasons of family unification, percentages appealing to that rationale vary dramatically among the top nations sending emigrants to the United States: Philippines (77%), Vietnam (68%), Taiwan (59%), and India (43%). Acculturation among Latin American immigrants to the United States similarly depends on their country of origin (Mendoza, Javier, & Burgos, 2007): Dominican American and Mexican American infants’ vocabulary acquisition, even though both are Spanish speaking and living New York City, differ (Song, Tamis-LeMonda, Yoshikawa, Kahana-Kalman, & Wu, 2012). Patterns of residence and geographic mobility among Puerto Ricans in the United States differ from those of other Latino groups, such as Mexicans and Cubans (Denton & Massey, 1989; Massey & Bitterman, 1985; South, Crowder, & Chavez, 2005); Puerto Ricans tend to be segregated from non-Latino Whites at higher rates, and Puerto Ricans fare more poorly on a variety of health outcomes (diabetes during pregnancy, asthma prevalence among children) compared with other Latino groups (Hajat, Lucas, & Kingston, 2000; Kieffer, Martin, & Herman, 1999; Lara, Akinbami, Flores, & Morgenstern, 2006; Zsembik & Fennell, 2005).…”

“…Mexican and Ukrainian immigrants likely did not acculturate similarly to U.S. cultural mazeways yesterday, just as Syrian and Afghan immigrants likely will not acculturate similarly to German cultural mazeways tomorrow. Analyses that combine even seemingly similar acculturating groups may mislead because levels of variables, and associations among them, often differ across groups, and results based on heterogeneous groups may obfuscate meaningful subgroup patterns (Song et al, 2012). Moreover, such lumping also confounds ethnicity, immigration status, and SES.…”

Early Vocabulary in Relation to Gender, Bilingualism, Type, and Duration of Childcare

“…The early lexicon is thus shaped by the culture and environment that surround a child (Tardif et al., 2008). If children are regularly exposed to more than one language, their lexical abilities will develop according to the input received in each one of them (e.g., Bohmann et al, 2009; De Houwer, Bornstein, & Putnick, 2014 ; Hoff et al., 2012 ; Place & Hoff, 2011 ; Rinker, Budde-Spengler, & Sachse, 2016 ; Song, Tamis-LeMonda, Yoshikawa, Kahana-Kalman, & Wu, 2011 ; for a review see Gatt & O’Toole, 2016 ; Hammer et al., 2014). A small to medium vocabulary disadvantage for bilingual children has been reported when only one language is considered and has been linked to reduction of input when the total language input is divided between two languages (Bialystok, Luk, Peets, & Yang, 2010 ; Cote & Bornstein, 2014 ; Hoff et al, 2012 ; Junker & Stockman, 2002 ; Klassert, Gagarina, & Kauschke, 2014 ; Quiroz et al, 2010 ; Thordardottir, 2011 ; for a review see Unsworth, 2013).…”

Phonological Skills in Korean-English Bilingual Children: Phonetic Inventory and Segmental Accuracy

“…Exposure to non-dominant language at home environments may have little or no influence on production of error patterns in bilingual children, if the source of exposure to the non-dominant language is the parents who are not dominant in that language and therefore are not able to provide a robust model for bilingual children to learn and differentiate phonological systems [61,62]. In addition, the literature suggests that shared language experiences such as book reading are supportive of language development [63,64]. Mere exposure to language(s), reflected in language dominance, may not impose significantly on learning phonemic contrasts and reorganisation of phonological systems [e.g.…”