Performance of typically-developing school-age children with English as an additional language on the British Picture Vocabulary Scales II

Abstract

This study provides preliminary indications of the performance of typically developing children with English as an additional language (EAL) on the British Picture Vocabulary Scales II [BPVS II]. One-hundred and sixty-five children aged four to nine years took part in the study, 69 monolingual English speakers and 96 with EAL. The results indicate an effect of both age and language status, with the EAL children scoring proportionally lower at younger ages. There was a narrowing gap between the scores of EAL and monolingual English children with increasing age. These findings differ somewhat from the suggested BPVS EAL norms, but must be treated cautiously because of the limited sampling frame. Nevertheless, some potentially useful suggestions are made for practitioners.

The effects of bilingualism on toddlers’ executive functioning

“…However, the evidence for differences in vocabulary development in bilingual and monolingual children is mixed, depending on the ages of the children and whether receptive or productive vocabulary is assessed. A smaller receptive vocabulary in each language compared with monolinguals has been reported in samples of preschool- and school-aged children (Bialystok, Barac, Blaye, & Poulin-Dubois, in press; Bialystok, Luk, Peets, & Yang, 2010; Mahon & Crutchley, 2006), but other studies have shown that the receptive vocabulary of school-aged children is close to that of monolinguals (Cromdal, 1999; Yan & Nicoladis, 2009). With respect to measuring expressive language, school-aged bilinguals tend to have a smaller vocabulary even when both languages are combined (Yan & Nicoladis, 2009).…”

Effects of immigrant background on text comprehension, vocabulary, and reading motivation: A longitudinal study

“…For instance, in a study conducted by Carlo et al (2004), monolingual U.S. students scored higher than their bilingual peers on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R). Limbird (2007) found less well-developed vocabulary knowledge among German-Turkish bilingual students in comparison to monolingual German students (see also Kieffer & Lesaux, 2012;Mahon & Crutchley, 2006). Moreover, Verhoeven and Vermeer (2006) reported increasing group differences in vocabulary knowledge from grade 3 to grade 6.…”

Benefit from, and acclimatization to, frequency compression hearing aids in experienced adult hearing-aid users

“…A further issue that may influence the validity of these results stems from the fact that there was no control group for the measurements taken after 6 months of frequency compression use. It is possible, therefore, that the differences in scores may be due to maturational effects (see for example, Mahon and Crutchley, 2006, for details of age related changes in receptive vocabulary) or to acclimatisation to other features of the hearing aids, rather than to frequency compression specifically. In particular, maturational effects may have influenced scores on the BKB-SIN as the stimuli used contain Ellis & Munro, Frequency compression hearing aids 8 large amounts of contextual information, which a child may be better able to use as they develop and their receptive vocabulary improves.…”