Preschool Children's Pitch-Matching Accuracy in Relation to Participation in Cantonese-Immersion Preschools

Abstract

Researchers in several recent studies have investigated the relationships between pitch-matching accuracy and the native language of children (Chen-Haftek, 1999; Rutkowski, Chen-Haftek, & Gluschanoff, 2002;Trollinger, 2003), as well as vocal use in singing by bilingual children (Mang, 1999). In these studies, the results suggested that significant relationships exist between how the child used the voice in speech and how the child matched pitch (e.g., Trollinger, 2003) or sang specific songs (e.g., Chen-Haftek, 1999). The rationale for this kind of research is based on empirical evidence in voice science in that (1) the manner in which the young child uses the voice directly contributes to how the voice is used for the remain-Valerie L. Trollinger, is an assistant professor of music education with the Music Research der of life, and (2) due to physiological development, the speech voice is the singing voice in young children. Research supporting these findings is found in Trollinger (2003), and also in works cited in the present study. The particular interest in studying the effect of a second language stems from the fact that children who learn to be bilingual when young need to be more kinesthetically perceptive of how their voices work to create the sounds that distinguish one language from the other.The purpose of this study, the second I have done in this area, was to investigate the degree to which pitch-matching accuracy was related to preschool children's development as either a single-language speaker (English) or as a bilingual speaker (English and Cantonese). In addition, it was important to determine if the vocal behavior exhibited by the children in this study reinforced previously established findings from physiological research in the disciplines of voice science, vocal pedagogy, speech science, and voice therapy. Definition of Bilingualism for This Study Definitions of bilingualism range from the simple to the extremely complex (Bialystok, 2001; Hamers & Blanc, 2000). Numerous characteristics need to be taken into consideration when defining bilinguality: whether (1) the second language is learned formally or functionally, (2) the language is read but not spoken, or vice versa, and to what levels of competency, (3) the language is learned simultaneous-ly along with the native language, or it is learned later, (4) the language is reinforced in social life, and (5) the languages are similar (e.g., Spanish and Italian) or different (e.g., Spanish and Cantonese). Defining bilingualism in linguistic research is as challenging as defining degrees of musician/nonmusician in music education research. In addition, few researchers have addressed the function of the vocal mechanism in the production of sounds (e.g., Wei, 2002), the dominant foci of bilingual research , or these studys' relationship to cognition, intelligence, and communication.Based on careful consideration of the research literature in linguistics, the children in this particular study are called bilingual and monolingual solely to help del...

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