Russian-as-a-heritage-language vocabulary acquisition by bi-/multilingual children in Canada

Abstract

The significance of this paper is in its contribution to the innovative and rapidly developing research area of Russian as a heritage language (RHL) around the world. The purpose of the reported study is to explore Russian vocabulary development by bi-/multilingual children acquiring Russian as a heritage language in Canada. The materials come from vocabulary development and non-canonical lexical forms (NCF, earlier known as errors) in the speech of 29 bi-/multilingual children (between the ages of 5 and 6) from immigrant families in Saskatchewan, Canada (RHL group) as well as of 13 monolinguals from Russia (MR group). The study employs a method of a comparative analysis of vocabulary in picture-prompted narratives by children from the above two groups. The results demonstrate that bi-/multilingual RHL speaking children produced significantly more lexical NCFs as compared to their monolingual peers (MR), whereas narrative length in words, speech rate in wpm and vocabulary size did not differ across the two groups. Most NCFs in the RHL sample related to the use of verbs, followed by NCFs in the use of nouns. Unlike the speech of MR speakers, RHL participants language use exhibits some slight impact of dialectal forms, a few borrowings from English and code-switches to English. The study has applications for the theory of bi-/multilingualism as well as for teaching RHL to children of immigrants in North American and other contexts.

Lexical production and innovation in child and adult Russian Heritage speakers dominant in English and Hebrew

“…In a study of narrative production among Canadian child Russian HSs, Makarova and Terekhova (2020) found that HSs produce considerably more lexical non-target responses than their monolingual counterparts. A considerable portion of those lexical non-target responses were phonological, suggesting that HSs can retrieve lexical items but falter at the production stage.…”

“…HSs are known to use overgeneralizations, such as hypernyms, to indicate a target concept, favoring more generic terms over more precise ones (Kopotev, Kisselev & Polinsky, 2020). Klapicová (2018) similarly found that bilingual children use more non-specific nouns and verbs compared to monolinguals, directly contradicting the tendency toward hyponyms observed by Makarova and Terekhova (2020). By contrast, Ringblom and Dobrova (2019) found analogous patternsthe use of co-hyponyms, holonyms, and definitionsin all child production, both HS and monolingual.…”

“…Associative responses (e.g., 'orange' instead of 'lemon') may point to the existence of a concept, rather than a specific word, in the lexicon (Altman et al, 2017). Additionally, both HSs and monolinguals produced innovative lexical forms and often employed hyponyms (Makarova & Terekhova, 2020).…”

Russian heritage language development in narrative contexts: Evidence from pre- and primary-school children in Norway, Germany, and the UK

“…Previous research on RHL addressed certain aspects of vocabulary acquisition based on narrative, experimental, and longitudinal data ( Bar-Shalom and Zaretsky, 2008 ; Gagarina et al, 2014 ; Klassert et al, 2014 ; Ringblom and Dobrova, 2019 ; Makarova and Terekhova, 2020 ; Montanari et al, 2020 ; Czapka et al, 2021 ). Several of the studies have been conducted in Germany, where Russian is one of the most frequently spoken and intensively investigated HLs.…”

“…Several other studies have investigated a different set of lexical parameters in RHL spoken in Canada, Sweden, and the United States. Makarova and Terekhova (2020) analyzed narrative samples of 29 Russian-speaking bilinguals (age 5–6) from Canada and 13 monolinguals from Russia. In addition to the traditional measures of vocabulary development that are also central in the present study (TNW and NDW), the authors provide a qualitative analysis of the bilinguals’ vocabulary and their non-canonical lexical forms.…”