The development of the cognate advantage from elementary to middle school years in French-English bilinguals attending a dual language program in France

Quirk, Erin; Cohen, Cynthia B.

doi:10.1080/13670050.2022.2087468

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…In our study, where effects were examined in Dutch and most children grew up in the Netherlands, their proficiency in their other language was only moderately correlated with age. For future research, we recommend including not only age but also other-language proficiency, as well as factors such as exposure and literacy skills (see also Quirk & Cohen, 2022, for a cognate study addressing the role of both age and exposure), to better account for variation between children as well as the different role that each of these factors may play.…”

Section: Individual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children’s Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

Koutamanis,

Kootstra,

Dijkstra

et al. 2024

Preprint

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This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children’s vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word-level similarities and language-level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual-level variation in age, exposure, and non-target language proficiency. Children simultaneously acquiring two closely related languages (n = 203) or two more distant languages (n = 109) performed extended versions of the LITMUS Cross-linguistic Lexical Task (CLT; Haman et al., 2015), a productive vocabulary test with words varying in their phonological similarity to their translation equivalents. Children speaking closely related languages obtained higher vocabulary scores than children speaking more distant languages, who showed a stronger positive effect of phonological similarity. The effect of language distance on vocabulary was not solely driven by the presence of (near-)identical cognates in the test. These findings show that similarities beyond specific test items and/or beyond the phonological level play a role in vocabulary acquisition.

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Section: Individual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children’s Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

Koutamanis,

Kootstra,

Dijkstra

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children's Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

Koutamanis,

Kootstra,

Dijkstra

et al. 2024

Language Learning

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children's vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word‐level similarities and language‐level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual‐level variation in age, exposure, and nontarget language proficiency. Children simultaneously acquiring two closely related languages (n = 203) or two more distant languages (n = 109) performed extended versions of the LITMUS Cross‐Linguistic Lexical Task (Haman et al., 2015), a productive vocabulary test with words varying in their phonological similarity to their translation equivalents. Children speaking closely related languages obtained higher vocabulary scores than children speaking more distant languages, who showed a stronger positive effect of phonological similarity. The effect of language distance on vocabulary was not solely driven by the presence of (near‐)identical cognates in the test. These findings show that similarities beyond specific test items and/or beyond the phonological level play a role in vocabulary acquisition.

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Exploring the Interplay of Language Exposure, Language Skills and Language and Cultural Identity Construction in French-English Bilingual Adolescents: A Longitudinal Case Study

Cohen,

Demazel,

Witko

2024

Languages

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This study explores dual language acquisition according to three interrelated factors which have been found to account for individual differences in bilingual development. These are child-internal, proximal and distal factors. This five-year longitudinal case study investigates the complex interplay between language exposure, language skills and language and cultural identity construction in three French-English bilingual adolescents (from age 10 to 14), from three different home language backgrounds (French dominant; English dominant; both French and English), attending the same bilingual programme in France. Data were collected annually. Parent questionnaires provided information on the children’s exposure to French and English from birth, within the family and in school and other social environments. Semi-structured interviews with the children explored their current language exposure and their language practices with close family and friends, and in language-based activities, such as reading. Language skills were assessed in both languages through (1) a narrative task evaluating lexical diversity and grammatical accuracy, and (2) a standard receptive vocabulary task. Identity construction was explored through semi-structured interviews and a language portrait activity. Our findings showed, first, that higher exposure to a language at home and school did not necessarily align with higher level skills in that language. High-level skills were also observed in the language where exposure was quantitatively lower, but qualitatively rich. Secondly, despite higher exposure to one language, children sometimes identified more with the language and culture they were exposed to less. We highlight the importance of exploring children’s exposure and language biographies in depth to distinguish the sources and types of exposure received from birth. We also show the impact of children’s agency on their language investment and language development.

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The development of the cognate advantage from elementary to middle school years in French-English bilinguals attending a dual language program in France

Cited by 4 publications

References 35 publications

The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children’s Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children’s Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

The Role of Cognates and Language Distance in Simultaneous Bilingual Children's Productive Vocabulary Acquisition

Exploring the Interplay of Language Exposure, Language Skills and Language and Cultural Identity Construction in French-English Bilingual Adolescents: A Longitudinal Case Study

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