The linguistic expression of causal relations in picture-based narratives: A comparative study of bilingual and monolingual children with TLD and DLD

Abstract

The present study examines the linguistic expression of causal relations between the motion events within the main episode in a picture-based narrative. One hundred and fifty children aged 5–7 were asked to narrate a story based on a series of pictures: 45 Hebrew monolinguals (19 with Developmental Language Disorders [DLD]), 57 English–Hebrew bilinguals (20 with DLD) and 48 Russian–Hebrew bilinguals (21 with DLD). The narratives told by bilingual children with Typical Language Development (TLD) were as complex as those of their monolingual peers in occurrence of causal relations to establish a goal-oriented episode, and in the use of language forms as cohesive devices. By contrast, bilingual and monolingual children with DLD showed lower performance on expression of causal relations, particularly those involving more complex scenes that demand higher levels of linguistic complexity and content elaboration. The form–function analyses enabled an exploration of cognitive and language abilities in interaction in the context of narrative discourse production. The study reinforced the differences between children with TLD and children with DLD, showing that typical language development rather than the proficiency in a particular language is necessary for generating causal relations and the particular linguistic forms that together yield a coherent narrative.

Sometimes larger, sometimes smaller: Measuring vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual infants and toddlers

“…The measurement of bilingual children's vocabulary relative to monolinguals has both theoretical and practical applications. On the theoretical side, the use of monolingual vocabulary trajectories as a reference point to better understand bilingual vocabulary development is an approach with a long history, which has shed light on key similarities and differences between these groups (e.g., Byers-Heinlein et al, 2013;Cattani et al, 2014;De Houwer, Bornstein, & Putnick, 2014;Hoff & Ribot, 2017;Hoff, Rumiche, Burridge, Ribot, & Welsh, 2014;Kupersmitt & Armon-Lotem, 2019;Pearson, Fernandez, & Oller, 1993;Serratrice & De Cat, 2020).…”

“…Gathering additional bilingual norms, although perhaps ideal, is time-intensive: a more immediate solution is to determine how to best use available monolingual norms with bilingual children. This approach has strong precedence, given the long history in the field of using monolingual data as a reference point to better understand bilingual language and cognitive development (e.g., Byers-Heinlein et al, 2013;Cattani et al, 2014;De Houwer et al, 2014;Hoff et al, 2012;Hoff et al, 2014;Hoff & Ribot, 2017;Janssen & Meir, 2019;Kupersmitt & Armon-Lotem, 2019; O'toole; Paradis, Nicoladis, Crago, & Genesee, 2011;Pearson et al, 1993;Serratrice & De Cat, 2020;Singh, Fu, Tay, & Golinkoff, 2018;Thordardottir, 2011;Yan & Nicoladis, 2007). Moreover, there is empirical and theoretical support for this approach: So far, the literature is mixed with respect to how best monolingual norms can be used as a reference point for bilingual children, while taking into consideration bilinguals' unique vocabulary features such as the presence of translation equivalents.…”

Macroestructura y microestructura narrativa en población infantil bilingüe con TDL: una revisión sistemática

“…El análisis de los TEI proporciona información sobre los conocimientos metalingüísticos y metacognitivos de los niños, así como sobre sus habilidades de la Teoría de la Mente (ToM), al reflejar la comprensión de la intencionalidad y la motivación de los personajes (e.g., Gagarina et al, 2020). Algunos estudios también han analizado el uso de relaciones causales (RC) que conectan los elementos de la EN para crear una estructura coherente, considerando cuatro tipos: habilitantes, físicas, motivacionales y psicológicas (e.g., Kupersmitt & Armon-Lotem, 2019). Por lo que se refiere a la comprensión de la macroestructura narrativa, esta se suele evaluar a través de las respuestas a preguntas sobre, por ejemplo, los objetivos de cada episodio, los estados internos de los personajes o la inferencia de las consecuencias de las acciones que sucedieron en la historia (e.g., Peristeri et al, 2021).…”

“…cuento en imágenes, sin edad límite de aplicación ni una pauta de evaluación determinada, por lo que se pueden analizar diversos elementos según el interés del clínico o investigador. Dentro de los instrumentos normalizados de evaluación narrativa utilizados en población bilingüe destacan: The Renfrew Bus Story Test (Cowley & Glasgow, 1994), en Cleave et al (2010) y Rezzonico et al (2015; Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI; Schneider et al, 2005) (Goralnik, 1995), en Kupersmitt & Armon-Lotem (2019); y el Test of Narrative Language (TNL; Gillam & Pearson, 2004;Gillam et al, n.d.), en Peña et al (2020). No obstante, ninguno de estos instrumentos ha sido creado ni normalizado para evaluar a población bilingüe.…”

Narrative Skills of Monolingual and Bilingual Pre-School and Primary School Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): A Systematic Review

“…Their performance contradicts the performance of bilingual and monolingual children with DLD who tend to score lower on expression of causal relations especially when it has to do with Open Journal of Modern Linguistics complex scenes that demanded higher levels of linguistic complexity and content elaboration. This is justified due to the subtler linguistic and cognitive difficulties of narration, including the ability to maintain the relations between two story elements and to plan a coherent narrative (Kupersmitt & Armon-Lotem, 2019).…”