Using Parent Report to Measure Vocabulary in Young Bilingual Children:  A Scoping Review

Weisleder, Adriana; Friend, Margaret; Tsui, Angeline; Marchman, Virginia A.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/un6yr

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The use of CDIs has been extended to bilingual children, most typically by administering CDIs in different languages (see Weisleder et al., 2023 for a scoping review). The two‐CDI approach is the most accessible and most commonly used method of measuring bilingual children's vocabularies (Weisleder et al., 2023). Typically, caregivers are asked to reflect on and fill out a CDI on the child's ability in each language independently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of English–Spanish bilinguals have compared single versus multiple reporters demonstrating similar patterns of concurrent validity in each use case (Marchman & Martínez‐Sussmann, 2002). Analyses like these provide preliminary evidence that reporters can report on each language independently; however, it is often the case that studies do not report which or how many caregivers complete the CDIs and more analyses are needed (Weisleder et al., 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, not all words on one language form will have a TE on another language form. There have been a few forms specifically adapted for the bilingual use case (e.g., De Anda et al., 2022; O'Toole et al., 2017; Reese et al., 2018), and this method is growing in popularity (Weisleder et al., 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of translation equivalents in bilingual word learning

Tan,

Marchman,

Frank

2024

Developmental Science

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Bilingual environments present an important context for word learning. One feature of bilingual environments is the existence of translation equivalents (TEs)—words in different languages that share similar meanings. Documenting TE learning over development may give us insight into the mechanisms underlying word learning in young bilingual children. Prior studies of TE learning have often been confounded by the fact that increases in overall vocabulary size with age lead to greater opportunities for learning TEs. To address this confound, we employed an item‐level analysis, which controls for the age trajectory of each item independently. We used Communicative Development Inventory data from four bilingual datasets (two English–Spanish and two English–French; total N = 419) for modeling. Results indicated that knowing a word's TE increased the likelihood of knowing that word for younger children and for TEs that are more similar phonologically. These effects were consistent across datasets, but varied across lexical categories. Thus, TEs may allow bilingual children to bootstrap their early word learning in one language using their knowledge of the other language.Research highlights Bilingual children must learn words that share a common meaning across both languages, that is, translation equivalents, like dog in English and perro in Spanish. Item‐level models explored how translation equivalents affect word learning, in addition to child‐level (e.g., exposure) and item‐level (e.g., phonological similarity) factors. Knowing a word increased the probability of knowing its corresponding translation equivalent, particularly for younger children and for more phonologically‐similar translation equivalents. These findings suggest that young bilingual children use their word knowledge in one language to bootstrap their learning of words in the other language.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of translation equivalents in bilingual word learning

Tan,

Marchman,

Frank

2024

Developmental Science

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“…The CDI Advisory Board recommends that CDI adaptations are piloted extensively, with detailed item-level analyses of checklist data and language sampling being requisites for arriving at a final set of words that is amenable to norming. A careful, data-driven, approach is particularly critical to the development of parent report instruments intended to measure early bilingual vocabularies, since extensive individual variability stemming from language exposure variables is expected ( Weisleder et al, 2022 ). Revising the current checklist in light of this study’s findings would be a crucial step toward eventually standardizing the Maltese-English CDI adaptation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Word usage as measured by parental checklists and language samples: trends, comparisons, and implications

Gatt,

Camilleri,

Grech

2023

Front. Psychol.

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BackgroundAlthough parental checklists are well-known for their potential in indexing young children’s lexicon size, they can also be used to track children’s acquisition of individual words. Word-level data can be used to identify the checklist words most and least commonly employed across groups of children. Like parent-completed vocabulary checklists, samples of spontaneous language use collected from multiple children can also generate measures of word commonality, concerned with the numbers of children producing individual words. To our knowledge, comparisons of word usage as determined by parental checklist and language sample data obtained in parallel from the same children have not been carried out. Also scarce in the empirical literature are item-level analyses of early bilingual lexicons that explore word usage across two emerging languages. The present study aimed to contribute toward bridging both gaps through the analysis of data generated by a bilingual Maltese-English adaptation of the vocabulary checklist of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Sentences (CDI: WS) and spontaneous language samples for the same children. An additional objective was to derive implications for revising the current version of the vocabulary checklist, in preparation for its eventual standardization.Materials and methodsFor 44 Maltese children aged 12, 18, 24, and 30 months, the words reported by their main caregivers on the vocabulary checklist were identified, along with their respective semantic categories. For the same children, 20-min language samples obtained during free play with the caregiver were transcribed orthographically. Words identified through parental report and language sampling were analyzed for commonality, i.e., the number of children producing each word.ResultsComparison of the word usage patterns obtained through both methods indicated differences in the words most commonly sampled and those most commonly reported, particularly in relation to grammatical categories. Notwithstanding these differences, positive and significant correlations emerged when considering all grammatical categories and languages across commonality levels.DiscussionThe commonality scores based on parental checklist data have implications for reconsidering the length and language balance of the Maltese-English adaptation of the CDI: WS vocabulary checklist. Sampled word usage patterns can contribute additional objectivity in updating the reporting instrument in preparation for its eventual standardization.

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“…For example, single-language measures might reflect children's ability to communicate in monolingual social or educational situations, whereas measures that combine across languages might more closely reflect children's overall level of conceptual and/or linguistic development. A recent review found that most studies that measured vocabulary in young bilinguals reported single-language measures in each language (68%), but many fewer reported a combined measure (43%; Weisleder et al, 2022). When single-language vocabulary is measured, bilingual children tend to have smaller productive vocabularies than monolinguals (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Byers-Heinlein,

Gonzalez-Barrero,

Schott

et al. 2023

First Language

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Vocabulary size is a crucial early indicator of language development, for both monolingual and bilingual children. Assessing vocabulary in bilingual children is complex because they learn words in two languages, and there remains significant controversy about how to best measure their vocabulary size, especially in relation to monolinguals. This study compared monolingual vocabulary with different metrics of bilingual vocabulary, including combining vocabulary across languages to count either the number of words or the number of concepts lexicalized and assessing vocabulary in a single language. Data were collected from parents of 743 infants and toddlers aged 8–33 months learning French and/or English, using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. The results showed that the nature and magnitude of monolingual–bilingual differences depended on how bilinguals’ vocabulary was measured. Compared with monolinguals, bilinguals had larger expressive and receptive word vocabularies, similarly sized receptive concept vocabularies and smaller expressive concept vocabularies. Bilinguals’ single-language vocabularies were smaller than monolinguals’ vocabularies. The study highlights the need to better understand the role of translation equivalents in bilingual vocabulary development and the potential developmental differences in receptive and expressive vocabularies.

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Using Parent Report to Measure Vocabulary in Young Bilingual Children: A Scoping Review

Cited by 4 publications

References 42 publications

The role of translation equivalents in bilingual word learning

The role of translation equivalents in bilingual word learning

Word usage as measured by parental checklists and language samples: trends, comparisons, and implications

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

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