Vocabulary and Grammar Development in Young Learners of English as an Additional Language

Abstract

Internationally, an increasing number of children learn English as an Additional Language (EAL). Children with EAL grow up in an environment where English is the majority language, but are exposed to a different, minority language at home. Despite the increase in the number of EAL learners around the world, comparatively little is known about the development of their vocabulary and grammar at preschool age. Furthermore, the use of different methods in EAL studies can make research evidence difficult to summarise. The aim of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of EAL learners' vocabulary and grammar development at preschool, drawing from studies that have used standardised tests, experimental tasks, or both. This review indicates that few studies have focused on preschool children with EAL. These suggest that, at the earliest stages of language learning, EAL learners generally know fewer words and acquire grammatical constructions at a slower pace than their English monolingual peers. These differences often persist throughout development, risking a negative impact on EAL learners' academic attainment in an English-only school environment. Thus, this chapter also includes AUTHOR-PRODUCED COPY 2 some suggestions for practice that could help children with EAL develop their vocabulary and grammar knowledge during and after preschool.

The Role of Chinese Vocabulary Knowledge in Composition Writing among Upper Elementary School Students

“…While it has been well established that receptive and productive knowledge of vocabulary do not develop in tandem, the relationship between them across early language developmental stages remains unclear. While some research suggests that receptive and productive knowledge should be highly associated as producing a word requires a basic understanding of its receptive meaning (Melka, 1997), others argue that it is possible for one to spell or use a word correctly before fully knowing its meaning (Faitaki et al, 2020;Nation, 2001). It is also noteworthy that measures of vocabulary knowledge to date largely focus on assessing the receptive knowledge of vocabulary, such as by asking participants to indicate whether they know a word (e.g., Yes/No test, Miralpeix & Meara, 2014) or by choosing a picture corresponding to a word (e.g., the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Dunn & Dunn, 1997).…”

“…The issue of measuring vocabulary knowledge is particularly significant when it comes to assessing learners of languages other than English, given that existing measures of vocabulary are mostly developed and standardized for English (native) speakers (Faitaki et al, 2020) and that characteristics of vocabulary vary considerably in typologically different languages (Dahl, 2009;Fenk-Oczlon & Fenk, 2008, 2014Yang, 2008). As a non-alphabetical language, Chinese language is characterized by a logographic character-based writing system, in which words are often orthographically complex (Leong et al, 2000).…”

Using Mobile Applications for Teaching English Vocabulary to Young Language Learners (YLLs): Investigating the Short- and Long-term Impacts

“…In another study, Faitaki et al (2020) discuss English vocabulary and grammar development among YLLs and draw on a range of studies to expound on the size and depth of vocabulary learning among (English as an additional language) EAL learners. The researchers argue that "at the earliest stages of language learning, EAL learners generally know fewer words and acquire grammatical constructions at a slower pace than their English monolingual peers" (p. 1) and run the risk of weakening the learners' multilingual literacy skills as in English-only contexts.…”