Vocabulary as a Central Link between Phonological Working Memory and Narrative Competence: Evidence from Monolingual and Bilingual Four-Year-Olds from Different Socioeconomic Backgrounds

Abstract

Phonological working memory capacity, vocabulary size, and narrative competence are important skills in children's L1 and L2 acquisition, which may vary as a function of their language background and socioeconomic status (SES). We investigated test data of 56 typically developing 4-year-old kindergarten children from two SES and two language backgrounds: 29 children (15 higher SES, 14 lower SES) were monolingual German-speaking, and 27 children (14 higher SES, 13 lower SES) were successive Turkish-German bilinguals. The tests comprised a non-word repetition task testing phonological working memory, receptive vocabulary tests (in L1 and L2), and a narrative task. We investigated the effects of SES and language background on children's test performance. Results indicate that SES was a highly significant factor for phonological working memory and vocabulary in the monolingual children, but not in the bilingual children. Although the items of the non-word repetition task followed German phonotactic structure, lower SES (LSES) L2 children did not differ significantly from their monolingual LSES peers, demonstrating that there was no bilingual working memory disadvantage in the LSES group. A significant effect of language background was found for German vocabulary and for all categories of narrative competence, but only two slight SES effects on narrative competence. Significant correlations were found between phonological working memory and vocabulary as well as between vocabulary and narrative competence, but not between phonological working memory and narrative competence. Results suggest that phonological working memory and narrative competence are different domains of language awareness, and that vocabulary may act as the central variable mediating between them.

Language-Specific Non-Words for the Assessment of Working Memory: Dealing With Bilingual Children

“…The same is valid for the correlations between NWRT results and questionnaire items on the quality and quantity of the language input (see Table 1). Indeed, numerous intra- and extralinguistic variables, such as length and phonological complexity of test items (Cilibrasi et al, 2018), children’s biological sex (Lange & Zaretsky, 2021), and familial socioeconomic status (Korecky-Kröll et al, 2019), just to name a few, contribute to the performance on NWRT. Obviously, bilingualism is only one of many factors influencing the results of working memory tests.…”

Depth of vocabulary knowledge in dominant bilingual children with different language profiles: The impact of vocabulary size and verbal working memory

“…For these reasons, definitions are used in many diagnostic tests (Wechsler, 2014;Antoniou, Ralli, Mouzaki, Diamanti & Papaioannou, 2022) as a measure of vocabulary knowledge. Apart from the development of morphosyntax and literacy, VK, predominantly breath of this knowledge, has been found to correlate with verbal working memory in both monolinguals and bilingual speakers (Cockcroft, 2016;Korecky-Kröll et al, 2019). However, little is known about the possible interrelations with depth of vocabulary knowledge, particularly in bilingualism.…”

Narrative abilities in individuals with Down syndrome: single case-profiles

“…Previous investigations have shown a high impact of narrative competences on literacy acquisition ( Botting, 2002 ; O’Neill et al, 2004 ) and school outcomes (e.g., O’Neill et al, 2004 for mathematical abilities). Regardless of its high relevance in everyday communication, narration is a distinctly complex skill, which is linked to cognitive and linguistic performances, e.g., the Theory of Mind ( Tompkins et al, 2019 ) or the vocabulary of a narrator ( Korecky-Kröll et al, 2019 ; Neitzel, under review ). Narratives represent a distinct manifestation of the superordinate expressive form text ( Kintsch, 1974 ; De Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981 ).…”