ERIC Number: EJ1363699
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1367-0050
EISSN: EISSN-1747-7522
Language Activation in Dual Language Schools: The Development of Subject-Verb Agreement in the English and Spanish of Heritage Speaker Children
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v25 n8 p3046-3067 2022
Cross-linguistically, monolingual children produce target-like inflected verbs much earlier than they can reliably distinguish between singular and plural subject-verb agreement morphology in comprehension (i.e. Johnson, V., J. de Villiers, and H. Seymour. 2005. "Agreement Without Understanding? The Case of Third Person Singular /s/." "First Language" 25: 317-333; Pérez-Leroux, A. T. 2005. "Number Problems in Children." In "Proceedings of the 2005 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association," edited by C. Gurski, 1-12. https://cla-acl.artsci.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/actes-2005/Perez-Leroux.pdf). In heritage speakers, Spanish agreement morphology shows optionality due to reduced input, especially when children transition to English schooling (i.e. Montrul, S. 2004. "The Acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic Development in Monolingual and Bilingual L1 Acquisition and Adult L2 Acquisition." Amsterdam: John Benjamins; Jacobson, P. 2012. "The Effects of Language Impairment on the use of Direct Object Pronouns and Verb Inflections in Heritage Spanish Speakers: A Look at Attrition, Incomplete Acquisition and Maintenance." "Bilingualism: Language and Cognition" 15 (1): 22-38). We investigate how simultaneous heritage bilingual children's interpretation and use of subject-verb agreement in English and Spanish may be modulated by increased input and activation of Spanish in dual language education (DLE). 125 participants aged 3-7 (42 heritage children, 40 English monolinguals, 39 Spanish-dominant children) took part in a fill-in-the-blanks task and a picture-matching task. In English, bilingual comprehension accuracy surpassed that of the monolinguals. In Spanish, bilingual production lagged behind that of the Spanish-dominant children and language "output" was found to be a greater predictor of productive accuracy than increased activation of Spanish in DLE. The implications of these results for theories of bilingualism and DLE are discussed.
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Verbs, Form Classes (Languages), Bilingualism, Monolingualism, Spanish, Morphology (Languages), Morphemes, Grammar, Linguistic Input, English (Second Language), Language Usage, Accuracy, Language Dominance, Predictor Variables, Linguistic Theory, Task Analysis, Bilingual Education, Heritage Education, Preschool Children, Preschool Education, Kindergarten, Elementary School Students, Cross Cultural Studies, Comparative Analysis, Summer Programs, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain (Madrid); New Jersey
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A