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Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2011
Volume 1, Issue 3, 2011
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Individual differences in child English second language acquisition: Comparing child-internal and child-external factors
Author(s): Johanne Paradispp.: 213–237 (25)More LessThis study investigated how various child-internal and child-external factors predict English L2 children’s acquisition outcomes for vocabulary size and accuracy with verb morphology. The children who participated (N=169) were between 4;10 and 7;0 years old (mean = 5;10), had between 3 to 62 months of exposure to English (mean = 20 months), and were from newcomer families to Canada. Results showed that factors such as language aptitude (phonological short term memory and analytic reasoning), age, L1 typology, length of exposure to English, and richness of the child’s English environment were significant predictors of variation in children’s L2 outcomes. However, on balance, child-internal factors explained more of the variance in outcomes than child-external factors. Relevance of these findings for Usage-Based theory of language acquisition is discussed.
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Internal and external factors in the child L2 development of the German determiner phrase
Author(s): Holger Hopppp.: 238–264 (27)More LessThis paper studies the development of the German determiner phrase (DP) in 60 child second-language (L2) learners of German between the ages of 3;5 and 7;0. We consider case and gender marking as well as gender concord and test for effects of internal (age, age of onset) and external (length of exposure) factors. Further, developmental patterns are compared between child L1 and L2 acquisition. The results show no contingency of child L2 performance and age factors, yet strong correlations with length of exposure. Like child L1 acquirers, child L2 learners are found to proceed through similar developmental stages, and they establish lexical gender distinctions before syntactic case distinctions in inflection. These findings are discussed in the context of current generative approaches and the role of age in child and adult L2 acquisition.
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The production and processing of determiner–noun agreement in child L2 Dutch
Author(s): Elma Blom and Nada Vasićpp.: 265–290 (26)More LessRecent research has shown that children who learn Dutch as their second language (L2) have difficulties with Dutch grammatical gender. This study shows that six to nine year old L2 Dutch children whose first language (L1) is Turkish noticed incorrect gender agreement between determiner and noun only if gender was marked on the noun. The L1 Turkish L2 Dutch children made more errors with determiner-noun agreement than monolingual L1 controls with matching language abilities. Unlike monolingual controls, L2 children’s accuracy with determiner-noun agreement was not facilitated by word frequency and vocabulary size. Children in both groups made fewer errors with neuter nouns if a cue on the noun marked a noun’s gender. We conclude that there is an asymmetry between L2 children’s processing and production of determiner-noun agreement, that grammatical gender develops gradually and that L2 children’s delay is rather caused by external factors related to a heterogeneous language environment than by internal factors
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The impact of internal and external factors on linguistic performance in the home language and in L2 among Russian-Hebrew and Russian-German preschool children
Author(s): Sharon Armon-Lotem, Joel Walters and Natalia Gagarinapp.: 291–317 (27)More LessThis paper evaluates the contribution of external background factors which pertain to the child’s environment (e.g., parent education, parent occupation, family size, etc.), and internal ones which reflect the child’s time related experience with language (e.g., chronological age, age of L2 onset, etc.) to the development of linguistic skills in the two languages of bilingual children. 65 Russian-German (Mean age: 66mo, Range: 47-86mo) and 78 Russian-Israeli migrant children (Mean age: 70mo, Range: 58-81) with comparable mean length of L2 exposure (M=37mo) and family size (1.88 children) but different Socio-Economic Status (SES), were tested with a battery of language and their parents were interviewed.. Overall, internal, temporal, factors showed a stronger relationship to language measures than external, environmental, factors: age of L2 onset and length of L2 exposure correlated with L2, while parents’ education/occupation showed positive correlations with both L1 and L2 measures. In the Russian-German cohort, which had a sub-group with relatively lower SES, SES positively correlated with L1 success as well.
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Differential effects of internal and external factors on the development of vocabulary, tense morphology and morpho-syntax in successive bilingual children
Author(s): Vasiliki Chondrogianni and Theodoros Marinispp.: 318–345 (28)More LessThe present study investigates the effects of child internal (age/time) and child external/environmental factors on the development of a wide range of language domains in successive bilingual (L2) Turkish-English children of homogeneously low SES. Forty-three L2 children were tested on standardized assessments examining the acquisition of vocabulary and morpho-syntax. The L2 children exhibited a differential acquisition of the various domains: they were better on the general comprehension of grammar and tense morphology and less accurate on the acquisition of vocabulary and (complex) morpho-syntax. Profile effects were confirmed by the differential effects of internal and external factors on the language domains. The development of vocabulary and complex syntax were affected by internal and external factors, whereas external factors had no contribution to the development of tense morphology. These results are discussed in light of previous studies on the impact of internal and external factors in child L2 acquisition.
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