Home language will not take care of itself : vocabulary knowledge in trilingual children in the United Kingdom

2017
journal article
article
33
cris.lastimport.wos2024-04-10T02:50:30Z
dc.abstract.enLanguage input is crucial for language acquisition and especially for children's vocabulary size. Bilingual children receive reduced input in each of their languages, compared to monolinguals, and are reported to have smaller vocabularies, at least in one of their languages. Vocabulary acquisition in trilingual children has been largely understudied; only a few case studies have been published so far. Moreover, trilingual language acquisition in children has been rarely contrasted with language outcomes of bilingual and monolingual peers. We present a comparison of trilingual, bilingual, and monolingual children (total of 56 participants, aged 4;5-6;7, matched one-to-one for age, gender, and non-verbal IQ) in regard to their receptive and expressive vocabulary (measured by standardized tests), and relative frequency of input in each language (measured by parental report). The monolingual children were speakers of Polish or English, while the bilinguals and trilinguals were migrant children living in the United Kingdom, speaking English as a majority language and Polish as a home language. The trilinguals had another (third) language at home. For the majority language, English, no differences were found across the three groups, either in the receptive or productive vocabulary. The groups differed, however, in their performance in Polish, the home language. The trilinguals had lower receptive vocabulary than the monolinguals, and lower productive vocabulary compared to the monolinguals. The trilinguals showed similar lexical knowledge to the bilinguals. The bilinguals demonstrated lower scores than the monolinguals, but only in productive vocabulary. The data on reported language input show that input in English in bilingual and trilingual groups is similar, but the bilinguals outscore the trilinguals in relative frequency of Polish input. Overall, the results suggest that in the majority language, multilingual children may develop lexical skills similar to those of their monolingual peers. However, their minority language is weaker: the trilinguals scored lower than the Polish monolinguals on both receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and the bilinguals showed reduced expressive knowledge but leveled out with the Polish monolinguals on receptive vocabulary. The results should encourage parents of migrant children to support home language(s), if the languages are to be retained in a longer perspectivepl
dc.affiliationWydział Filozoficzny : Instytut Psychologiipl
dc.contributor.authorMieszkowska, Karolinapl
dc.contributor.authorŁuniewska, Magdalenapl
dc.contributor.authorKołak, Joannapl
dc.contributor.authorWodniecka-Chlipalska, Zofia - 132687 pl
dc.contributor.authorHaman, Ewapl
dc.date.accession2018-03-01pl
dc.date.accessioned2018-03-05T18:21:22Z
dc.date.available2018-03-05T18:21:22Z
dc.date.issued2017pl
dc.date.openaccess0
dc.description.accesstimew momencie opublikowania
dc.description.versionostateczna wersja wydawcy
dc.description.volume8pl
dc.identifier.articleid1358pl
dc.identifier.doi10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01358pl
dc.identifier.eissn1664-1078pl
dc.identifier.projectROD UJ / Ppl
dc.identifier.urihttps://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/handle/item/51170
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01358/pdfpl
dc.languageengpl
dc.language.containerengpl
dc.rightsUdzielam licencji. Uznanie autorstwa 4.0 Międzynarodowa*
dc.rights.licenceCC-BY
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.pl*
dc.share.typeotwarte czasopismo
dc.subject.enhome languagepl
dc.subject.enmultilingualism in migrant contextpl
dc.subject.enminority languagepl
dc.subject.entrilingual childrenpl
dc.subject.entrilingual language acquisitionpl
dc.subject.envocabulary acquisitionpl
dc.subtypeArticlepl
dc.titleHome language will not take care of itself : vocabulary knowledge in trilingual children in the United Kingdompl
dc.title.journalFrontiers in Psychologypl
dc.typeJournalArticlepl
dspace.entity.typePublication
cris.lastimport.wos
2024-04-10T02:50:30Z
dc.abstract.enpl
Language input is crucial for language acquisition and especially for children's vocabulary size. Bilingual children receive reduced input in each of their languages, compared to monolinguals, and are reported to have smaller vocabularies, at least in one of their languages. Vocabulary acquisition in trilingual children has been largely understudied; only a few case studies have been published so far. Moreover, trilingual language acquisition in children has been rarely contrasted with language outcomes of bilingual and monolingual peers. We present a comparison of trilingual, bilingual, and monolingual children (total of 56 participants, aged 4;5-6;7, matched one-to-one for age, gender, and non-verbal IQ) in regard to their receptive and expressive vocabulary (measured by standardized tests), and relative frequency of input in each language (measured by parental report). The monolingual children were speakers of Polish or English, while the bilinguals and trilinguals were migrant children living in the United Kingdom, speaking English as a majority language and Polish as a home language. The trilinguals had another (third) language at home. For the majority language, English, no differences were found across the three groups, either in the receptive or productive vocabulary. The groups differed, however, in their performance in Polish, the home language. The trilinguals had lower receptive vocabulary than the monolinguals, and lower productive vocabulary compared to the monolinguals. The trilinguals showed similar lexical knowledge to the bilinguals. The bilinguals demonstrated lower scores than the monolinguals, but only in productive vocabulary. The data on reported language input show that input in English in bilingual and trilingual groups is similar, but the bilinguals outscore the trilinguals in relative frequency of Polish input. Overall, the results suggest that in the majority language, multilingual children may develop lexical skills similar to those of their monolingual peers. However, their minority language is weaker: the trilinguals scored lower than the Polish monolinguals on both receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and the bilinguals showed reduced expressive knowledge but leveled out with the Polish monolinguals on receptive vocabulary. The results should encourage parents of migrant children to support home language(s), if the languages are to be retained in a longer perspective
dc.affiliationpl
Wydział Filozoficzny : Instytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorpl
Mieszkowska, Karolina
dc.contributor.authorpl
Łuniewska, Magdalena
dc.contributor.authorpl
Kołak, Joanna
dc.contributor.authorpl
Wodniecka-Chlipalska, Zofia - 132687
dc.contributor.authorpl
Haman, Ewa
dc.date.accessionpl
2018-03-01
dc.date.accessioned
2018-03-05T18:21:22Z
dc.date.available
2018-03-05T18:21:22Z
dc.date.issuedpl
2017
dc.date.openaccess
0
dc.description.accesstime
w momencie opublikowania
dc.description.version
ostateczna wersja wydawcy
dc.description.volumepl
8
dc.identifier.articleidpl
1358
dc.identifier.doipl
10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01358
dc.identifier.eissnpl
1664-1078
dc.identifier.projectpl
ROD UJ / P
dc.identifier.uri
https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/handle/item/51170
dc.identifier.weblinkpl
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01358/pdf
dc.languagepl
eng
dc.language.containerpl
eng
dc.rights*
Udzielam licencji. Uznanie autorstwa 4.0 Międzynarodowa
dc.rights.licence
CC-BY
dc.rights.uri*
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.pl
dc.share.type
otwarte czasopismo
dc.subject.enpl
home language
dc.subject.enpl
multilingualism in migrant context
dc.subject.enpl
minority language
dc.subject.enpl
trilingual children
dc.subject.enpl
trilingual language acquisition
dc.subject.enpl
vocabulary acquisition
dc.subtypepl
Article
dc.titlepl
Home language will not take care of itself : vocabulary knowledge in trilingual children in the United Kingdom
dc.title.journalpl
Frontiers in Psychology
dc.typepl
JournalArticle
dspace.entity.type
Publication
Affiliations

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