Vocabulary Development of Young Uyghur Children: Exploring Trajectories of Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary

• In Event: 43.076 - Learning Vocabulary in a Second Language: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities Across Levels of Development and Proficiency

Abstract

Objectives: In 2009, there were over 1.3 million Uyghur children aged zero to six (National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China, 2010). They acquire Uyghur as their first language and learn Mandarin Chinese when they enter a bilingual kindergarten or elementary school. Xinjiang is one of the poorest regions in China and most Uyghur children living in Xinjiang come from low-SES families; learning Chinese as a second language is a crucial milestone for them. Little research has been conducted to understand and support these learners. In this paper we explore the results of a randomized trail conducted in Uyghur preschools to test the efficacy of a bilingual intervention and explore the relationship between learning trajectories in receptive and expressive vocabulary across L1 and L2.
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: The data from this study come from a randomized trial. Our interpretation of these data are informed by a socio-cultural perspective on language learning, and we discuss the relationship between L1 and L2 development in terms of both language development theory and cultural identity.
Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry Across the one-year intervention, we collected three waves of Chinese and Uyghur vocabulary data. We used an individual growth modeling framework employing generalized linear mixed models to estimate effect sizes.
Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials: Thirty-one classes were recruited before the intervention. In most Chinese public kindergartens, children within the same class are the same age. Within each class, we randomly selected 8 to 9 Uyghur children to test, for a total of 256 Uyghur participants.
The research team tested 256 Uyghur children individually on their Chinese and Uyghur receptive and expressive vocabulary at three time points. In testing the Chinese receptive vocabulary, we used the Chinese version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT, Lu & Liu, 1998). Since there was no existing Uyghur vocabulary test for young children, we collaborated with the CLRC and researchers in the Department of Uyghur Language of Xinjiang Normal University to develop the Uyghur versions of receptive and expressive vocabulary tests. The Uyghur receptive and expressive vocabulary tests were translated from the Chinese PPVT and the Chinese EVT. Researchers deleted or replaced the culturally and linguistically inappropriate items and conducted two pilots in Urumqi. Two hundred ninety-three Mandarin-Uyghur bilingual children were tested to check the reliability of the Uyghur PPVT and Uyghur EVT.
Results. We found that the intervention led to a more rapid development of Chinese receptive vocabulary (effect size = 0.68) and Uyghur expressive vocabulary (effect size = 0.38).
Scientific or scholarly significance. We interpret these results with reference to cognitive and socio-cultural perspective on language learning. This is the only instructional intervention that has been conducted in this population that we know of and that is unique both in terms of the orthography and linguistic features of the languages and the contested history of language education in the region.

Authors

• Si Chen, Harvard University

• Joshua Fahey Lawrence, University of Oslo

• Jing Zhou, East China Normal University

• Lanbin Min, Xinjiang Normal University

• Catherine E. Snow, Harvard University