Parent-Child Inferential Talk: Relations to Young Dual Language Learners' First- and Second-Language Development

• In Event: The Role of Language Input and Production in Academic Language and Literacy Development of Dual Language Learners

Abstract

It is well-documented that dual language learners’ (DLLs) use of their first language (L1) does not undermine, and may actually strengthen, acquisition of a second language (L2) and literacy skills (Burchinal et al., 2012). Given this, there is a need to better understand how interactions in the home (first) language may support young DLLs’ developmental outcomes.
The present study investigated book-sharing practices in a diverse sample of 91 three- to five-year-old DLLs and their parents in Norway and examined whether quality features of parent-child talk may facilitate the development of L1 and L2 vocabulary and narrative skills in children.
The participating families were recruited to this study through the target children’s preschools, and the target children spoke different L1s at home (e.g. Polish, Somali, and Urdu). All parent-child dyads were audiotaped when sharing the same wordless picture book (Frog, Where Are You? Mayer, 1969) at the beginning of the fall semester. Parents and children mainly used the L1 when discussing the book. Children’s L1 and L2 receptive vocabulary and productive narrative skills were assessed at the beginning (fall) and end (spring) of the year (see Table 1).
The audiotapes of the book sharing collected during the fall were transcribed, translated, and verified by bilingual research assistants using the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES; MacWhinney, 2000). The transcripts were coded with a narrative coding scheme (see Kuchirko et al., 2016) that identifies 48 story elements altogether, differentiating between parent’s attempts to elicit their child’s participation with inferential questions (e.g., “What does the boy feel now?”), child inferential responses, parent narrative statements, and child (non-elicited) narrative statements.
Receptive vocabulary skills were assessed with translated versions of the researcher- developed VocRec (in the L1) and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale-II (in the L2). Narrative production was assessed with the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (Gagarina, et al., 2012). We used the “Baby Birds” story in the L1 and the “Baby Goat” story in the L2. We also created a composite score based on whether children produced a story element in either their L1 or L2.
There was a strong correlation between parent inferential questions and child inferential responses (r=.93, p=.000). To assess the relation of children’s vocabulary and narrative skills to the talk variables, models were fitted using the spring scores as the outcome, along with the corresponding fall scores, the children’s age in months, and the level of maternal education as control variables. As seen in Table 2, parent inferential questions and child inferential responses were related to the children’s spring L1 and L2 receptive vocabulary skills and to the composite score of narrative production. Parent and child narrative statements were not related to these outcomes. The findings support the growing research base that emphasizes the importance of eliciting child reasoning during shared reading. Moreover, the results suggest that certain quality features of parent-child interactions may facilitate DLLs’ vocabulary learning and narrative skills across languages, not only for the language in which they occur (see also Quiroz, et al., 2010).

Authors

• Veslemøy Rydland, University of Oslo

• Vibeke Grøver, University of Oslo