Poster #112 - Phonological Memory Skills Predict the Rate of Bilingual Development

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

The majority of studies of early bilingual language development have focused on external influences, especially the roles of language exposure and use (Hoff, 2017). The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that an internal capacity, phonological memory skill, an important predictor of vocabulary learning and growth (Gathercole, 2006), predicts the English and Spanish growth in young Spanish-English bilingually developing children.

We used two separate longitudinal multilevel models to ask whether children's phonological memory skills help explain individual differences in the rate of children's English and Spanish growth after accounting for several measures of external contributions to bilingual language development.

Participants included 125 children (60 girls) from Spanish-speaking families enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study that included assessments at 6- month intervals between the ages of 2 ½ and 5 years. All children were born in the U.S., were full term and healthy at birth, and had normal hearing. At least one parent was born in a Spanish-speaking country and Spanish was spoken in the home, either exclusively or in combination with English. Relative amount of English exposure at home ranged from 0 to 90%.

Outcome variables were expressive vocabularies in English and Spanish assessed in each language using the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test-Bilingual Edition (Brownell, 2001) allowing only English labels in the English assessment, and only Spanish labels in the Spanish assessment in order to obtain separate estimates of the children's English and Spanish vocabularies.
The predictor variable was phonological memory, measured as percent of consonants accurately repeated (PCC) of Spanish-like and English-like nonwords. Stimuli included four 2-syllable, 3-syllable, and 4-syllable nonwords phonologically matched with real words from the MacArthur-Bates CDI by syllable length to contain the same sounds, phonotactic frames, and stress patterns for each language. Examiners presented items in a toy naming protocol. Sessions were audio- and video-recorded. Trained research assistants phonetically transcribed children's productions using broad transcription and consensus method in Phon's double-blind transcription tool to establish final transcriptions (Rose, et al., 2006, Rose & MacWhinney 2014). PCC values were obtained for each language using Phon 2.2 (Rose et al., 2006; Shriberg & Kwiatkowski, 1982).
Covariates in the models included parent estimates of the percent of their child's language exposure at home in each language, mother's highest level of education, child gender, birth order, and nonverbal intelligence based on the Primary Test in of Nonverbal Intelligence (PTONI, Ehrler & McGhee, 2008).

Results show that children's phonological memory ability explains individual differences in growth of both English and Spanish vocabulary. Environmental measures that predict English and Spanish growth are the relative amount of input, and for Spanish only, birth order and maternal education level in Spanish. The effects of phonological memory skill and exposure on English and Spanish growth are plotted in Figures 1 and 2. These findings are consistent with a large literature that identifies phonological memory as predictor of first and second language acquisition.

Authors

• Cynthia Core, The George Washington University
  Presenting Author

• Justin Lauro, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erika Hoff, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author