3-139 - Bilingual Children’s Language Learning Trajectories: Evidence from Longitudinal Studies in Three Countries

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Attending high-quality early childhood education programs may have positive effects on children’s verbal and academic performance in the long-term (Connor, Morrison, & Slominski, 2006; Dickinson & Porche, 2011). Studies of preschool quality have seldom focused on bilingual or second-language learners (but see Leseman, 2000) yet these children fall behind their peers with respect to vocabulary knowledge, academic language skills and literacy. Better supporting these learners in the preschool years is thus a priority for parents, educators and researchers.
This symposium identifies differences in language development attributable to (i) variability in preschool literacy teaching, (ii) language input quality, and (iii) the number of hours children attend preschool programs. The symposium presents three longitudinal studies of bilingual children’s language development in countries with different majority and minority languages and preschool systems: China, Norway and Australia. Paper 1 reports on intervention studies that focus on the vocabulary development and academic language skills of young Uyghur children learning Chinese in preschool. Paper 2 compares the long-term effects of amount and diversity of classroom conversation in Norwegian preschools on second-language vocabulary learning. Paper 3 examines the effects of formal early childhood education and care on language skills in a sample of bilingual children in Australia.
Various longitudinal research designs and analyses will be discussed in examining the effects of preschool education on language and literacy learning, such as randomized controlled intervention studies (Paper 1), a longitudinal observation study (Paper 2) and a large-scale longitudinal study using standardized test instruments (Paper 3).
 

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Vibeke Grover, University of Oslo

Discussant

• Paola Uccelli, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Individual Presentations

• How does the quality of early education impact on the longitudinal development of Uyghur young children’s bilingual vocabulary? - Presenting Author: Jing Zhou, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Si Chen, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Lanbin Min, Xinjiang Normal University Urumqi, China; Li Zhang, East China Normal University

• Bilingual children’s vocabulary development from preschool to fifth grade: the impact of amount versus diversity in talk exposure - Presenting Author: Veslemøy Rydland, University of Oslo; Vibeke Grover, University of Oslo

• Bilingual children’s language learning in Australian Kindergarten programs and other forms of formal childcare - Presenting Author: Frank Niklas, Univ of Melbourne; Caroline Cohrssen, University of Melbourne; Collette Patria Tayler, University of Melbourne