Two Languages Develop Simultaneously, But Independently, In Bilingual Children

Summary: Study shows languages develop on their own, independent course and the rates reflect the quality of exposure to each language.

Source: Florida Atlantic University.

Study also shows Spanish is vulnerable to being taken over by English, but English is not vulnerable to being taken over by Spanish.

A new study of Spanish-English bilingual children by researchers at Florida Atlantic University published in the journal Developmental Science finds that when children learn two languages from birth each language proceeds on its own independent course, at a rate that reflects the quality of the children’s exposure to each language.

In addition, the study finds that Spanish skills become vulnerable as children’s English skills develop, but English is not vulnerable to being taken over by Spanish. In their longitudinal data, the researchers found evidence that as the children developed stronger skills in English, their rates of Spanish growth declined. Spanish skills did not cause English growth to slow, so it’s not a matter of necessary trade-offs between two languages.

“One well established fact about monolingual development is that the size of children’s vocabularies and the grammatical complexity of their speech are strongly related. It turns out that this is true for each language in bilingual children,” said Erika Hoff, Ph.D., lead author of the study, a psychology professor in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, and director of the Language Development Lab. “But vocabulary and grammar in one language are not related to vocabulary or grammar in the other language.”

For the study, Hoff and her collaborators David Giguere, a graduate research assistant at FAU and Jamie M. Quinn, a graduate research assistant at Florida State University, used longitudinal data on children who spoke English and Spanish as first languages and who were exposed to both languages from birth. They wanted to know if the relationship between grammar and vocabulary were specific to a language or more language general. They measured the vocabulary and level of grammatical development in these children in six-month intervals between the ages of 2 and a half to 4 years.

The researchers explored a number of possibilities during the study. They thought it might be something internal to the child that causes vocabulary and grammar to develop on the same timetable or that there might be dependencies in the process of language development itself. They also considered that children might need certain vocabulary to start learning grammar and that vocabulary provides the foundation for grammar or that grammar helps children learn vocabulary. One final possibility they explored is that it may be an external factor that drives both vocabulary development and grammatical development.

Image shows the researcher and a child.
Erika Hoff, Ph.D., lead author of the study, a psychology professor in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, and director of the Language Development Lab. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to.

“If it’s something internal that paces language development then it shouldn’t matter if it’s English or Spanish, everything should be related to everything,” said Hoff. “On the other hand, if it’s dependencies within a language of vocabulary and grammar or vice versa then the relations should be language specific and one should predict the other. That is a child’s level of grammar should predict his or her future growth in vocabulary or vice versa.”

Turns out, the data were consistent only with the final possibility — that the rate of vocabulary and grammar development are a function of something external to the child and that exerts separate influences on growth in English and Spanish. Hoff and her collaborators suggest that the most cogent explanation would be in the properties of children’s input or their language exposure.

“Children may hear very rich language use in Spanish and less rich use in English, for example, if their parents are more proficient in Spanish than in English,” said Hoff. “If language growth were just a matter of some children being better at language learning than others, then growth in English and growth in Spanish would be more related than they are.”

Detailed results of the study are described in the article, “What Explains the Correlation between Growth in Vocabulary and Grammar? New Evidence from Latent Change Score Analyses of Simultaneous Bilingual Development.”

“There is something about differences among the children and the quality of English they hear that make some children acquire vocabulary and grammar more rapidly in English and other children develop more slowly,” said Hoff. “I think the key takeaway from our study is that it’s not the quantity of what the children are hearing; it’s the quality of their language exposure that matters. They need to experience a rich environment.”

About this neuroscience research article

Funding: This project is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through grant number R01 HD068421.

Source: Gisele Galoustian – Florida Atlantic University
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Florida Atlantic University.
Video Source: The video is credited to Erika Hoff.
Original Research: Abstract for “What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development” by Erika Hoff, Jamie M. Quinn and David Giguere in Developmental Science. Published online February 22 2017 doi:10.1111/desc.12536

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Florida Atlantic University “Two Languages Develop Simultaneously, But Independently, In Bilingual Children: Brain Views Immoral Acts As If They Are Impossible.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 20 April 2017.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/bilingualism-independent-language-6453/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Florida Atlantic University (2017, April 20). Two Languages Develop Simultaneously, But Independently, In Bilingual Children: Brain Views Immoral Acts As If They Are Impossible. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved April 20, 2017 from https://neurosciencenews.com/bilingualism-independent-language-6453/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Florida Atlantic University “Two Languages Develop Simultaneously, But Independently, In Bilingual Children: Brain Views Immoral Acts As If They Are Impossible.” https://neurosciencenews.com/bilingualism-independent-language-6453/ (accessed April 20, 2017).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development

A close relationship between children’s vocabulary size and the grammatical complexity of their speech is well attested but not well understood. The present study used latent change score modeling to examine the dynamic relationships between vocabulary and grammar growth within and across languages in longitudinal data from 90 simultaneous Spanish–English bilingual children who were assessed at 6-month intervals between 30 and 48 months. Slopes of vocabulary and grammar growth were strongly correlated within each language and showed moderate or nonsignificant relationships across languages. There was no evidence that vocabulary level predicted subsequent grammar growth or that the level of grammatical development predicted subsequent vocabulary growth. We propose that a common influence of properties of input on vocabulary and grammatical development is the source of their correlated but uncoupled growth. An unanticipated across-language finding was a negative relationship between level of English skill and subsequent Spanish growth. We propose that the cultural context of Spanish–English bilingualism in the US is the reason that strong English skills jeopardize Spanish language growth, while Spanish skills do not affect English growth.

“What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development” by Erika Hoff, Jamie M. Quinn and David Giguere in Developmental Science. Published online February 22 2017 doi:10.1111/desc.12536

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