Dataset Information

Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) of Lexical Breadth and Depth in the Vocabulary of Bilingual Kindergarten Children – A Bilingual Intervention Study

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Research in recent years has explored the vocabulary size (lexical breadth) of bilingual children, but less is known about the richness of bilingual word knowledge (lexical depth), and about how knowledge of words in the two languages interact. This study explores how bilingual narrative intervention with vocabulary instruction in each language may modulate crosslinguistic influence (CLI) between the languages of bilingual kindergarten children, focusing on CLI of lexical knowledge, and which factors modulate performance. Methods: Forty-one typically developing English-Hebrew bilingual children (M = 64.63 months) participated. A bilingual adaptation of Story Champs narrative intervention program (Spencer and Petersen, 2012) was used to deliver vocabulary instruction in separate blocks of home language (HL) and school language (SL) sessions. Different intervention words were targeted in each language, but the children were tested on all target words in both languages. Lexical knowledge was assessed with a definition task four times throughout the study: prior to intervention, after each intervention block, and 4–6 weeks later. Learner characteristics (chronological age, age of onset of bilingualism and length of exposure) and proficiency in each language (standardized tests, familiarity with the vocabulary introduced in the intervention at baseline) were examined as possible modulators of performance. Results: Children showed growth in lexical breadth and depth in their HL/English after HL intervention and in lexical breadth in the SL/Hebrew following SL intervention, with CLI for semantic depth observed via a qualitative analysis, but not quantitatively. Better HL/English performance was correlated with later AoB (and shorter SL exposure) and higher HL language proficiency scores. Children with higher HL/English proficiency responded better to the SL/Hebrew intervention, gaining more than those with lower English proficiency. Children with SL/Hebrew vocabulary dominance at the outset of the study also gained more from the HL/English intervention. No correlations were found between learner characteristics and SL performance. Discussion: The current study indicates that bilingual narrative intervention with vocabulary instruction may be efficacious for improving the lexical breadth and depth of bilingual kindergarten children. It suggests that CLI may enhance bilingual children’s language learning success, and points to the importance of strengthening both languages of bilingual children.

SUBMITTER: Lipner M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8516401 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:This study investigated Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) and its relationship with vocabulary knowledge (VK), especially in relation to proficiency, gender, and discipline. Structural equation models were established following exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures, and mediation analyses and multiple-group analyses, as well as analyses of variance, were conducted. Four hundred nineteen sophomores' strategy use frequency, Vocabulary Size Test (VST) scores (indicative of breadth of VK), Word Associates Test (WAT) scores (indicative of depth of VK), College English Test Band-4 scores, and gender and discipline categories were used as data. Proficiency significantly predicted Attention and Guessing positively but was a negative predictor of Socializing (asking others for help). Girls liked making notes while using dictionaries (DictNote) and Socializing, and students of arts also took more notes. Attention and Guessing significantly predicted VST and WAT positively, but Socializing significantly predicted the breadth and depth of VK negatively, and DictNote, Association, and Repetition had no significant relationship. The predictive power of Attention, Guessing, and Socializing, however, was achieved mainly, or for an important part, via the mediating or indirect effects of proficiency. Gender moderated the predictive power of Attention, Socializing, and DictNote over VST, greater for male students, whereas discipline moderated the relationship between Guessing and WAT, stronger for arts students. The findings are related to strategy features, gender characteristics, disciplinary influence, the EFL context and culture, and effective learning. This study reveals the complex relationships among use of VLSs, VK, and learner variables. Attention is called for to third-party factors in understanding VLSs-VK relationships. Given the important mediating effects of proficiency, it is proposed that vocabulary learning be strategically integrated into the accumulative process of English learning.

Project description:The Internet provides us with tools (user metrics or paradata) to evaluate how users interact with online interventions. Analysis of these paradata can lead to design improvements.The objective was to explore the qualities of online participant engagement in an online intervention. We analyzed the paradata in a randomized controlled trial of alternative versions of an online intervention designed to promote consumption of fruit and vegetables.Volunteers were randomized to 1 of 3 study arms involving several online sessions. We created 2 indirect measures of breadth and depth to measure different dimensions and dynamics of program engagement based on factor analysis of paradata measures of Web pages visited and time spent online with the intervention materials. Multiple regression was used to assess influence of engagement on retention and change in dietary intake.Baseline surveys were completed by 2513 enrolled participants. Of these, 86.3% (n = 2168) completed the follow-up surveys at 3 months, 79.6% (n = 2027) at 6 months, and 79.4% (n = 1995) at 12 months. The 2 tailored intervention arms exhibited significantly more engagement than the untailored arm (P < .01). Breadth and depth measures of engagement were significantly associated with completion of follow-up surveys (odds ratios [OR] = 4.11 and 2.12, respectively, both P values < .001). The breadth measure of engagement was also significantly positively associated with a key study outcome, the mean increase in fruit and vegetable consumption (P < .001).By exploring participants' exposures to online interventions, paradata are valuable in explaining the effects of tailoring in increasing participant engagement in the intervention. Controlling for intervention arm, greater engagement is also associated with retention of participants and positive change in a key outcome of the intervention, dietary change. This paper demonstrates the utility of paradata capture and analysis for evaluating online health interventions.NCT00169312; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00169312 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5u8sSr0Ty).

Project description:When bilingual speakers use two languages in the same utterance, this is called code-switching. Previous research indicates that bilinguals' likelihood to code-switch is enhanced when the utterance to be produced (1) contains a word with a similar form across languages (lexical triggering) and (2) is preceded by a code-switched utterance, for example from a dialogue partner (interactive alignment/priming of code-switching). Both factors have mostly been tested on corpus data and have not yet been studied in combination. In two experiments, we therefore investigated the combined effects of interactive alignment and lexical triggering on code-switching. In Experiment 1, Dutch-English bilinguals described pictures to each other in a dialogue game where a confederate's code-switching was manipulated. The participants were free to use either Dutch, English, or a combination of Dutch and English in describing the pictures, so they could voluntarily code-switch or not. The pictures contained a cognate [e.g., roos (rose)], a false friend [e.g., rok (skirt, false friend with rock)], or a control word [e.g., jas (coat)]. Participants code-switched more often when the confederate had just code-switched (indicating interactive alignment). They also code-switched more often when cognates were involved, but only when the confederate had just code-switched. This indicates that lexical triggering is driven by interactive alignment. False friends did not enhance the likelihood of code-switching. Experiment 2 used a similar dialogue game with participants from the same population but focused specifically on how to account for interactive alignment of code-switching. Rather than aligning on their dialogue partner's pragmatic act of code-switching, bilinguals aligned on the language activation from the utterance produced by their dialogue partner. All in all, the results show how co-activation of languages at multiple levels of processing together influence bilinguals' tendency to code-switch. The findings call for a perspective on bilingual language production in which cross-speaker and cross-language processes are combined.

Dataset Information

Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) of Lexical Breadth and Depth in the Vocabulary of Bilingual Kindergarten Children – A Bilingual Intervention Study

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets