The impact of older siblings on vocabulary learning in bilingual children

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effects of older siblings’ L1/L2 use on the vocabulary and fast mapping skills in preschool-age children who learn Cantonese (L1) as a home language and start to learn English (L2) in preschool settings. Two groups of bilingual children participated in this study: (1) children whose older siblings used mostly L1 at home (‘Mostly L1’ group; n = 14) and (2) children whose older siblings used an equal amount of L1 and L2 at home (‘Equal L1/L2’ group; n = 13). Participants were tested using vocabulary measures and a fast mapping task. Results showed that there were no significant group differences in children’s vocabulary scores or in their fast mapping production scores in each language. However, when measured using a comprehension probe during the fast mapping task, the ‘Mostly L1’ group outperformed the ‘Equal L1/L2’ group in identifying the target novel words in L1, whereas there were no group differences in L2. The findings provide some preliminary evidence that older siblings who speak mostly L1 may contribute to their younger siblings’ L1 fast mapping skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Sibling
• bilingual
• vocabulary
• language input
• fast mapping
• word learning

Acknowledgements

This research was the first author’s honors thesis and was presented at the annual convention of the Speech, Language, and Hearing Association, 2017. Funding for the task development and data collection was provided to Pui Fong Kan by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R03DC014059. Additional funding for the data analysis of this study was provided to Kelly Taylor by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of Colorado. We are grateful to the participants and their families, as well as to the following research assistants who helped with data collection and scoring: Voonfee Leow, Voonjing Leow, Stephanie Eng, Shirley Cheung, and Fan-yin Cheng.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the task development and data collection was provided to Pui Fong Kan by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R03DC014059. Additional funding for the data analysis of this study was provided to Kelly Taylor by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of Colorado.

Notes on contributors

Kelly Taylor

Kelly Taylor graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with bachelors degrees in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences and in Spanish. She is now a first year graduate student at the University of Texas Austin in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program, where she continues studying bilingualism.

Pui Fong Kan

Pui Fong Kan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research examines language learning in bilingual children and child language disorders.