Non-word repetition performance in Korean-English bilingual children

Abstract

The goals of this research were (1) to compare bilingual and monolingual children on Korean non-word repetition performance, and (2) to examine the relations between non-word repetition and vocabulary skills in bilingual and monolingual children. Sixty children aged from 3–5 years participated in this study, including 30 Korean-English bilinguals and 30 Korean monolinguals. The Korean-English bilingual children were sequential bilinguals who spoke Korean at home and English at school. Children were tested on a non-word repetition task and their Korean and English vocabulary skills were measured by standardized tests. The results showed that bilingual children were significantly lower on standardized vocabulary scores (p < .01). However, there was no difference between bilinguals and monolinguals on non-word repetition performance. Correlation analyses showed a significant association between non-word repetition performance and vocabulary skills of the tested language in both groups, while the association between non-word repetition and age was significant in the monolingual group. These results demonstrated that the non-word repetition task measures general language learning ability and is a sensitive predictor of vocabulary skills in linguistically diverse children.

Keywords::

• Bilingual
• non-word repetition
• phonological memory
• language development.

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Eun Ju Lee of the Ajou Auditory Language Center for her assistance in designing this study. The basis of this research was a Masters thesis completed by the first author at the Ewha Womans University, Department of Communication Disorders.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Appendix: Non-word stimuli.