Bilingual Children’s Acquisition of English

LanguageLearningISSN0023-8333BilingualChildren’sAcquisitionofEnglishVerbMorphology:EffectsofLanguageExposure,StructureComplexity,andTaskTypeJohanneParadisUniversityofAlbertaThisstudyinvestigatedwhetherbilingual-monolingualdifferenceswouldbeapparentinschool-agechildren’suseandknowledgeofEnglishverbmorphologyandwhetherdifferenceswouldbeinfluencedbyamountofexposuretoEnglish,complexityofthemorphologicalstructure,orthetypeoftaskgiven.French-Englishbilinguals(meanage=6;10)weregivenastandardizedtestwithtwoproductionprobesandagram-maticalityjudgmentprobeforEnglishverbmorphology.Resultsindicatedthatallthreefactors—exposure,complexity,andtasktype—influencedhowcloselybilingualsap-proachedmonolingualnorms.TheseresultsareconsistentwithGathercole’s(2007)constructivistmodelofbilingualacquisitionfortheexposureandcomplexityeffects.Thetaskeffectscanbeexplainedinviewofcognitivedifferencesinprocessingbetweenbilingualsandmonolingualsand,thus,arealsoarguedtobecompatiblewithacon-structivistmodel.Theimplicationsofbilingual-monolingualdifferencesforlanguageassessmentarediscussed.Keywordsbilingualdevelopment;childlanguage;tensemorphology;constructivisttheory;acquisitionofEnglishIwouldfirstliketothanktheprincipalsofthetwoConseil-scolaireCentre-Nordschoolswhoparticipatedinthisresearch,M.Jean-DanielTremblayandMme.RitaH´ebert.Theirsupportforthisresearchwaspivotaltoitssuccess.Iwouldalsoliketothankthestudentassistantswhocollectedthedataforthisstudy,DorothyPawlinaPinto,TamaraSorensonDuncan,andAntoineTremblay.Finally,Iwouldliketoacknowledgemycolleagueandcollaboratorinthisresearchprogram,Dr.MarthaCrago,forherinputtotheconceptualframeworkforthiswork.ThisresearchwasfundedbytheSocialSciencesandHumanitiesResearchCouncilofCanada,forwhichIamgrateful(standardresearchgrant#410-2006-0104;officiallanguagesgrant#858-2004-0012).CorrespondenceconcerningthisarticleshouldbeaddressedtoJohanneParadis,DepartmentofLinguistics,UniversityofAlberta,4-46AssiniboiaHall,Edmonton,ABT6G2E7Canada.Internet:[e-mail]60:3,September2010,pp.651–680651C2010LanguageLearningResearchClub,UniversityofMichiganDOI:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00567.xParadisBilingualChildren’sAcquisitionofEnglishChildrenwhoarelearningtwolanguagesexperiencemorevariabilityintheirinputthanmonolingualchildren.Bilingualchildren,onaverage,receivelessinputineachoftheirtwolanguagesthanmonolingualage-mates,andthisinputisseldomequallybalancedbetweenthem.Bilingualchildrenmayhavetheirex-posuretooneorbothlanguagesrestrictedtocertaincontexts,interlocutors,andregisters/dialects.Finally,shiftsinthesequantitativeandqualitativevariationsofexposurecanoccurovertimeduetochangesinfamilystructure,child-carearrangements,schooling,orplaceofresidence.Assumingthatvariationininputconditionswillaffectlanguagedevelopment,researchershaveaskedthefollowingquestion:Howrobustorsensitiveismorphosyntacticacquisi-tioninthefaceofdual-languagelearning?Thisquestionhasbeenaddressedfrombothconstructivistandgenerativetheoreticalperspectives,focusingonbothratesandpatternsofacquisition(Gathercole,2007;M¨uller&Hulk,2001;Nicoladis,Palmer,&Marentette,2007;Paradis,Nicoladis,&Crago,2007;P´erez-Leroux,Pirvulescu,&Roberge,2009).Thisstudyisconcernedwiththeimpactofdual-languagelearningonchildren’srateofmorphosyntacticacquisition.Bilingualandmonolingualchildren’sacquisitionofEnglishverbmorphologywasexaminedwiththeaimoftestingthepredictionsofconstruc-tivistmodelsofacquisition,ingeneral,andGathercole’s(2007)constructivistmodelofbilingualacquisition,inparticular.ComparingBilingualandMonolingualRatesofMorphosyntacticAcquisitionThemajorityofstudiescomparingthemorphosyntacticacquisitionratesofbilingualandmonolingualpreschoolandearlyschool-agechildrenhavefoundthatbilingualslagbehindtheirmonolingualage-peers.Morespecifically,stud-ieshavefoundthattheamountofexposureabilingualhashadineachofthelanguagesandtherelativecomplexityofthegrammaticalstructurebeingexam-inedplayaroleinincreasingordecreasingmonolingual-bilingualdifferences.Inalarge-scalestudyinMiami,Gathercole(2002a,2002b,2002c)andPearson(2002)studiedtheEnglishandSpanishmorphosyntacticacquisitionofbilin-gualchildreninthesecondgradeineitherEnglish-onlyorSpanish-Englishbilingualschools.Gathercole(2002a,2002b,2002c)reportedtheresultsofgrammaticalityjudgmenttasksprobingchildren’sknowledgeofthefollowingstructures:themass/countnoundistinctioninquantificationstructures,whichdoesnotexistinSpanish;grammaticalgender,whichdoesnotexistinEnglish;andthethat-traceeffectinembeddedclausesinquestions,forwhichthegram-maticalstructureinEnglishistheungrammaticalstructureinSpanishandviceLanguageLearning60:3,September2010,pp.651–680652ParadisBilingualChildren’sAcquisitionofEnglishversa.Inallthreestudies,bilingualshadlowerscoresforcorrectjudgmentsthanmonolinguals,althoughforthethat-tracetaskinEnglish,eventhemono-linguals’scoreswerelow,suggestingthatthisgrammaticalpropertymightbetoosubtleforchildrenthisagetograsp.TheimpactofdifferencesinrelativeamountsofexposuretoSpanishandEnglishwereexaminedthroughtwovari-a