Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-j7khd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T05:29:41.340Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conceptual distance and word learning: Patterns of acquisition in Samoan–English bilingual children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2012

GAYLE HEMSLEY ,
ALISON HOLM  and
BARBARA DODD
GAYLE HEMSLEY*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Australia
ALISON HOLM
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Australia
BARBARA DODD
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Australia
*
[*]Address for correspondence: Gayle Hemsley, University of Queensland – Center for Clinical Research, Level 4, Building 71/918, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia. e-mail: gayleslp@hemsleys.net
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigated cross-linguistic influence in acquisition of a second lexicon, evaluating Samoan–English sequentially bilingual children (initial mean age 4 ; 9) during their first 18 months of school. Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary tasks evaluated acquisition of four word types: cognates, matched nouns, phrasal nouns and holonyms. Each word type had varying phonological and conceptual difference between Samoan (L1) and English (L2). Results highlighted conceptual distance between L1 and L2 as a key factor in L2 lexical acquisition. The children acquired L2 lexical items earlier if their conceptual representation was similar to that of L1. Words with greater conceptual distance between L1 and L2 emerged more slowly. This suggests that L1 knowledge influences L2 lexical consolidation for sequential bilinguals. Words that require a conceptual shift from L1 take longer to consolidate and strengthen within the L2 lexicon.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , September 2013 , pp. 799 - 820
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006). Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Carroll, M. & Von Stutterheim, C. (1993). The representation of spatial configurations in English and German and the grammatical structure of locative and anaphoric expressions. Linguistics 31(6), 1011–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clyne, M. (1991). Community Languages: The Australian Experience. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comrie, B., Matthews, S. & Polinsky, M. (eds) 1996. The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Coolican, H. (2004). Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Costa, A. (2005). Lexical access in bilingual production. In Kroll, J. F. & De Groot, A. M. B. (eds), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguisitc approaches, 308–325. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Costa, A., Caramazza, A. & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2000). The cognate facilitation effect: Implications for models of lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology/Learning, Memory & Cognition 26(5), 1283–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, A., Santesteban, M. & Caño, A. (2005). On the facilitatory effects of cognate words in bilingual speech production. Brain and Language 94(1), 94–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Groot, A. M. B., Borgwaldt, S., Bos, M. & van den Eijnden, E. (2002). Lexical decision and word naming in bilinguals: Language effects and task effects. Journal of Memory and Language 47(1), 91–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumay, N. & Gaskell, M. G. (2007). Sleep-associated changes in the mental representation of spoken words. Psychological Science 18(1), 35–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J. P. et al. (1993). MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: User's guide and technical manual. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.Google Scholar
Gaskell, M. G. & Dumay, N. (2003). Lexical competition and the acquisition of novel words. Cognition 89(2), 105–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodz, N. (1989). Parental language mixing in bilingual families. Infant Mental Health Journal 10, 25–44.3.0.CO;2-R>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, S. (2005). Word learning by preschoolers with specific language impairment: Effect of phonological or semantic cues. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48(6), 1452–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammer, C. S., Miccio, A. W. & Rodriguez, B. L. (2004). Bilingual language acquisition and the child socialization process. In Goldstein, B. A. (ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish–English speakers, 21–50. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Haugen, E. (1956). Bilingualism in the Americas: A bibliography and research guide. Montgomery: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Hemsley, G., Holm, A. & Dodd, B. (2006). Diverse but not different: The lexical skills of two primary age bilingual groups in comparison to monolingual peers. International Journal of Bilingualism 10(4), 453–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemsley, G., Holm, A. & Dodd, B. (2010). Patterns in diversity: Lexical learning in Samoan–English bilingual children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 12(4), 362–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kan, P. F. & Kohnert, K. (2005). Preschoolers learning Hmong and English: Lexical-semantic skills in L1 and L2. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research 48(2), 372–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kan, P. F. & Kohnert, K. (2008). Fast mapping by bilingual preschool children. Journal of Child Language 35(3), 495–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kellerman, E. (1995). Crosslinguistic influence: Transfer to nowhere? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 15, 125–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K. J. (2008). Language disorders in bilingual children and adults. San Diego: Plural Publishing.Google Scholar
Kohnert, K. J. & Bates, E. (2002). Balancing bilinguals II: Lexical comprehension and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research 45(2), 347–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kroll, J. F. & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language 33(2), 149–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Sumutka, B. M. & Schwartz, A. I. (2005). A cognitive view of the bilingual lexicon: Reading and speaking words in two languages. International Journal of Bilingualism 9(1), 27–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leseman, P. P. M. (2000). Bilingual vocabulary development of Turkish preschoolers in the Netherlands. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 21(2), 93–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, S. & Gaskell, M. G. (2010). A complementary systems account of word learning in L1 and L2. Language Learning 60, 45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, D. L. & Satake, E. (2006). Research and statistical methods in communication sciences and disorders. Canada: Thomson Delmar Learning.Google Scholar
Peña, E. D., Bedore, L. M. & Zlatic-Giunta, R. (2002). Category generation performance of bilingual children: The influence of condition, category, and language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45(5), 938–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pratt, G. (ed.) (1862). Samoan dictionary: English and Samoan, and Samoan and English; with a short grammar of the Samoan dialect. Samoa: London Missionary Society's Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. M. & Deslauriers, L. (1999). Picture naming of cognate and non-cognate nouns in bilingual aphasia. Journal of Communication Disorders 32(1), 1–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaerlaekens, A., Zink, I. & Verheyden, L. (1995). Comparative vocabulary development in kindergarten classes with a mixed population of monolinguals, simultaneous and successive bilinguals. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 16(6), 477–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarz, I.-C., Burnham, D. & Bowey, J. A. (2006). Phoneme sensitivity and vocabulary size in 2½- to 3-year-olds. Paper presented at the 11th Australian International Conference on Speech Science & Technology, University of Auckland, New Zealand.Google Scholar
Yudes, C., Macizo, P. & Bajo, T. (2010). Cognate effects in bilingual language comprehension tasks. Neuroreport 21(7), 507–512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed