Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-wvcvf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-23T17:03:45.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fast mapping by bilingual preschool children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2008

PUI FONG KAN  and
KATHRYN KOHNERT
PUI FONG KAN*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
KATHRYN KOHNERT*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address for correspondence: kanx0004@umn.edu.
kohne005@umn.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous studies show that young monolingual children's ability to ‘fast map’ new word forms is closely associated with both their age and existing vocabulary knowledge. In this study we investigate potential relationships between age, fast mapping skills and existing vocabulary knowledge in both languages of developing bilingual preschool children. Participants were twenty-six typically developing children, ages 3 ; 0 to 5 ; 3. All children learned Hmong as their primary home language (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Fast mapping and vocabulary knowledge tasks were administered in L1 and L2. For vocabulary knowledge, scores were comparable in L1 and L2; for fast mapping, scores were somewhat greater in L1 than L2. In contrast to previous findings with monolingual children, fast mapping performance was not related to age or existing vocabulary knowledge in either Hmong or English. There were, however, significant positive and negative cross-language correlations between L1 fast mapping and L2 vocabulary.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 495 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a McKnight Land-grant Professorship awarded to K. Kohnert. We are grateful to the children and their families who participated in this study as well as to the teachers at Reuben Lindh Family Services: Paj Yang, Eepay Yang and Maiya Yang. We thank Olga Campbell, Erika Hoyt, Laura Kluge, Vorn Lor, Marjorie Southward, Chandra Xiong, Jy Xiong and Dongsun Yim for assistance with data collecting and with scoring. We are also grateful to Susan Ellis Weismer for sharing fast mapping stimuli and procedures and to Philip Dale, two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor for very helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.

References

REFERENCES

Alt, M. & Plante, E. (2006). Factors that influence lexical and semantic fast mapping of young children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 49, 941–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alt, M., Plante, E. & Creusere, M. (2004). Semantic feature in fast mapping: performance of preschoolers with specific language impairment versus preschoolers with normal language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47, 407–420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campos, S. J. (1995). The Carpentería preschool program: a long term effects study. In Garcia, E. E. & McLaughlin, B. (eds) Meeting the challenge of linguistic and cultural diversity in early childhood education, 34–48. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Capone, N. & McGregor, K. K. (2006). The effect of semantic information on toddlers' word retrieval. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48, 1468–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, S. (1978). The child as a word learner. In Halle, M., Bresnan, J. & Miller, G. A. (eds) Linguistic theory and psychological reality, 264–93. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Carey, S. & Bartlett, E. (1978). Acquiring a single new word. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 15, 17–29.Google Scholar
Caselli, M. C., Casadio, P. & Bates, E. (2001). Lexical development in English and Italian. In Tomasello, M. & Bates, E. (eds) Language development: the essential readings, 76–110. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
De Houwer, A. D. (2005). Early bilingual acquisition: focus on morphosyntax and the separate development hypothesis. In Kroll, J. & de Groot, A. M. B. (eds) Handbook of bilingualism: psycholinguistic approaches, 30–48. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dollaghan, C. A. (1987). Fast mapping in normal and language-impaired children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 52(3), 218–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L., Dunn, L. & Williams, K. T. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Third edition. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Ellis Weismer, S. & Evans, J. (2002). The role of processing limitations in early identification of specific language impairment. Topics in Language Disorders 22, 15–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis Weismer, S. & Hesketh, L. J. (1993). The influence of prosodic and gestural cues on novel word acquisition by children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 36, 1013–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis Weismer, S. & Hesketh, L. J. (1996). Lexical learning by children with specific language impairment: effects of linguistic input presented at varying speaking rates. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 39, 177–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis Weismer, S. & Hesketh, L. J. (1998). The impact of emphatic stress on novel word learning by children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 41, 1444–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenson, L., Resznick, S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J., Pethick, S. & Reilly, J. (1993). The MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventory. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.Google Scholar
Gray, S. (2003). Word learning by preschoolers with specific language impairment: what predicts success? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46, 56–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gray, S. (2004). Word learning by preschoolers with specific language impairment: predictors and poor learners. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47, 1117–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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, 1452–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gray, S. (2006). The relationship between phonological memory, receptive vocabulary, and fast mapping in young children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 49, 955–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heimbach, E. E. (1980). White Hmong–English Dictionary. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program Publications.Google Scholar
Hwa-Froelich, D. & Matsuo, H. (2005). Vietnamese children and language-based processing tasks. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 36, 230–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kan, P. F. & Kohnert, K. (2005). Preschoolers learning Hmong and English: lexical–semantic skills in L1 and L2. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48, 372–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K. (2002). Picture naming in early sequential bilinguals: a 1-year follow-up. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45, 759–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K. (2004). Children learning a second language: processing skills in early sequential bilinguals. In Goldstein, B. (ed.) Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish–English speakers, 53–76. Baltimore: Brookes.Google Scholar
Kohnert, K. (2008). Language disorders in bilingual children and adults. San Diego: Plural Publishing.Google Scholar
Kohnert, K., Bates, E. & Hernandez, A. E. (1999). Balancing bilinguals: lexical-semantic production and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42, 1400–413.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohnert, K. & Danahy, K. (2007). Young L2 learners' performance on a novel morpheme task. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 21, 557–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leiter, R. G. (2002). Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised. Wood Sale, IL: Stoelting Co.Google Scholar
Leseman, P. (2000). Bilingual vocabulary development of Turkish preschoolers in the Netherlands. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 21, 93–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez, J., Díaz, R., Duran, D. & Espinosa, L. (1995). The impact of bilingual preschool education on the language development of Spanish-speaking children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 10, 475–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roseberry, C. A. & Connell, P. J. (1991). The use of an invented language rule in the differentiation of normal and language-impaired Spanish-speaking children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 34, 596–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snodgrass, J. & Vanderwart, M. (1980). A standardized set of 260 pictures: norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6, 174–215.Google ScholarPubMed
US Census Bureau (2000). Statistical abstract of the United States, 120th ed.Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, K. M. & Mazzitelli, K. (2003). The effect of ‘missing’ information on children's retention of fast mapped labels. Journal of Child Language 30, 47–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winsler, A., Díaz, R., Espinosa, L. & Rodríguez, J. (1999). When learning a second language does not mean losing the first: bilingual language development in low income Spanish-speaking children attending bilingual preschool. Child Development 70, 349–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, I., Steiner, V. & Pond, R. (1992). Preschool Language Scale-3. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar