Early Bilingualism, Article Review Example

Early Bilingualism, Language Transfer, and Phonological Awareness

Introduction

The research study “Early Bilingualism, Language Transfer, and Phonological Awareness” by Verhoeven (2007) examined the language development and the connection between bilingualism and phonological awareness of 75 children living in the Netherlands from Turkish ethnic backgrounds, attending kindergarten. The dominant language of the children was Turkish, and the research was carried out based on the level assessment of phonology and language development. The below article critique would examine the methods, results and findings in detail.

Review

The author confirms that the language learning patterns of monolingual and bilingual children are similar, however, bilingual kids would have to process two different language inputs: one that is L1 (first language spoken at home, in this case Turkish) and L2, the language taught in kindergarten and spoken by educators or peers. However, the language development related to L2 would depend on the initial competency of L1. (pp. 426.) The main research questions the authors were looking to answer were:

1. The language skills of children between the age of 5-6 attending kindergarten related to L1 and L2
2. The level of interdependence between L1 and L2 development
3. Relationship between bilingual development and phonological achievement

The authors were looking to find out whether the first language used at home influences the development of the second one. The reason why Turkish children born and living in the Netherlands were examined is that they are a part of the largest minority group in the country.

The authors used phonological testing as an assessment method in the beginning and the end of the school year. The mean age of the children was 5 years 5 months. There were various language- related assessment tests carried out; namely: language proficiency, auditory discrimination, receptive and productive vocabulary, function word comprehension, sentence imitation, story comprehension, phonological awareness, word objectification, phoneme segmentation, and word blending tests. The “Goodness of Fit” index was used to evaluate the different variables.

Reflection

Although the article criticizes the methods of teaching claiming that productive language skills are not developed appropriately, there are no recommendations included. It is evident that while children use their dominant language at home within their family, they would be more competent in Turkish, as in school they mainly listen and focus on perception.

While the research has proven that there is a close relationship between phonological and bilingual development, the study was limited to a small number of children and only one minority group. While the early development of language and phonological skills is very important, there is a need for further studies and assessments in earlier or later years to compare the stage of development related to L1 and L2.

One of the main findings of the study was that the children’s productive language skills results were significantly lower than receptive ones. Although this is an argument that can be used to criticize the school system, it is also important to note that children in this age tend to repeat more than actively use the language. Still, learning through repetition, when starting to use the second language, is the first step of the process.

The research used academic testing systems to assess the proficiency levels of children; still this evaluation might not have been appropriate based on their age. The authors of the current study would recommend using a simple and custom-made testing system created for the study, as questions arise regarding the time-efficiency of the research, as well as the effects on children’s perception of the language.

Conclusion

While the research of the phonological development of children was useful and provided an answer to the thesis question, there is a need for further research taking into consideration the main stages of bilingual language development, as well as test results and using the level of L1 use within the family as another variable, to determine whether this influences the learning of a second language.

References

Verhoeven. Ludo (2007). Early bilingualism, language transfer, and phonological awareness.     Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, pp. 425-439