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A Longitudinal Comparison of Phonological and Morphological Awareness Development in Chinese-English Bilinguals and Monolinguals: The Influence of Literacy on Development
Poster Session D, Saturday, September 13, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, Field House
Bao-Ying Huang1, Shiou-Yuan Chen2, Li-Ying Fan3, Hsin-Chin Chen4, Syuan-Yu Lin1, Yueh-Lin Li1, Tai-Li Chou1; 1National Taiwan University, 2University of Taipei, 3National Taipei University of Education, 4National Chung Cheng University
Previous research has shown a strong interconnection between phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA), and literacy skills. However, early exposure to two languages can affect the dynamics among these linguistic abilities. While most studies have focused on using PA and MA as predictors to investigate the effect of bilingualism on literacy development in young bilingual children, relatively few studies explore how literacy proficiency may influence bilinguals’ development of PA and MA. Building on these findings, the present longitudinal study aimed to investigate how distinct levels of literate proficiency and early bilingual experience interact to shape the changes on the abilities of PA and MA in Chinese within a two-year interval, respectively. Forty-eight Chinese-English bilinguals and 32 Chinese monolinguals, aged 6–7 years (Mean age at Time 1 = 6.65 and 6.78 years, respectively), participated in the study. Both groups completed a battery of standardized language assessments and the phonology and morphology tasks in Chinese at two time points over a two-year period. The assessments included measures of phonology, morphology, vocabulary, and literacy. For the Chinese phonology and morphology tasks, children heard three spoken words and were asked to determine the relationship between words. In the phonological task, children were asked to identify the two words sharing the same onset sound (Sunday-subway-Monday), whereas in the morphological task, they were asked to identify the two words better matched on meaning (classroom-bedroom-mushroom). Additionally, development in PA and MA was assessed by the change in task accuracy between the first and second time points. Regression analyses were conducted to estimate the contributions of vocabulary and literacy to the development of PA and MA, using verbal vocabulary, character recognition, and character reading scores respectively at Time 1 as predictors of changes in accuracy in PA and MA over time. The same regression models were applied separately to bilingual and monolingual groups. Regression analyses revealed that among various vocabulary and literacy assessments, character recognition – measured as a literacy skill – was a stronger predictor of growth in MA (β = –0.018, p = .021) than in PA (β = .002, p = .070) among Chinese monolinguals. No significant findings were observed among Chinese-English bilinguals. These findings suggest that the development of MA in monolinguals relies more on literacy skills relative to bilinguals. Furthermore, monolinguals’ literacy proficiency at Time 1 was negatively correlated with the development of MA (β = –0.018, p = .021), suggesting that monolingual children with lower vocabulary proficiency at the early time point may show greater improvement in MA performance over time. In conclusion, the current study highlights the effect of bilingual experience on the association between literacy skills and the development of morphological awareness, suggesting that this relationship is stronger in Chinese monolinguals compared to Chinese-English bilinguals. Specifically, among Chinese monolinguals, those with lower initial vocabulary skills tend to demonstrate greater improvement over time.
Topic Areas: Language Development/Acquisition, Morphology