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Published on: February 26, 2020
'Bilinguality' in dual language schoolchildren and its implications
1School of Health and Policy Studies, University of Central England, Birmingham. Sam.Abudarham@uce.ac.uk
Summary
This study measured the receptive lexical proficiency and bilinguality of 392 primary school children in Gibraltar. Findings reveal insights into how children develop language skills in dual language environments.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Bilingual Education
Background:
- Investigates receptive lexical proficiency in young learners within a unique linguistic context.
- Examines the development of bilingualism in primary school children exposed to two languages.
- Addresses the need for data on language acquisition in Dual Language (DL) programs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the receptive lexical proficiency of 392 Dual Language primary school children in Gibraltar.
- To calculate and assess the bilinguality of these children in their first language (L1) Gibraltarian Spanish (Yanito) and second language (L2) English.
- To discuss the practical implications of the bilinguality findings.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a doctoral investigation framework to collect and analyze language data.
- Measured receptive lexical proficiency in both L1 (Gibraltarian Spanish/Yanito) and L2 (English).
- Employed statistical analyses to determine the degree of bilinguality among participants.
Main Results:
- Presents the results of multiple analyses focused on quantifying bilinguality.
- Reports on the measured lexical proficiency in both Gibraltarian Spanish (Yanito) and English.
- Details the calculated bilinguality scores for the studied cohort.
Conclusions:
- The study provides empirical data on the bilinguality of young dual language learners.
- Discusses the practical applications of these findings for educators and researchers.
- Highlights the importance of understanding lexical development in bilingual children.
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