Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
Lexical and grammatical associations in sequential bilingual preschoolers
Kathryn Kohnert1, Pui Fong Kan, Barbara T Conboy
1Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. kohne005@umn.edu
Purpose:
The authors investigated potential relationships between traditional linguistic domains (words, grammar) in the first (L1) and second (L2) languages of young sequential bilingual preschool children.
Method:
Participants were 19 children, ages 2;11 (years;months) to 5;2 (M = 4;3) who began learning Hmong as the L1 from birth and English as the L2 during early childhood. Measures were the number of different words (NDW) and mean length of utterance (MLU) produced during a story retell task and scores on picture identification, an independent measure of receptive vocabulary. Correlations were conducted to determine relationships among measures.
Results:
In English, there were robust positive relationships between MLU and lexical measures (NDW, Picture Identification). In Hmong, more modest cross-domain associations were evident between lexical measures and MLU. There were positive cross-language links for NDW but more limited cross-domain correspondences between the L1 and the L2.
Conclusions:
In English, relationships between words and grammar were similar to those found in previous studies with monolingual and simultaneous bilingual toddlers. Weaker cross-domain associations in the L1 may reflect participants' greater development in Hmong or typological differences between the L1 and the L2.
More Related Videos
06:15Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism
Published on: October 3, 2018
05:35Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Language Development
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Language and Cognition
Components of Language
Associative Learning
Classical conditioning, also known...
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Mnemonic Devices
Acronyms
Acronyms are created by using the initial letters of a series of words to form a new word or phrase. This approach condenses complex information into a single, memorable entity. For example,...