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A large receptive-expressive gap in bilingual children
Karin Keller1, Larissa M Troesch2, Alexander Grob2
1Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University College London London, UK ; Department of Psychology, University of Basel Basel, Switzerland.
Frontiers in Psychology
|September 18, 2015
Summary
Bilingual children show a gap between understanding and speaking German. This language gap correlates with the amount of language exposure, supporting the language exposure hypothesis in bilingual development.
Area of Science:
- Child Language Acquisition
- Bilingualism Research
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Bilingual children often exhibit differences between their understanding (receptive) and speaking (expressive) language skills.
- Understanding the factors influencing these language discrepancies is crucial for effective educational and clinical support.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the gap between receptive and expressive language competence in bilingual children learning German as a second language (L2).
- To examine potential explanatory factors, specifically the language exposure hypothesis and the language familiarity hypothesis.
Main Methods:
- A standardized language development test was administered to 406 bilingual children aged 43 months.
- Children had German as their L2 and 46 different first languages.
- Data on language contact and familiarity were collected to analyze their influence on the language gap.
Main Results:
- A significant gap between receptive and expressive German L2 competence was observed across all language groups.
- The magnitude of this gap (approximately 1 standard deviation) positively correlated with the extent of language contact.
- No significant support was found for the language familiarity hypothesis as an explanation for the observed gap.
Conclusions:
- Language exposure significantly influences the discrepancy between receptive and expressive language skills in bilingual children.
- Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of bilingual language development mechanisms.
- Results have implications for both foundational research in language acquisition and practical language assessment for bilingual children.
Keywords:
bilingualismexpressive languagelanguage exposurereceptive languagereceptive–expressive gapsecond languageMore Related Videos
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