Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

Group Design

Group Design

The most basic experimental design involves two groups: the experimental group and the control group. The two groups are designed to be the same except for one difference— experimental manipulation. The experimental group gets the experimental manipulation—that is, the treatment or variable being tested—and the control group does not. Since experimental manipulation is the only difference between the experimental and control groups, we can be sure that any differences between...

Components of Language

Components of Language

Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
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...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

A Longitudinal Analysis of Sentence Repetition by Spanish-English Bilinguals With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR·2026

Same author

Invisible Print? Reading Skill Predicts Children's Learning of Novel Spoken Words.

Infant and child development·2026

Same author

Tailoring Grammatical Test Items in English According to Language Experience for the Classification of Developmental Language Disorder in Bilinguals.

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR·2026

Same author

When Words Shift: Age and Language of Elicitation Influence Syntagmatic-Paradigmatic Shifts in Bilingual Children.

Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)·2025

Same author

Factor structure and longitudinal changes in bilinguals' oral narratives production: role of language exposure, language-domain proficiency, and transfer.

Applied psycholinguistics·2025

Same author

Unpacking Language-Related Sources of Variability in Bilingual Students With Poor Reading Comprehension.

Language, speech, and hearing services in schools·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 20, 2025

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Bilingual Vocabulary Assessment: Examining Single-Language, Conceptual, and Total Scoring Approaches.

Lisa Fitton¹, J Marc Goodrich², Lauren Thayer²

¹Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR

|August 4, 2023

Summary

Measuring vocabulary in bilingual children requires careful consideration of proficiency levels. Standard vocabulary tests may underestimate knowledge in children with balanced Spanish and English skills.

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: Validation of SICOLE-R for Assessing Cognitive and Reading Skills in Spanish-Speaking Children and Its Role in Personalized Education

Author Spotlight: Validation of SICOLE-R for Assessing Cognitive and Reading Skills in Spanish-Speaking Children and Its Role in Personalized Education

Published on: August 16, 2024

Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish

Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish

Published on: July 18, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 20, 2025

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Author Spotlight: Validation of SICOLE-R for Assessing Cognitive and Reading Skills in Spanish-Speaking Children and Its Role in Personalized Education

Author Spotlight: Validation of SICOLE-R for Assessing Cognitive and Reading Skills in Spanish-Speaking Children and Its Role in Personalized Education

Published on: August 16, 2024

Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish

Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish

Published on: July 18, 2020

Area of Science:

Child language acquisition
Bilingualism research
Psychometrics in education

Background:

Assessing vocabulary in bilingual children presents unique challenges.
Understanding how proficiency levels affect vocabulary measurement is crucial for accurate evaluation.
Existing methods may not fully capture the linguistic knowledge of children with dynamic language skills.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore methods for measuring vocabulary in bilingual children with varying Spanish and English proficiency.
To investigate the association between relative language skills and different vocabulary scoring approaches.

Main Methods:

One hundred fifteen kindergarten and first-grade Spanish-English speaking children participated.
Vocabulary and sentence repetition were assessed in both Spanish and English.
Data analysis included visualization and statistical methods to examine vocabulary scores (Spanish-only, English-only, conceptual, total) against relative language proficiency.

Main Results:

Single-language vocabulary scores correlated linearly with relative language proficiency.
Higher proficiency in one language corresponded to higher scores in that language's vocabulary measure.
Conceptual vocabulary scores showed a quadratic association, with lower scores for children having more balanced bilingual skills.

Conclusions:

Differential test bias was observed, where single-language scores may underestimate knowledge.
Conceptual scoring may not accurately reflect vocabulary for balanced bilinguals.
Further research is needed to refine vocabulary assessment across the spectrum of bilingualism.