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Lexical development in Mandarin–English bilingual children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

LI SHENG ,
YING LU  and
PUI FONG KAN
LI SHENG*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
YING LU
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
PUI FONG KAN
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Boulder
*
Address for correspondence: Li Sheng, Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Texas at Austin, One University Station A1100, Austin, TX 78712, USA[email protected]
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Abstract

Two groups of Mandarin–English bilingual children (3–5-year-olds, 6–8-year-olds) participated in a picture identification task and a picture naming task in both languages. Results revealed age-related growth in English, but not Mandarin vocabulary. Composite vocabulary was larger than either single-language vocabulary in the younger children but was similar to English vocabulary in the older children. Furthermore, children showed a larger receptive–expressive modality difference in their weaker language (Mandarin) than in their stronger language (English). These patterns indicate rapid growth in English vocabulary along with early stabilization of Mandarin vocabulary despite considerable Mandarin input in the home setting.

Keywords

vocabularyMandarinEnglishmodality
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 579 - 587
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

We wish to thank the families for participating in the study, Cho Yi Chan for help with designing the stimuli, and Emily Newton, Marisol Villaneuva, Hanh Tran, Sarah Edrington, Eva Cristina Villaseñor, and Rebecca Romano for assisting with testing. This research was supported by a Junior Faculty Fellowship from The University of Texas at Austin to the first author.

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