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Monolingual and bilingual preschoolers’ use of gestures to interpret ambiguous pronouns*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2014

W. QUIN YOW
W. QUIN YOW*
Affiliation:
Singapore University of Technology and Design
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Abstract

Young children typically do not use order-of-mention to resolve ambiguous pronouns, but may do so if given additional cues, such as gestures. Additionally, this ability to utilize gestures may be enhanced in bilingual children, who may be more sensitive to such cues due to their unique language experience. We asked monolingual and bilingual four-year-olds and adults to determine referents of ambiguous pronouns given order-of-mention and co-referential localizing gestures. Results showed that bilingual children, like adults, but not monolingual children, used order-of-mention with gestures to resolve ambiguous pronouns. This highlights a wider implication of bilingualism for socio-cognitive development in children.

Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 42 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1394 - 1407
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

[*]

The author wishes to thank Ellen Markman, Suzanne Flynn, Hannah Jaycox, Whitney Goodrich Smith, the children and parents who participated in the study, and the teachers and staff of Bing Nursery School. Portions of this work were previously presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development (November 2012).

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