A Longitudinal Study of Lexical Development in Children Learning Vietnamese and English

• Published in: Child development Vol. 85; no. 2; pp. 767 - 782
• Main Authors: Pham, Giang, Kohnert, Kathryn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2014; Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Age groups; Bilingualism; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Children; Developmental psychology; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; English (Second Language); English as a second language; English language; Expressive Language; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hierarchical Linear Modeling; Humans; Language; Language Acquisition; Language Development; Language Dominance; Language Processing; Language Skills; Language Tests; Learning; Learning - physiology; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Multilevel models; Multilingualism; Multivariate analysis; Native Language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rates of change; Receptive Language; School age children; Second Language Learning; Vietnam; Vietnamese; Vocabulary; Human; Learning; English; Acquisition process; Language; Follow up study; Lexicon; Language development; Vietnamese; Cognition; Child
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12137

This longitudinal study modeled lexical development among children who spoke Vietnamese as a first language (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Participants (n = 33, initial mean age of 7.3 years) completed a total of eight tasks (four in each language) that measured vocabulary knowledge and lexical processing at four yearly time points. Multivariate hierarchical linear modeling was used to calculate L1 and L2 trajectories within the same model for each task. Main findings included (a) positive growth in each language, (b) greater gains in English resulting in shifts toward L2 dominance, and (c) different patterns for receptive and expressive domains. Timing of shifts to L2 dominance underscored L1 skills that are resilient and vulnerable to increases in L2 proficiency.