Russian language proficiency of monolingual and Russian–English bi/multilingual children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18192/olbiwp.v8i0.2117Keywords:
bilingualism, Russian–English, Canada, Russian as a heritage languageAbstract
This paper reports the results of a study investigating the Russian-language proficiency of bi/multilingual (Russian–English [+additional language]) children in Saskatchewan, Canada, as compared to monolingual children in Russia. Very few studies of Russo-English bilingual children’s language performance are available in the Canadian context, and no studies have ever been conducted in Saskatchewan, where input is severely restricted compared to other contexts due to demographic reasons. The major impetus for the study was therefore to determine if in these settings, bi/multilingual children can develop minority language proficiency comparable to that of their monolingual peers in Russia. The methodology employed in the study focuses on the linguistic analysis of audio recordings of a picture description task performed by participants. Oral language proficiency parameters (including vocabulary, fluency, and syntactical complexity) in the speech of the 5–6-year-old bi/multilingual children were compared with the ones produced by a control group (monolingual children) from Russia. The results demonstrate that the oral language proficiency in the bilingual group is on a par with that of the monolingual group. However, reading and writing skills of the bi/multilingual group are less developed than in the control group.
References
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Sebastián-Gallés, N., Albareda-Castellot, B., Weikum, W.M., & Werker, J.F. (2012). A bilingual advantage in visual language discrimination in infancy. Psychological Science, 23, 994–999.
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Zaretsky E., & Bar-Shalom, E.G. (2010). Does reading in shallow L1 orthography slow attrition of language-specific morphological structures. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 24, 401–415.
Armstrong, A. (2015). Equilibria and efficiency in bilingual labour markets. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 112, 204–220.
Bedore, L.M., Peña, E.D., Gillam, R.B., Tsung-Han, H. (2010). Language sample measures and language ability in Spanish–English bilingual kindergarteners. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 498–510.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F.I.M., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 240–250.
Brito, N. & Barr, R. (2012). Influence of bilingualism on memory generalization during infancy. Developmental Science, 15, 812–816.
Byers-Heinlein K. & Lew-Williams, C. (2013). Bilingualism in the early years: What the science says. Learning Landscapes, 7, 95–112.
Caldas, S.J. & Caron-Caldas, S. (2008). Rearing bilingual children in a monolingual culture: A Louisiana Experience. In V. Clark, P. Eschholz, A. Rosa & S.B. Lee (Eds.), Language: Introductory readings (pp. 473–479). Boston: Bedford.
Dali, K. (2005). Russian-language periodicals in Toronto: Information sources for immigrants and records for documenting community. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 6, 57–100.
Dali, K. (2012). Reading their way through immigration: The leisure reading practices of Russian-speaking immigrants in Canada. Library & Information Science Research, 34, 197–211.
Davison, M.D. (2009). Defining bilingualism: factors contributing to variability in language and literacy development of Spanish-English bilingual children. Perspective in Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations, 16, 38–44.
“Dobraya skazka v kartinkax” [A good fairy-tale in pictures]. Retrieved June 6, 2017 from: nnm.me/blogs/vitiokasmozart/dobraya_skazka_v_kartinkah/
Dobraya Skazka v Kartinkakh. Retrieved from http://www.topic.lt/anekdoty/36448-dobraja-skazka-v-kartinkakh.html
De Houwer, A. (2007). Parental language input patterns and children’s bilingual use. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 411–424.
“Djuimovochka” [Thumbelina]. Retrieved June 6, 2017 from ocka3ke.ru/dyuymovochka
Fennell C., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2014). You sound like Mommy: Bilingual and monolingual infants learn words best from speakers typical of their language environments. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38, 309–316.
Fennell, C.T., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J.F. (2007). Using speech sounds to guide word learning: The case of bilingual infants. Child Development, 78, 1510–1525.
Fukuda, S. (2017). Floating numeral quantifiers as an unaccusative diagnostic in native, heritage, and L2 Japanese speakers. Language Acquisition, 24, 169–208. doi:10.1080/10489223.2016.1179742
Gabszewicz, J., Ginsburgh, V., & Weber, S. (2011). Bilingualism and communicative benefits. Annals of Economics and Statistics, 101/102, 271–286.
Gildersleeve-Neumann, C., & Wright K.L. (2010). English speech acquisition in 3–5-year-old children learning Russian and English. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 429–444.
Hammer, C.S., Komaroff, E., Rodriguez, B.L., Lopez L.M, Scarpino, S.E., & Goldstein, B. (2012). Predicting Spanish–English bilingual children’s language abilities. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 5, 1251–1264.
Havy, M., Bouchon, C., & Nazzi, T. (2016). Phonetic processing when learning words: The case of bilingual infants. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 40, 41–52.
Hoff, E.,& Core, C. (2015).What clinicians need to know about bilingual development. Seminars in Speech and Language, 36, 89–99.
Hoff, E., Rumiche, R., Burridge, A., Ribot, K.M., & Welsh, S.N. (2014). Expressive vocabulary development in children from bilingual and monolingual homes: A longitudinal study from two to four years. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 433–444.
Jia, R., & Paradis, J. (2015). The use of referring expressions in narratives by Mandarin heritage language children and the role of language environment factors in predicting individual differences. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 737–752.
Kazanina, N., & Phillips, C. (2007). A developmental perspective on the Imperfective Paradox. Cognition, 105, 65–102.
King, K., & Mackey, A. (2007). The bilingual edge: Why, when and how to teach your child a second language. New York: Harper-Collins.
Kohnert, K., Kan, P.F., & Conboy, B.T. (2010). Lexical and grammatical associations in sequential bilingual preschoolers. Journal of Speech and Language Hearing Research, 53, 684–698.
Kovács, Á.M. (2007). Beyond language: Childhood bilingualism enhances high-level cognitive functions. In I. Kecskes & L.Albertazzi (Eds.), Cognitive aspects of bilingualism (pp. 301–323). Dordrecht: Springer.
Makarova, V. (2012). Saskatchewan Doukhobor Russian: A disappearing language. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2, 90–96.
Montrul, S. (2005). Second language acquisition and first language loss in adult early bilinguals: exploring some differences and similarities. Second Language Research, 21, 199–249.
Montrul, S. (2008). Studies in bilingualism: Vol. 39, Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Amersterdam: John Benjamins.
Nicoladis, E., Da Costa, N., & Foursha-Stevenson, C. (2016). Discourse relativity in Russian–English bilingual preschoolers’ classification of objects by gender. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20, 17–21.
Paradis, J., Crago, M., Genesee F., & Rice, M. (2003). French–English bilingual children with SLI: How do they compare with monolingual peers? Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 46, 1–15.
Peets, K., & Bialystok, E. (2015). Academic discourse: Dissociating standardized and conversational measures of language proficiency in bilingual kindergarteners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36, 437–461.
Pereltsvaig, A. (2008). Aspect in Russian as grammatical rather than lexical notion: Evidence from heritage Russian. Russian Linguistics, 32, 27–42.
Polinsky, M. (2006). Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 14, 191–262.
Polinsky, M. (2008). Gender under incomplete acquisition: Heritage speakers: Knowledge of noun categorization. Heritage Language Journal, 6, 40–71.
Prevost, J.G.,& Beaud, J.P. (2002). Statistical inquiry and the management of linguistic plurality in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. Journal of Canadian Studies, 36, 88–117.
Scontras, G., Fuchs, Z.,& Polinsky,M. (2015). Heritage language and linguistic theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 09, 1–20.
Schmidt, M.S. (2007). The role of L1 use for L1 attrition. In B. Kopke, M.S. Schmidt, M. Keizer, & S. Dostert (Eds.), Language attrition: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 135–153). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Sebastián-Gallés, N., Albareda-Castellot, B., Weikum, W.M., & Werker, J.F. (2012). A bilingual advantage in visual language discrimination in infancy. Psychological Science, 23, 994–999.
Smyslova, A. (2012). Low-proficiency heritage speakers of Russian: their interlanguage system as a basis for fast language (re)building. In V. Makarova (Ed.), Russian language studies in North America: New perspectives from theoretical and applied linguistics (pp. 161–192). London: Anthem Press.
Statistics Canada. (2012). Immigrant languages in Canada. (Catalogue no. 98-314-X2011003). Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. 2011 Census in Brief series. Retrieved from www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/98-314-x2011003_2-eng.cfm.
Squires, K.E., Lugo-Neris, J., Peña, E.D., Bedore, L.M., Bohman, T.M., & Gillam, R.B. (2014). Story telling by bilingual children with language impairments and typically-developing controls. International Journal of Language Communication Disorders, 49, 60–74.
Veltman, C. (1998). Quebec, Canada, and the United States. In T.K. Ricento & B. Burnaby (Eds.), Language and politics in the United States and Canada: Myths and realities (pp. 301–316). New York: Routledge.
Unsworth, S. (2016). Quantity and quality of language input in bilingual child development. In E. Nicoladis & S. Montanari (Eds.), Bilingualism across the lifespan: Factors moderating language proficiency (pp. 103–121). American Psychological Association and de Gruyter.
Weikum,W.M., Vouloumanos, A., Navarra, J., Soto-Faraco, S., Sebastián-Gallés, N., & Werker, J.F. (2007). Visual language discrimination in infancy. Science, 316, 1159.
Winzer, M.A., & Mazurek, K. (Eds). (2000). Special education in the 21st century: Issues of inclusion and reform. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Zaretsky E., & Bar-Shalom, E.G. (2010). Does reading in shallow L1 orthography slow attrition of language-specific morphological structures. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 24, 401–415.
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