A multidimensional approach to Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers' narrative skills.

We identify language and discourse skills in 54-month-old Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers and their English-speaking monolingual peers, using multiple measures. Forty-one Spanish-English bilingual and 25 English monolingual children, all US born, viewed an eight-minute wordless video. The bilingual children recounted the story once in English and once in Spanish, in counterbalanced order. The story retellings were transcribed and coded for discourse skills (narrative length, narrative components and uses of evaluative language) and language skills (number of words, number of different words, MLUw). No difference was found in the two groups overall language or discourse skills, assessed in the narrative production, with the exception of certain uses of evaluative language. Within the bilingual group, all measures, except MLUw, were highly correlated across the two languages. Our multidimensional analysis of narrative structure and use of evaluative language sheds light on certain differences between the ways in which English monolinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals organize their narrative discourse. We discuss the advantages of using this multidimensional approach in assessing bilinguals language and discourse abilities in narrative production.

RESUMENExploramos las habilidades lingüísticas y discursivas de preescolares bilingües (español/inglés) de 54 meses de edad y de sus pares monolingües (inglés), utilizando múltiples medidas. Un total de 41 niños bilingües y 25 monolingües, todos nacidos en los Estados Unidos, produjeron narraciones basadas en un video sin palabras de ocho minutos. Los niños bilingües tenían que relatar la historia del vídeo, una vez en inglés y una en español. Se compensó el orden de presentación. Después se transcribieron y se codificaron sus narrativas en función de las habilidades discursivas (extensión de la narración, componentes narrativos y uso de lenguaje evaluativo) y lingüísticas (número total de palabras, número de palabras distintas, así como la longitud media de los enunciados en palabras o LME). No se observaron diferencias entre los dos grupos en términos de las habilidades lingüísticas o discursivas reflejadas en la producción narrativa, con la excepción de ciertos usos del lenguaje evaluativo. En el grupo bilingüe, todas las medidas, excepto la LME, se correlacionaban en los dos idiomas. Nuestro análisis multidimensional de la estructura narrativa y el uso de lenguaje evaluativo arroja luz sobre ciertas diferencias en el modo en que los niños monolingües y los bilingües organizan el discurso narrativo. Discutimos las ventajas que ofrece un enfoque multidimensional para un análisis detallado de las habilidades lingüísticas y discursivas en la producción narrativa de niños bilingües.

Cultural differences in the content of child talk: evaluative lexis of English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual 30-month-olds.

We examined the size, content, and use of evaluative lexis by 26 English monolingual and 20 Spanish-English bilingual 30-month-old children in interaction with their mothers. We extracted the evaluative words, defined as words referring to cognition, volition, or emotion. Controlling for overall vocabulary skills as measured by the MacArthur-Bates inventories, monolinguals had a larger evaluative lexicon than the bilinguals' Spanish evaluative lexicon, but no difference was found between monolinguals' and bilinguals' English evaluative lexicons. There were differences between the monolinguals and bilinguals in the distribution of evaluative words across semantic categories: English monolingual children used more words pertaining to volition and cognition and talked more about volition than the Spanish-English bilingual children. These results suggest that the development of evaluative lexicons is influenced by cultural differences, and consequently, bilingual children, who are also bicultural, follow a different developmental path in both languages from the path followed by their monolingual peers.

[Expressions of affection bilingual mothers, Bilingual mothers' expressions of affect]. / Expresiones de afecto de madres bilingües, Bilingual mothers' expressions of affect.

The purpose of this study is to examine the uses of affectivity in L1 and L2 in 10 bilingual mothers' interactions with their 30-month. The expressions of emotion, volition and epistemic stance were identified in 30 spontaneous mother-child interactions: i. 10 Spanish L1 mothers speaking in L1; ii. 10 Spanish L1 mothers speaking in English L2; and iii. 10 English L1 mothers speaking in L1. The results suggest that L2 uses differ from L1: expressions of volition and epistemic stance in English L2 resemble their use in English L1, whereas expressions of emotions in English L2 are similar to Spanish L1. These findings shed light on bilingual speakers' expressive language and are useful in determining the impact on language development.

Genre and evaluation in narrative development.

In this study I examine Venezuelan children's developing abilities to use evaluative language in fictional and personal narratives. The questions addressed are: (1) How does the use of evaluative language vary in fictional and personal narratives? (2) Is there a relationship between the use of evaluative language in these two narrative genres and children's age and socio-economic status (SES)? The sample consists of 444 narratives produced by 113 Venezuelan school-age children participating in 4 narrative tasks, in which personal and fictional stories were elicited. Findings suggest that age and socio-economic status have a greater impact on the use of evaluation in fictional stories than in personal narratives. Low SES and younger children are at a greater disadvantage when performing fictional narratives than when performing personal narratives. These results strongly imply that children's narrative competence cannot be assessed in a single story-telling task, given the importance that task-related factors seem to have on narrative abilities.