DLL preschoolers may show a metalinguistic advantage over monolingual peers in grammatical awareness as their language abilities develop¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2014 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? French-English DLLs aged two to six had better syntactic awareness than monolingual peers, and Urdu-English five- and six-year-old DLLs were better at identifying grammatically incorrect utterances than Urdu- and English-speaking monolinguals. → Hammer 2014

Evidence¶

Hammer 2014¶

Hammer, C. S., Hoff, E., Uchikoshi, Y., Gillanders, C., Castro, D., & Sandilos, L. E. (2014). The Language and Literacy Development of Young Dual Language Learners: A Critical Review. Early childhood research quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.05.008

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports two metalinguistic-task studies: Foursha-Stevenson and Nicoladis (2011) found French-English DLLs had better syntactic awareness, and Davidson et al. (2010) found five- and six-year-old Urdu-English DLLs outperformed both monolingual groups, though three- and four-year-olds outperformed only Urdu monolinguals.

"Foursha-Stevenson and Nicoladis (2011) found that French-English DLLs had better syntactic awareness than their monolingual peers."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Reading and Language — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Syntax — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Bilingual children show a general advantage in reading acquisition, especially when learning two alphabetic languages — related
• Fluent bilingualism is linked to metalinguistic awareness of how the two languages relate — related
• Socioeconomic status differences between bilingual and monolingual groups may determine study outcomes — related
• Young DLLs have two separate phonological and grammatical language systems early in life — related