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Narrative abilities in early successive bilingual Slovak–English children: A cross-language comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2015

SVETLANA KAPALKOVÁ ,
KAMILA POLIŠENSKÁ ,
LENKA MARKOVÁ  and
JAMES FENTON
SVETLANA KAPALKOVÁ
Affiliation:
Comenius University
KAMILA POLIŠENSKÁ*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
LENKA MARKOVÁ
Affiliation:
Comenius University
JAMES FENTON
Affiliation:
University of Westminster and De Montfort University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Kamila Polišenská, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: kamila.polisenska@manchester.ac.uk
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Abstract

This study investigates macrostructure skill transfer in successive bilingual children speaking Slovak and English, a new language combination for narrative research. We examined whether narrative performance reflected language dominance and assessed relationships between nonword repetition (NWR) and narrative skills within and across languages. Forty typically developing Slovak–English bilingual children (mean age = 5 years, 10 months) were evaluated for microstructure and macrostructure performance in both languages through story telling and retelling tasks. In addition, NWR was assessed in Slovak, the children's first language (L1). Macrostructure scores were higher in their L1 than in their second language (L2), but comprehension did not differ across languages. L1 NWR was significantly related to L1 microstructure scores, but not to L1/L2 macrostructure or L2 microstructure. Implications for assessing bilingual children's language are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 1: Narrative abilities in bilingual children , January 2016 , pp. 145 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

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