Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T01:07:04.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relations between vocabulary and executive functions in Spanish–English dual language learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2017

VRINDA KALIA ,
M. PAULA DANERI  and
MAKEBA PARRAMORE WILBOURN
VRINDA KALIA*
Affiliation:
Miami University
M. PAULA DANERI
Affiliation:
New York University
MAKEBA PARRAMORE WILBOURN
Affiliation:
Duke University
*
Address for correspondence: Vrinda Kalia, Department of Psychology-Miami University, 90 North Patterson Avenue, Oxford, OH 45056kaliav@miamioh.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The role of dual language exposure in children's cognitive development continues to be debated. The majority of the research with bilingual children in the US has been conducted with children becoming literate in only one of their languages. Dual language learners who are becoming literate in both their languages are acutely understudied. We compared dual language learners (n = 61) in a Spanish–English dual language immersion program to monolingual English speaking children (n = 55) who were in a traditional English only school. Children (kindergarten to 3rd grade) completed standardized vocabulary tasks and two measures of executive functions. Despite having significantly smaller English vocabularies, the dual language learners outperformed the monolingual children on the executive function measures. Implications for our understanding of the relations between oral language development and executive function in bilingual children are discussed.

Keywords

dual language learnersdual language immersionexecutive functionoral language development
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We thank the International Literacy Association for supporting this project through the Elva Knight Research Grant.

References

Anton, E., Duñabeitia, J. A., Estevez, A., Hernandez, J. A., Castillo, A., Fuentes, L. J., Davidson, D. J., & Carreiras, M. (2014). Is there a bilingual advantage in the ANT task? Evidence from children. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00398Google Scholar
Barac, R., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingual effects on cognitive and linguistic development: Role of language, cultural background, and education. Child Development, 83, 413–422. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01707.xGoogle Scholar
Barac, R., Bialystok, E., Castro, D. C., & Sanchez, M. (2014). The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 699–714. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.02.003Google Scholar
Barkley, R. A., Edwards, G., Laneri, M., Fletcher, K., & Metevia, L. (2001). Executive functioning, temporal discounting, and sense of time in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 541–556. doi:10.1023/A:1012233310098Google Scholar
Berens, M. S., Kovelman, I., & Petitto, L.A. (2013). Should bilingual children learn reading in two languages at the same time or in sequence? Bilingual Research Journal, 36 (1), 35–60. doi: 10.1080/15235882.2013.779618Google Scholar
Best, J. R., & Miller, P. H. (2010). A developmental perspective on executive function. Child Development, 81 (6), 1641–1660. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01499.xGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy and cognition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., Peets, K., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 525–531. doi:10.1017/S1366728909990423Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Peets, K. F., & Moreno, S. (2014). Producing bilinguals through immersion education: Development of metalinguistic awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35 (01), 177–191. doi:10.1017/S0142716412000288Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Barac, R. (2012). Emerging bilingualism: Dissociating advantages for metalinguistic awareness and executive control. Cognition, 122, 67–73. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.08.003.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2015). Bilingualism and the development of executive function: The role of attention. Child Development Perspectives, 9 (2), 117–121. doi:10.1111/cdep.12116Google Scholar
Blair, C., & Razza, R. P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78 (2), 647–663. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01019.xGoogle Scholar
Brysbaert, M. (1998). Word recognition in bilinguals: Evidence against the existence of two separate lexicons. Psychologica Belgica, 38 (3-4), 163–175.Google Scholar
Carlson, S. M. (2005). Developmentally sensitive measures of executive function in preschool children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28 (2), 595–616. doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2802_3Google Scholar
Carlson, S. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11 (2), 282–298. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00675.xGoogle Scholar
Child Trends. (2014). America's Hispanic children: Gaining ground, looking forward. (No. 2014–38). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Collier, V. P., & Thomas, W. P. (1989). How quickly can immigrants become proficient in school English. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 5 (1), 26–38.Google Scholar
Colzato, L. S., Bajo, M. T., van den Wildenberg, W., Paolieri, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., La Heij, W., & Hommel, B. (2008). How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34 (2), 302–312. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.34.2.302Google Scholar
Conboy, B. T., & Thal, D. J. (2006). Ties between the lexicon and grammar: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of bilingual toddlers. Child Development, 77 (3), 712–735. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00899.xGoogle Scholar
Cragg, L., & Nation, K. (2010). Language and the development of cognitive control. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2 (4), 631–642. doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2009.01080.xGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, D. M. (2007). Peabody picture vocabulary test, fourth edition: Manual. Minneapolis, MN: Pearson Assessments.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. M., Padilla, E., Lugo, D., & Dunn, L. (1986). Test de vocabulario en imagenes peabody – adaptacion hispanoamericana. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Duñabeitia, J. A., Hernández, J. A., Antón, E., Macizo, P., Estévez, A., Fuentes, L. J., & Carreiras, M. (2014). The inhibitory advantage in bilingual children revisited. Experimental Psychology, 61, 234–251.Google Scholar
Esposito, A. G., & Baker-Ward, L. (2013). Dual-language education for low-income children: Preliminary evidence of benefits for executive function. Bilingual Research Journal, 36, 295–310. doi:10.1080/15235882.2013.837848Google Scholar
Espy, K. A., Bull, R., Martin, J., & Stroup, W. (2006). Measuring the development of executive control with the shape school. Psychological Assessment, 18 (4), 373–381. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.18.4.373Google Scholar
Foy, J. G., & Mann, V. A. (2014). Bilingual children show advantages in nonverbal auditory executive function task. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18 (6), 717–729. doi: 10.1177/1367006912472263Google Scholar
Francis, W. S. (1999). Cognitive integration of language and memory in bilinguals: Semantic representation. Psychological Bulletin, 125 (2), 193–222. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.193Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C., Thomas, E. M., Kennedy, I., Prys, C., Young, N., Guasch, N. V., Roberts, E. J., Hughes, E. K., & Jones, L. (2014). Does language dominance affect cognitive performance in bilinguals? Lifespan evidence from preschoolers through older adults on card sorting, Simon, and metalinguistic tasks. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00011Google Scholar
Gomez, L., Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2005). Dual language education: A promising 50–50 model. Bilingual Research Journal: The Journal of the National Association for Bilingual Education, 29, 145–164. doi:10.1080/15235882.2005.10162828Google Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system . Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67–81. doi:10.1017/S1366728998000133Google Scholar
Groot, A. S., De Sonneville, L. M., Stins, J. F., & Boomsma, D. I. (2004). Familial influences on sustained attention and inhibition in preschoolers. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45 (2), 306–314.Google Scholar
Gutierrez, K. D., Zepeda, M., & Castro, D. C. (2010). Advancing early literacy learning for all children: Implications of the NELP report for dual language learners. Educational Researcher, 39, 334–339. doi:10.3102/0013189X10369831Google Scholar
Hackman, D. A., & Farah, M. J. (2009). Socioeconomic status and the developing brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13 (2), 65–73. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.003Google Scholar
Hakuta, K. (1986). Mirror of language: The debate on bilingualism. New York: Basic BooksGoogle Scholar
Hammer, C. S., Jia, G., & Uchikoshi, Y. (2011). Language and literacy development of dual language learners growing up in the United States: A call for research. Child Development Perspectives, 5, 4–9. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2010.00140.xGoogle Scholar
Hermanto, N., Moreno, S., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Linguistic and metalinguistic outcomes of intense immersion education: How bilingual? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15 (2), 131–145. doi:10.1080/13670050.2011.652591Google Scholar
Hernandez, A., Li, P., & MacWhinney, B. (2005). The emergence of competing modules in bilingualism. Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 220–225. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.003Google Scholar
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on non-linguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 18, 625–658. doi:10.3758/s13423-011-0116-7Google Scholar
Hongwanishkul, D., Happaney, K. R., Lee, W. S., & Zelazo, P. D. (2005). Assessment of hot and cool executive function in young children: Age-related changes and individual differences. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 617–644. doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2802_4Google Scholar
Jacques, S., & Zelazo, P. D. (2001). The flexible item selection task (FIST): A measure of executive function in preschoolers. Developmental Neuropsychology, 20, 573–591. doi:10.1207/S15326942DN2003_2Google Scholar
Kirkham, N. Z., Cruess, L. M., & Diamond, A. (2003). Helping children apply their knowledge to their behavior on a dimension-switching task. Developmental Science, 6, 449–467. doi:10.1111/1467-7687.00300Google Scholar
Kolb, B., & Gibb, R. (2011). Brain plasticity and behaviour in the developing brain. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 20 (4), 265–276.Google Scholar
Kolb, B., Mychasiuk, R., Muhammad, A., Li, Y., Frost, D. O., & Gibb, R. (2012). Experience and the developing prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109, 17186–17193. doi:10.1073/pnas.1121251109.Google Scholar
Kuhn, L. J., Willoughby, M. T., Wilbourn, M. P., Vernon-Feagans, L., Blair, C. B., & The Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2014). Early communicative gestures prospectively predict language development and executive function in early childhood. Child Development, 85 (5), 1898–1914. doi:10.1111/cdev.12249.Google Scholar
McClelland, M. M., Cameron, C. E., Connor, C. M., Farris, C. L., Jewkes, A. M., & Morrison, F. J. (2007). Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Developmental Psychology, 43 (4), 947–959. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.4.947Google Scholar
McClelland, M. M., Cameron, C. E., Wanless, S. B., & Murray, A. (2007). Executive function, behavioral self-regulation, and social-emotional competence: Links to school readiness. In Saracho, O. N. & Spodek, B. (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on research in social learning in early childhood education, (pp. 83–107). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “Frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41 (1), 49–100. doi:10.1006/cogp.1999.0734Google Scholar
Morton, J. B. (2010). Language, bilingualism, and executive functioning in early development. Psychological Reports, 107, 888–890. doi:10.2466/04.11.28.PR0.107.6.888-890Google Scholar
Morton, J. B., & Harper, S. N. (2007). What did Simon say? Revisiting the bilingual advantage. Developmental Science, 10, 719–726. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00623.xGoogle Scholar
Neter, J., Kutner, M. H., Nachtsheim, C. J., & Wasserman, W. (1996). Applied linear statistical models. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill College.Google Scholar
Nicolay, A.C., & Poncelet, M. (2015). Cognitive benefits in children enrolled in an early bilingual immersion school: A follow-up study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18 (3), 789–795.Google Scholar
Nicolay, A.C., & Poncelet, M. (2013a). Cognitive advantage in children enrolled in a second-language immersion elementary school program for 3 years. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16 (3), 597–607.Google Scholar
Nicolay, A.C., & Poncelet, M. (2013b). Cognitive abilities underlying second-language vocabulary acquisition in an early second-language immersion education context: A longitudinal study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115, 655–671.Google Scholar
Oh, S., & Lewis, C. (2008). Korean preschoolers’ advanced inhibitory control and its relation to other executive skills and mental state understanding. Child Development, 70, 80–99. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01112.xGoogle Scholar
Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2015). Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances. Cortex, 69, 265–278.Google Scholar
Páez, M. M., Tabors, P. O., & López, L. M. (2007). Dual language and literacy development of Spanish- speaking preschool children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28, 85–102. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2006. 12.007Google Scholar
Peña, E. D., Gillam, R. B., Bedore, L. M., & Bohman, T. M. (2011). Risk for poor performance on a language screening measure for bilingual preschoolers and kindergarteners. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20, 302–314. doi:10.1044/1058-0360Google Scholar
Peña, E. D., & Halle, T. G. (2011). Assessing preschool dual language learners: Traveling a multiforked road. Child Development Perspectives, 5 (1), 28–32. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2010.00143.xGoogle Scholar
Place, S., & Hoff, E. (2011). Properties of dual language exposure that influence 2‐year‐olds’ bilingual proficiency. Child development, 82 (6), 1834–1849. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01660.xGoogle Scholar
Poarch, G. J., & Van Hell, J. G. (2012). Executive functions and inhibitory control in multilingual children: Evidence from second-language learners, bilinguals, and trilinguals. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 113, 535–551. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.013Google Scholar
Potowski, K. (2005). Latino children's Spanish use in a Chicago dual-immersion classroom. In Farr, M. (Ed.), Latino language and literacy in ethnolinguistic Chicago (pp. 157–186). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rojas, R., & Iglesias, A. (2013). The language growth of Spanish‐speaking English language learners. Child Development, 84 (2), 630–646. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01871.xGoogle Scholar
Singer, B. D., & Bashir, A. S. (1999). What are executive functions and self-regulation and what do they have to do with language-learning disorders? Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 30, 265–273. doi:doi:10.1044/0161-1461.3003.265Google Scholar
Smith, M. C. (1997). How do bilinguals access lexical information? In Groot, A. M. B. de, & Kroll, J. F. (Eds.), Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 145–168). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Wilbourn, M. P., Kurtz, L. E., & Kalia, V. (2012). The Lexical Stroop Sort (LSS) picture-word task: A computerized task for assessing the relationship between language and executive functioning in school-aged children. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 270–286. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0142-4Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D. (2006). The dimensional change card sort (DCCS): A method of assessing executive function in children. Nature Protocols, 1, 297–301. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006. 46Google Scholar