What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development

A close relationship between children's vocabulary size and the grammatical complexity of their speech is well attested but not well understood. The present study used latent change score modeling to examine the dynamic relationships between vocabulary and grammar growth within and across languages in longitudinal data from 90 simultaneous Spanish–English bilingual children who were assessed at 6‐month intervals between 30 and 48 months. Slopes of vocabulary and grammar growth were strongly correlated within each language and showed moderate or nonsignificant relationships across languages. There was no evidence that vocabulary level predicted subsequent grammar growth or that the level of grammatical development predicted subsequent vocabulary growth. We propose that a common influence of properties of input on vocabulary and grammatical development is the source of their correlated but uncoupled growth. An unanticipated across‐language finding was a negative relationship between level of English skill and subsequent Spanish growth. We propose that the cultural context of Spanish–English bilingualism in the US is the reason that strong English skills jeopardize Spanish language growth, while Spanish skills do not affect English growth. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/qEHSQ0yRre0     

Language development in children at risk for language impairment: cross-population comparisons

At 3 years of age the spontaneous language of 17 typically developing children was compared to two groups of toddlers who were at risk for language delay for very different reasons. One at-risk group, late talkers, appeared normal in all respects except for their delayed language. These 20 children scored at or below the fifteenth percentile for expressive vocabulary on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al., 1993) when originally identified at 20-27 months of age and within the normal range on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969). The other group, 21 children with unilateral focal brain injury, suffered localized damage to their brain prenatally, perinatally, or within the first 6 months of life. Results indicated that both of the at-risk groups were still significantly lower in vocabulary diversity and grammar at 3 years of age. There was also significantly greater variability in the at-risk groups than in the control groups, and in the children with focal brain injury than in the late talkers in both areas. The importance of language comprehension to development in this period was supported by two findings. First, children with focal brain injury had significantly lower scores than late talkers on the Index of Productive Syntax, a test of emerging grammar, and had been lower in comprehension on a standardized test of language comprehension a year earlier. Second, late talkers with delay in comprehension as well as production had significantly lower scores on IPSyn than those with normal comprehension, suggesting that they are at greater risk for continued delay. Qualitative analyses indicated that the at-risk groups produced the same kinds of errors, but that late talkers produced a substantially greater proportion of errors in obligatory contexts than did children with focal brain injury.     

Is there a direct relation between the development of vocabulary and grammar?

Previous studies of individual differences have revealed strong correlations between children's vocabulary and grammatical abilities, and these data have been used to support theoretical accounts positing direct developmental relations between these two areas of language. However, between‐person differences do not necessarily reflect intra‐individual dynamics. Thus, in the present study, we analysed longitudinal data from three annual assessments of vocabulary and grammar in 217 children (M_age = 4 years and 3 months at first assessment) using a modelling strategy with some utility in distinguishing relations at the between‐ and within‐person levels. The results revealed strong correlations between grammar and vocabulary at the between‐person level, but the evidence of direct dependencies between the variables at the within‐person level was rather limited. Specifically, we found a small direct contribution from grammar to vocabulary for children between the ages of 4 and 5, but there was no evidence of any direct contributions from vocabulary to grammar. Further analyses suggested that the home literacy environment may represent a common source of individual differences in children's vocabulary and grammatical skills. In light of these results, we argue that the evidence of direct relations between vocabulary and grammatical development in preschool‐aged children may not be as strong as previously assumed.     

The codification of intersubjectivity in the diachronic change <Emphasis Type="Italic">AD locative</Emphasis> &gt; <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis>) <Emphasis Type="Italic">indirect object</Emphasis> in Spanish

The principal aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between intersubjectivity and grammar. We argue that intersubjectivity represents, on the one hand, a prerequisite for the development of language as a symbolic system, and therefore also for the development of grammar. Furthermore, we attempt to show that language, and especially grammar, codify intersubjectivity. That is to say, grammatical constructions represent the intersubjective interactions that situated agents maintain in different pragmatic contects. We call this phenomenon the meta-representational capacity of language. Our main object of analysis is the development of the ditransitive construction (give something to someone - dar algo a alguien) in the Spanish language. The evolution of this construction makes it clear that there is an important correlation between the degree of complexity of the codified intersubjective interaction and grammatically obligatory nature and the prominence of the grammatical construction that codifies it: the greater the complexity, the greater its obligatoriness, and vice versa.     

Spanish-English bilingual toddlers’ vocabulary skills: The role of caregiver language input and warmth

There is a well-documented link between bilingual language development and the relative amounts of exposure to each language. Less is known about the role of quality indicators of caregiver-child interactions in bilingual homes, including caregiver input diversity, warmth and sensitivity. This longitudinal study examines the relation between caregiver input (lexical diversity, amount), warmth and sensitivity and bilingual toddlers’ subsequent vocabulary outcomes. We video-recorded caregiver-child interactions in Spanish-English Latino homes when toddlers (n = 47) were 18 months of age (M = 18.32 months; SD = 1.02 months). At the 24-month follow-up, we measured children's vocabulary as total vocabulary (English, Spanish combined) as well as within language (Spanish, English). Results revealed that Spanish lexical diversity exposure at 18 months from caregivers was positively associated with children's Spanish and total vocabulary scores at 24 months, while English lexical diversity was positively associated with children's English scores; lexical diversity and amount were highly correlated. Additionally, caregivers’ warmth was positively associated with children's Spanish, English and total vocabulary scores. Together, these factors accounted for substantial variance (30–40%) in vocabulary outcomes. Notably, caregiver input accounted for more variance in single language outcomes than did caregiver warmth, whereas caregiver warmth uniquely accounted for more variance in total vocabulary scores. Our findings extend prior research findings by suggesting that children's dual language development may depend on their exposure to a diverse set of words, not only amount of language exposure, as well as warm interactions with caregivers. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/q1V_7fz5wog

Highlights

• Video-recorded observations of caregiver-child interactions revealed warmth and high sensitivity from Latino caregivers.
• Linguistically-detailed analyses of caregiver input revealed wide variation in the diversity of Spanish and English directed at 18-month-old bilingual toddlers.
• Bilingual toddlers’ vocabulary (single language, total) was positively associated with caregivers’ diverse input and warmth, thus extending prior findings on bilinguals’ amount of language exposure.
• Findings suggest that caregivers’ lexical diversity explains more variance in bilingual toddlers’ single language outcomes, whereas warmth explains more variance in total vocabulary scores.

     

What Can Bilingual Children Tell Us About the Developmental Relationship Between Vocabulary and Grammar?

Strong correlations between vocabulary and grammar are well attested in language development in monolingual and bilingual children. What is less clear is whether there is any directionality in the relationship between the two constructs, whether it is predictive over time, and the extent to which it is affected by language input. In the present study, we analyzed data from 100 bilingual children with English as an additional language who were tested on measures of vocabulary breadth and depth, morphology, and syntax at three time points at 6-month intervals from the age of 5;8. We used bivariate growth models to test the directionality of the relationship between vocabulary breadth and depth, and measures of morphology and syntax; testing bilingual children allowed us to use measures of English input as covariates in the analyses. All the models showed a correlation between vocabulary and grammar, but no correlation between their growth slopes, suggesting that vocabulary and grammar grow independently. Three of the four bivariate models showed a significant correlation between the intercept of grammar skills and the slope of vocabulary growth. Length of exposure to English predicted the intercept of vocabulary breadth and grammar, suggesting that children exposed to English earlier had larger vocabularies and better morpho-syntactic skills. Current English input predicted the intercept of both measures of vocabulary as well as the slope for vocabulary depth, the only measure for which there was a significant relationship between intercept and slope, suggesting a Matthew effect for this dimension of vocabulary. All materials, data, and code are available at https://osf.io/x3wht/ . Research highlights

• Vocabulary breadth and morphological and syntactic skills increased linearly for all participants, without any difference between lower and higher achieving children.
• Vocabulary depth grew more over time for those children with deeper vocabulary knowledge and higher levels of current English input at the start of the study.
• All of the bivariate growth models showed a correlation between vocabulary and grammar, but failed to show any correlation between their growth.
• Significant relationships between the intercept of grammar and the growth of vocabulary showed steeper lexical growth in children with better grammar skills.
• Length of exposure to English had an effect on morphological and syntactic skills, while only current English input had an effect on vocabulary depth.

     

A right-ear advantage for dichotic listening in bilingual children

A dichotic listening task was administered to two groups of right-handed Hispanic children enrolled in bilingual education classes. The younger group's mean age was 9:6, the older group's was 13:6. Two dichotic tapes were used, one in English, one in Spanish, consisting of 60 pairs of words per tape. The words were comparable across languages in terms of frequency, grammatical function, and phonetic composition. The results showed clear and equal right-ear advantages for both groups of subjects and for both languages. As expected, older children scored higher than younger ones, and performance on Spanish was better than on English. Neither of these effects interacted with the ear advantage, however. Ear difference scores did not correlate with proficiency in the second language (as measured by performance on the English tape), but there was a significant correlation (r = .58) between the degree of asymmetry in the two languages. These findings indicate that the left hemisphere is primarily (and equally) involved in processing both languages of bilinguals, and that this pattern appears to remain stable in development.     

Word associations in old age: evidence for consistency in semantic encoding during adulthood

Word associations of 80 young and 80 older adults were compared for 113 stimulus words. The proportion of paradigmatic responses varied with the grammatical class of the stimulus word and with the vocabulary level of the subject, but not with age. The same proportion of young and older adults gave the most common responses. Although older adults had a greater number of unique responses, this seems to reflect age differences in vocabulary level, as vocabulary but not age was a good predictor. Within-subject variability was also comparable across age, as on a retest young and older adults gave the same proportion of responses that were identical to those on the original test. Both age groups were more likely to repeat common than uncommon responses on the retest. This, together with analyses of response latency, suggests equivalent use of strategic processes across age. The results indicate that semantic structure and semantic encoding in adults are related to verbal ability, but not to age.     

Communicative development in Swedish children 16-28 months old: the Swedish early communicative development inventory--words and sentences

To describe the development of words and sentences in Swedish children 16-28 months old, 900 parental reports on 336 children were analyzed. Subjects were randomly selected from the national birth register, and there was a response rate of 88%. The assessments were made using the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory--words and sentences (SECDI--w&s). Age-based norms for productive vocabulary, pragmatic skills, grammar skills, and maximum length of utterance (MaxLU) were determined. We describe the development of feedback morphemes, semantic categories, and single words and tasks. Correlation across measures was significant, and especially strong between vocabulary size and grammar skills. Optimized positive predictive values were high for 25 to 28 month predictions (71%-88%), and vocabulary scores were found to be of particular predictive importance. No significant gender differences were detected. The clinical relevance of the instrument is discussed.     

Individual differences in adult foreign language learning: The mediating effect of metalinguistic awareness

In this study, we sought to identify cognitive predictors of individual differences in adult foreign-language learning and to test whether metalinguistic awareness mediated the observed relationships. Using a miniature language-learning paradigm, adults (N = 77) learned Russian vocabulary and grammar (gender agreement and case marking) over six 1-h sessions, completing tasks that encouraged attention to phrases without explicitly teaching grammatical rules. The participants’ ability to describe the Russian gender and case-marking patterns mediated the effects of nonverbal intelligence and auditory sequence learning on grammar learning and generalization. Hence, even under implicit-learning conditions, individual differences stemmed from explicit metalinguistic awareness of the underlying grammar, which, in turn, was linked to nonverbal intelligence and auditory sequence learning. Prior knowledge of languages with grammatical gender (predominantly Spanish) predicted learning of gender agreement. Transfer of knowledge of gender from other languages to Russian was not mediated by awareness, which suggests that transfer operates through an implicit process akin to structural priming.     

Relations among language exposure, phonological memory, and language development in Spanish-English bilingually developing 2-year-olds

The relation of phonological memory to language experience and development was investigated in 41 Spanish-English bilingual first language learners. The children’s relative exposure to English and Spanish and their phonological memory for English- and Spanish-like nonwords were assessed at 22 months of age, and their productive vocabulary and grammar in both languages were assessed at 25 months of age. Phonological memory for English-like nonwords was highly correlated with that for Spanish-like nonwords, and each was related to vocabulary and grammar in both languages, suggesting a language-general component to phonological memory skill. In addition, there was evidence of language-specific benefits of language exposure to phonological memory skill and of language-specific benefits of phonological memory skill to language development.     

A cross-linguistic study of early lexical development

Cross-linguistic studies have shown that children can vary markedly in rate, style, and sequence of grammatical development, within and across natural languages. It is less clear whether there are robust cross-linguistic differences in early lexical development, with particular reference to the onset and rate of growth in major lexical categories (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives and grammatical function words). In this study, we present parental report data on the first stages of expressive and receptive lexical development for 659 English infants and 195 Italian infants between 8 and 16 months of age. Although there are powerful structural differences between English and Italian that could affect the order in which nouns and verbs are acquired, no differences were observed between these languages in the emergence and growth of lexical categories. In both languages, children begin with words that are difficult to classify in adult part-of-speech categories (i.e., “routines”). This is followed by a period of sustained growth in the proportion of vocabulary contributed by common nouns. Verbs, adjectives, and grammatical function words are extremely rare until children have vocabularies of at least 100 words. The same sequences are observed in production and comprehension, although verbs are reported earlier for receptive vocabulary. Our results are compared with other reports in the literature, with special reference to recent claims regarding the early emergence of verbs in Korean.     

The language-specific nature of grammatical development: evidence from bilingual language learners

The fact that early lexical and grammatical acquisition are strongly correlated has been cited as evidence against the view that the language faculty is composed of dissociable and autonomous modules (Bates & Goodman, 1997). However, previous studies have not yet eliminated the possibility that lexical-grammar associations may be attributable to language-general individual differences (e.g. children who are good at learning words are good at learning grammar). Parent report assessments of toddlers who are simultaneously learning English and Spanish (n = 113) allow an examination of the specificity of lexical-grammar relationships while holding child factors constant. Within-language vocabulary-grammar associations were stronger than cross-language relationships, even after controlling for age, proportion of language exposure, general language skill and reporter bias. Similar patterns were found based on naturalistic language samples (n = 22), ruling out a methodological artifact. These results are consistent with the view that grammar learning is specifically tied to lexical progress in a given language and provide further support for strong lexical-grammatical continuity early in acquisition.     

A lexical database for spanish-speaking children

This article presents a computerized database of words for use in experimental research in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. The data are based on the oral vocabulary of 200 Spanish-speaking children aged from 11.16 to 49.16 months. The database includes 15,428 Spanish words (tokens) and comprises 1,259 different words (types). It provides information about age of acquisition, orthography, grammar, semantics, and frequency.     

Artificial grammar learning by 1-year-olds leads to specific and abstract knowledge.

Four experiments used the head-turn preference procedure to assess whether infants could extract and remember information from auditory strings produced by a miniature artificial grammar. In all four experiments, infants generalized to new structure by discriminating new grammatical strings from ungrammatical ones after less than 2 min exposure to the grammar. Infants acquired specific information about the grammar as demonstrated by the ability to discriminate new grammatical strings from those with illegal endpoints (Experiment 1). Infants also discriminated new grammatical strings from those with string-internal pairwise violations (Experiments 2 and 3). Infants in Experiment 4 abstracted beyond specific word order as demonstrated by the ability to discriminate new strings produced by their training grammar from strings produced by another grammar despite a change in vocabulary between training and test. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of language acquisition.     

一年级汉语儿童语素意识与口语词汇的双向关系:追踪研究的证据

以145名小学一年级儿童为被试,进行为期6个月的追踪,考察了儿童复合、同音和同形等不同层面语素意识与口语词汇的双向关系。结果发现:(1)控制了年龄、一般认知能力、语音意识及口语词汇的自回归效应后,同音和复合语素意识对口语词汇的发展具有显著的预测作用。(2)控制了相关变量及自回归效应后,口语词汇能够显著预测复合、同音和同形语素意识的发展。     

Sentence repetition is a measure of children's language skills rather than working memory limitations

Sentence repetition tasks are widely used in the diagnosis and assessment of children with language difficulties. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of sentence repetition tasks and their relationship to other language skills. We present the results from a 2‐year longitudinal study of 216 children. Children were assessed on measures of sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills three times at approximately yearly intervals starting at age 4. Sentence repetition was not a unique longitudinal predictor of the growth of language skills. A unidimensional language latent factor (defined by sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills) provided an excellent fit to the data, and language abilities showed a high degree of longitudinal stability. Sentence repetition is best seen as a reflection of an underlying language ability factor rather than as a measure of a separate construct with a specific role in language processing. Sentence repetition appears to be a valuable tool for language assessment because it draws upon a wide range of language processing skills.     

The role of working memory in the development of emotion comprehension

This study investigated the relationship between emotion comprehension, grammar comprehension, and working memory capacity in children between 5 and 11 years (n= 130), testing the hypothesis that working memory has a role in the development of emotion comprehension. We replicated the correlation between emotion comprehension and grammar comprehension, and found that working memory capacity correlates with both of these variables (also with age statistically controlled). The significant effect of age on emotion comprehension was eliminated when working memory capacity was co‐varied. In a regression analysis of emotion comprehension scores, when working memory capacity was entered as a predictor, no additional variance was significantly accounted for by grammar comprehension, gender, or age. A structural relations model, in which the paths from working memory capacity to emotion comprehension and from working memory capacity to grammar comprehension account fully for the correlation between grammar and emotion comprehension, fit the data well. However, working memory capacity was not equally related to all components of the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) ( Pons & Harris, 2000 ), the relationship being significant only for some of them. In particular, working memory capacity has a decisive role in the transition from understanding external to mental aspects of emotions. It is concluded that the development of working memory has a considerable impact on the development of emotion comprehension.     

Maltreated Children Use More Grammatical Negations

Many studies reveal a strong impact of childhood maltreatment on language development, mainly resulting in shorter utterances, less rich vocabulary, or a delay in grammatical complexity. However, different theories suggest the possibility for resilience—a positive adaptation to an otherwise adverse environment—in children who experienced childhood maltreatment. Here, we investigated different measures for language development in spontaneous speech, examining whether childhood maltreatment leads to a language deficit only or whether it can also result in differences in language use due to a possible adaptation to a toxic environment. We compared spontaneous speech during therapeutic peer-play sessions of 32 maltreated and 32 non-maltreated children from the same preschool and equivalent in gender, age (2 to 5 years), home neighborhood, ethnicity, and family income. Maltreatment status was reported by formal child protection reports, and corroborated by independent social service reports. We investigated general language sophistication (i.e., vocabulary, talkativeness, mean length of utterance), as well as grammatical development (i.e., use of plurals, tense, grammatical negations). We found that maltreated and non-maltreated children showed similar sophistication across all linguistic measures, except for the use of grammatical negations. Maltreated children used twice as many grammatical negations as non-maltreated children. The use of this highly complex grammatical structure shows an advanced linguistic skill, which shows that childhood maltreatment does not necessarily lead to a language deficit. The result might indicate the development of a negativity bias in the structure of spontaneous language due to an adaptation to their experiences.     

Foreign‐grammar acquisition while watching subtitled television programmes

Background. Past research has shown that watching a subtitled foreign movie (i.e. foreign language in the soundtrack and native language in the subtitles) leads to considerable foreign‐language vocabulary acquisition; however, acquisition of the grammatical rules has failed to emerge. Aims. The aim of this study was to obtain evidence for the acquisition of grammatical rules in watching subtitled foreign movies. Given an informal context, younger children were predicted to outperform older children in acquiring a foreign language; however, older children will take more advantage of explicit instruction compared with younger children. Sample. In Experiment 1, 62 sixth‐graders from a primary school and 47 sixth‐graders from a secondary school volunteered to participate. The participants in Experiment 2 were 94 sixth‐graders from primary schools and 84 sixth‐graders from secondary schools. Method. The two experiments manipulated the instructions (incidental‐ vs. intentional‐language learning). Moreover, before the experiments began, some participants explicitly received some of the foreign grammatical rules (presented rules), while the movie contained cases of presented rules as well as cases of rules which had to be inferred (not‐presented rules). Results. Rule acquisition through the movie only was not obtained; there was a strong effect of advance rule presentation but only on the items of presented rules, particularly among the older participants. Conclusions. Contrary to vocabulary, grammar may be too complicated to acquire from a rather short movie presentation.