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Novel word retention in sequential bilingual children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2013

PUI FONG KAN
PUI FONG KAN*
Affiliation:
University of Colorado at Boulder
*
Address for correspondence: University of Colorado at Boulder – Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 2501 Kittredge Loop Road 409, UCB Boulder Colorado 80309, United States. e-mail: puifong.kan@colorado.edu
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Abstract

Children's ability to learn and retain new words is fundamental to their vocabulary development. This study examined word retention in children learning a home language (L1) from birth and a second language (L2) in preschool settings. Participants were presented with sixteen novel words in L1 and in L2 and were tested for retention after either a 2-month or a 4-month delay. Results showed that children retained more words in L1 than in L2 for both of the retention interval conditions. In addition, children's word retention was associated with their existing language knowledge and their fast-mapping performance within and across language. The patterns of association, however, were different between L1 and L2. These findings suggest that children's word retention might be related to the interactions of various components that are operating within a dynamic system.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 416 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

[*]

Manuscript preparation was supported by funds from the University of Colorado. A portion of these data was presented at the International Symposium of Bilingualism 7 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. I am grateful to the following research assistants for help with data collection, scoring, and analysis: Jy Xiong, Kia Xiong, Chao Khang, Kristy Benoit, Marisa Irwin, Alaina Kelley, Lacey Thomas, and Margie Southward. I appreciate the valuable contribution of the participants and their families. I extend my sincere thanks to teachers and administrators at the Southeast Asian Preschool Program in Minneapolis, MN for their support in coordinating the testing. I thank the reviewers and the editor for their comments and suggestions, which led to significant improvements in this article.

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