Lexical and Grammatical Associations in Sequential Bilingual Preschoolers

Purpose: The authors investigated potential relationships between traditional linguistic domains (words, grammar) in the first (L1) and second (L2) languages of young sequential bilingual preschool children. Method: Participants were 19 children, ages 2;11 (years;months) to 5;2 (M = 4;3) who began learning Hmong as the L1 from birth and English as the L2 during early childhood. Measures were the number of different words (NDW) and mean length of utterance (MLU) produced during a story retell task and scores on picture identification, an independent measure of receptive vocabulary. Correlations were conducted to determine relationships among measures. Results: In English, there were robust positive relationships between MLU and lexical measures (NDW, Picture Identification). In Hmong, more modest cross-domain associations were evident between lexical measures and MLU. There were positive cross-language links for NDW but more limited cross-domain correspondences between the L1 and the L2. Conclusions: In English, relationships between words and grammar were similar to those found in previous studies with monolingual and simultaneous bilingual toddlers. Weaker cross-domain associations in the L1 may reflect participants' greater development in Hmong or typological differences between the L1 and the L2.