Narrative comprehension by Croatian-Italian bilingual children 5–7 years old
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Maja Roch
Abstract
Objective. This study compares L1 and L2 receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar and narrative comprehension skills in Croatian-Italian bilingual children. Moreover, the study aims to find out to what extent receptive vocabulary and receptive grammar (sentence comprehension) predict narrative comprehension skills.
Method. Thirty Croatian-Italian bilinguals 5–7 years old were assessed in L1 (Croatian) and L2 (Italian) narrative comprehension (MAIN), receptive vocabulary (PPVT) and sentence comprehension (TROG).
Results. Children performed better in their L1 than in their L2 on all three measures of comprehension. Narrative comprehension correlated with the two linguistic skills in L1 but weakly in L2. Each measure correlated only with itself between L1 and L2. Regression analyses showed that sentence comprehension contributed substantially to narrative comprehension in L1 and L2, while receptive vocabulary contributed substantially only in L1.
Conclusions. Narrative comprehension is differently predicted by language skills in L1 and in L2. The contribution of language skills is monolingual-like in L1 narrative comprehension (cf. Florit, Roch, & Levorato, 2011); in L2 narrative comprehension vocabulary provides a weak contribution. The results are discussed both theoretically, in terms of the possible mechanism underlying narrative comprehension in bilingual speakers and practically, in terms of bilingual language development.
Abstract
Objective. This study compares L1 and L2 receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar and narrative comprehension skills in Croatian-Italian bilingual children. Moreover, the study aims to find out to what extent receptive vocabulary and receptive grammar (sentence comprehension) predict narrative comprehension skills.
Method. Thirty Croatian-Italian bilinguals 5–7 years old were assessed in L1 (Croatian) and L2 (Italian) narrative comprehension (MAIN), receptive vocabulary (PPVT) and sentence comprehension (TROG).
Results. Children performed better in their L1 than in their L2 on all three measures of comprehension. Narrative comprehension correlated with the two linguistic skills in L1 but weakly in L2. Each measure correlated only with itself between L1 and L2. Regression analyses showed that sentence comprehension contributed substantially to narrative comprehension in L1 and L2, while receptive vocabulary contributed substantially only in L1.
Conclusions. Narrative comprehension is differently predicted by language skills in L1 and in L2. The contribution of language skills is monolingual-like in L1 narrative comprehension (cf. Florit, Roch, & Levorato, 2011); in L2 narrative comprehension vocabulary provides a weak contribution. The results are discussed both theoretically, in terms of the possible mechanism underlying narrative comprehension in bilingual speakers and practically, in terms of bilingual language development.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledging our reviewers vii
- Cross-linguistic development of narrative comprehension from A to Z 1
- Narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic-French bilingual children 31
- Inferential comprehension, age and language 61
- Bilingual Turkish-Swedish children’s understanding of MAIN picture sequences 99
- Narrative comprehension in simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish and monolingual Finnish children 149
- Narrative comprehension by Croatian-Italian bilingual children 5–7 years old 171
- Bilingual children’s lexical and narrative comprehension in Dutch as the majority language 197
- Why do you think the boy would be unhappy if he saw what the cat was eating? 231
- Narrative comprehension and its associations with gender and nonverbal cognitive skills in monolingual and bilingual German preschoolers 269
- Bilingualism effects in the narrative comprehension of children with Developmental Language Disorder and L2-Greek 297
- Commentary 331
- Index 337
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledging our reviewers vii
- Cross-linguistic development of narrative comprehension from A to Z 1
- Narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic-French bilingual children 31
- Inferential comprehension, age and language 61
- Bilingual Turkish-Swedish children’s understanding of MAIN picture sequences 99
- Narrative comprehension in simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish and monolingual Finnish children 149
- Narrative comprehension by Croatian-Italian bilingual children 5–7 years old 171
- Bilingual children’s lexical and narrative comprehension in Dutch as the majority language 197
- Why do you think the boy would be unhappy if he saw what the cat was eating? 231
- Narrative comprehension and its associations with gender and nonverbal cognitive skills in monolingual and bilingual German preschoolers 269
- Bilingualism effects in the narrative comprehension of children with Developmental Language Disorder and L2-Greek 297
- Commentary 331
- Index 337
