Language change in bilingual returnee children: mutual effects of bilingual experience and cognition
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Date
02/07/2019Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
02/07/2020Author
Kubota, Maki
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Abstract
In this thesis, I focus on the linguistic changes that occur within bilingual returnee
children; that is, children who were immersed in a second language (L2) dominant
environment and returned to their first language (L1) environment. Tracking the
development of such a specific population allows us to disentangle the effects of age
from those of the bilingual experience. Longitudinally, these returnee children (ages
7-13) experience an increase in age but decrease in L2 exposure. In other situations
that have been studied, age and bilingual experience are variables that are often
difficult to tease apart because they are positively correlated. As this is not the case for
the population I study, longitudinal data from bilingual returnee children offer
opportunities to separate the relative influence of these factors on children’s language
and cognitive development.
Linguistic changes that occur due to detachment from the L2 environment are
typically defined as ‘L2 attrition’. However, these linguistic changes do not necessarily
entail a loss of the second language and can be manifested through various linguistic
phenomena. Thus, the first aim of the thesis is to examine what aspects of the language
undergo changes over time. Various structures of the language, both in L1 and L2 are
examined—from genitive structures (Chapter 6) to lexical access (Chapter 7) and
language control (Chapter 8). The results of these studies demonstrate that not all
changes in L2 are recessive (Chapter 7 and 8) and not all linguistic structures are
vulnerable to change (Chapter 6). Specifically, the results of Chapter 6 show that cross-linguistic
transfer alone cannot explain the change in preference for linguistic
expressions, and instead suggest that processing difficulties (i.e., effects of
bilingualism per se) are also at play in the selectivity of language change.
The second aim of the thesis is to examine what factors contribute to the
process of language change in returnee children. Chapter 7 specifically examines the
role of individual variables such as age of L2 onset, length of residence, language
exposure, and proficiency on the changes in lexical access. The finding is that length
of residence plays a crucial role in L2 maintenance, supporting the maturational
account that children require some time to stabilize their language knowledge so that
it becomes resistant to change.
In addition to individual variables, Chapter 8 explores the influence of
cognitive factors on language control. Given the intricate relationship between
bilingualism and cognition, I hypothesized that children who are better ‘developers’ in
general cognition may also be better ‘retainers’ of the language. The findings offer
support for this hypothesis—children who improved their cognitive performance
(measured by the Simon task) also better developed their language control (measured
by the language-switching paradigm), especially in their L2. Chapter 9 then focuses
on the change in general cognition rather than in language, by demonstrating that
proficiency is a significant determinant for development in executive control—
children who had higher L2 proficiency showed a more significant enhancement in
their cognitive performance over time.
Through these studies, this thesis contributes to an understanding of attrition
and cognition in the development of children. Although much more work is required
to fully explore the interplay of factors, this thesis provides evidence that executive
control, in addition to bilingual experience, may affect (and even offset) the effects of
language attrition in bilingual children.
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