Montanari Simona, Mayr Robert, Subrahmanyam Kaveri
California State University, Los Angeles.
Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018 Oct 26;61(10):2467-2486. doi: 10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0393.
The purpose of this study was to investigate typical Spanish-English speech sound development longitudinally in a group of bilingual preschoolers enrolled in a Head Start Program and to examine the extent to which such development is linked to language proficiency. The study also aimed to identify whether speech development is related cross-linguistically and to improve our understanding of error patterns in this population.
Thirty-five bilingual preschool children produced single-word speech samples in Spanish and English both at the beginning of their first and their second year in a Head Start Program. Conversational samples in both languages were also collected at these data points to calculate mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and thus assess the children's linguistic proficiency. The phonetically transcribed speech samples were compared over time in terms of segmental accuracy measures and error pattern frequencies. Correlation analyses were run to examine the relation between segmental accuracy measures across languages and between speech sound production and MLUw.
One-way within-subject analysis of variance revealed significant improvements in accuracy over time in both languages, but not always for cross-linguistically unshared segments, nor for all consonant manner classes. Overall error rates decreased over time in both languages; although, certain error types showed no change. Cross-linguistic interactions were low in both languages. The results also revealed significant cross-linguistic correlations in segmental accuracy between Spanish and English, as well as between MLUw and speech sound production in both languages on a range of measures, with language-specific differences in Year 2 of the Head Start Program, but not in Year 1.
This study is the first to document developmental changes in the speech patterns of Spanish-English bilingual preschool children over 1 year. Accuracy rates improved significantly in both languages, suggesting that enhanced exposure to the majority language at school may not impede phonological development in the home language. Bootstrapping effects were particularly pronounced on cross-linguistically shared sounds, which suggests that the same underlying skills are utilized in both languages, whereas language-specific singleton consonants and consonant clusters did not appear to benefit from exposure to the other language. The results also suggest an intricate link between phonological skills and morphosyntactic performance at the early stages of development, but a more complex pattern thereafter with differences that may be based on language-specific phonological properties.
本研究旨在纵向调查一组参加“启智计划”的双语学龄前儿童典型的西班牙语和英语语音发展情况，并考察这种发展与语言熟练度的关联程度。该研究还旨在确定语音发展是否存在跨语言相关性，并增进我们对这一群体错误模式的理解。
35名双语学龄前儿童在参加“启智计划”的第一年和第二年开始时，分别用西班牙语和英语生成单词语音样本。在这些数据点还收集了两种语言的对话样本，以计算话语平均词长（MLUw），从而评估儿童的语言熟练度。对语音转录的语音样本在不同时间的音段准确性指标和错误模式频率进行比较。进行相关分析，以考察跨语言音段准确性指标之间以及语音产生与MLUw之间的关系。
单因素重复测量方差分析显示，两种语言的准确性随时间均有显著提高，但对于跨语言不共享的音段以及所有辅音方式类别并非总是如此。两种语言的总体错误率均随时间下降；不过，某些错误类型没有变化。两种语言的跨语言交互作用都较低。结果还显示，西班牙语和英语在音段准确性方面存在显著的跨语言相关性，并且在一系列指标上，两种语言的MLUw与语音产生之间也存在显著相关性，在“启智计划”的第二年存在特定语言差异，但在第一年没有。
本研究首次记录了西班牙语 - 英语双语学龄前儿童在1年时间内语音模式的发展变化。两种语言的准确率均显著提高，这表明在学校更多地接触主流语言可能不会阻碍母语的语音发展。自展效应在跨语言共享的音素上尤为明显，这表明两种语言使用相同的潜在技能，而特定语言的单辅音和辅音群似乎并未从接触另一种语言中受益。结果还表明，在发展的早期阶段，语音技能与形态句法表现之间存在复杂的联系，但此后模式更为复杂，差异可能基于特定语言的语音特性。
