The relationship of L1 and L2 skills in Spanish/English bilingual children.

[Fred Genesee]

With respect to co-relations in development in the two languages of
bilingual children, the only evidence I know of
pertains to older children -- school age. Here there is considerable
evidence for correlations between the two languages when it comes to
literacy related skills. I am not aware of any research that has examined
co-relations in any aspect of langauge development in pre-school bilingual
children, with the possible exception of phonological awareness. Otherwise,
there is little out there about the more typical aspects of language
development that shows that there is such a correlation. this is probably
why you are having difficulty finding these references.
However, there may be work that I am not aware of.


L1 development supports L2 acquisition primarily in domains related to
reading and writing -- there is quite a bit of research on this -- see
Cummins, for example. There can be both positive and negative transfer.
The reason for the positive correlation with respect to reading and writing
is fairly obvious -- once you have learned to read and write in one
language, you do not have to learn to read and write again; you simply have
to figure out the conventions for reading and writing in the new language.
This has been one of the primary arguments of those who believe that
minority language children of school-age can benefit from initial literacy
instruction in the L1 -- it is easier to teach children to read and write
in a language they already know and this will have a facilitating effect on
their learning to read and write in another language, other things being
equal.

Fred Genesee

At 01:06 PM 20/11/2002 -0500, Toppelberg  Claudio wrote:
>Dear friends-
>
>Three questions related to the relationship of L1 and L2 skills in normally
>developing Spanish/English bilingual children have emerged in our team
>discussions:
>
>1. There seems to be a consensus among child language researchers that there
>is a moderate to high correlation between L1 and L2 skills in
>Spanish/English bilingual children on several domains (although skill levels
>are often uneven, as Annick De Hower presented at the 2002 IASCL/SRCLD).
>
>Q: Would readers agree on this?
>
>2. If so, I have been unable to locate references that quantify the
>magnitude of the expected correlations, both for general language competence
>and various specific domains.
>
>Q: Could the readers suggest any references?
>
>
>3. One might assume that moderate/high correlations would be a
>cross-sectional indicator of L1 skills' facilitating role in L2
>acquisition --i.e., L1 skills predict L2 skills, which results from
>beneficial cross-linguistic influence or transfer. This facilitating role
>would occur both in terms of rate of L2 acquisition and final stage of L2
>proficiency.
>
>Q: Could the readers suggest empirical literature that supports the view of
>L1 skills supporting SLA?
>
>These questions are very relevant to our research on L1/L2 associations in
>bilingual children with psychopathology and we would really thank your
>input!
>
>Best wishes,
>
>
>Claudio O. Toppelberg, MD
>Director, Project on Language and Child Psychiatry
>Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard Medical School
>3 Blackfan Circle
>Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5794
>e-mail:              topi at hms.harvard.edu
>Phone:              (617) 232 8390 ext.2622
>Fax:                  (617) 232 8390 ext.2621
>Alternative Fax:  (617) 232 8399
>
>Click to view:
>
>Harvard Research: Child Language Development & Developmental Psychopathology
><http://134.174.17.116/psych/redbook/86.htm>
>
>Judge Baker Children's Center/ Children's Hospital Academic Teaching
>Conference <http://www.jbcc.harvard.edu/lectures.htm>
>
>2002 Risk and Resilience Conference <http://www.riskandresilience.org/>
>
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