<div>I think the question of subject selection is tied to the question of generalization. If it is clear who your subjects are, say children whose primary language is English and have a raw vocabulary score on some standardized test with a particular range, then you run those subjects and you know something about verbs in that group--which as has been pointed out is a large group. Depending on the task, it might also be important to look for differences associated with what the other language is.</div>
<div> </div><div>I do think it is important to assess their English knowledge in some way because whatever age you pick, the children English knowledge will vary a great deal depending on how much exposure to English they have. Also, with children that old, much of their exposure may be outside the home and the parents may not provide good estimates.</div>
<div> </div><div>Erika Hoff<br><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 10:41 PM, Susannah Kirby <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:suki@ibiblio.org">suki@ibiblio.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid;" class="gmail_quote">
Dear Info-Childes community,<br><div class="gmail_quote"><br>I have a research conundrum, and I'm hoping you can assess one possible solution to it that I've come up with. <br><br>I have been investing verb-learning in monolingual children, but in my current location (Vancouver, BC), monolingual children are nearly impossible to find! On the other hand, bilingual kids are extremely easy to recruit.<br>
<br>I'm wondering how methodologically unsound it would be to allow bilingual children to participate (not mixed in with monolinguals, but as their own participant group), and then to recruit slightly older children. So for instance, my target age range for monolinguals is 3-4 years old; for bilinguals, I might use 4-5 (or even 5-6) year olds. I would also ask for parents to estimate what percentage of the day the kids hear English input, and shoot for, say, a 50%+ range.<br>
<br>Is this solution too problematic to even try? I can see reasons why it might or might not work, but I'm almost at the end of my rope, in terms of my recruitment problems.<br><br>Thanks in advance for any insight and suggestions you can offer!<br>
<br>Best,<br><font color="#888888">Susannah Kirby<br>SFU Linguistics<br>
</font></div><font color="#888888"><br>
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