Brave new word: Multilingualism and language learning. A study of Portuguese immigrant children growing up in a plurilingual society

Pascale Engel

1

_{, Susan Gathercole}

1

_{, Romain Martin}

2

_{, & Flávia Santos}

3

1

_{University of York,}

2

_{University of Luxembourg,}

3

_{Universidade Estadual Paulista}

1

3

Working memory - the ability to store and manipulate information in mind for

a brief period of time in the course of ongoing cognitive activities (Baddeley &

Hitch, 1974) - has been suggested to play a crucial role in children’s

language acquisition; native and foreign (Gathercole, 2006; Service, 1992)

Working memory model (Baddeley, 2000) Phonological loop Central executive Visuo-spatial sketchpad Episodic buffer short-term store short-term store

The central executive and the phonological loop have been

found to make significant contributions to vocabulary acquisition

and the comprehension of language (Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant,

2004; Masoura & Gathercole, 1999; Papagno, Cecchetto, Reati,

& Bello, 2007)

How does growing up with an immigrant background affect children’s

linguistic

and working memory skills?

2

Summary

Participants

SES: Socio economic status

20 Luxembourgish

children

7 years old

living in Luxembourg

20 Brazilian children

10 low SES 10 high SES 7 years old, living in Brazil

Working memory skills, vocabulary and comprehension were investigated in native and secondary

languages in a population of Portuguese immigrant children growing up in Luxembourg - a country in

which Luxembourgish is mainly used in social interactions, and German and French are instructed in

schools

20 Portuguese children

7 years old

having lived in Luxembourg

for at least 5 years

Portuguese

Brazilian low SES Luxembourgers Brazilian high SES

I know it is ‘Wollek’ in Luxembourgish,

but what is it in Portuguese? Maybe Wollk-ão?

I know the word in Portuguese

but what is it again in Luxembourgish?

Central executive

Material

Counting recall

Backwards digit recall

6 5 7 3 9 9 3 7

Phonological loop

Nonword repetition

Digit recall

ʃeɪvlɛksʊәstәl 8 2 5 8 2 5

The monolingual children performed the tasks in their native

language and the Portuguese immigrant children in both languages – Luxembourgish and Portuguese.

Lux. nonwords were based on the sound structure of

Luxembourgish and the Port. nonwords were based on the

Portuguese language. Lux. Port. Bra.

4

Material

Expressive

vocabulary

Receptive

vocabulary

Syntactic

comprehension

Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test

British Picture Vocabulary scale

Test for Reception of Grammar

Lux. Port. Bra. Lux. Port.

__ Lux. Port. __

__

Tables: Languages in which the different groups of children performed each language task

Tasks in Luxembourgish Tasks in Portuguese

The 4 groups did not differ on digit recall and backwards digit recall. The Portuguese immigrant children performed equally well to their Brazilian counterparts in the repetition of the Portuguese sounding nonwords, whereas their performance in the

repetition of the Luxembourgish nonwords was below that of the native Luxembourgish speakers.

On counting recall the low SES group from Brazil manifested scores that were below the three other groups. 22.1 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 Lux. 20.5 20.8 Portuguese 20.7 Brazilians low SES 21.2 Brazilians high SES Digit recall 7.5 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 Lux. 7.4 6.9 Portuguese 8.4 Brazilians low SES 7.9 Brazilians high SES

Backwards digit recall

13.6 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 Lux. 12.9 12.6 Portuguese 12.4 Brazilians high SES 10.3 Brazilians low SES

*

Counting recall Nonword Repetition 27.6 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 Lux. 34.7 Brazilians low SES 34.3 Brazilians high SES 22.7 32.9 Portuguese

*

*

5

Expressive vocabulary

In the Portuguese immigrant children, language competences in Portuguese, Luxembourgish, and German were at an equal level that was below the linguistic competence of monolingual speakers from Brazil and from Luxembourg.

Tasks in Luxembourgish Tasks in Portuguese Tasks in German 59.7 64.5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Lux. 31.2 31.8 35.4 Portuguese 57.5 Brazilians low SES 70 Brazilians high SES

*

*

*

*

*

53.5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Portuguese 58.3 Brazilians low SES 67.3 Brazilians high SES

*

*

*

Receptive vocabulary 28 30.6 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Lux. 24 24.7 Portuguese

*

*

Comprehension

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levels on the working memory measures, their poor language performance in all three languages is

unlikely to be related to a fundamental cognitive deficit. The fact that their knowledge of Portuguese vocabulary was even lower than that of children from impoverished backgrounds in Brazil also rules out the hypothesis that their poor language skills are simply a reflection of lower SES. Instead, the findings appear to be a direct consequence of growing up as an immigrant in a multilingual society.

As the Portuguese immigrant children and their monolingual peers from Luxembourg and Brazil performed at comparable

Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In B. G. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and

motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47–90). New York: Academic Press.

Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends in

Cognitive Sciences, 4(11), 417-423

Cain, K., Oakhill, J., & Bryant, P. (2004). Children’s reading comprehension ability: Concurrent prediction by working memory, verbal ability, and component skills. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 96(1), 31–42.

Gathercole, S. E. (2006). Nonword repetition and word learning: The nature of the relationship. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27(4), 513-543.

Masoura, E. V., & Gathercole, S. E. (1999). Phonological short-term memory and foreign language learning. International Journal of Psychology, 34(5-6), 383-388.

Papagno, C., Cecchetto, C., Reati, F., & Bello, L. (2007). Processing of syntactically complex sentences relies on verbal short-term memory: Evidence from a short-term memory patient. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24(3), 292-311.

Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory, and foreign-language learning. Quarterly Journal

of Experimental Psychology Section a-Human Experimental Psychology, 45(1), 21-50.

References

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Despite normal general cognitive functions, as documented by the working memory

measures, immigrant children show a significantly slower native language

development that can not be explained by differences in wealth or other socio

economic factors. This result raises the question of the necessity of specific

language support for immigrant children growing up in a multilingual society.