A Research Article Summary
Title : Assessing successive bilinguals in two languages: A longitudinal look at English-
speaking children in France
1. Research question/problem statement
This paper looks at how standardized test scores in both languages have changed over
time for a group of bilinguals who started with L1 English and learned L2 French. As
well as a standard receptive vocabulary test, tests of phonology and morphosyntax, and
a lot of other things. The Core Language Score subtests from the CELF-4-UK were
used to check English. This paper also has plans or learning goals for English scores
that are different based on age and how much English they use each week. As more and
more people become bilingual, their language skills on L2 standardized tests can be
expected to be below the norm for that age group for about 18 months. English scores
showed that weak L1 performance is common in this bilingual setting, but that L1
retention is also possible. This paper talks about how difficult it can be to assess the
language skills of successive bilingual children. It also talks about how age and length
of exposure can have an effect on language performance in bilinguals, and why
comparing successive bilinguals to monolingual norms can lead to an underestimation
of language skills.
2. Motivation/relevance
It has been important for the author to look at cross-sectional studies of children who
learn English as a second language (L2) in North America or the United Kingdom. The
paper also wants to help us understand how typical and not-so-typical bilinguals grow
up by looking at English-speaking kids who learn French as a second language in
France over time. Standardized scores from bilinguals are notoriously hard to read, in
part because there aren't many groups of people who speak the same language as the
students. TD bilinguals have a wide range of language skills, which makes it hard to
figure out what kind of development these kids are going through. There are thought to
be a lot of factors that make people's backgrounds so different.
3. Theoretical framework
Many people already know that it's hard to read language scores in bilingual kids for
the purpose of figuring out if they're having language problems (Armon-Lotem, 2012).
Title : Assessing successive bilinguals in two languages: A longitudinal look at English-
speaking children in France
1. Research question/problem statement
This paper looks at how standardized test scores in both languages have changed over
time for a group of bilinguals who started with L1 English and learned L2 French. As
well as a standard receptive vocabulary test, tests of phonology and morphosyntax, and
a lot of other things. The Core Language Score subtests from the CELF-4-UK were
used to check English. This paper also has plans or learning goals for English scores
that are different based on age and how much English they use each week. As more and
more people become bilingual, their language skills on L2 standardized tests can be
expected to be below the norm for that age group for about 18 months. English scores
showed that weak L1 performance is common in this bilingual setting, but that L1
retention is also possible. This paper talks about how difficult it can be to assess the
language skills of successive bilingual children. It also talks about how age and length
of exposure can have an effect on language performance in bilinguals, and why
comparing successive bilinguals to monolingual norms can lead to an underestimation
of language skills.
2. Motivation/relevance
It has been important for the author to look at cross-sectional studies of children who
learn English as a second language (L2) in North America or the United Kingdom. The
paper also wants to help us understand how typical and not-so-typical bilinguals grow
up by looking at English-speaking kids who learn French as a second language in
France over time. Standardized scores from bilinguals are notoriously hard to read, in
part because there aren't many groups of people who speak the same language as the
students. TD bilinguals have a wide range of language skills, which makes it hard to
figure out what kind of development these kids are going through. There are thought to
be a lot of factors that make people's backgrounds so different.
3. Theoretical framework
Many people already know that it's hard to read language scores in bilingual kids for
the purpose of figuring out if they're having language problems (Armon-Lotem, 2012).
