Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional comparative analysis (graded by design analogy for non-clinical research).
PubMed 25750580 · doi:10.1017/S1366728909990423
What was done
Authors analyzed receptive vocabulary data from 1,738 children aged 3 to 10 years to determine whether vocabulary differences between monolingual and bilingual children persist in a large sample. They also conducted two preliminary analyses evaluating whether differences varied across language pairs or between home and school contexts.
What was found
The authors observed a consistent difference in receptive vocabulary in the language of testing between monolingual and bilingual children. Preliminary analyses suggested this difference did not vary across different language pairs and was largely confined to words relevant to a home context rather than a school context. No numerical values, test statistics, or effect sizes were reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
By leveraging a large sample, the study demonstrates that receptive vocabulary differences in bilingual children are not mere sampling artifacts and are primarily driven by home-context vocabulary rather than school-context words.
Limits
The abstract reports no numerical data, effect sizes, or p-values. Details regarding socioeconomic status, specific language pairings, bilingual proficiency levels, and the receptive vocabulary assessment instruments used are absent from the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Children who grow up bilingual or trilingual have lower vocabulary scores in each individual language compared to monolingual children.