Novel Morpheme Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of a novel morpheme learning task for indexing typical language abilities in children characterized by diverse language backgrounds.

Method

Three groups of 5- to 6-year-old children were tested: monolingual speakers of English, native speakers of Spanish who also spoke English (Spanish-L1 bilinguals), and native speakers of English who also spoke Spanish (English-L1 bilinguals). All children were taught a new derivational morpheme /ku/ marking part-whole distinction in conjunction with English nouns. Retention was measured via a receptive task, and sensitivity and reaction time (RT) data were collected.

Results

All three groups of children learned the novel morpheme successfully and were able to gener

SUBMITTER: Kaushanskaya M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5544361 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature