Children Language Acquisition

Language Use Contributes to Expressive Language Growth:

Evidence From Bilingual Children
DETAIL OF THE JOURNAL
 Author: Krystal M. Ribot and Erika Hoff (Florida Atlantic University) & Andrea
Burridge (University of Houston)
 First published: 28 February 2017
 Volume: 89
 Issue: 3
 Page Start: Pages 929-940
 Web Address: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdev.12770
 Published in: Child Development 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 The aim of the present study is to directly test the hypothesis that must underlie such
advice—that children’s own language use, not just their exposure, makes a contribution
to their language development.
 To observe and analyze the language growth of bilingual children (English-Spanish)
 To measure children’s language skills in Language input and Language output

METHODOLOGY
Longitudinal studies are often used in social-personality and clinical psychology, to study rapid
fluctuations in behaviors, thoughts, and emotions from moment to moment or day to day; in
developmental psychology, to study developmental trends across the life span; and in sociology,
to study life events throughout lifetimes or generations. The reason for this is that, unlike cross-
sectional studies, in which different individuals with the same characteristics are compared

Carlson, Neil and et al. "Psychology the Science of Behavior", p. 361. Pearson Canada, United
States of America

THE SUBJECT
Forty-seven 30 month-old English-Spanish bilingual children
- 27 girls
- 20 boys
DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE
 interview with the parent(s) or other primary caregiver.
 Recording
 analyzing

DATA ANALYSIS
The data were analyzed:
 code-switching

(code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language
varieties, in the context of a single conversation)

STRENGTHS
 The researcher combined some references to compare.

 The explanations of the research are detailed with alot of supporting teori, table and
graphic of the finding.

WEAKNESSES
 There is no limited or differences in the introductory section and the literature review.

 The researcher does not provide the examples of the children interaction and
conversation.
 The explanations of the reaserch is too general
 The researcher did not tell how long time they do the reseach

FINDINGS
1. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that language use contributes to
the development of expressive language skill.

2. Children whose english output was greater than their input grew in expressive skill at a
faster rate than the children who spoke English less than they heard it.

SIGNIFICANCES
1. Future research : they can use this research as the reference in doing research that related
to specify more precisely the contribution of children’s language use to their development
of the ability to understand and speak the language as opposed to the binary measure of
code switching.
2. Parents : they can use this research as their reference and they are able to know how
parents should understand and take care for their bilingual children.
Contribution

All language teachers wish that they can make their bilingual children understand well both
languages, not even just in the input of the children but also the out put of them. So, they can
process two languages on their mind.
Children be expected to mastery both languages including four skills of its language.
Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing have to be mastered by the children. The children
are train to get the input and express the out put by theirselves.

The contributions for teaching and learning specifically for bilingual children are, I will
applying student centre method to approach the student or the children to push step by step
their language ability until they can develop their both languages.

The method that used by the teacher to the students will force students to speak and
understand the conversation that the teachers does and their friend does. The students must
be very enjoy because the teachers focus on them to improve the student’s ability in using
both languages.

In applying the student centre, the teachers not only focus on one or two language skills but
all of it. For example, the students are practice their four skills of language such as like this:

- Listening, the teacher’s instruction to the student is trying to familiarize their ears to
capture the word of target language. So, it will resonate on their mind until they can
speak it up.
- Speaking, after listening some words the children trying to process the words and then
they can imitate and follow what’s the teacher’s said and speak it up or give feedback to
the teacher’s instruction. Children will try to express what’s on their mind.
- Reading, reading skill of the students will lead them to gain more words. It means the
input of their languages is improve and collect many words that will help them to
understand more clearly about what’s teacher said to them.
- Writing, believe it or not the student’s writing skill will automatically improve. The
teacher’s goal is to make the students develop their writing skill. It can be practice, ask
them to write whatever the teacher’s said on material for dictation because it will train
their listening skill then when they write the correct words it means they improve their
writing skill as well as their good listening.

Four skills of language are linked each other, as a teacher we can’t only teach them one or
two skills but we have to teach them all because they are connected. We can collaborate
these four skill in our teaching and learning to improve and develop their both languages.
Especially for bilingual children.