2015 Theses Doctoral

Incidental Learning of Two Languages by Bilingual Swedish- and English-Speaking Children, Monolingual English-Speaking Children and Monolingual English-Speaking Adults

Mosca, Kimberly Nicole

I conducted 3-experiments to examine incidental language learning of two languages by bilingual Swedish- and English-speaking children, monolingual English- speaking children, and monolingual English-speaking adults. More specifically, I tested for the presence of Naming in English and in Swedish for all participants. In Experiment 1, I tested for the presence of Naming in Swedish and in English for 5 simultaneously bilingual Swedish- and English-speaking preschoolers. Results showed that the Swedish- and English-speaking children performed similarly in both languages. Naming repertoires were balanced across the languages. In Experiment 2, I replicated the first experiment with 5 monolingual English-speaking preschoolers. Results showed that all participants had the listener component of Naming in repertoire for both languages, but results differed for the speaker component of Naming. One participant emitted 0 speaker responses in either language, 3 participants emitted more correct speaker responses in English than in Swedish, and 1 participant emitted more correct speaker responses in Swedish than in English. In Experiment 3, I tested for the presence of Naming in Swedish and in English for 30 monolingual English-speaking adults. Results showed that adults listening capability was balanced in English in Swedish, but there was a significant difference in the number of correct speaker responses in English than in Swedish.