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Verbal Short-Term Memory and Vocabulary Development Marielle Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development in monolingual Dutch and bilingual Turkish-Dutch preschoolers Marielle Messer Langeveld - Institute for the Study of Education and Development in Childhood and Adolescence Cover design & Layout: Rita H. Klaucke, www.ritaklaucke.nl Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede, The Netherlands ISBN 978-90-393-5366-0 © 2010 M. H. Messer All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanically, by photocopy, by recording, or otherwise, without permission from the author Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development in monolingual Dutch and bilingual Turkish-Dutch preschoolers Verbaal korte-termijn geheugen en woordenschat ontwikkeling van ééntalige Nederlandse en tweetalige Turks-Nederlandse kleuters (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. J.C. Stoof, ingevolge het besluitvan het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 6 juli 2010 des ochtends te 10.30 uur door Marielle Hilda Messer geboren op 20 mei 1980, te Guilherand, Frankrijk Promotor: Prof.dr. P.P.M. Leseman Co-promotoren: Dr. A.Y. Mayo Dr. J. Boom Contents CHAPTER 1 7 General Introduction CHAPTER 2 27 Is verbal short-term memory a crucial interface between language input and vocabulary acquisition in young bilingual children? A theoretical review CHAPTER 3 83 Phonotactic probability effect in nonword recall and its relationship with vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual preschoolers CHAPTER 4 125 Modeling growth in verbal short-term memory and phonotactic knowledge support: A longitudinal study with monolingual and bilingual preschoolers CHAPTER 5 167 Home language environment influences verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development in monolingual and bilingual children CHAPTER 6 211 General Discussion Samenvatting; Summary in Dutch 229 Dankwoord 237 Curriculum Vitae 241 General introduction 1. Chapter 1 With increasing immigration, bilingualism has become part and parcel of the everyday lives of many children. For educational practice, the implication is that children from a broad range of language backgrounds and abilities enter the formal schooling system. Although research indicates that under favourable circumstances bilingual children can become balanced bilinguals, especially immigrant children seem to have difficulty coping with the language of schooling. As vocabulary at the start of kindergarten is an important predictor for later literacy development and overall school success, it is of urgent practical interest to disentangle different factors influencing bilingual vocabulary development from an early age. Although the difficulties of immigrant children in acquiring second-language vocabulary are in essence sociologically defined problems, disentangling these sociological precursors from individual child factors might contribute to the knowledge needed to design better tailored programs and methods of intervention. One of the cognitive factors suggested to be a crucial interface between language input and vocabulary acquisition is verbal short-term memory. The role of verbal short-term memory in vocabulary acquisition, however, is heavily debated, because verbal short-term memory performance itself is influenced by language knowledge, and language input might therefore ultimately underlie the effect that is attributed to verbal short- term memory. The complex relation between verbal short-term memory, existing language know-ledge and vocabulary acquisition is the subject of the current thesis. The study aims to contribute to the understanding of the influences of verbal short- term memory on vocabulary acquisition, and influences of the home language environment on both, by integrating all these aspects in a single longitudinal study with young monolingual and bilingual children in the preschool age. Before presenting the outline of this thesis and defining its key concepts, this general introduction will first provide insight into the demographic background and educational context of 8 General introduction Turkish-Dutch immigrant children in The Netherlands, the bilingual children who were the subjects of the current study. Turkish-Dutch Immigrant Children In The Netherlands, children from non-Western immigrant communities on average lag behind their Dutch peers at school in language subjects as well as mathematics, as measured with national curriculum tests (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek [CBS], 2008). Of special interest are Turkish-Dutch immigrant children, who as a group seem to have the most educational disadvantages. At the start of primary school, Turkish-Dutch children have the lowest scores on pre-literacy as well as pre-mathematics tests compared to native Dutch children and children from other immigrant backgrounds. Although they catch-up in mathematics to the level of other non-Western immigrant children at the end of primary school, this is not the case for language and literacy skills, which are on average 2 years behind those of Dutch non-disadvantaged children (Sociaal en Cultueel Planbureau [SCP], 2007), and also lower than the level of competence of monolingual children in Turkey (Aarts & Verhoeven, 1999). This greatly influences the educational attainment and school careers of the children: Although the situation is gradually improving, they still have the lowest mean level of secondary education and the amount of Turkish-Dutch children that have to repeat or that drop-out of school is substantial (SCP, 2007). One of the main reasons for their difficulties at school is that many Turkish-Dutch children do not master Dutch sufficiently, which is the main and often only language for communication and instruction in almost all Dutch primary schools. Demographic Background With a total of 378.400 people (2.3% of the Dutch population) the Turkish 9 Chapter 1 community forms the largest group of non-Western immigrants in The Netherlands (CBS, 2008). The first Turks arrived in The Netherlands in the 1960’s when the country was in need of immigrant workers and labor migration contracts were formed. Since then, immigration continued mostly due to family reunion and marriage with partners from the home country. Currently, the relative number of first generation Turks is decreasing, and almost 50% of the Turkish-Dutch population are second generation, that is, children who are born in The Netherlands with one or both parents born in Turkey. The third generation, with both the children and parents born in The Netherlands and at least one grandparent born in Turkey, is still small (5000 in 2007) and mostly under 10 years of age (CBS, 2008). The mean level of education of the Turkish-Dutch population is low, with 45% having no education beyond primary school and only 6% at the highest level of education. The level of education is somewhat higher in the second generation. Most Turkish-Dutch children presently attending primary schools in The Netherlands are thus of the second generation and come from an on average low socioeconomic background. The Turkish-Dutch community has strong in-group ties: Social contacts and marriages are for the most part within their ethnic group, and the language used for communication is mostly Turkish, a language with low social status in The Netherlands. Of all immigrant groups, the Turkish-Dutch immigrants make most use of television, magazines and newspapers from their home country, which are available in The Netherlands (SCP, 2007; Backus, 2005). Current demographics show that 90% of the first and second generation master Turkish at the level that they can easily follow a conversation, while 50% have trouble with Dutch, especially in the first generation. In the home context, 27% of the parents never speak Dutch with their children and 44% sometimes; and between the parents themselves 43% never speak Dutch and 43% sometimes (SCP, 2007). The majority of the Turkish- 10 General introduction Dutch children thus grow up in a primarily Turkish language environment, a language that is important for communicative purposes within their community. Education Sometime between their 2nd and 4th birthday, the language situation of most Turkish children in The Netherlands switches considerably from mainly monolingual to bilingual. In The Netherlands compulsory education officially starts at the age of 5, but it is very common to already attend the kindergarten department at 4 years of age, which approximately 95% of the children, including Turkish immigrant children, do. The kindergarten department, which is part of primary school in The Netherlands, is free of charge. In the 2 years before kindergarten, Turkish parents are increasingly encouraged to use a daycare centre or preschool to prepare their children for primary school and enhance their educational opportunities. Attendance has increased over the past years, with about 75% of the Turkish-Dutch children making use of some form of preschool in 2004 (SCP, 2007). Currently, Dutch is the language of education in practically all pre- and primary schools in The Netherlands and classes in the first language of the children are not part of the school curriculum any more. In the past, first languages were supported in schools as well, but current policy favors second- language submersion. School enrolment thus often marks a first total immersion in a primarily Dutch language
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