Use of Semantic Relations in Bilingual First-Language Acquisition

Abstract

<strong>Introduction:</strong> This study investigated the use of semantic relations by two children who are growing up in a Spanish-English bilingual environment and two children who are developing in a Spanish-monolingual community.&nbsp;<strong>General procedure for the study:</strong> Two groups of children were formed: Group I (bilingual children) and Group 2 (monolingual children). Language samples were collected across two week intervals for three months in videotaped sessions that lasted between 20 and 40 minutes each. The primary investigator used age-appropriate toys to engage children in play activities that would foster spontaneous speech for the language samples. Data collected were analyzed using Brown&#39;s prevalent semantic relations and the semantic roles identified by Retherford et al. (1981) to compare children&#39;s use of relational meanings.&nbsp;<strong>Purpose:</strong> To determine whether there is a difference in the use of semantic relations between simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children and Spanish monolingual children.&nbsp;<strong>Results:</strong>&nbsp;Both groups of children had an average Mean Length of Response in Words (MLR-W) of 2. The mean number of verbalizations was 57. The mean number of sessions was 13. There was a difference between Group I and Group 2 in the use of semantic relations. Interjudge reliability measures were 97% for both the transcription of language samples and for the scoring of semantic relations.&nbsp;<strong>Conclusions: </strong>Results showed a difference between groups in the use of the semantic relations Agent + Action and Entity + Locative. Participant 2, from the bilingual group, used the semantic roles agent and locative more frequently than any other participant in the study. In summary, both groups differed in the use of 25% (2 out of 8) of the semantic relations and showed similar results in the use of 75% (6 out of 8) of the relational terms. Simultaneous bilingual children used as many&mdash;in some cases even more&mdash;two-word combinations as the monolingual group of children. Results suggest that all participants had similar language competence. Brown&#39;s prevalent semantic relations accounted for most of the relational meanings used by both groups of children.