Words in two languages: Fostering vocabulary development in kindergarten children through synchronized bilingual reading programme

Project ID: OER 13/22 SB

Subject area: Language

Principal Investigator: Dr Sun Baoqi

Email: baoqi.sun@nie.edu.sg

About the project

Bilingual children generally show distributed vocabulary knowledge, i.e. they know some words specific to certain contexts in one language and some in the other, whereas they know other words in both languages (Bialystok et al., 2010; Oller et al., 2007). Thus, providing ample opportunity for bilingual children to encounter and learn context-specific words in their two languages simultaneously may help them expand their vocabulary in both languages and achieve a more balanced bilingual vocabulary (Gross et al., 2014; Oller & Pearson, 2002). Research has also shown that learning to read in two languages can promote the development of concepts and knowledge that underlie both languages and can be transferred from language to language (Cummins, 2000; Kroll & Stewart, 1994). Informed by Cummins’ Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) and Developmental Interdependence Hypotheses as well as Kroll and Stewart (1994)’s Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM), this proposed study investigates whether a Synchronized Bilingual Reading Programme will support and expand kindergarten children’s vocabulary knowledge in both English and Mother Tongue (MT).

The Synchronized Bilingual Reading Programme uses thematically matched narrative and expository books and its instructions focus on promoting cross-language transfer at the conceptual level. In Singapore, both English and MT languages are taught concurrently from early childhood, however, instructions for the two languages are implemented separately without reference to the other language (Curdt-Christiansen & Sun, 2016; O’Brien et al., 2020). While monolingual language instructions may help children learn the languages separately, it fails to take into consideration that bilingual children process their two languages simultaneously and make cross-language connections throughout their learning process (Cummins, 2001; 2007). In this regard, reading programmes that acknowledge this characteristic and promote two-way cross-language transfer may enhance children’s learning capacity and help them grow more robust lexical-semantic knowledge. During the 8-week intervention, an English book and a Chinese or Malay book that each contains 6 targeted words will be introduced weekly to 40 English-Chinese bilingual Kindergarten One (K1) children. Both books focus on the same thematic topic, but in different genres one is a storybook and the other is an expository book, so as to provide opportunities for children to encounter and learn words in both languages under the same context and facilitate balanced vocabulary development in their two languages.

Detailed definitions and examples of the targeted words will be provided. An array of instructional activities that foster cross-linguistic transfer of concepts will be implemented to consolidate children’s learning of the targeted words in both languages (e.g. retelling the story they learn during English class in MT during MT class; completing a family tree in two languages). Business-as-usual control groups (40 English-Chinese and 40 English-Malay children) will also be included. The study seeks to examine: 1) in comparison to the business-as-usual group, if the proposed synchronized bilingual reading programme will help children in the intervention group develop more balanced bilingual vocabulary; 2) to what extent the experimental and control groups would differ in terms of the cross-linguistic relationship between English vocabulary and MT vocabulary; 3) given the importance of home language input for children’s bilingual development, to what extent language background moderates the main effects of the intervention on English and MT vocabulary. The results of the study will shed light on how preschoolers’ developmental capacities for vocabulary in more than one language can be enhanced through theoretically grounded and evidence-based bilingual reading programs.

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