Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Cultural Effects on Verbal Working Memory and Vocabulary: Testing Language-Minority Children With an Immigrant Background

Autor(es)

de Abreu, Pascale M. J. Engel ^[1] ; Baldassi, Martine ^[2] ; Puglisi, Marina L. ^[3] ; Befi-Lopes, Debora M. ^[3]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Luxembourg

^[2] Columbia Univ, Ctr Decis Sci, New York, NY - USA

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, BR-05508 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: JOURNAL OF SPEECH LANGUAGE AND HEARING RESEARCH; v. 56, n. 2, p. 630-642, APR 1 2013.
• Citações Web of Science: 24

Resumo

Purpose: In this study, the authors explored the impact of test language and cultural status on vocabulary and working memory performance in multilingual language-minority children. Method: Twenty 7-year-old Portuguese-speaking immigrant children living in Luxembourg completed several assessments of first (L1)- and second-language (L2) vocabulary (comprehension and production), executive-loaded working memory (counting recall and backward digit recall), and verbal short-term memory (digit recall and nonword repetition). Cross-linguistic task performance was compared within individuals. The language-minority children were also compared with multilingual language-majority children from Luxembourg and Portuguese-speaking monolinguals from Brazil without an immigrant background matched on age, sex, socioeconomic status, and nonverbal reasoning. Results: Results showed that (a) verbal working memory measures involving numerical memoranda were relatively independent of test language and cultural status; (b) language status had an impact on the repetition of high-but not on low-wordlike L2 nonwords; (c) large cross-linguistic and cross-cultural effects emerged for productive vocabulary; (d) cross-cultural effects were less pronounced for vocabulary comprehension with no differences between groups if only L1 words relevant to the home context were considered. Conclusion: The study indicates that linguistic and cognitive assessments for language-minority children require careful choice among measures to ensure valid results. Implications for testing culturally and linguistically diverse children are discussed. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 10/09185-5 - Desenvolvimento cognitivo e linguístico em crianças: efeitos da patologia e de fatores ambientais
• Beneficiário: Marina Leite Puglisi
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado