Nonword repetition in simultaneous and sequential bilinguals

Abstract

Bilingualism is the process of knowing or using two languages with equal or nearly equal fluency. Research evidences have suggested that cognition is affected by the process of learning one or more languages. In this context the present study aimed at investigating the Phonological Working Memory (PWM), one of the language specific cognitive processing areas in different types of bilingual children. A Kannada based nonword repetition task (NWR) was administered to eight simultaneous and eight sequential Kannada-English bilingual children in the age range of seven to eight years. Their responses were audio recorded, transcribed, scored, and subjected to statistical analysis. The results indicated that the sequential bilingual children performed significantly better compared to the simultaneous bilinguals on 4-syllable, 5-syllable and on overall accuracy of nonword repetition task. Further error analysis indicated that the simultaneous bilingual children had more percentage of syllable substitutions and omission errors than sequential bilingual children. This suggested better phonological working memory skills in sequential bilinguals compared to simultaneous bilinguals which could be attributed to the age of acquisition effects of the second language and also on the amount of exposure and use of the first and second language. This study provides an insight into the phonological working memory skills in bilingual individuals who have acquired their languages in a different manner and the results could contribute to theories related to language processing in them