Influences of language input and production on the language skills of Persian-English bilingual immersion preschool children
The purpose of this study was to better understand bilingualism in Persian-English preschool-aged children, and
how their language performance across two domains of language related to their language production and parental language
input. Participants were 15, 2- through 5-year old Persian-English bilingual children attending a Persian immersion preschool in
the U.S. The participants completed a battery of language tasks in English and Persian and participants’ parents provided language
input and production information. Data indicate that greater input in the heritage language outside school, Persian, will likely
lead to better Persian skills, while greater English input may negatively affect the children’s Persian skills. Participants
received consistent native-level Persian input in school, yet the results suggest that Persian as a heritage language in the U.S.
may be susceptible to the same vulnerability that affects other non-mainstream languages.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Theoretical framework of bilingual language development
- 1.2Parental language input
- 1.3Child language production
- 1.4Persian language and culture
- 1.5Current study
- 2.Method
- 2.1Participants
- 2.2Schools
- 2.3Study assessments and procedures
- 2.3.1Parent questionnaire
- 2.3.2Language tasks
- 2.3.3Study procedures
- 2.4Analyses
- 2.5Scoring
- 3.Results
- 3.1Children’s Persian and English scores
- 3.2Performance on English tasks
- 3.3Language input and language production
- 3.3.1Persian by parents
- 3.3.2English by parents
- 3.3.3Persian by children
- 3.3.4English by children
- 4.Discussion
- 5.Parental language input
- 5.1Child language production
- 5.2Limitations and future directions
- 5.3Conclusion
-
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