Chapter published in:
Lost in Transmission: The role of attrition and input in heritage language development
Edited by Bernhard Brehmer and Jeanine Treffers-Daller
[Studies in Bilingualism 59] 2020
► pp. 171–196

Heritage and non-heritage bilinguals

The role of biliteracy and bilingual education

| University of Cologne
| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
| University of Cambridge
The present study explores the effects of literacy support in the languages of the bilingual child on the linguistic and cognitive skills of (non-)heritage speakers. 70 children speaking Albanian (L1) and Greek (L2) are divided into three groups according to whether they receive literacy support in their L1, L2 or in both languages. To test the children's proficiency in Greek, we used an expressive vocabulary task, two working memory tasks, a non-verbal intelligence task and a sentence repetition task (SRT). The findings suggest that good levels of biliteracy established through bilingual education positively influence the child’s linguistic and cognitive performance. Furthermore, the lack of working memory effects on the children’s SRT performance emphasizes the importance of biliteracy development and its educational support, which together with vocabulary knowledge contribute to bilingual development.
Keywords: (non-)heritage speakers, biliteracy, educational setting, working memory, sentence repetition task
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Heritage speakers
    • 2.2Biliteracy
    • 2.3Sentence repetition task
    • 2.4Similarities and differences between Greek and Albanian
  • 3.The present study
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials and procedure
      • 3.2.1Expressive vocabulary tests in Greek and Albanian
      • 3.2.2Non-verbal intelligence (fluid intelligence)
      • 3.2.3Verbal working memory task
        • Procedure
        • Scoring
      • 3.2.4Non-verbal working memory task
        • Scoring
      • 3.2.5Sentence repetition task
        • Procedure
        • Coding
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Expressive vocabulary test in Greek
    • 4.2Expressive vocabulary test in Albanian
    • 4.3Non-verbal intelligence (fluid intelligence)
    • 4.4Verbal working memory task
    • 4.5Non-verbal working memory task
    • 4.6Sentence repetition task
      • 4.6.1Syntactic errors (Greek sentence repetition task)
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 May 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.59.07and
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