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Language Impairment in Multilingual Settings: LITMUS in action across Europe
Edited by Sharon Armon-Lotem and Kleanthes K. Grohmann
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 29] 2021
► pp. 227–262

The influence of different first languages on LITMUS nonword-repetition and sentence repetition in second language French and second language German

A crosslinguistic approach

| University of Flensburg
| University of Oldenburg
| University of Tours
| University of Flensburg
| University of Tours
| University of Tours
| University of Tours
| University of Tours

The study investigates the appropriateness of the French and German LITMUS–Sentence Repetition (LITMUS–SR) and the LITMUS–Quasi–Universal–Nonword–Repetition task (LITMUS–QU–NWR) for the assessment of bilingual children with diverse language backgrounds. We examine the quantitative and qualitative performance of 117 bilingual typically developing children (BiTD), and 34 bilingual children with Specific Language Impairment (BiSLI) with Arabic, Portuguese and Turkish as their first language (L1). These data are compared to 47 monolingual typically developing children (MoTD). Given the typological and linguistic differences between the languages involved, the comparisons of the performance of bilingual and monolingual children in two typologically different L2s are intended to provide a baseline for typical L2 development and may shed light on morphosyntactic difficulties that are due to cross–linguistic influence.

Keywords: specific language impairment, bilingualism, cross–linguistic influence, nonword repetition, sentence repetition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.L1 influence in child bilingualism and consequences for the LITMUS–QU–NWR and LITMUS–SR
  • 3.The LITMUS nonword repetition and sentence repetition tasks
    • 3.1Nonword repetition and contrastive linguistic features relevant for the LITMUS–QU–NWR
    • 3.2Sentence repetition and contrastive linguistic features relevant for LITMUS–SR
  • 4.Research questions and aims of the study
  • 5.Participants and procedures
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Background comparisons
    • 6.2Quantitative Comparisons on the QU–NWR and the SR results
      • 6.2.1Comparison of typically developing children and children with SLI on the QU–NWR
      • 6.2.2Comparison of typically developing children and children with SLI on the LITMUS–SR
        • LITMUS–SR in L2 German
        • LITMUS–SR in L2 French
      • 6.2.3Error analyses: SR
      • 6.2.4Analysis on specific features of the German and French LITMUS–SR
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 18 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.29.08chi
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