ERIC Number: EJ1150010
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0965-8416
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Exploring the Contribution of Phonological Memory to Metasyntactic Abilities in Bilingual Children
Fortier, Véronique; Simard, Daphnée
Language Awareness, v26 n2 p78-95 2017
The contribution of phonological memory to syntactic abilities has been demonstrated in various populations, but its relationship to metasyntactic abilities, defined as the ability to control syntactic aspects of language, remains largely unexplored. This study therefore aims to examine the contribution of phonological memory in the completion of two metasyntactic tasks: an ungrammatical sentence repetition and an error replication task. Eighty-three bilingual children (M[subscript age] = 10.5) completed the two metasyntactic tasks as well as tasks meant to control for lexical knowledge and syntactic abilities. A nonword repetition task measured phonological memory. Contrary to theoretical arguments which suggest that completion of both these tasks demonstrates the effect of phonological memory on metasyntactic abilities, the results show that phonological memory contributes significantly to metasyntactic abilities, only when measured by the repetition of ungrammatical sentences. Results suggest that different metasyntactic tasks rely differently on underlying linguistic and cognitive abilities.
Descriptors: Phonology, Memory, Task Analysis, Metalinguistics, Syntax, Correlation, Bilingualism, Grammar, Error Analysis (Language), Cognitive Ability, Case Studies, Elementary School Students, French, Foreign Countries, Heritage Education, Native Language Instruction, Regression (Statistics), Second Language Learning, Language Acquisition, Questionnaires, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A