Thesis Format
Integrated Article
Degree
Master of Arts
Program
Education
Supervisor
Zhang, Zheng
Abstract
This systematic literature review examined 29 empirical studies published from 1997 to 2023 on the phonological development in Chinese–English bilingual children. It explored the research trends and investigated the reported features of Chinese–English bilingual children’s phonological development. Most studies involved young English learners whose first language is Mandarin or Cantonese. The reviewed studies employed predominantly quantitative and cross-sectional design with large sample sizes. Our evaluation highlights the scientific strengths in research context, theoretical framework, literature review, and data presentation. However, some studies lacked details of data analysis, ethical consideration, and reliability and validity data of used assessment tools. Utilizing thematic analysis, it highlights both similarities between Chinese–English bilinguals and bilinguals of other language pairs and language-specific features concerning Chinese. It also demonstrates similarities and differences between bilinguals and monolinguals regarding speech perception, production, and phonological awareness. It concludes with suggestions for future researchers, language educators, and parents.
Summary for Lay Audience
Phonological development refers to the process through which children learn to perceive, produce, and manipulate the sounds of language. This study is a systematic literature review (SLR) focusing on studies that explored the phonological development in Chinese–English bilingual children. This SLR is informed by theories on childhood bilingualism and phonological development. This review included 29 studies published in English between 1997 and 2023 from two databases. Most studies involved young English learners whose first language is Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese. All the studies involved quantitative design and most studies collected data from large groups of learners at one time. Our evaluation highlights their strengths in research context, theoretical framework, literature review, and data presentation. However, some studies lacked details about data analysis or ethical considerations. Generally, the studies reported that Chinese–English bilingual children’s acquisition of the sound systems in their first and second languages affected each other, similar to bilinguals of other language pairs. Additionally, they followed a similar order when learning sounds across Chinese and English, while demonstrating errors, regression, and individual differences. These reflect the general features of language development among languages. Besides the universal features, our reviewed studies also reported that Chinese–English bilingual children displayed the characteristics specifically related to Chinese, such as a delay in learning Chinese tones and English rhythm due to the complex pitch functions and the syllable-timed rhythm in Chinese. Moreover, the studies reported both similarities and differences in performing phonological tasks between Chinese–English bilingual children and Chinese or English monolingual children. Generally, bilinguals and monolinguals performed equally well in producing speech sounds. Bilinguals were reported to excel at the knowledge of Chinese tone. Bilinguals performed less well than monolinguals when learners used Chinese language more than English, when learners had low English proficiency, when traditional assessment criteria were applied in regions where English varieties such as Singapore English was spoken, and when dealing with complex phonological structures. Finally, bilinguals demonstrated distinct trajectory of phonological development compared with monolinguals. This review may give researchers and educators a better understanding of bilingual phonological development in various language settings.
Recommended Citation
Wu, Lihan, "Phonological development in Chinese–English bilingual children: A systematic literature review" (2024). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 10105.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10105
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