The Language and Literacy Development of Young Dual Language Learners: A Critical Review

By C. Hammer, E. Hoff, Yuuko Uchikoshi, Cristina Gillanders, Dina C. Castro, Lia E. Sandilos. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2014

374 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The number of children living in the United States who are learning two languages is increasing greatly. However, relatively little research has been conducted on the language and literacy development of dual language learners (DLLs), particularly during the early childhood years. To summarize the extant literature and guide future research, a critical analysis of the literature was conducted. A search of major databases for studies on young typically developing DLLs between 2000–2011 yielded 182 peer-reviewed articles. Findings about DLL children’s developmental trajectories in the various areas of language and literacy are presented. Much of these findings should be considered preliminary, because there were few areas where multiple studies were conducted. Conclusions were reached when sufficient evidence existed in a particular area. First, the research shows that DLLs have two separate language systems early in life. Second, differences in some areas of language development, such as vocabulary, appear to exist among DLLs depending on when they were first exposed to their second language. Third, DLLs’ language and literacy development may differ from that of monolinguals, although DLLs appear to catch up over time. Fourth, little is known about factors that influence DLLs’ development, although the amount of language exposure to and usage of DLLs’ two languages appears to play key roles. Methodological issues are addressed, and directions for future research are discussed.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Language and Linguistics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a1b23348dbb80406a3479cee6d7ba204a3fdb3a1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Language and Linguistics

Citations in the corpus

The benefits of metacognitive reading strategy awareness instruction for young learners of English as a second language (2019, background): “Literacy acquisition can be difficult for young learners (Hammer et al., 2014).”
Language intervention research in early childhood care and education: A systematic survey of the literature (2020, methodology): “For example, in some studies in which there may be a mismatch between children’s home language and the language in which the intervention was delivered child outcomes may be impacted negatively (e.g., Castro, Páez, Dickinson, & Frede, 2011; Hammer et al., 2014).”
Book reading and vocabulary development: A systematic review (2016, neutral): “Although examining vocabulary development nd book reading in DLLs is important, it raises other nuanced ssues that are particular to DLLs and requires separate analyses Hammer et al., 2014). Third, studies had to include a child outcome easure of English (rather than nonsense word) vocabulary and a ”
Shared Book Reading Interventions With English Learners: A Meta-Analysis (2018, methodology): “…manual search was also completed by examining the reference lists of relevant reviews or meta-analyses (Adesope et al., 2011; Cheung & Slavin, 2012; Hammer et al., 2014; Lonigan et al., 2008; Lonigan & Shanahan, 2010), the reference lists of articles included in the metaanalysis, and of articles…”