Exposure to two languages in the preschool period: Metalinguistic development and the acquisition of reading

Abstract

The hypothesis that access to two languages in the preschool period might promote metalinguistic development was subjected to empirical verification. The method of parallel groups with paired equalisation procedure was used. At first, two experimental groups (both N=22) with Serbo-Croatian as first language, the members of which were exposed through immersion or a mainstream education programme to a foreign language (French or English), were compared with a Serbo- Croatian monolingual (N=22) group in metalinguistic development. Also a Hungarian-Serbo-Croatian minority bilingual group (iV=20), participating in a language maintenance programme, was compared with a Hungarian monolingual group (N=20). The comparisons showed that early bilingual experience could enhance metalinguistic awareness and an analytic approach to linguistic phenomena by a readiness to replace one word with another, to compare words, or to break words into syllables and phonemes, especially by an active use of the second language in a theoretically based instructional programme. It was also shown that children with bilingual preschool experience (2V=50), in contrast to monolingual children (Af=30), as judged by teachers, had more developed psychological functions such as concentration, synthesis and abstraction, employed in reading acquisition. Theoretical explanations of the results are given concerning relations between language and thought in mental ontogenesis and assumptions on possible effects of early bilingualism on cognitive development. According to the results obtained, bilingual experience directs thought to the essential aspects of the environment, promoting a more analytic orientation towards language phenomena. © 1991 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.