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Vulnerability of clitics and articles to bilingual effects in typically developing Spanish–English bilingual children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2019

Anny Castilla-Earls ,
Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux ,
Lourdes Martinez-Nieto ,
Maria Adelaida Restrepo  and
Christopher Barr
Anny Castilla-Earls*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Lourdes Martinez-Nieto
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Maria Adelaida Restrepo
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Christopher Barr
Affiliation:
University of Houston
*
Address for correspondence: Anny Castilla-Earls 4455 Cullen Blvd Room 100 University of HoustonHoustonTX77204, E-mail: annycastilla@uh.edu
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Abstract

This study examines bilingual effects in Spanish–English bilingual children with good maintenance of the minority language. The present study compares the performance of a group of Spanish-monolingual children (MON; n = 30) with two groups of Spanish-speaking bilingual children (Low English proficiency group: LEP; n = 36; High English proficiency group, HEP; n = 36) on the elicited productions of Spanish articles and object clitics. Our results suggest that children with LEP performed significantly lower than MON children of the same age on both articles and clitics in Spanish. However, children with HEP, who were a year older on average, performed similarly to the MON group. Both groups of bilingual children produced errors of clitic omission and substitution, but these errors were minimal in the MON group. The results suggest that Spanish clitics and articles are vulnerable to bilingual effects for English/Spanish speaking children with good Spanish maintenance.

Keywords

articlesclitic pronounsSpanish
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Special Issue 4: Interpreting: A window into bilingual processing , August 2020 , pp. 825 - 835
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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