Previous work suggests that child-internal and -external factors influence dual language learning (DLL), although more work is needed – to clarify the role of phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and language exposure in particular. Accordingly, we investigated the role of language exposure and PSTM in phonological awareness and receptive and expressive vocabulary development in the majority language in DLL. PSTM was measured with both a language-specific and language-universal nonword repetition task (NWR). Sixty-five DLL preschoolers were assessed twice, five months apart. Results show that maternal majority-language proficiency as well as language-specific and universal NWR predicted all outcomes, whereas length of exposure to the majority language only predicted receptive and expressive vocabulary. Current exposure did not predict any outcome. The findings extend previous research on child-internal and child-external factors as predictors of DLL to phonological awareness and language-universal NWR.

中文翻译：

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语言暴露和语音短期记忆作为双语学习中多数语言词汇和语音意识的预测因子

以前的工作表明，儿童内部和外部因素会影响双语学习 (DLL)，尽管还需要做更多的工作——特别是阐明语音短期记忆 (PSTM) 和语言暴露的作用。因此，我们调查了语言暴露和 PSTM 在 DLL 中大多数语言的语音意识以及接受和表达词汇发展中的作用。PSTM 使用特定语言和通用语言非单词重复任务 (NWR) 进行测量。65 名 DLL 学龄前儿童接受了两次评估，相隔五个月。结果表明，母亲的主要语言能力以及特定语言和通用 NWR 预测了所有结果，而接触主要语言的时间长度仅预测接受和表达词汇。目前的暴露并不能预测任何结果。