Abstract Children who have knowledge of two languages may show better phonological awareness than their monolingual peers (e.g. Bruck & Genesee, 1995 ). It remains unclear how much bilingual experience is needed for such advantages to appear, and whether differences in language or cognitive skills alter the relation between bilingualism and phonological awareness. These questions were investigated in this cross-sectional study. Participants (n = 294; 4–7 year-olds, in the first three grades of primary school) were Dutch-speaking pupils attending mainstream monolingual Dutch primary schools or early-English schools providing English lessons from grade 1, and simultaneous Dutch-English bilinguals. We investigated phonological awareness (rhyming, phoneme blending, onset phoneme identification, and phoneme deletion) and its relation to age, Dutch vocabulary, English vocabulary, working memory and short-term memory, and the balance between Dutch and English vocabulary. Small significant (α < .05) effects of bilingualism were found on onset phoneme identification and phoneme deletion, but post-hoc comparisons revealed no robust pairwise differences between the groups. Furthermore, effects of bilingualism sometimes disappeared when differences in language or memory skills were taken into account. Learning two languages simultaneously is not beneficial to – and importantly, also not detrimental to – phonological awareness.

中文翻译：

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语音意识表现的差异

摘要 拥有两种语言知识的儿童可能比单语儿童表现出更好的语音意识（例如 Bruck & Genesee, 1995 ）。目前尚不清楚这种优势需要多少双语经验才能出现，以及语言或认知技能的差异是否会改变双语和语音意识之间的关系。在这项横断面研究中对这些问题进行了调查。参与者（n = 294；小学前三年级的 4-7 岁儿童）是在荷兰主流单语小学或早期英语学校就读的荷兰语学生，该学校提供一年级英语课程，同时荷兰语-英语双语者。我们调查了语音意识（押韵、音素混合、起始音素识别和音素删除）及其与年龄的关系，荷兰语词汇、英语词汇、工作记忆和短期记忆，以及荷兰语和英语词汇的平衡。双语对起始音素识别和音素删除的影响很小（α < .05），但事后比较显示两组之间没有明显的成对差异。此外，当考虑到语言或记忆技能的差异时，双语的影响有时会消失。同时学习两种语言对语音意识无益，更重要的是，也无害。但事后比较显示两组之间没有明显的成对差异。此外，当考虑到语言或记忆技能的差异时，双语的影响有时会消失。同时学习两种语言对语音意识无益，更重要的是，也无害。但事后比较显示两组之间没有明显的成对差异。此外，当考虑到语言或记忆技能的差异时，双语的影响有时会消失。同时学习两种语言对语音意识无益，更重要的是，也无害。