Exploring how language exposure shapes oral narrative skills in French-English emergent bilingual first graders

Highlights

• Analysing narratives qualitatively gives novel insights into learning trajectories.

• Strong relationships are shown between microstructure and exposure.

• Lexical richness and low frequency word use are related to reading frequency.

• Macrostructure and narrative quality cannot be explained by a simple transfer model.

• Different agents shape language learning trajectories, outcomes and attitudes.

Abstract

This study explores how language exposure may shape oral narrative skills in three first grade French-English emergent bilinguals attending an international programme at a state school in France. The students come from three different home language backgrounds (English dominant; French dominant; both French and English). Parent questionnaires provide information on current and cumulative exposure and home literacy practices. Spontaneous oral narratives are elicited in French and English. Microstructure, macrostructure, and narrative quality analyses show that while one language may appear to be dominant, notably for certain microstructure skills, performance in other areas may be superior in the other language. The study highlights how different actors’ agency (children, parents, siblings, teachers) may contribute to language learning trajectories and outcomes, steering dual language acquisition. For teachers, the study reiterates the complexity of language learning and the need to diversify activities to ensure that students are processing and producing language appropriately.

Introduction

Numerous factors contribute to dual language acquisition in bilingual children (Pearson, 2007; Thordardottir, 2011; Unsworth, 2013), including the quantity of exposure to each language (De Houwer, 2011; Oller & Eilers, 2002; Pearson, 2007), and exposure to rich input sources, such as book reading (Paradis, 2011). Quantitative studies on oral narrative skills in bilingual children (Altman, Armon-Lotem, Fichman & Walters, 2016; Gagarina, Klop, Tsimpli & Walters, 2016; Rodina, 2017; Simon-Cereijido & Gutiérrez-Clellen, 2009; Uccelli & Paéz, 2007) have uncovered certain tendencies, including associations between exposure amount and vocabulary richness (see 2.2). However, these studies do not explore in depth the nature of the language exposure contribution. As family language practices are interwoven with language biographies, bilingual children's language exposure and experiences often vary over time.

This qualitative study explores the following research question: In what ways are children's oral narrative skills shaped by language exposure and home literacy environments? We explore the question in three first grade French-English emergent bilinguals attending a state school with an international language programme in France. Bilingual education is rare in France, where most schools have “a predominantly monolingual habitus” (Hélot, 2008, p. 205) (see 2.4). Our participants, who differed in the amount of exposure they had to each language, came from three different home language backgrounds (English dominant; French dominant; both French and English). A wordless picture book was used to elicit spontaneous oral narratives in French and English. This study utilises microstructure, macrostructure and narrative quality analyses to provide a deep analysis of the three case studies. We define microstructure features as narrative productivity, or items such as lexical richness and morphosyntax. Macrostructure features, defined as narrative structure, include elements such as characters, initiating events and resolution. Narrative quality includes accurate referencing, and use of rhetorical and literary devices. To evaluate the home language practices and background that may contribute to bilingual development, we constructed measures of current and cumulative language exposure and home literacy practices. The study sets out to provide a nuanced and detailed assessment of narrative skills in children's two languages and to highlight the subtle interplay of different key actors’ agency in shaping language learning trajectories and outcomes in young bilinguals. We define agency here as the “socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (Ahearn, 2001, p. 112). To discover more nuanced and emergent themes in oral narratives, a case study research design is used to challenge the boundaries of otherwise quantitative studies of microstructure and macrostructure (e.g., Altman et al., 2016; Rodina, 2017; Uccelli & Paéz, 2007), and it provides novel insights into the student-specific oral narrative skills trajectories.