Language production and cognitive abilities in child heritage speakers

Abstract

This study investigates different measures of language production and cognitive abilities in bilingual children from Turkish and Moroccan backgrounds, who grow up in the Netherlands, learning Dutch as well as the heritage language. Language production measures tested children’s lexical access, accuracy, fluency, and language switching. We found that the lexical access in Dutch of the bilingual children is related to the amount of language use in each of their languages. Whereas the accuracy of their language production in Dutch is related to their linguistic skills, such as vocabulary and grammar, the fluency of their speech is mainly related to processing skills such as phonological memory. Finally, we found evidence for a relation between language switching and general cognitive skills. However, this relation did not appear to result in enhanced cognitive skills in the bilingual group.