title: Non-word repetition performance in Korean-English bilingual children.
abstract: The goals of this research were (1) to compare bilingual and monolingual children on Korean non-word repetition performance, and (2) to examine the relations between non-word repetition and vocabulary skills in bilingual and monolingual children. Sixty children aged from 3-5 years participated in this study, including 30 Korean-English bilinguals and 30 Korean monolinguals. The Korean-English bilingual children were sequential bilinguals who spoke Korean at home and English at school. Children were tested on a non-word repetition task and their Korean and English vocabulary skills were measured by standardized tests. The results showed that bilingual children were significantly lower on standardized vocabulary scores (p < .01). However, there was no difference between bilinguals and monolinguals on non-word repetition performance. Correlation analyses showed a significant association between non-word repetition performance and vocabulary skills of the tested language in both groups, while the association between non-word repetition and age was significant in the monolingual group. These results demonstrated that the non-word repetition task measures general language learning ability and is a sensitive predictor of vocabulary skills in linguistically diverse children.
authors: Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
authors: Hyun Jung
authors: HJ
authors: Lee
authors: Young Tae
authors: YT
authors: Kim
authors: Dongsun
authors: D
authors: Yim
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002652:Child Behavior; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary