Mandarin Competence of Chinese-English Bilingual Preschoolers

Beschreibung

This book provides readers with a detailed sketch of the Mandarin competence of Chinese children in Singapore from different home language backgrounds. Their Mandarin competence is defined in terms of lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and code-switching tendency. The findings presented show that there are statistical differences in lexical diversity and syntactic complexity among the compared groups of children, and these differences in linguistic competence were found to be positively correlated to increased Mandarin exposure at home. They also demonstrate that there are statistical differences in code-switching tendency among the groups of children compared, which were found to be negatively correlated to increased exposure to Mandarin at home. A general relationship between home language exposure and Mandarin competence was established, although this relationship was found to be volatile, especially among children who are more bilingually exposed. This book shares these findings with linguists, language educators, and language policymakers, both local and international.
This book provides readers with a detailed sketch of the Mandarin competence of Chinese children in Singapore from different home language backgrounds. Their Mandarin competence is defined in terms of lexical diversity, syntactic complexity and code-switching tendency. The findings presented show that there are statistical differences in lexical diversity and syntactic complexity among the compared groups of children, and these differences in linguistic competence were found to be positively correlated to increased Mandarin exposure at home. They also demonstrate that there are statistical differences in code-switching tendency among the groups of children compared, which were found to be negatively correlated to increased exposure to Mandarin at home. A general relationship between home language exposure and Mandarin competence was established, although this relationship was found to be volatile, especially among children who are more bilingually exposed. This book shares these findings with linguists, language educators, and language policymakers, both local and international.
Provides readers with an overview of Mandarin competence among Chinese-English bilinguals, rarely covered in past literature Illustrates a complex interplay between home-language exposure and language competence in a three-dimensional continuum Encapsulates the complex variation of Mandarin competence and exposure displayed by children of different home language backgrounds in Singapore Highlights certain linguistic features of children from different home language backgrounds that call for pedagogical and curricular attention Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Hock Huan Goh

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Bilingual Continuum Code-Switching Home Language Lexical Diversity Mandarin Competence Mandarin Exposure Singaporean Chinese Preschoolers Syntactic Complexity chinese

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