Bilingual vocabulary production in young children receiving Maltese-dominant exposure: individual differences and the influence of demographic and language exposure factors

Abstract

This study explored individual variability in the bilingual vocabularies of 65 Maltese children aged 23–27 months (N = 33) and 30–34 months (N = 32). Most of the participants’ direct input consisted of Maltese sentences embedding English words. Bilingualism was present at the societal level. Word production was measured through parental report, using a bilingual adaptation of the vocabulary checklist in the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. The participants’ composite and single-language vocabulary measures were examined for central tendencies and age effects, together with individual usage of Maltese and English words. The study also investigated how demographic and language exposure factors, documented through parental questionnaire responses, accounted for individual differences in participants’ vocabularies. Proportionally adjusted single-language scores showed 61.54% of children to use fewer Maltese words than expected. Maternal education level emerged as a significant predictor of Total Vocabulary and Maltese word scores, but explained very little of the variance for each. Frequency of English language exposure in main caregiver input and age group emerged as factors explaining 30.5% of the variance in English vocabulary scores. Maternal education level and frequency of English exposure may therefore act as protective factors in the vocabulary development of children receiving Maltese-dominant exposure.

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