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Foreign Accent in Pre- and Primary School Heritage Bilinguals

Kupisch, Tanja LU ; Kolb, Nadine ; Rodina, Yulia and Urek, Olga (2021) In Languages 6(2).
Abstract
Previous research has shown that the two languages of early bilingual children can influence each other, depending on the linguistic property, while adult bilinguals predominantly show influence from the majority language to the minority (heritage) language. While this observed shift in influence patterns is probably related to a shift in dominance between early childhood and adulthood, there is little data documenting it. Our study investigates the perceived global accent in the two languages of German-Russian bilingual children in Germany, comparing 4–6-year-old (preschool) children and 7–9-year-old (primary school) children. The results indicate that in German the older children sound less accented than the younger children, while the... (More)
Previous research has shown that the two languages of early bilingual children can influence each other, depending on the linguistic property, while adult bilinguals predominantly show influence from the majority language to the minority (heritage) language. While this observed shift in influence patterns is probably related to a shift in dominance between early childhood and adulthood, there is little data documenting it. Our study investigates the perceived global accent in the two languages of German-Russian bilingual children in Germany, comparing 4–6-year-old (preschool) children and 7–9-year-old (primary school) children. The results indicate that in German the older children sound less accented than the younger children, while the opposite is true for Russian. This suggests that the primary school years are a critical period for heritage language maintenance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
global foreign accent, accent rating, heritage language, majority language, preschool children, school children, Russian, German
in
Languages
volume
6
issue
2
pages
19 pages
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85107675260
ISSN
2226-471X
DOI
10.3390/languages6020096
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
377d2a2c-baa1-4348-a8c4-20ef9823d5bf
date added to LUP
2024-11-22 18:03:55
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:06:17
@article{377d2a2c-baa1-4348-a8c4-20ef9823d5bf,
  abstract     = {{Previous research has shown that the two languages of early bilingual children can influence each other, depending on the linguistic property, while adult bilinguals predominantly show influence from the majority language to the minority (heritage) language. While this observed shift in influence patterns is probably related to a shift in dominance between early childhood and adulthood, there is little data documenting it. Our study investigates the perceived global accent in the two languages of German-Russian bilingual children in Germany, comparing 4–6-year-old (preschool) children and 7–9-year-old (primary school) children. The results indicate that in German the older children sound less accented than the younger children, while the opposite is true for Russian. This suggests that the primary school years are a critical period for heritage language maintenance.}},
  author       = {{Kupisch, Tanja and Kolb, Nadine and Rodina, Yulia and Urek, Olga}},
  issn         = {{2226-471X}},
  keywords     = {{global foreign accent; accent rating; heritage language; majority language; preschool children; school children; Russian; German}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Languages}},
  title        = {{Foreign Accent in Pre- and Primary School Heritage Bilinguals}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/languages6020096}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/languages6020096}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}