Assessing successive bilinguals in two languages: A longitudinal look at English-speaking children in France

- We examined standardized test scores in successive bilingual children (L1 English) acquiring L2 French in France.
- Children with the shortest L2 exposure (<18 months) had dramatically lower French scores compared to monolingual norms.
- Children had lower performance in English compared to monolingual norms.
- More children scored within norms in both languages at the 2nd testing time compared to the 1st (interval of 1 year).

This study examines longitudinal standardized test scores in both languages of a group of successive bilinguals with L1 English acquiring L2 French. Participants included 22 native English-speaking children living in France. French was evaluated using a standardized receptive vocabulary test, as well as tests of phonology and morphosyntax. English was evaluated using the Core Language Score subtests from the CELF-4-UK. The children varied in age (6;9-12;7) and length of exposure (0;11-3;9) to French and were tested twice at 12-month intervals. At T1, 7 children scored below norms in both languages, while only 3 did so at T2. Two out of these 3 were arguably not typically developing children. Length of exposure to French emerged as an important factor only at T1, when a number of children were in early stages of acquisition (≤18 months of exposure). English scores varied by age and weekly use of English. In successive bilingual children, language performance on L2 standardized tests can be expected to be (well) below norms during the first 18 months of exposure. English scores revealed that weak L1 performance is part of typical development in this bilingual context, but that L1 retention is also a possibility.Learning outcomesThe reader will be able to: (1) describe challenges associated with language assessment of successive bilingual children, (2) describe the impact that age and length of exposure can have on language performance in bilinguals, and (3) understand how assessing successive bilinguals using monolingual norms can lead to underestimation of language abilities.