Morphosyntactic priming in bilingual children

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Title:	Morphosyntactic priming in bilingual children
Author:	Fitzpatrick, Kerry Elisabeth
Abstract:	Limited information exists regarding the acquisition of syntax and morphology in young Spanish-English bilingual language learners. A method to measure short-term language learning is through structural priming; an auditory model of the target structure is presented, which influences a subject’s subsequent production. The purpose of this thesis was to develop and pilot priming tasks in both English and Spanish to analyze the language production of typically developing bilingual elementary school students. The morphosyntactic structures targeted in the structural priming task included the third person singular and past tense in English, as well as direct object clitics and imperfect tense in Spanish. The study included three participants, aged 4;7, 6;7, and 10;11. Results revealed that bilingual elementary students with varied language exposure are influenced and learn from morphosyntactic priming.
Department:	Communication Sciences and Disorders
Subject:	Structural priming Bilingualism Language acquisition Bilingual children Morphological development Syntactic development Spanish acquisition English acquisition Speech-language pathology Speech disorders English language speakers Spanish language speakers
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2011-05-3400
Date:	2011-05