archives@tulane.edu / As bilingual populations continue to increase in the US, more research is needed to understand how multilingual language learning may affect child development, especially when developing early literacy skills. To address this question, the current study investigates the differences between monolingual and French-English bilingual children’s handwriting through the use of eye-tracking technology. A sample of 39 second-grade students participated in the study, in which they copied a series of French, English, and nonsense stimulus words of varying lengths. Eye-tracking videos were coded frame-by-frame to assess differences in copying times, reading fluency defined by lookbacks, and motor continuity defined by pen lifts. GLMM analyses suggested evidence for bilingual code switching in which the bilingual group showed increases in stimulus looking times and writing times compared to the monolingual group. As language familiarity increased for the bilingual group, writing became more efficient as evidenced by shorter lookback durations. Furthermore, French and nonsense words were found to require more lookbacks and longer lookbacks than English words across the two groups, suggesting the more familiar English words led to more efficient writing in this particular sample. Further research is needed to determine if these results translate to other languages or if they may change across development. / 1 / Riana Gaudet
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_122074 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Contributors | Gaudet, Riana (author), Lockman, Jeffrey (Thesis advisor), School of Science & Engineering Psychology (Degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | electronic, pages: 59 |
| Rights | No embargo, Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law. |
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