Bilingual vocabulary, CDI, immigration, Polish, English
The expressive lexical skills of 53 Polish bilinguals aged 24–36 months
living in the UK and Ireland were assessed using Polish and British
English adaptations of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative
Development Inventories. Polish vocabulary scores were compared to
those of 53 Polish monolinguals matched for age, gender and parental
education. The bilinguals were born to two Polish parents and mostly
lived outside Poland since birth. Results showed substantial differences
in Total Conceptual Vocabulary and single-language vocabulary scores
between the groups. However, the groups did not differ on Total
Vocabulary measures. In the bilingual sample, there were significant
correlations between children’s frequency of language use and their
vocabulary scores in the same language. A negative correlation between
children’s frequency of English use and their Polish vocabulary scores
was found. A complex pattern of factors relating to children’s low
performance in Polish emerged. Hierarchical multiple regression
analyses showed that low birth weight, parental concern about
language, maternal educational level as well as maternal frequency of
Polish and English use contributed to explaining children’s Polish
vocabulary scores. Overall, results indicated the need for early additional
support of the first language (L1) if long-term balanced bilingualism is to
be attained.