Exploring Noun Bias versus Verb Bias among Preschool Children with Tagalog-Kapampangan Input

Abstract

Introduction

The study determined the existence of noun or verb bias among bilingual children speaking both Tagalog and Kapampangan. It sought to identify the first words learned and spoken by bilingual children at home and the number of nouns or verbs in the word production of bilingual children and their parents. It also tried to explain how code-switching of the language input by the parents or adults influences children's language production.

Methods

The data gathering involved parents' recall of the first words spoken by their children, interview and audio-recording of the conversation between parents/adults and children. The audio-recorded responses were transcribed and analyzed based on the data gathered. Frequency count of nouns and verbs and the number of code-switching during the entire conversations were used in the vocabulary measures of this study.

Results

Findings on the parental report of vocabulary showed that Tagalog-Kapampangan bilingual children produced a higher number of verbs than nouns during their early acquisition of language. Also, the number of verbs produced by children is higher than nouns in their audio-recorded conversation. In codeswitching, the study showed that parents preferred inter-sentential codeswitching than intra-sentential from which they elicited more verbs than nouns. Resultson all the vocabulary measures in this study showed a verb bias among bilingual children speaking both Tagalog and Kapampangan.

Discussion

The results of the study indicate that the language input of parents played an important role in the word production of children. The more the parents or adults become lexically biased, the more the children were able to project the same bias. The study also implies the importance of identifying the first words being learned by children as it might determine their readiness in acquiring a language during their early years.