The role of age of arrival and language environment factors in Arabic heritage language development: A longitudinal study
The Arabic development of Syrian refugee children (N = 133; mean age = 9;4 at Time 1) was examined over 3 time periods during their first five years in Canada. Children were administered sentence repetition and receptive vocabulary tasks in English and Arabic, and information about age-of-arrival (A...
| Authors: | ; ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Article |
| Publication date: | 2026 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repository: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:326164 |
| Online Access: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/326164 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Child second language acquisition Heritage language acquisition Individual differences Longitudinal design |
| Summary: | The Arabic development of Syrian refugee children (N = 133; mean age = 9;4 at Time 1) was examined over 3 time periods during their first five years in Canada. Children were administered sentence repetition and receptive vocabulary tasks in English and Arabic, and information about age-of-arrival (AOA), schooling in Arabic and language environment factors was obtained via parent report. Older AOA was associated with superior Arabic abilities across time, but regardless of AOA, children showed plateau/attrition patterns in Arabic and shifts to English dominance by Time 3. Increases in English over Arabic were observed for language use at home and language-rich activities overtime. Stronger Arabic Time 3 outcomes were predicted by more Arabic and less English use with siblings, more schooling in Arabic, more frequent listening-speaking and extra-curricular activities in Arabic, and more Arabic use with friends. We conclude that the heritage language can be vulnerable even for first-generation bilinguals. |
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