Mastery of Echoics in Chinese Establishes Bidirectional Naming in Chinese for Preschoolers with Naming in English

Yu Cao; R Douglas Greer

doi:10.1007/s40616-018-0106-1

Mastery of Echoics in Chinese Establishes Bidirectional Naming in Chinese for Preschoolers with Naming in English

Anal Verbal Behav. 2019 Jan 8;34(1-2):79-99. doi: 10.1007/s40616-018-0106-1. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Authors

Yu Cao^{1

2}, R Douglas Greer³

Affiliations

¹ 1Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W. 120th St., New York, NY 10027 USA.
² Present Address: Gotham Children, New York, NY USA.
³ 3Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, 529 A Thorndike, 525 W. 120th St., New York, NY 10027 USA.

Abstract

The onset of the verbal behavior developmental cusp of bidirectional naming (BiN) in a second language makes it possible for monolingual English-speaking children to learn names of things in a second language incidentally. We conducted 2 experiments to identify why monolingual English-speaking children cannot demonstrate BiN in another language when they demonstrated BiN in their native language. In Experiment I, using a group design (n = 32 preschoolers), we identified Chinese speech sounds that monolingual English-speaking children with BiN in English for familiar stimuli could not echo. In Experiment II, using a multiple-probe design, we investigated if mastery of echoics with the speech sounds identified in Experiment I would result in BiN in Chinese with 6 participants from Experiment I. The dependent variable was untaught responses to the probe stimuli presented following the naming experience based on the echoic stimuli from Experiment I. The results showed that echoic training was functionally related to the establishment of BiN in the second language. It appeared that the emission of accurate echoics might be the key to second-language BiN and that emergent correspondence between producing and hearing that occurs with the mastery of the echoic responding may be the source of reinforcement.

Keywords: Bilingual naming; Echoic training for naming; Familiar and nonfamiliar stimuli and naming; Fast mapping; Naming; Verbal behavior developmental cusp.