JCPSLP Vol 18 No. 1Mar 2016

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JCPSLP Volume 18, Number 1 2016 30
age groups (see Table 1). Group assignment was based on
age and parent/carer report of main language spoken by
the child, supported by teacher report for dominant
language. Through this process, data from nine children
were eliminated due to inconsistency in identification of
language dominance and 25 children eliminated as their
age fell outside the identified groupings. This resulted in a
total data set from 481 children. The groups were fairly
equally distributed for gender and language dominance,
with 236 children identified as speaking mainly English in
the home (EL1) and 245 children speaking mainly Mandarin
in the home (ML1).
Materials
The expressive language samples in English were obtained
by administering the Singapore English Action Picture Test
(SEAPT; Brebner, 2002). Noun plural marking is known to
be context dependent in SCE, so this assessment was
chosen as (a) it provides several structured opportunities for
the marking of noun plurals, allowing for some influence on
the context of the required utterances and (b) it has been
shown to be culturally and linguistically appropriate for
Singaporean children (Brebner, 2010).
Procedure
Participants were asked to describe a series of 10 pictures
from the SEAPT (plus three trial items) presented in the
same order, prompted by specific questions designed to
elicit information on grammatical targets and expressive
vocabulary, e.g., “What is he doing?”The children were
tested individually in a quiet area by the principal researcher
and responses audio-recorded for subsequent transcription
and analysis. Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts
software (Language Analysis Laboratory, 1984) was used to
code the language samples for each child for the use of
noun plural “-s”marker and use of a quantifier to indicate
plurality (e.g., “two cat” for “cats”), enabling a count of the
use of these markers. Morphological marking in the English
spoken in Singapore is context dependent and markers are
used only in obligatory contexts and omission at other
times is acceptable. There were eight consistent
opportunities for use of the marker in an obligatory context
in all test items.
Results
For the analyses of this cross-sectional study of elicited
language samples, we compared the EL1 and ML1
bilingual children’s use of the plural “-s”marker, and of use
of quantifiers to indicate plurality. Descriptive statistics are
provided in Table 2.
Use of Plural “-s”
A 2 x 6 factorial ANOVA (i.e., two language dominant
groups across six age groups) for the use of the plural “-s”
marker revealed significant main effects for language
dominant group (F (1,480) = 73.144, p < .001, np 2 = 0.135)
and age group (F(5,480) = 8.446, p < 001,np 2 = 0.083) and a
significant interaction between main language and age
group (F(5,480) = 4.302, p < .001,np 2 = 0.044). This
interaction effect means that there is a different pattern in
the acquisition of plurals between the two main language
dominance groups as hypothesised. That is, the EL1 group
demonstrated a significant increase in use of the plural “-s”
marker to indicate plurality, increasing across age groups
but the ML1 group did not demonstrate such increases
(see Figure 1).
English most frequently used in everyday conversations
(Gupta, 1994). The two forms of English spoken in
Singapore differ from each other markedly. SStdE is similar
to other forms of Standard English (StdE) with some
variation in vocabulary and phonology, whereas SCE has
marked differences across form, content and use (Gupta,
1994). SStdE is the primary language of instruction in
schools and kindergartens. The use of SStdE is associated
with higher socioeconomic status and educational level
(Gupta; Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010) so
consideration of a child’s language exposure and dominant
language is a critical factor as exposure to SStdE rather
than SCE, or Mandarin rather than SCE, is likely to result in
quite different language profiles.
Omission of morphological markers is typical in the
dialectal form of English spoken in Singapore (Brebner,
2010; Brebner, McCormack, & Rickard Liow, 2016; Gupta,
1994; Deterding & Poedjosoedarmo, 2001). In SStdE,
regular plurals are indicated using the “-s”marker on the
noun, but in SCE it is more commonly omitted or indicated
using a quantifier plus the noun (e.g., “two cat” rather
than “cats”; Deterding & Poedjosoedarmo). However,
such omissions would be a potential indicator of language
impairment for monolingual English speakers.
Aims
The aim of this research was to explore the marking of noun
plurality in English for English–Mandarin bilingual
Singaporean preschoolers by language dominance and by
age group. We hypothesised that that there would be
differences in the marking of noun plurals with “-s” and
quantifiers between groups of children with different main
home languages and across age groups.
Method
Ethical clearance for this study was obtained through
Flinders University and National University of Singapore and
permission to enter the kindergartens from each centre’s
principal.
Participants
English–Mandarin bilingual Chinese children were selected
for this study as they are the majority ethnic group in
Singapore representing approximately 75% of the
population (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2010).
Participants (n = 515) were aged between 3 years 9 months
and 6 years 8 months, and were divided into two language
background groups according to dominant language
spoken in the home. These groups were subdivided into six
Table 1. Number of participants, age group, and
language
Agegroup Age range
(year;months)
Number
of EL1
participants
Number
of ML1
participants
1 3;9–4;2 38 37
2 4;3–4;8 37 42
3 4;9–5;2 46 46
4 5;3–5;8 40 41
5 5;9–6;2 39 39
6 6;3–6;8 36 40