A comparative study on phonological acquisition and performance in phonological awareness by children exposed to a bilingual or monolingual family environment

Abstract

Objective: to verify and compare phonological acquisition and performance in phonological awareness tasks among children exposed to a bilingual (Brazilian Portuguese and German) or monolingual family environments (Brazilian Portuguese). Methods: a sample of 32 children of both sexes aged 5 years were divided into the bilingual group (13 children), who lived daily with people who spoke German and Portuguese, and the monolingual group (19 children), who lived daily with people who spoke only the Portuguese language. Phonological acquisition and phonological awareness skills were assessed using protocols standardized for Brazilian Portuguese and statistically analyzed using the Fisher exact test and Mann-Whitney test, considering p<0.05. Results: the results revealed that a greater number of subjects demonstrated atypical phonological acquisition in the bilingual group and scored worse results in the phonological awareness skills evaluation. Phonological processes were similar in both groups. None of the results obtained were statistically significant. Conclusion: deviant phonological acquisition was superior in the bilingual family environment group. Phonological processes were similar for both groups. In the phonological awareness tasks, children in the bilingual family environment group obtained better results only for the phonemic synthesis tasks. For other tasks, children in the monolingual family group achieved better results