| The development of language ability and executive function has an important influence on preschool children’s school preparation and later cognitive and academic development.Exploring the development of early language ability and executive function of bilingual children and examining the relationship between bilingual learning and cognitive development are frontier research topics in related fields.Findings from these studies can help to deepen the understanding about the relationship between multilingual learning and cognitive development and the underlying mechanisms.Based on the particularities of Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual learning,this research involved Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual preschool children as participants to track the dynamic relationship between children’s bilingual learning and executive function development and explored theoretical issues of early bilingual experience and executive function development.The research was divided into three parts,five studies.The first part was about the development characteristics of language and executive function of Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual preschool children.Experiment 1tested 405 Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual children in the junior,middle and senior classes of kindergarten.They completed a series of one-on-one language and executive function tasks that examined their language and executive function development level.The results showed that:(1)with the increase of grade,the Uyghur-Chinese bilingual language ability has been improved significantly.(2)The grade difference of children’s executive function was significant.The children in the middle classes of kindergarten had significant higher scores on some executive function than those in the junior classes,and the scores of various executive function tasks of senior classes children were significantly higher than those of middle classes children.(3)Gender differences in language and executive function were not significant.Experiment 2 aims to investigate the age change of the potential factor structure of executive function of bilingual children.A multi-group structure equation model was used to analyze the potential factor structure of executive function of the three age groups of children from junior,middle and senior classes.The results showed that the two factors(inhibition,working memory)and three factors(inhibition,working memory,and cognitive flexibility)structural models of executive function were acceptable.The executive function of middle class and senior class children was a three-factors structure(inhibition,working memory,and cognitive flexibility).The results proved that the structure of preschool children executive function develops from two factors to three factors.Starting from middle class,children’s executive function developed into a stable three factors structure.The second part investigated the developmental relationship between language and executive function of Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual preschool children based on cross-sectional data and one-year follow-up data.Based on the cross-sectional design,the potential structure of executive function of children in the middle class and senior class tends to be stable.A one-year follow-up study on 186 children in the middle class had been further conducted to collect the Chinese language task scores after one year and the performance data of the executive function task.Experiment 1 in Study Two used the cross-sectional data of three age groups to examine the relationship between children’s bilingual abilities and executive functions.The results showed that:(1)with the increase of grade,the influence of language on executive function increased,especially the contribution of Mandarin Chinese to executive function.The rapid development of Mandarin Chinese had a positive impact on executive function skills.(2)The interaction of two languages was not significant.The results seem to support the hypothesis that the language development of early bilingual children conforms to the separate development hypothesis.Experiment 2 in Study Two examined the relationship between Mandarin Chinese vocabulary development and executive function of Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual children from the perspective of longitudinal development.Based on the cross-lagged model analysis of Mandrin Chinese receptive language ability and executive function(working memory,inhibition,and cognitive flexibility),the results showed that:(1)Both inhibition and cognitive flexibility significantly predicted the level of Mandarin Chinese receptive language ability,while the reverse relationship was not significant;(2)the cross lag between working memory and Mandrin Chinese receptive language ability was significant,among which working memory had an significant effect on Chinese receptive language ability.The predictive effect of power was significantly greater than that of Mandarin Chinese receptive language ability on working memory.Based on the cross-lagged model analysis of Mandarin Chinese expressive language ability and executive function sub components,the results showed that:(1)Mandarin Chinese expressive language ability predicted subsequent inhibition control and working memory level,but the reverse relationship was not significant;(2)Mandarin Chinese expressive language ability and cognitive flexibility had a mutual predictive relationship,among which Mandarin Chinese expressive language ability had a positive effect on children’s later cognitive ability The predictive effect of activity was significantly greater than that of cognitive flexibility on later Mandarin Chinese expressive language ability.The results showed that bilingual children’s Mandarin Chinese development and executive function influenced each other at different levels.At the same time,it also showed that receptive language ability and expressive language ability were interrelated but separated.In Study Three,tracking data were used to examine the underlying process of the relationship between receptive language ability and executive function.Based on the mediating effect analysis,the results showed that:(1)inhibitory control,working memory and cognitive flexibility acted on receptive language ability through the chain mediation of phoneme rules and neologism acquisition in the relationship between executive function and Mandarin Chinese receptive language ability which indicated that domain general executive function may affect Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual children through domain specific language processing skills.(2)Language was significantly predictive of working memory in the relationship between Mandarin Chinese receptive language ability and executive function,but had no direct predictive effect on inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility.However,the mediating analysis showed that Chinese receptive language ability acted on executive function through phonological perception,phonemic rules,and rapid mapping ability,which indicated that Mandarin Chinese receptive language ability played an important role in inhibitory control and flexibility.There is a shadowing effect on inhibitory control and flexibility.Study Four explored the underlying mechanism of the relationship between expressive language ability and executive function using the tracking data.The results of mediating analysis showed that:(1)Uyghur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual children’s Chinese expressive language ability indirectly affected the development of inhibitory control and working memory through rapid mapping,phonemic rules,and voice perception,and indirectly affected the development of cognitive flexibility through expressive rapid mapping.(2)The results of path analysis showed that executive function affected the development of expressive language ability through phonemic rules.In the third part,the study examined the regulatory/modulatory role of the family language environment on cognitive development of bilingual children from the perspective of language use environment and language activity quality.Experiment 1focused on the effects of language switching environment and language ability on children’s executive function.The results showed that there was an interaction between the expressive language ability of Uyghur and Mandarin Chinese and the language switching environment in senior class children.The specific performance was as follows: Children with high expressive language ability and high frequency of language switching environment had a positive impact on executive function,but the impact was not statistically significant;the development of children’s two languages was unbalanced,which showed that the rate of language switching environment had a positive impact on executive function,and the impact was statistically significant;if the expressive ability of both languages was low,the high-frequency language switching environment had a negative impact on executive function.The results showed that for children with low bilingual development,frequent language switching during communication was not conducive to children’s cognitive development.In junior class and middle class,expressive language ability had no moderating effect on the relationship between language switching and executive function.The ability of receptive language proficiency in all grades was not significant.The purpose of Experiment 2 was to investigate the effect of the quality of family language activities in the relationship between Mandarin Chinese development and executive function.The results showed that:(1)positive language activities could regulate the cognitive advantage effect of working memory in bilingual learning.The more positive family language activities children have,the stronger the influence of Mandarin Chinese ability children get on working memory.(2)The more negative language activities children have,the weaker the influence of Mandarin Chinese ability children get on working memory.(3)The quality of language activities had no moderating effect on the cognitive advantages of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility.To sum up,this study systematically investigated the development of language and executive function of Uygur-Mandarin Chinese bilingual preschool children from the aspects of development levels,development relationships,and potential processes,as well as the influence of environmental factors,to provide empirical data for the development mechanism of bilingual learning and executive function of ethnic minority bilingual children,as well as for a comprehensive understanding of bilingualism.The relationship between children’s language and cognitive development provides some new evidence for the study of bilingual context.At the same time,it provides a useful reference for preschool bilingual children’s language and cognitive preparation for school and the creation of a supportive language environment. |
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