Cross-linguistic influence in Dutch-Italian older bilingual children.

Abstract

This study investigated cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in a group of Dutch-Italian older bilingual children on the attributive adjective placement in Italian. This study aimed to discover whether the extent of the CLI could be determined by language mode. Children had to undergo a monolingual session and a bilingual session. Children did not prefer the prenominal position as often as we expected. There was a significant difference across dominance groups. On the basis of these results we concluded that, even at a limited extent, there is still some evidence of CLI in older bilingual children as regards the domain of the attributive adjective placement in Italian. As concerns the effect of language mode on CLI, it did not go in the expected direction. Finally, this study has found evidence of language dominance being able to determine the direction of the CLI.