During early childhood, a child has no problem in acquiring two languages, if this happens in a typical context. However, a delayed exposure to the second language (L2), or insufficient or distorted L2 input, may cause persistent difficulties in L2 acquisition. Maria Luisa Lorusso and Andrea Bigagli explain. www.dyslexia-international.org

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During early childhood, a child has no
problem in acquiring two languages, if
this happens in a typical context.
However, a delayed exposure to the second
language (L2), or insufficient or distorted
L2 input, may cause persistent difficulties in
L2 acquisition (Dixon et al., 2012; Housen
& Kuiken, 2009; Larsen-Freeman, 2009),
both at a primary level (spoken L2) and
at a secondary level (literacy in L2). The
presence of a Specific Language Impairment
(SLI) or a Specific Learning Disorder (SLD)
can make the achievement of competence
in L2 even more difficult (Kohnert, 2010;
Kohnert et al., 2009; Spoelman & Bol, 2012;
Stevrakaki et al., 2011).
It is not easy to detect the factors that
prevent L2 acquisition, but it is essential
to distinguish between disorders and
temporary delays: this is because disorders
require a specific rehabilitation program,
whereas temporary delays have to be dealt
with by cultural mediation and support in
L2 acquisition (Thordardottir, 2010).
The question is very complex because
successive-bilingual children can’t be
properly tested in their L1 and L2 since the
acquisition of both languages often follows
non-canonical trajectories (Laing & Kahmi,
2003; Pearson et al., 1993).
Detection of specific SLI or SLD markers
in children’s language can be a solution,
through the definition of specific profiles
of errors or difficulties that characterize
children with developmental disorders but
not children with language difficulties due
to external factors.
Some authors highlighted different
linguistic profiles between bilingual and
SLI children and also indicate parameters
and skills that might discriminate between
the two groups (McBride-Chang & Kail,
2002; Stokes et al., 2006; Verhoeven et
al., 2011). In this perspective, it is very
important to have an accurate description
of typical Italian language development of
successivebilingual Chinese children.
Chinese orthography is a morpho-
syllabic system: every orthographic
unit corresponds to a morpheme and it
represents one syllable in spoken language
(DeFrancis, 1989; Mattingly, 1984). Ho and
Bryant (1997), Hu and Catts (1998) and
McBride-Chang and Ho (2000) pointed out
Markers of language and learning disorders in
chinese children learning Italian as l2
Maria Luisa Lorusso and Andrea Bigagli Scientific
Institute “IRCCS E. Medea”, Bosisio Parini, Italy

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the importance of phonological predictors
in learning to read Chinese. Other studies
also evidenced the importance of visuo-
spatial skills (Chung et al., 2008; McBride-
Chang et al., 2011). Recent studies identified
cognitive deficits related to dyslexia in
Chinese children. They include deficits
on orthographic knowledge, speeded
naming, verbal memory, morphological and
phonological awareness (Ho et al., 1999,
2002, 2004, 2006; Shu et al., 2006). As to
SLI, among the few elements of Chinese
grammatical morphology, verbal aspect
markers appear to be particularly affected
(Fletcher et al., 2005; Stokes & Fletcher,
2003), along with non-word and sentence
repetition and detection of tone variation
(Stokes et al., 2006; Wong et al, 2010).
The protocol developed by our group in
order to detect at-risk cases for SLI and
SLD should include tasks in Chinese and in
Italian, taking into account the language-
specific markers for each language.
The number of spoken Chinese varieties
is very large; the present study focuses on
Wenzhou Chinese only (the spoken Chinese
in the Wenzhou area, in the south-east
of China). Wenzhou Chinese is the most
spoken variety of Chinese in Italy; it is
also one of the most widespread Chinese
varieties in Chinese communities around
the world. The project develops through
several steps: - Defining typical trajectories
in Italian L2 acquisition in Chinese
speaking children.
- Analyzing their linguistic profiles in order
to detect specific markers of children “at
risk” of SLI – SLD
- Developing reliable protocols that can be
used in clinical assessment.
The protocol has been structured in two
sections: an Italian section and a Chinese
section. Each section includes reading tasks,
phonological tasks and grammatical tasks.
General cognitive and non-cognitive factors
will be measured and their influence on test
performance will be controlled for.
60-80 primary school Chinese children will
be tested. According to the percentages of
the prevalence of language and learning
disorders, it is conceivable that 3-6 children
can be identified as “at risk” of SLI or SLD
(Tomblin et al., 1997).
Means and Standard Deviations on all
of the tasks are being defined on this
population. Successively, children who
differ significantly from the average in one
or more abilities have been identified, and
their cognitive profile is being investigated.
Correlations among tasks have been
computed, in order to define the degree of
relation among developmental trajectories
in different abilities, both within L1 or
L2 and between the two languages. Data
collection is taking place at two primary
schools in the city of Prato-Italy, where
a large community of Chinese native
speakers is established. More than 50%
of the primary school Chinese children
also attend the Chinese school during the
weekend where they learn written Chinese
(Mandarin).
The Italian section of the protocol has
already been administered to 38 successive
bilingual Chinese-Italian children attending
primary school from 2 to 5 grade (age
range: 6-11). Although the data collection is
incomplete, interesting results are emerging.
According to the Means and SDs on reading
tasks, we identified two children that differ
significantly from the average, in both speed
and accuracy, and that could be considered
“at risk” of disorder.
This result can be considered in line
with the percentages established for

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monolingual children. Predictors of reading
performance emerged analyzing z-scores on
phonological and grammatical tasks. Tests
of phonological processing and grammatical
judgment turned out to be good predictors
for reading performances.
Correlations for 2nd and 3rd grade students
have emerged between reading tasks and
phonological tasks, without any significant
relation between reading and grammar.
Reading performance of 4th and 5th
grade students showed correlations with
phonological tasks and very significant
correlations with grammatical tasks,
specifically with grammatical judgment
on subject-verb agreement and auxiliary
selection. These correlations have
interesting implications about reading
development in L2: lower grades students
appear to confirm phonological theories of
reading development (Ziegler & Goswami,
2005) as well as the phonological deficit for
reading disorders (Ramus & Szenkovitz,
2010); reading development and language
acquisition seem to operate as separated
nuclei for this sub-group.
On the contrary, correlations between
reading and grammar in 4th and 5th grade
students suggest that the two domains
tend to develop in stronger connection.
This hypothesis is in line with studies on
monolingual populations that showed
anomalous morphosyntactic processing
in dyslexia (Cantiani et al., 2012) and with
theories that consider dyslexia and SLI as
two different manifestations of a same pool
of disorders (Bishop & Snowling, 2004;
Pennington & Bishop, 2009).
NB: The authors thank Maria Teresa Guasti
and Shenai Hu (Università Milano-Bicocca)
for their help in defining the protocol for
the assessment of language abilities.
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