Article Production Accuracy of an Arabic–English Bilingual Child: A Case Study

Abstract

Purpose: This single-subject case study examined the article production accuracy of an Arabic–English bilingual child. The aim of the study was to determine whether the child's Arabic language background interacted with his accuracy of article production in English based on the Arabic article system, which, unlike English, does not contain the indefinite article. Method: The child was audio-recorded interacting with his paternal aunt and grandmother at two time points, when the child was aged 3;2 (years;months) and 3;6. A word-level coding system was developed to track the child's accurate and inaccurate production of article types in English including errors of substitution, addition, and omission. Results: Findings from this single-subject case study demonstrated that the child produced definite, indefinite, and null articles in English. The child's most frequent error was substitution of definite article the . In addition, the child spoke primarily in English with his caregivers. The findings supported prior work of bilingual children speaking a range of native languages, who also frequently misused the definite article the . Discussion: The child's article production accuracy and the more frequent definite article errors are discussed in the context of existing literature on article production by monolingual and bilingual children. The absence of the indefinite article in Arabic, the child's other language, could have driven the inaccurate/overuse use of the definite article in English. Nevertheless, the findings from this single-subject case study provide support for a child raised in an Arabic–English bilingual household who displayed development in his English article production accuracy in English comparable with that of bilingual children and monolingual English-speaking children.