Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts

Korean Association of Child Studies (한국아동학회)
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Cognitive and Affective Perspective-Taking Ability of Young Bilinguals in South Korea

  • Received : 2012.12.29
  • Accepted : 2013.02.08
  • Published : 2013.02.28
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Abstract

The present study examined balanced bilingual children's cognitive and affective perspective-taking and compared them to that of monolingual children. A total of 133 children aged 4 to 5 years and consisting of 73 Korean-English bilinguals and 60 Korean monolinguals were tested with cognitive perspective-taking and affective perspective-taking tasks. Balanced bilinguals were screened through general language ability tests in both English and Korean. Participant backgrounds were collected through a parent questionnaire. Results showed significant differences in affective perspective-taking between bilingual and monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children outperformed monolingual children. Although there was no difference in cognitive perspective-taking between bilinguals and monolinguals, the result showed that children's cognitive perspective-taking ability develops with age. This study provides basic information about bilingual children's perspective-taking ability and their bilingual advantage.

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