Advances in the Study of Bilingualism

Effects of age
As Tables 1.2 and 1.3 indicate, some clusters were produced accurately
by all age groups, including the youngest, whereas others showed consid-
erable improvements over time. No significant age effects were found for
stop + /w/, stop + /n/ and fricative + /w/ clusters. All other types of
cluster showed some age effects. In the following, these will be discussed
in detail.

Speech Learning in Bilinguals 11

Table 1.2 Percent correct production of 30 Welsh consonant clusters by age and

language dominance

Age 2;6–3;0 3;0–3;6 3;6–4;0 4;0–4;6 4;6–5;0 5;0–5;6 5;6–6;0

Dominance WEWEWEWEWEWEWE

 100 92 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 50 33 33 33 67 33 100 38 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 83 100 100 100 83 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 17 33 33 33 50 33 100 63 100 83 100 100 100 100

 75 100 83 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 33 33 83 33 67 67 100 63 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 75 100 83 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 33 33 50 67 83 67 100 75 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 92 100 100 100 100 100 92 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 17 33 25 33 67 33 100 75 100 83 100 92 100 100

 92 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 33 17 50 33 67 33 100 100 100 83 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 92 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 92 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 83 67 100 67 100 83 100 100 75 83 100 100 100 100

 33 17 50 17 67 17 83 50 50 100 83 75 67 83

 33 33 33 33 67 17 100 50 100 83 83 67 100 50

 33 33 33 33 67 17 67 50 83 67 83 50 83 83

 50 83 67 83 50 83 100 75 100 67 100 100 100 100

 50 67 67 83 83 83 100 75 75 67 100 75 100 83

 17 17 50 17 92 17 100 50 92 33 92 50 100 83

gwn 33 33 33 33 67 0 100 25 50 33 83 33 100 83