earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of development in complex sentence of the young children in multicultural families. 27 children in multicultural families and 27 normal ones aged 2, 3 and 4 participated. The rate of complex and three subtypes of sentences (compound, embedded, and compound-complex type of sentence) were analyzed through 120 spontaneous language samples in free plays. The results of this study were as follows. First, there was not a significant difference in the rate of complex sentence use between two groups, but not for the aged 2 groups. Second, the rate of compound sentences use was most high for the both groups, and followed by the embedded sentences and the compound-complex ones. In both groups, the compound and the compound- complex sentences appeared at the same age 3. But embedded sentence types were distinctive characteristics between two groups. Conclusively, it was suggested that although the children of multicultural families had lower abilities in complex sentence production than those of normal families in the 2 aged period, they could catch up gradually the normal families’ children one or two years later.