Language-dependent reminiscing: Bilingual mother-child autobiographical conversations differ across Thai and English

Cross-linguistic differences in narrative patterns were examined in bilingual mother-preschooler dyads. Twenty-six Thai-English bilingual mothers and their four-year-old children completed a reminiscing task where they jointly recalled autobiographical memories in response to word prompts. Bilingual mothers and children exhibited different reminiscing styles in each of their languages. Specifically, bilinguals adopted high-elaborative and child-centered styles (e.g., use of evaluative feedback) when speaking English and low-elaborative and adult-centered styles (e.g., use of directives) when speaking Thai. Additionally, positive associations between maternal and child narrative patterns in both languages suggested that mothers’ scaffolding strategies influenced children’s own emerging linguistic skills. Findings from the present study show that bilingual mothers socialize their children differently across languages. In turn, children learn to present themselves in distinct ways depending on the linguistic and social contexts. We conclude that language can cue culture-specific communicative and behavioral norms as early as preschool.