Numerous studies have evidenced the relationship between musical rhythm and language performances, derived from temporal acoustic signal processing. This relationship might be affected by different language experiences. Receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, and musical rhythm perception and production were examined in Chinese-speaking (n = 112) and English-speaking preschoolers (n = 73), by using standardized or self-designed linguistic assessments, and musical rhythm discrimination and tapping tests. Generally,results evidenced a cross-language association between musical rhythm performance and vocabulary knowledge in preschoolers. Significant associations were found between receptive vocabulary knowledge and musical rhythm perception as well as production skills in Chinese-speaking pre-schoolers; while Chinese expressive vocabulary knowledge was only associated with musical rhythm production but not perception. As for the English-speaking fellows, both receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge showed significant association with musical rhythm perception and production skills. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses were implemented to explore the contribution of phonological awareness and musical rhythm performance towards vocabulary knowledge. Results exhibited that musical rhythm production skills effectively predicted the expressive vocabulary knowledge in Chinese-speaking preschoolers, whilst musical rhythm perception skills predicted the receptive vocabulary knowledge in English-speaking fellows. To note, none of any musical rhythm significantly predicted Chinese receptive vocabulary knowledge and English expressive vocabulary knowledge, suggesting a possible mediation role of phonological awareness to rhythm-vocabulary relationship. Our findings provide cross-language evidence for the robustness of the rhythm-language relationship and possible predictive effect between musical rhythm and specific vocabulary knowledge.

大量研究证明了音乐节奏与语言表现之间的关系，源自时间声学信号处理。这种关系可能会受到不同语言体验的影响。通过使用标准化或自行设计的语言评估和音乐节奏，对说中文 (n = 112) 和说英语的学龄前儿童 (n = 73) 的接受和表达词汇知识、语音意识以及音乐节奏感知和产生进行了检查歧视和窃听测试。总的来说，结果证明学龄前儿童的音乐节奏表现和词汇知识之间存在跨语言关联。在说中文的学龄前儿童中，接受性词汇知识与音乐节奏感知以及生产技能之间存在显着关联；而汉语表达性词汇知识只与音乐节奏的产生有关，与感知无关。至于说英语的人，接受性和表达性词汇知识都与音乐节奏感知和制作技能显着相关。此外，还实施了层次回归分析，以探索语音意识和音乐节奏表现对词汇知识的贡献。结果表明，音乐节奏的产生技能可以有效地预测说中文的学龄前儿童的表达性词汇知识，而音乐节奏感知技能可以预测说英语的学龄前儿童的接受性词汇知识。要注意，任何音乐节奏都不能显着预测汉语接受性词汇知识和英语表达性词汇知识，表明语音意识可能对节奏-词汇关系起中介作用。我们的研究结果为节奏-语言关系的稳健性和音乐节奏与特定词汇知识之间可能的预测效果提供了跨语言证据。