Bilingual Language Acquisition

Playing and learning in another language: ensuring good quality early years education in a language revitalisation programme

by Wilson McLeod

Co-authored with Christine Stephen and Joanna McPake

Offering Gaelic medium preschool provision poses particular challenges as most children only encounter Gaelic in the... more Offering Gaelic medium preschool provision poses particular challenges as most children only encounter Gaelic in the playroom and live in a context heavily dominated by English. Nevertheless, expanding provision for early years education in Gaelic is an important part of ambitious plans to revitalise the language. In this paper we explore the challenges experienced by adults and children as they strive to provide good quality preschool education through the medium of Gaelic. Drawing on evidence from a review of Gaelic medium preschool education, we consider the difficulties experienced in developing a Gaelic-only immersion playroom, the need for specific resources and the perceived training needs of practitioners. We look at the issues which arise from the largely English language home learning environment and the specific pedagogical challenges experienced when supporting language learning and access to the national curriculum. Our analysis will be relevant to others working in similar culturallinguistic and political contexts across Europe.

Parental language mixing: Its measurement and the relation of mixed input to young bilingual children’s vocabulary size

by Krista Byers-Heinlein

Byers-Heinlein, K. (in press, 2012). Parental language mixing: Its measurement and the relation of mixed input to young bilingual children’s vocabulary size. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Is parental language mixing related to vocabulary acquisition in bilingual infants and children? Bilingual parents... more Is parental language mixing related to vocabulary acquisition in bilingual infants and children? Bilingual parents (who spoke English and another language; N = 181) completed the Language Mixing Scale, a new self-report measure that assesses how frequently parents use words from two different languages in the same sentence, such as borrowing words from another language or code switching between two languages in the same sentence. Concurrently, English vocabulary size was measured in the bilingual children of these parents. Most parents reported regular language mixing in interactions with their child. Increased rates of parental language mixing were associated with significantly smaller comprehension vocabularies in 1.5-year-old bilingual infants, and marginally smaller production vocabularies in 2-year-old bilingual children. Exposure to language mixing might obscure cues that facilitate young bilingual children’s separation of their languages and could hinder the functioning of learning mechanisms that support the early growth of their vocabularies.

PROYECTO DE TESIS DE MAGISTER (2008)

by Kerwin A. Livingstone

This is my Master's the proposal/project for my Master's Degree thesis. This project was defended on March 31, 2008. This paved for the way for the elaboration of the actual thesis.

En el área de la investigación sobre la adquisición de L2, un problema fundamental es que investigadores y profesores... more En el área de la investigación sobre la adquisición de L2, un problema fundamental es que investigadores y profesores de lenguas focalizados en la adquisición de L2 (Lee, 2000; Sheen, 1994; Willis, 1996; Skehan 1998) buscan obtener muestras auténticas del uso de la lengua de los aprendices. Necesitan que estos ejemplos sean representativos de la manera cómo actúan los aprendices de manera natural, para así investigar cómo se produce el aprendizaje de L2. Para los profesores de lenguas, estos modelos son de gran utilidad, pues son tanto un medio para ayudar a los estudiantes a aprender como una evidencia de un proceso de aprendizaje exitoso. Además, es importante señalar que estos patrones de habla que producen los alumnos varían según el grado de centralización que ellos tienen en el uso correcto de la lengua.


A la luz de lo mencionado, el objetivo principal de este proyecto es investigar la efectividad de un modelo metodológico mixto integrado en un curso de español como LE para mejorar la competencia comunicativa y lingüística de unos 18 estudiantes provenientes de Minnesota, EE.UU.

Los dos enfoques metodológicos que se abordarán en este proyecto son el Enfoque por Tareas y el Enfoque Cooperativo. Estos dos enfoques constituyen un movimiento de evolución dentro del enfoque comunicativo y no resulta tan difícil experimentar con ellos a través del diseño de unidades didácticas. Un segundo objetivo de este proyecto es diseñar una Unidad Didáctica, en la cual se incorporarán los enfoques mencionados y en la cual se practicarán bastante las cuatro habilidades lingüísticas, y luego implementarla.

Los datos se obtendrán de un estudio cuasi experimental – pre-test y post-test - en un grupo experimental de 18 estudiantes de Minnesota. El propósito de las dos pruebas será definir su nivel de competencia antes, y evaluar y diagnosticar cuánto sabían antes y cuánto aprendieron después de haber llevado a cabo la Unidad Didáctica. Los datos recogidos serán analizados empíricamente para luego llegar a conclusiones sobre la investigación realizada. Es decir, a través de esta investigación se pretende obtener información clara y precisa en lo concerniente a la competencia comunicativo-lingüística de los alumnos antes y después de hacer este curso, y poner de relieve la efectividad del Enfoque por Tareas y del Enfoque Cooperativo.

Words Were all We Had (Book Review)

by Marguerite Lukes

Cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic factors influencing monolingual and bilingual children's cognitive development

by Kathleen O'Brien Ramirez

First language acquisition and teaching

by Madalena Cruz-Ferreira

2011.
In Antje Wilton and Martin Stegu (eds.), Applied Folk Linguistics, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 78-87.

“First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the... more “First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child’s natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. “First language teaching” concerns schooling in the language that is intended to become the child’s first (or “main”) one. Mainstream teaching practices similarly take languages as formal objects, focusing on literacy skills, so-called phonological awareness, and other teaching about the language. This article gives a first overview of folk beliefs associated with language acquisition and teaching, highlighting whether and how they can guide applied linguists’ concerns about child language development and early pedagogical practices.

The role of semantic transfer in clitic drop among Chinese-Spanish bilinguals

by Liliana Sanchez

Co-authored with Alex Cuza and Ana Teresa Perez-Leroux, draft only.

Bilingual compound processing: The effects of constituent frequency and semantic transparency

by Candise Lin

Cross-script phonological priming for Japanese-English bilinguals: Evidence for integrated phonological representations.

by Mariko Nakayama

In press: LCP

Laterality and Language Experience

by Jyotsna Vaid

Vaid, J. (2006) Joking across languages: Perspectives on humor, emotion, and bilingualism. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), Bilingual minds: Emotional experience, expression, and representation (pp.152-182). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

by Jyotsna Vaid

Mechanics of ―Transfer”: Evidence from Null Subjects in the Speech of ASL-English bilinguals

by Helen Koulidobrova

to appear in UConnWPL

Bimodal bilingual cross-language influence in unexpected domains

by Helen Koulidobrova

An Assistive Technology for Blind and Partially Sighted Students in Creative Writing Class

by salinee antarasena

The International Journal of Technology Knowledge & Society. 4: 1 (2008), 133-140

For decades, blind and partially sighted students have relied heavily on the assistance of volunteers, on cassettes... more For decades, blind and partially sighted students have relied heavily on the assistance of volunteers, on cassettes recorded the books they need as well as on Braille or DAISY books in public libraries. Limited numbers of volunteers as well as the costly production and distribution plan for Braille and DAISY books, however, have made the books available for them insufficient to meet their reading and learning needs. At the university, some students with vision loss also report difficulty for transportation to their school and to classes that require class participation or practical skills. Creative Writing Class then attempts to integrate lessons and activities into the web, with the use of assistive technology that enable them to practice their writing skills at wherever they would want to study. At the early stage of this course, the students report satisfactory progress in using the assistive technology and start building their first websites.

Color Comprehension and Color Categories among Blind Students

by salinee antarasena

A Multi-Sensory Approach In Implementing Concrete Language To Include All Students In Advanced Writing Classes

This study investigates teaching methods regarding color comprehension and color categorization among blind students,... more This study investigates teaching methods regarding color comprehension and color categorization among blind students, as compared to their non-blind peers and whether they understand and represent the same color comprehension and color categories. Then after digit codes for color comprehension teaching and assistive technology for the blind had been implemented to replace the traditional way of teachings, their color comprehension was re-investigated through color categories test, examining their ability in distinguishing between shades of similar colors and expressing correct color naming that is relevant to given contexts. Further discussion from the study also reveals how this understanding of color comprehension and color categories can help modify print materials which would allow blind students, students with low vision, as well as those with color blindness to be exposed to all the components of language and literacy-related activities as they wish, and how the teachers can make use of this color comprehension and color categories to integrate a multi-sensory approach to benefit all students, not just those with special needs.

Perceptions of Stress and Intonation in Group of Prelingually Deaf Students

by salinee antarasena

2010 Seoul International Conference on Linguistics

The study is designed to investigate the phonological awareness whether it can develop in isolation with letter-sound... more The study is designed to investigate the phonological awareness whether it can develop in isolation with letter-sound knowledge. The sample population recruited for this study included 24 prelingually deaf students, between ages of 20 years and 22 years, all of whom had severe hearing loss in both ears (greater than 90 dB) and both sexes were represented in each group. The control group consisted of 11 students and the experimental group, 13 students (with more significant hearing loss and no prior use of amplification. The spontaneous coding of presented words in a task of stress and intonation recall consists of two separated sets of rhythmic units (both in Thai and English) randomly taken from lessons in secondary school and early years at university level. The test was comprised of 282 isolated words in Thai (from three syllables to nine syllables) and 46 isolated words (from two syllables to five syllables) in English. A set of solid color cues was then created; each color is assigned to one phonotactical rules of addressed phonology.

The Effects of Bilingualism on First-language Recovery in Equilingual Speakers

by salinee antarasena

10th PALA International Symposium

This study seeks to answer: (1) what if we became deaf after acquiring first language proficiency, and became... more This study seeks to answer: (1) what if we became deaf after acquiring first language proficiency, and became equilingual speaker? How vocabulary recalls and translation equivalents could be transferable across both languages? and (2) when the auditory perception has been restored, whether or not the first language proficiency could be recovered? A group of post-lingually deafened adults (native speakers of Thai) after 12-month implant were tested; all of whom became equilingual speakers of both Thai and Thai Sign Language (TSL) and used both languages on a regular basis prior to their cochlear implantation. Instruction of the tasks was introduced to all participants through printed explanation in Thai and sign language from native signer. Results suggested satisfactory scores in all oral-auditory tasks including vocabulary recall, translation equivalents and in phrasing. Subtle difference was noted, however, in a task of sample sentences which indicated that the participants spent considerably longer time in arranging word order. This indicated that when the auditory perception is restored, bilingualism (in this case, Thai and TSL) indeed had no negative effect on the first-language recovery with respect to their oral-auditory processing, but produced syntactic effects in their sentence production. Conclusion also discusses other possible factors including age at onset of deafness and duration of deafness.

Bilingual beginnings as a lens for theory development: PRIMIR in focus

by Krista Byers-Heinlein

Curtin, S.A., Werker, J.F., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (in press, 2011). Journal of    Phonetics. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2010.12.002

PRIMIR (Processing Rich Information from Multidimensional Interactive Representations; Curtin & Werker, 2007;... more PRIMIR (Processing Rich Information from Multidimensional Interactive Representations; Curtin & Werker, 2007; Werker & Curtin, 2005) is a framework that encompasses the bidirectional relations between infant speech perception and the emergence of the lexicon. Here, we expand its mandate by considering infants growing up bilingual. We argue that, just like monolinguals, bilingual infants have access to rich information in the speech stream and by the end of their first year, they establish not only language-specific phonetic category representations, but also encode and represent both sub-phonetic and indexical detail. Perceptual biases, developmental level, and task demands work together to influence the level of detail used in any particular situation. In considering bilingual acquisition, we more fully elucidate what is meant by task demands, now understood both in terms of external demands imposed by the language situation, and internal demands imposed by the infant (e.g. different approaches to the same apparent task taken by infants from different backgrounds). In addition to the statistical learning mechanism previously described in PRIMIR, the necessity of a comparison–contrast mechanism is discussed. This refocusing of PRIMIR in the light of bilinguals more fully explicates the relationship between speech perception and word learning in all infants.
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The roots of bilingualism in newborns

by Krista Byers-Heinlein

Byers-Heinlein, K., Burns, T.F., & Werker, J.F. (2010).  Psychological Science, 21(3), 343-348. doi: 10.1177/0956797609360758

The first steps toward bilingual language acquisition have already begun at birth. When tested on their preference for... more The first steps toward bilingual language acquisition have already begun at birth. When tested on their preference for English versus Tagalog, newborns whose mothers spoke only English during pregnancy showed a robust preference for English. In contrast, newborns whose mothers spoke both English and Tagalog regularly during pregnancy showed equal preference for both languages. A group of newborns whose mothers had spoken both Chinese and English showed an intermediate pattern of preference for Tagalog over English. Preference for two languages does not suggest confusion between them, however. Study 2 showed that both English monolingual newborns and Tagalog-English bilingual newborns could discriminate English from Tagalog. The same perceptual and learning mechanisms that support acquisition in a monolingual environment thus also naturally support bilingual acquisition.

Bilingual beginnings to learning words

by Krista Byers-Heinlein

Werker, J. F., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Fennell, C. T. (2009). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 3649-3663. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0105

At the macrostructure level of language milestones, language acquisition follows a nearly identical course whether... more At the macrostructure level of language milestones, language acquisition follows a nearly identical course whether children grow up with one or with two languages. However, at the microstructure level, experimental research is revealing that the same proclivities and learning mechanisms that support language acquisition unfold somewhat differently in bilingual versus monolingual environments. This paper synthesizes recent findings in the area of early bilingualism by focusing on the question of how bilingual infants come to apply their phonetic sensitivities to word learning, as they must to learn minimal pair words (e.g. ‘cat’ and ‘mat’). To this end, the paper reviews antecedent achievements by bilinguals throughout infancy and early childhood in the following areas: language discrimination and separation, speech perception, phonetic and phonotactic development, word recognition, word learning and aspects of conceptual development that underlie word learning. Special consideration is given to the role of language dominance, and to the unique challenges to language acquisition posed by a bilingual environment.
Keywords: bilingualism; language development; infancy;