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Sample records for bilingual medical phrase

  1. Bilinguals' Plausibility Judgments for Phrases with a Literal vs. Non-literal Meaning: The Influence of Language Brokering Experience

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    Belem G. López

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Previous work has shown that prior experience in language brokering (informal translation may facilitate the processing of meaning within and across language boundaries. The present investigation examined the influence of brokering on bilinguals' processing of two word collocations with either a literal or a figurative meaning in each language. Proficient Spanish-English bilinguals classified as brokers or non-brokers were asked to judge if adjective+noun phrases presented in each language made sense or not. Phrases with a literal meaning (e.g., stinging insect were interspersed with phrases with a figurative meaning (e.g., stinging insult and non-sensical phrases (e.g., stinging picnic. It was hypothesized that plausibility judgments would be facilitated for literal relative to figurative meanings in each language but that experience in language brokering would be associated with a more equivalent pattern of responding across languages. These predictions were confirmed. The findings add to the body of empirical work on individual differences in language processing in bilinguals associated with prior language brokering experience.

  2. Survival Words and Phrases for Professionals Who Work with Students Who Are Bilingual and Severely/Multiply Handicapped, and with Their Families.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silberman, Rosanne K.; Correa, Vivian I.

    1989-01-01

    The paper offers a rationale for bilingual special education, provides suggestions for developing bilingual lessons for severely/multiply handicapped students, and includes a list of Spanish words and phrases used most frequently by students and their parents. (JDD)

  3. Semantic and syntactic forces in noun phrase production

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vigliocco, G.; Lauer, M.; Damian, M.F.; Levelt, W.J.M.

    2002-01-01

    Three experiments investigated semantic and syntactic effects in the production of phrases in Dutch. Bilingual participants were presented with English nouns and were asked to produce an adjective + noun phrase in Dutch including the translation of the noun. In 2 experiments, the authors blocked

  4. Comparing Narrative Microstructure between Bilingual Balochi-Persian and Monolingual Persian Preschoolers

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    Maryam Arabpour

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: To date, with rapid increase of bilingual children, more attention about different patterns of the bilingual children narratives is needed. The aim of this study was to compare microstructure level of narratives generated by typical developing kindergarten children who were bilingual in Persian and Balochi with monolingual Persian speakers. Method: Thirty Persian-speaking monolingual and thirteen available bilingual children (aged 48 months old participated in this study. Children’s story telling was audio-recorded and analyzed using the Persian-NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol guidelines. Results: All of the NAP indicators include of group structure, phrase structure, modifiers, noun and verbs didn’t show significant difference between monolingual and bilingual children (0.06≤p≤0.5. Conclusion: We didn’t find different performance in the five NAP indicators between bilingual and monolingual children. It may be suggested that the different patterns of creating phrases and sentences in two languages don’t affect the grammatical use of them in second language.

  5. Searching the ASRS Database Using QUORUM Keyword Search, Phrase Search, Phrase Generation, and Phrase Discovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGreevy, Michael W.; Connors, Mary M. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    To support Search Requests and Quick Responses at the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), four new QUORUM methods have been developed: keyword search, phrase search, phrase generation, and phrase discovery. These methods build upon the core QUORUM methods of text analysis, modeling, and relevance-ranking. QUORUM keyword search retrieves ASRS incident narratives that contain one or more user-specified keywords in typical or selected contexts, and ranks the narratives on their relevance to the keywords in context. QUORUM phrase search retrieves narratives that contain one or more user-specified phrases, and ranks the narratives on their relevance to the phrases. QUORUM phrase generation produces a list of phrases from the ASRS database that contain a user-specified word or phrase. QUORUM phrase discovery finds phrases that are related to topics of interest. Phrase generation and phrase discovery are particularly useful for finding query phrases for input to QUORUM phrase search. The presentation of the new QUORUM methods includes: a brief review of the underlying core QUORUM methods; an overview of the new methods; numerous, concrete examples of ASRS database searches using the new methods; discussion of related methods; and, in the appendices, detailed descriptions of the new methods.

  6. Combinatorial and compositional aspects of bilingual aligned corpora

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Martzoukos, S.

    2016-01-01

    The subject of investigation of this thesis is the building blocks of translation in Statistical Machine Translation (SMT). We find that these building blocks, namely phrase-level dictionary entries, which are extracted from bilingual aligned corpora (training data), admit richer structure than

  7. Portmanteau constructions, phrase structure and linearization

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    Brian Hok-Shing Chan

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In bilingual code-switching which involves language-pairs with contrasting head-complement orders (i.e. head-initial vs head-final, a head may be lexicalized from both languages with its complement sandwiched in the middle. These so-called portmanteau sentences (Nishimura, 1985, 1986; Sankoff, Poplack, and Vanniarajan, 1990, etc. have been attested for decades, but they had never received a systematic, formal analysis in terms of current syntactic theory before a few recent attempts (Hicks, 2010, 2012. Notwithstanding this lack of attention, these structures are in fact highly relevant to theories of linearization and phrase structure. More specifically, they challenge binary-branching (Kayne, 1994, 2004, 2005 as well as the Antisymmetry hypothesis (ibid.. Not explained by current grammatical models of code-switching, including the Equivalence Constraint (Poplack, 1980, the Matrix Language Frame Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993, 2002, etc., and the Bilingual Speech Model (Muysken, 2000, 2013, the portmanteau construction indeed looks uncommon or abnormal, defying any systematic account. However, the recurrence of these structures in various datasets and constraints on them do call for an explanation. This paper suggests an account which lies with syntax and also with the psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Assuming that linearization is a process at the Sensori-Motor (SM interface (Chomsky, 2005; 2013, this paper sees that word order is not fixed in a syntactic tree but it is set in the production process, and much information of word order rests in the processor, for instance, outputting a head before its complement (i.e. head-initial word order or the reverse (i.e. head-final word order. As for the portmanteau construction, it is the output of bilingual speakers co-activating two sets of head-complement orders which summon the phonetic forms of the same word in both languages. Under this proposal, the underlying structure of a portmanteau

  8. Portmanteau Constructions, Phrase Structure, and Linearization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Brian Hok-Shing

    2015-01-01

    In bilingual code-switching which involves language-pairs with contrasting head-complement orders (i.e., head-initial vs. head-final), a head may be lexicalized from both languages with its complement sandwiched in the middle. These so-called "portmanteau" sentences (Nishimura, 1985, 1986; Sankoff et al., 1990, etc.) have been attested for decades, but they had never received a systematic, formal analysis in terms of current syntactic theory before a few recent attempts (Hicks, 2010, 2012). Notwithstanding this lack of attention, these structures are in fact highly relevant to theories of linearization and phrase structure. More specifically, they challenge binary-branching (Kayne, 1994, 2004, 2005) as well as the Antisymmetry hypothesis (ibid.). Not explained by current grammatical models of code-switching, including the Equivalence Constraint (Poplack, 1980), the Matrix Language Frame Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993, 2002, etc.), and the Bilingual Speech Model (Muysken, 2000, 2013), the portmanteau construction indeed looks uncommon or abnormal, defying any systematic account. However, the recurrence of these structures in various datasets and constraints on them do call for an explanation. This paper suggests an account which lies with syntax and also with the psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Assuming that linearization is a process at the Sensori-Motor (SM) interface (Chomsky, 2005, 2013), this paper sees that word order is not fixed in a syntactic tree but it is set in the production process, and much information of word order rests in the processor, for instance, outputting a head before its complement (i.e., head-initial word order) or the reverse (i.e., head-final word order). As for the portmanteau construction, it is the output of bilingual speakers co-activating two sets of head-complement orders which summon the phonetic forms of the same word in both languages. Under this proposal, the underlying structure of a portmanteau construction is as simple as an

  9. BILINGUALISM AMONG THE ADOLESCENTS IN BADUNG REGENCY, BALI

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    I Nyoman Muliana

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a discussion of bilingualism among the adolescents in Badung Regency, the Province of Bali. It aims to explore the bilingualism situation and the existence of Balinese Language among them. The discussion is based on participant observation to the adolescents and it is based on Sociolinguistic Theory. The result of the discussion shows that the adolescents in Badung Regency are bilinguals of Balinese and Indonesian languages. They use Balinese language in all their communicative activities, except some females occasionally showed the use of Indonesian language. Their conversations both in Balinese and Indonesian languages are also followed by code mixing of the words and phrase of Indonesian, Balinese, and English languages.  The result of the discussion also indicates that Balinese language still used and maintained by the adolescents in Badung Regency.

  10. COLLOCATION PHRASES IN RELATION TO OTHER LEXICAL PHRASES IN CROATIAN

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    Goranka Blagus Bartolec

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyzes the semantic and lexicological aspects of collocation phrases in Croatian with tendency to separate them from other lexical phrases in Croatian (terms, idioms, names. The collocation phrase is defined as a special lexical phrase on a syntagmatic level, based on the semantic correlation of the two individual lexical components in which their meanings are specified.

  11. Language Mixing in the Nominal Phrase: Implications of a Distributed Morphology Perspective

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    Michèle Burkholder

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates a pattern found in Spanish–English mixed language corpora whereby it is common to switch from a Spanish determiner to an English noun (e.g., la house, ‘the house’, but rare to switch from an English determiner to a Spanish noun (e.g., the casa, ‘the house’. Unlike previous theoretical accounts of this asymmetry, that which is proposed here follows assumptions of the Distributed Morphology (DM framework, specifically those regarding the relationship between grammatical gender and nominal declension class in Spanish. Crucially, and again in contrast to previous accounts, it is demonstrated that this approach predicts no such asymmetry for French–English. This hypothesis is tested experimentally using an acceptability judgment task with self-paced reading, and as expected, no evidence is found for an asymmetry. This experiment is also used to test predictions regarding how English nominal roots in mixed nominal phrases are assigned grammatical gender, and the impact of language background factors such as age of acquisition. Evidence is found that bilinguals attempt to assign analogical gender if possible, but that late sequential bilinguals have a stronger preference for this option than do simultaneous bilinguals.

  12. Easy French phrase book over 700 phrases for everyday use

    CERN Document Server

    McCoy, Heather

    2012-01-01

    Over 700 French phrases and sentences include terms for modern telecommunications, idioms, and slang. Designed as a quick reference and study guide, this up-to-date volume is organized for quick access to phrases related to greetings, transportation, shopping, emergencies, and other common circumstances. A phonetic pronunciation accompanies each phrase.

  13. Of black sheep and white crows: Extending the bilingual dual coding theory to memory for idioms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lena K. Pritchett

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Are idioms stored in memory in ways that preserve their surface form or language or are they represented amodally? We examined this question using an incidental cued recall paradigm in which two word idiomatic expressions were presented to adult bilinguals proficient in Russian and English. Stimuli included phrases with idiomatic equivalents in both languages (e.g. “empty words/пycтыe cлoвa” or in one language only (English—e.g. “empty suit/пycтoй кocтюм” or Russian—e.g. “empty sound/пycтoй звyк”, or in neither language (e.g. “empty rain/пycтoй дoждь”. If idioms are stored in a language-specific format, then phrases with idiomatic equivalents in both languages would have dual representation, and should therefore be more easily recalled than phrases with idiomatic meaning in only one language. This result was obtained. As such, the findings support the dual-coding theory of memory and are also compatible with models of the bilingual lexicon that include language tags or nodes.

  14. The relationship between positive or negative phrasing and patients' coping with lateral epicondylitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Dong Oh; Gong, Hyun Sik; Kim, Jeong Hwan; Rhee, Seung Hwan; Lee, Young Ho; Baek, Goo Hyun

    2014-04-01

    Research suggests that phrases with negative content can affect patients' response to medical procedures and how they cope with medical illnesses. We hypothesized that patients with lateral epicondylitis who describe their condition in positive phrases cope better than those who do not. We prospectively followed up 91 patients with lateral epicondylitis for 12 months. The patients indicated their baseline coping status based on the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and were discharged with a wait-and-see policy. During follow-up interviews, the patients described the nature of their condition in their own words and were then categorized into either positive or negative phrasing groups. We compared these two groups regarding current coping status and whether they had sought additional treatment. We also analyzed for the factors associated with these outcomes. There were no significant differences in baseline PCS scores between the two groups. At follow-up, patients in the positive phrasing group (n = 62) had significantly lower PCS scores and were less likely to seek additional treatment than those in the negative phrasing group (n = 29). Multivariable analyses showed that positive phrasing and low pain levels were independently associated with improvement in PCS scores and that negative phrasing and depression were independently associated with patients' seeking additional treatment. Patients' positive phrasing about their condition are associated with improvement in their coping status and with less use of medical resources in the case of lateral epicondylitis. This study suggests that patients with more positive attitudes toward their illness cope and comply better when a wait-and-see treatment is recommended by their physicians. Copyright © 2014 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Verbal behavior in Alzheimer's disease patients: Analysis of phrase repetition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cecato, Juliana Francisca; Martinellil, José Eduardo; Bartholomeu, Luana Luz; Basqueira, Ana Paula; Yassuda, Mônica Sanches; Aprahamian, Ivan

    2010-01-01

    Language problems in the elderly with AD are due to the fact that deterioration occurs not only in semantic memory, but in a group of cognitive factors, evidenced by a deficiency in search strategies for linguistic information. To evaluate phrase repetition in two cognitive tests, the MMSE and MoCA, in a group of Alzheimer disease patients (AD) and normal controls. A Cross-sectional study was conducted involving 20 patients who sought medical assistance at a geriatric institute in Jundiaí, São Paulo. The subjects underwent a detailed clinical examination and neuropsychometric evaluation. All subjects with AD met DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Ten patients received a diagnosis of AD and 10 were healthy subjects, forming the control group (CG). All participants correctly answered the phrase from the MMSE (phrase 1). The MoCA phrases (phrases 2 and 3) were correct in 80% and 90%, respectively in the CG and in 40% and 50%, respectively in the AD group. The MoCA test proved more effective in evaluating the echoic behavior in AD patients compared to the MMSE. The simpler phrase repetition task in the MMSE was found to be less sensitive in detecting mild language decline in AD patients.

  16. Verbal behavior in Alzheimer disease patients: Analysis of phrase repetition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliana Francisca Cecato

    Full Text Available Abstract Language problems in the elderly with AD are due to the fact that deterioration occurs not only in semantic memory, but in a group of cognitive factors, evidenced by a deficiency in search strategies for linguistic information. Objectives: To evaluate phrase repetition in two cognitive tests, the MMSE and MoCA, in a group of Alzheimer disease patients (AD and normal controls. Methods: A Cross-sectional study was conducted involving 20 patients who sought medical assistance at a geriatric institute in Jundiaí, São Paulo. The subjects underwent a detailed clinical examination and neuropsychometric evaluation. All subjects with AD met DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Ten patients received a diagnosis of AD and 10 were healthy subjects, forming the control group (CG. Results: All participants correctly answered the phrase from the MMSE (phrase 1. The MoCA phrases (phrases 2 and 3 were correct in 80% and 90%, respectively in the CG and in 40% and 50%, respectively in the AD group. Conclusions: The MoCA test proved more effective in evaluating the echoic behavior in AD patients compared to the MMSE. The simpler phrase repetition task in the MMSE was found to be less sensitive in detecting mild language decline in AD patients.

  17. PubMed Phrases, an open set of coherent phrases for searching biomedical literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Sun; Yeganova, Lana; Comeau, Donald C.; Wilbur, W. John; Lu, Zhiyong

    2018-01-01

    In biomedicine, key concepts are often expressed by multiple words (e.g., ‘zinc finger protein’). Previous work has shown treating a sequence of words as a meaningful unit, where applicable, is not only important for human understanding but also beneficial for automatic information seeking. Here we present a collection of PubMed® Phrases that are beneficial for information retrieval and human comprehension. We define these phrases as coherent chunks that are logically connected. To collect the phrase set, we apply the hypergeometric test to detect segments of consecutive terms that are likely to appear together in PubMed. These text segments are then filtered using the BM25 ranking function to ensure that they are beneficial from an information retrieval perspective. Thus, we obtain a set of 705,915 PubMed Phrases. We evaluate the quality of the set by investigating PubMed user click data and manually annotating a sample of 500 randomly selected noun phrases. We also analyze and discuss the usage of these PubMed Phrases in literature search. PMID:29893755

  18. Novel figurative phrases and idioms: phrase characteristics over multiple presentations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schweigert, Wendy A; Cintron, Jennifer; Sullivan, Karin; Ilic, Emily; Ellis, Shannon; Dobrowits, Carrie; Roberts, Crystal

    2003-07-01

    In a series of three studies, characteristics of novel figurative phrases were compared with those of established idioms. Studies 1 and 2 found that certain correlations were found to be strong and in one direction for familiar idioms and comparably strong but in the opposite direction for novel figurative phrases, with the correlations for less familiar idioms usually falling partway between these extremes. Study 2 also noted that written or auditory presentation had minimal effects on characteristic ratings. In Study 3 the correlations among characteristics stayed relatively constant for familiar idioms after one, three, or six presentations, but for the novel figurative phrases, after multiple presentations the correlations changed in the direction of the established idioms.

  19. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Fifth Edition. Bilingual Education & Bilingualism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Colin

    2011-01-01

    The fifth edition of this bestselling book provides a comprehensive introduction to bilingualism and bilingual education. In a compact and clear style, its 19 chapters cover all the crucial issues in bilingualism at individual, group and national levels. These include: (1) defining who is bilingual and multilingual; (2) testing language abilities…

  20. Dictionary of Idioms and Phrases in

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    the use of arrows to show the grammatical form from which the spoken form of a used word is derived, other phrases that may be formed from the head phrase, the numbering of the various meanings, . the explanation of head idioms and phrases in Tamil within their context and the advanced meanings of head idioms and ...

  1. Generic Adaptively Secure Searchable Phrase Encryption

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    Kissel Zachary A.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years searchable symmetric encryption has seen a rapid increase in query expressiveness including keyword, phrase, Boolean, and fuzzy queries. With this expressiveness came increasingly complex constructions. Having these facts in mind, we present an efficient and generic searchable symmetric encryption construction for phrase queries. Our construction is straightforward to implement, and is proven secure under adaptively chosen query attacks (CQA2 in the random oracle model with an honest-but-curious adversary. To our knowledge, this is the first encrypted phrase search system that achieves CQA2 security. Moreover, we demonstrate that our document collection preprocessing algorithm allows us to extend a dynamic SSE construction so that it supports phrase queries. We also provide a compiler theorem which transforms any CQA2-secure SSE construction for keyword queries into a CQA2-secure SSE construction that supports phrase queries.

  2. How to "Save Your Skin" When Processing L2 Idioms: An Eye Movement Analysis of Idiom Transparency and Cross-Language Similarity among Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cieslicka, Anna B.; Heredia, Roberto R.

    2017-01-01

    The current study looks at whether bilinguals varying in language dominance show a processing advantage for idiomatic over non-idiomatic phrases and to what extent this effect is modulated by idiom transparency (i.e., the degree to which the idiom's figurative meaning can be inferred from its literal analysis) and cross-language similarity (i.e.,…

  3. Input and language development in bilingually developing children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoff, Erika; Core, Cynthia

    2013-11-01

    Language skills in young bilingual children are highly varied as a result of the variability in their language experiences, making it difficult for speech-language pathologists to differentiate language disorder from language difference in bilingual children. Understanding the sources of variability in bilingual contexts and the resulting variability in children's skills will help improve language assessment practices by speech-language pathologists. In this article, we review literature on bilingual first language development for children under 5 years of age. We describe the rate of development in single and total language growth, we describe effects of quantity of input and quality of input on growth, and we describe effects of family composition on language input and language growth in bilingual children. We provide recommendations for language assessment of young bilingual children and consider implications for optimizing children's dual language development. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

  4. A Communication Style of Advertising Phrases : A Comparison of Advertising Phrases in Women's Magazines of Japan and Korea

    OpenAIRE

    具, 軟和

    2006-01-01

    Advertising phrases of women's magazines adopt various methods to achieve an effective communication with readers. Japanese advertising phrases show a tendency of providing readers firstly with background reasons of why they need a product and secondly with what kind of effects they can get if they buy it, trying to avoid to look too pushy. Korean advertising phrases show a tendency of making readers pay attentions on a product by providing product features directly. We can say in communicati...

  5. 1001 easy French phrases

    CERN Document Server

    McCoy, Heather

    2010-01-01

    The perfect companion for tourists and business travelers in France and other places where the French language is spoken, this book offers fast, effective communication. More than 1,000 basic words, phrases, and sentences cover everything from asking directions and renting a car to ordering dinner and finding a bank.Designed as a quick reference tool and an easy study guide, this inexpensive and easy-to-use book offers completely up-to-date terms for modern telecommunications, idioms, and slang. The contents are arranged for quick access to phrases related to greetings, transportation, shoppin

  6. Grammatical encoding in bilingual language production: A focus on code switching

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    MEHDI ePURMOHAMMAD

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available I report three experiments that examined whether words from one language of bilinguals can use the syntactic features form the other language and how such syntactic co-activation might influence syntactic processing. In other words, I examined whether there are any cases in which a lexical item inhibits its inherent syntactic feature and uses the syntactic feature(s that belongs to the other language, instead. In the non-switch condition in experiment 1 and 2, Persian-English bilinguals described pictures using an adjective-noun string from the same language requested. In the switch condition, they used the nouns and adjectives from the other language. In Experiment 3, in the switch condition participants used only the adjectives of noun phrases from the other language. The results showed that bilinguals may inhibit the activation of a word’s syntactic feature and use the syntactic property from the other language instead (e.g., pirāhane (N black. As the combinatorial node (the node that specify different kinds of syntactic structures in which a word can be used of a used adjective retains activation at least temporarily, bilinguals are more likely to use the same combinatorial node even for an adjective from the other language. Using the syntactic features from the other language increased in the switch conditions. Moreover, more inappropriate responses observed when switching from bilinguals’ L2 to L1. The results also revealed that different experimental contexts may lead to different patterns of the control mechanism. The results will be interpreted in terms of Hartsuiker and Pickering’s (2008 model of syntactic representation

  7. Building Fluency through the Phrased Text Lesson

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rasinski, Timothy; Yildirim, Kasim; Nageldinger, James

    2012-01-01

    This Teaching Tip article explores the importance of phrasing while reading. It also presents an instructional intervention strategy for helping students develop greater proficiency in reading with phrases that reflect the meaning of the text.

  8. Predicting binary choices from probability phrase meanings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wallsten, Thomas S; Jang, Yoonhee

    2008-08-01

    The issues of how individuals decide which of two events is more likely and of how they understand probability phrases both involve judging relative likelihoods. In this study, we investigated whether derived scales representing probability phrase meanings could be used within a choice model to predict independently observed binary choices. If they can, this simultaneously provides support for our model and suggests that the phrase meanings are measured meaningfully. The model assumes that, when deciding which of two events is more likely, judges take a single sample from memory regarding each event and respond accordingly. The model predicts choice probabilities by using the scaled meanings of individually selected probability phrases as proxies for confidence distributions associated with sampling from memory. Predictions are sustained for 34 of 41 participants but, nevertheless, are biased slightly low. Sequential sampling models improve the fit. The results have both theoretical and applied implications.

  9. Explaining word order in the noun phrase

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rijkhoff, Jan

    1990-01-01

    This article argues that word order in the noun phrase is largely determined by three iconic principles of constituent ordering. The patterns that these principles predict for simple noun phrases are tested against data from various existing samples. It appears that the predicted patterns are all...

  10. 20 CFR 201.1 - Words and phrases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Words and phrases. 201.1 Section 201.1 Employees' Benefits RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD REGULATIONS UNDER THE RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACT DEFINITIONS § 201.1 Words and phrases. For the purposes of the regulations in this chapter, except where the...

  11. 20 CFR 300.1 - Words and phrases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Words and phrases. 300.1 Section 300.1 Employees' Benefits RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD REGULATIONS UNDER THE RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT DEFINITIONS § 300.1 Words and phrases. For the purposes of the regulations in this part, except where the...

  12. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Sixth Edition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Colin; Wright, Wayne E.

    2017-01-01

    The sixth edition of this bestselling textbook has been substantially revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to bilingualism and bilingual education in the 21st century. Written in a compact and clear style, the book covers all the crucial issues in bilingualism at individual, group and societal levels. Updates to the new…

  13. Integrating source-language context into phrase-based statistical machine translation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haque, R.; Kumar Naskar, S.; Bosch, A.P.J. van den; Way, A.

    2011-01-01

    The translation features typically used in Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PB-SMT) model dependencies between the source and target phrases, but not among the phrases in the source language themselves. A swathe of research has demonstrated that integrating source context modelling

  14. Of black sheep and white crows: Extending the bilingual dual coding theory to memory for idioms

    OpenAIRE

    Lena K. Pritchett; Jyotsna Vaid; Sumeyra Tosun

    2016-01-01

    Are idioms stored in memory in ways that preserve their surface form or language or are they represented amodally? We examined this question using an incidental cued recall paradigm in which two word idiomatic expressions were presented to adult bilinguals proficient in Russian and English. Stimuli included phrases with idiomatic equivalents in both languages (e.g. “empty words/пycтыe cлoвa”) or in one language only (English—e.g. “empty suit/пycтoй кocтюм” or Russian—e.g. “empty sound/пycтoй ...

  15. How bilingualism protects the brain from aging: Insights from bimodal bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Le; Abutalebi, Jubin; Emmorey, Karen; Gong, Gaolang; Yan, Xin; Feng, Xiaoxia; Zou, Lijuan; Ding, Guosheng

    2017-08-01

    Bilingual experience can delay cognitive decline during aging. A general hypothesis is that the executive control system of bilinguals faces an increased load due to controlling two languages, and this increased load results in a more "tuned brain" that eventually creates a neural reserve. Here we explored whether such a neuroprotective effect is independent of language modality, i.e., not limited to bilinguals who speak two languages but also occurs for bilinguals who use a spoken and a signed language. We addressed this issue by comparing bimodal bilinguals to monolinguals in order to detect age-induced structural brain changes and to determine whether we can detect the same beneficial effects on brain structure, in terms of preservation of gray matter volume (GMV), for bimodal bilinguals as has been reported for unimodal bilinguals. Our GMV analyses revealed a significant interaction effect of age × group in the bilateral anterior temporal lobes, left hippocampus/amygdala, and left insula where bimodal bilinguals showed slight GMV increases while monolinguals showed significant age-induced GMV decreases. We further found through cortical surface-based measurements that this effect was present for surface area and not for cortical thickness. Moreover, to further explore the hypothesis that overall bilingualism provides neuroprotection, we carried out a direct comparison of GMV, extracted from the brain regions reported above, between bimodal bilinguals, unimodal bilinguals, and monolinguals. Bilinguals, regardless of language modality, exhibited higher GMV compared to monolinguals. This finding highlights the general beneficial effects provided by experience handling two language systems, whether signed or spoken. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4109-4124, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  16. Phrase frequency effects in language production.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niels Janssen

    Full Text Available A classic debate in the psychology of language concerns the question of the grain-size of the linguistic information that is stored in memory. One view is that only morphologically simple forms are stored (e.g., 'car', 'red', and that more complex forms of language such as multi-word phrases (e.g., 'red car' are generated on-line from the simple forms. In two experiments we tested this view. In Experiment 1, participants produced noun+adjective and noun+noun phrases that were elicited by experimental displays consisting of colored line drawings and two superimposed line drawings. In Experiment 2, participants produced noun+adjective and determiner+noun+adjective utterances elicited by colored line drawings. In both experiments, naming latencies decreased with increasing frequency of the multi-word phrase, and were unaffected by the frequency of the object name in the utterance. These results suggest that the language system is sensitive to the distribution of linguistic information at grain-sizes beyond individual words.

  17. Compositions in English: Comparing the Works of Monolinguals, Passive Bilinguals, and Active Bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia Eka Rini

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This study tries to see whether the subjects’ “monolingualism” and “bilingualism” (monolinguals learning an L2 and bilinguals learning an L3 influence their study on English, especially writing. The term “bilinguals” also means “multilinguals” in this study. Bilinguals in this paper are classified into two; first, passive bilinguals who are only exposed to another local language, besides speaking Bahasa Indonesia at home, and second, active bilinguals who are exposed to and also speak other language(s and Bahasa Indonesia at home. The findings show that the monolingual and the active bilingual are better than the passive one; the active bilingual is better than the monolingual. However, if the passive and the active bilingual are combined, the monolingual is better than the bilinguals.

  18. The phrase “information storage and retrieval” (IS&R)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjørland, Birger

    2015-01-01

    Scholars have uncovered abundant data about the history of the term “information”, as well as some of its many combined phrases (e.g. “information science”, “information retrieval” and “information technology”). Many other compounds involving “information” seem, however, not to have a known origi...... yet. In this article, further information about the phrase “information storage and retrieval” is provided. To know the history of terms and their associated concepts is an important prescription against poor terminological phrasing and theoretical confusion....

  19. 15000 useful phrases

    CERN Document Server

    Kleiser, Grenville

    1900-01-01

    This incredibly useful book will appeal to writers, public speakers and anyone else who would like to improve their vocabulary. It contains a huge number of phrases which you can use in everyday speech and at special occasions, which will help you express your thoughts, ideas and feelings in a brand new way. A classic reference work, this edition has been specially formatted for today's e-readers.

  20. Bilingualism and cognition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Groot, A.M.B.; Chapelle, C.A.

    2013-01-01

    Scientific interest in the effects of (individual) bilingualism on cognition dates back to at least the first quarter of the 20th century, as illustrated by two articles that were published in 1923 on the relation between bilingualism and mental development (Smith, 1923) and between bilingualism and

  1. Interval Size and Phrase Position: A Comparison between German and Chinese Folksongs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Shanahan

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available It is well known that the pitch of the voice tends to decline over the course of a spoken utterance. Ladd (2008 showed that there is also a tendency for the pitch range of spoken utterances to shrink as the pitch of the voice declines. Motivated by this work, two studies are reported that test for the existence of “late phrase compression” in music where the interval size tends to decline toward the end of a phrase. A study of 39,863 phrases from notated Germanic folksongs shows the predicted decline in interval size. However, a second study of 10,985 phrases from Chinese folksongs shows a reverse relationship. In fact, the interval behaviors in Chinese and Germanic folksongs provide marked contrasts: Chinese phrases are dominated by relatively large intervals, but begin with small intervals and end with medium-small intervals. Germanic phrases are dominated by relatively medium intervals, but begin with large intervals and end with small intervals. In short, late phrase interval compression is not evident cross-culturally.

  2. BILINGUAL EDUCATION: LINGUO-DIDACTIC ASPECTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia Zakordonets

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the research of linguo-didactic aspects and models of bilingual education. On the basis of the study of scientific literature the definition analysis of the notions «bilingualism» «bilingual teaching» and «bilingual education» has been carried out. Didactic-methodological bases and approaches to the content of bilingual teaching at higher educational institutions have been determined. This article considers theoretical and methodological foundations of the concept of bilingual teaching. There have been outlined the peculiarities and problems of the designing and implementing bilingual programs and curriculum materials development. It has been stated that characteristics of the latest stage of elaboration of theory and practice of bilingual education have been framed in terms of the transition to a multi-perspectival paradigm of polycultural education. This paper deals with the common didactic fundamentals of personality-oriented philosophy of higher education. The distinctions that require the formulation of specific principles of bilingual teaching have been considered.

  3. ClusType: Effective Entity Recognition and Typing by Relation Phrase-Based Clustering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Xiang; El-Kishky, Ahmed; Wang, Chi; Tao, Fangbo; Voss, Clare R.; Ji, Heng; Han, Jiawei

    2015-01-01

    Entity recognition is an important but challenging research problem. In reality, many text collections are from specific, dynamic, or emerging domains, which poses significant new challenges for entity recognition with increase in name ambiguity and context sparsity, requiring entity detection without domain restriction. In this paper, we investigate entity recognition (ER) with distant-supervision and propose a novel relation phrase-based ER framework, called ClusType, that runs data-driven phrase mining to generate entity mention candidates and relation phrases, and enforces the principle that relation phrases should be softly clustered when propagating type information between their argument entities. Then we predict the type of each entity mention based on the type signatures of its co-occurring relation phrases and the type indicators of its surface name, as computed over the corpus. Specifically, we formulate a joint optimization problem for two tasks, type propagation with relation phrases and multi-view relation phrase clustering. Our experiments on multiple genres—news, Yelp reviews and tweets—demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of ClusType, with an average of 37% improvement in F1 score over the best compared method. PMID:26705503

  4. The Dependency Structure of Coordinate Phrases: A Corpus Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Temperley, David

    2005-01-01

    Hudson (1990) proposes that each conjunct in a coordinate phrase forms dependency relations with heads or dependents outside the coordinate phrase (the "multi-head" view). This proposal is tested through corpus analysis of Wall Street Journal text. For right-branching constituents (such as direct-object NPs), a short-long preference for conjunct…

  5. Bilingualism as a Model for Multitasking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poarch, Gregory J; Bialystok, Ellen

    2015-03-01

    Because both languages of bilinguals are constantly active, bilinguals need to manage attention to the target language and avoid interference from the non-target language. This process is likely carried out by recruiting the executive function (EF) system, a system that is also the basis for multitasking. In previous research, bilinguals have been shown to outperform monolinguals on tasks requiring EF, suggesting that the practice using EF for language management benefits performance in other tasks as well. The present study examined 203 children, 8-11 years old, who were monolingual, partially bilingual, bilingual, or trilingual performing a flanker task. Two results support the interpretation that bilingualism is related to multitasking. First, bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on the conflict trials in the flanker task, confirming previous results for a bilingual advantage in EF. Second, the inclusion of partial bilinguals and trilinguals set limits on the role of experience: partial bilingual performed similarly to monolinguals and trilinguals performed similarly to bilinguals, suggesting that degrees of experience are not well-calibrated to improvements in EF. Our conclusion is that the involvement of EF in bilingual language processing makes bilingualism a form of linguistic multitasking.

  6. Phrasing in the speech and reading of the hearing impaired.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregory, J F

    1986-08-01

    The study reported here explored a partial explanation for the fourth-grade "bottleneck" in literacy advancement by hearing-impaired students. Speech samples from 21 deaf subjects were rated for degree of evident phrasal quality. Likewise, reading comprehension scores for each student were obtained under four reading conditions: reading in whole sentences, in phrases, in fragmented word groups, and in single words. Degree of rated speech phrasality was found to relate significantly and positively to correct recall answers to questions based upon silent reading of passages typed in meaningful word groups (but not when the passages were typed in whole sentences, fragmented word groups, or in single words). The results were taken to suggest that--whereas staccato-speaking deaf students may lack a sense of the phrase altogether--phrasal-speaking deaf youngsters fail to independently apply their phrase sense in the normal reading situation. Thus, both types of deaf youngsters have difficulty affecting the transition to phrase reading that is common for hearing students at or about the fourth-grade level. Finally, I argue that this phrase sense can be instilled in hearing-impaired students and that they can be trained to use it in reading.

  7. Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scott R. Schroeder

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Learning how to speak a second language (i.e., becoming a bilingual and learning how to play a musical instrument (i.e., becoming a musician are both thought to increase executive control through experience-dependent plasticity. However, evidence supporting this effect is mixed for bilingualism and limited for musicianship. In addition, the combined effects of bilingualism and musicianship on executive control are unknown. To determine whether bilingualism, musicianship, and combined bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control, we tested 219 young adults belonging to one of four groups (bilinguals, musicians, bilingual musicians, and controls on a nonlinguistic, nonmusical, visual-spatial Simon task that measured the ability to ignore an irrelevant and misinformative cue. Results revealed that bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians showed an enhanced ability to ignore a distracting cue relative to controls, with similar levels of superior performance among bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians. These results indicate that bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control and have implications for educational and rehabilitation programs that use music and foreign language instruction to boost cognitive performance.

  8. Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Scott R; Marian, Viorica; Shook, Anthony; Bartolotti, James

    2016-01-01

    Learning how to speak a second language (i.e., becoming a bilingual) and learning how to play a musical instrument (i.e., becoming a musician) are both thought to increase executive control through experience-dependent plasticity. However, evidence supporting this effect is mixed for bilingualism and limited for musicianship. In addition, the combined effects of bilingualism and musicianship on executive control are unknown. To determine whether bilingualism, musicianship, and combined bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control, we tested 219 young adults belonging to one of four groups (bilinguals, musicians, bilingual musicians, and controls) on a nonlinguistic, nonmusical, visual-spatial Simon task that measured the ability to ignore an irrelevant and misinformative cue. Results revealed that bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians showed an enhanced ability to ignore a distracting cue relative to controls, with similar levels of superior performance among bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians. These results indicate that bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control and have implications for educational and rehabilitation programs that use music and foreign language instruction to boost cognitive performance.

  9. Adjunction, Labeling, and Bare Phrase Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Norbert Hornstein

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available The primary aim in this paper is to propose a phrase structure for adjunction that is compatible with the precepts of Bare Phrase Structure (BPS. Current accounts are at odds with the central vision of BPS and current practice leans more to descriptive eclecticism than to theoretical insight. A diagnosis for this conceptual disarray is suggested here: It stems from a deeply held though seldom formulated intuition; the tacit view that adjuncts are the abnormal case while arguments describe the grammatical norm. In actuality, it is argued, adjuncts are so well behaved that they require virtually no grammatical support to function properly. Arguments, in contrast, are refractory and require grammatical aid to allow them to make any propositional contribution. This last remark should come as no surprise to those with neo-Davidsonian semantic sympathies. Connoisseurs of this art form are well versed in the important role that grammatical (aka, thematic roles play in turning arguments into modifiers of events. Such fulcra are not required for meaningfully integrating adjuncts. into sentences. In what follows, we take this difference to be of the greatest significance and we ask ourselves what this might imply for the phrase structure of adjunction.

  10. Increases in individualistic words and phrases in American books, 1960-2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Twenge, Jean M; Campbell, W Keith; Gentile, Brittany

    2012-01-01

    Cultural products such as song lyrics, television shows, and books reveal cultural differences, including cultural change over time. Two studies examine changes in the use of individualistic words (Study 1) and phrases (Study 2) in the Google Books Ngram corpus of millions of books in American English. Current samples from the general population generated and rated lists of individualistic words and phrases (e.g., "unique," "personalize," "self," "all about me," "I am special," "I'm the best"). Individualistic words and phrases increased in use between 1960 and 2008, even when controlling for changes in communal words and phrases. Language in American books has become increasingly focused on the self and uniqueness in the decades since 1960.

  11. Neural Correlates of Phrase Rhythm: An EEG Study of Bipartite vs. Rondo Sonata Form

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Fernández-Caballero

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces the neural correlates of phrase rhythm. In short, phrase rhythm is the rhythmic aspect of phrase construction and the relationships between phrases. For the sake of establishing the neural correlates, a musical experiment has been designed to induce music-evoked stimuli related to phrase rhythm. Brain activity is monitored through electroencephalography (EEG by using a brain–computer interface. The power spectral value of each EEG channel is estimated to obtain how power variance distributes as a function of frequency. Our experiment shows statistical differences in theta and alpha bands in the phrase rhythm variations of two classical sonatas, one in bipartite form and the other in rondo form.

  12. Heavy noun phrase constructions in the Afrikaans novel 'n Ander ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Heavy noun phrase constructions in the Afrikaans novel 'n Ander Land: a cognitive account of a stylistic feature. Luna Beard. Abstract. This article focusses on one grammatical construction, namely heavy noun phrase (NP) constructions in Afrikaans, and more specifically on those instances encountered in the Afrikaans ...

  13. Bilingualism: Research and Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCardle, Peggy

    2015-01-01

    Bilingualism, commonplace throughout the world, is not well accepted or supported in many parts of the United States. Education policies and practices regarding bilingualism are often based on myths and attitudes rather than facts, despite scientific evidence on both the disadvantages and advantages of bilingualism. Based on a brief overview of…

  14. Implementation of the common phrase index method on the phrase query for information retrieval

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fatmawati, Triyah; Zaman, Badrus; Werdiningsih, Indah

    2017-08-01

    As the development of technology, the process of finding information on the news text is easy, because the text of the news is not only distributed in print media, such as newspapers, but also in electronic media that can be accessed using the search engine. In the process of finding relevant documents on the search engine, a phrase often used as a query. The number of words that make up the phrase query and their position obviously affect the relevance of the document produced. As a result, the accuracy of the information obtained will be affected. Based on the outlined problem, the purpose of this research was to analyze the implementation of the common phrase index method on information retrieval. This research will be conducted in English news text and implemented on a prototype to determine the relevance level of the documents produced. The system is built with the stages of pre-processing, indexing, term weighting calculation, and cosine similarity calculation. Then the system will display the document search results in a sequence, based on the cosine similarity. Furthermore, system testing will be conducted using 100 documents and 20 queries. That result is then used for the evaluation stage. First, determine the relevant documents using kappa statistic calculation. Second, determine the system success rate using precision, recall, and F-measure calculation. In this research, the result of kappa statistic calculation was 0.71, so that the relevant documents are eligible for the system evaluation. Then the calculation of precision, recall, and F-measure produces precision of 0.37, recall of 0.50, and F-measure of 0.43. From this result can be said that the success rate of the system to produce relevant documents is low.

  15. Children with autism spectrum disorders who do not develop phrase speech in the preschool years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norrelgen, Fritjof; Fernell, Elisabeth; Eriksson, Mats; Hedvall, Åsa; Persson, Clara; Sjölin, Maria; Gillberg, Christopher; Kjellmer, Liselotte

    2015-11-01

    There is uncertainty about the proportion of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not develop phrase speech during the preschool years. The main purpose of this study was to examine this ratio in a population-based community sample of children. The cohort consisted of 165 children (141 boys, 24 girls) with autism spectrum disorders aged 4-6 years followed longitudinally over 2 years during which time they had received intervention at a specialized autism center. In this study, data collected at the 2-year follow-up were used. Three categories of expressive language were defined: nonverbal, minimally verbal, and phrase speech. Data from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II were used to classify expressive language. A secondary objective of the study was to analyze factors that might be linked to verbal ability, namely, child age, cognitive level, autism subtype and severity of core autism symptoms, developmental regression, epilepsy or other medical conditions, and intensity of intervention. The proportion of children who met the criteria for nonverbal, minimally verbal, and phrase speech were 15%, 10%, and 75%, respectively. The single most important factor linked to expressive language was the child's cognitive level, and all children classified as being nonverbal or minimally verbal had intellectual disability. © The Author(s) 2014.

  16. Incorporating Pass-Phrase Dependent Background Models for Text-Dependent Speaker verification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sarkar, Achintya Kumar; Tan, Zheng-Hua

    2018-01-01

    -dependent. We show that the proposed method significantly reduces the error rates of text-dependent speaker verification for the non-target types: target-wrong and impostor-wrong while it maintains comparable TD-SV performance when impostors speak a correct utterance with respect to the conventional system......In this paper, we propose pass-phrase dependent background models (PBMs) for text-dependent (TD) speaker verification (SV) to integrate the pass-phrase identification process into the conventional TD-SV system, where a PBM is derived from a text-independent background model through adaptation using...... the utterances of a particular pass-phrase. During training, pass-phrase specific target speaker models are derived from the particular PBM using the training data for the respective target model. While testing, the best PBM is first selected for the test utterance in the maximum likelihood (ML) sense...

  17. Stereotypic and complex phrase types provide structural evidence for a multi-message display in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Anita; Dunlop, Rebecca A; Noad, Michael J; Goldizen, Anne W

    2018-02-01

    Male humpback whales produce a mating display called "song." Behavioral studies indicate song has inter- and/or intra-sexual functionality, suggesting song may be a multi-message display. Multi-message displays often include stereotypic components that convey group membership for mate attraction and/or male-male interactions, and complex components that convey individual quality for courtship. Humpback whale song contains sounds ("units") arranged into sequences ("phrases"). Repetitions of a specific phrase create a "theme." Within a theme, imperfect phrase repetitions ("phrase variants") create variability among phrases of the same type ("phrase type"). The hypothesis that song contains stereotypic and complex phrase types, structural characteristics consistent with a multi-message display, is investigated using recordings of 17 east Australian males (8:2004, 9:2011). Phrase types are categorized as stereotypic or complex using number of unit types, number of phrase variants, and the proportion of phrases that is unique to an individual versus shared amongst males. Unit types are determined using self-organizing maps. Phrase variants are determined by Levenshtein distances between phrases. Stereotypic phrase types have smaller numbers of unit types and shared phrase variants. Complex phrase types have larger numbers of unit types and unique phrase variants. This study supports the hypothesis that song could be a multi-message display.

  18. Bilingualism with and without CLIL, a Double-Edged Sword: Comparing Bilingual and Non Bilingual Young Learners' Beliefs about EFL and Science Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandoval Brotons, Alfonso Victor

    2015-01-01

    Bilingualism and its reference methodology: CLIL are spreading at a very fast pace all through educative systems from some years on. The young status of bilingual programmes leads to little research about how bilingualism is influencing real learning contexts and which factors play important roles in that influence. In this way, this study aims to…

  19. Balanced bilingualism and early age of second language acquisition as the underlying mechanisms of a bilingual executive control advantage: why variations in bilingual experiences matter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yow, W Quin; Li, Xiaoqian

    2015-01-01

    Recent studies revealed inconsistent evidences of a bilingual advantage in executive processing. One potential source of explanation is the multifaceted experience of the bilinguals in these studies. This study seeks to test whether bilinguals who engage in language selection more frequently would perform better in executive control tasks than those bilinguals who engage in language selection less frequently. We examined the influence of the degree of bilingualism (i.e., language proficiency, frequency of use of two languages, and age of second language acquisition) on executive functioning in bilingual young adults using a comprehensive battery of executive control tasks. Seventy-two 18- to 25-years-old English-Mandarin bilinguals performed four computerized executive function (EF) tasks (Stroop, Eriksen flanker, number-letter switching, and n-back task) that measure the EF components: inhibition, mental-set shifting, and information updating and monitoring. Results from multiple regression analyses, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping supported the positive association between age of second language acquisition and the interference cost in the Stroop task. Most importantly, we found a significant effect of balanced bilingualism (balanced usage of and balanced proficiency in two languages) on the Stroop and number-letter task (mixing cost only), indicating that a more balanced use and a more balanced level of proficiency in two languages resulted in better executive control skills in the adult bilinguals. We did not find any significant effect of bilingualism on flanker or n-back task. These findings provided important insights to the underlying mechanisms of the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, demonstrating that regular experience with extensive practice in controlling attention to their two language systems results in better performance in related EFs such as inhibiting prepotent responses and global set-shifting.

  20. Balanced bilingualism and early age of second language acquisition as the underlying mechanisms of a bilingual executive control advantage: why variations in bilingual experiences matter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yow, W. Quin; Li, Xiaoqian

    2015-01-01

    Recent studies revealed inconsistent evidences of a bilingual advantage in executive processing. One potential source of explanation is the multifaceted experience of the bilinguals in these studies. This study seeks to test whether bilinguals who engage in language selection more frequently would perform better in executive control tasks than those bilinguals who engage in language selection less frequently. We examined the influence of the degree of bilingualism (i.e., language proficiency, frequency of use of two languages, and age of second language acquisition) on executive functioning in bilingual young adults using a comprehensive battery of executive control tasks. Seventy-two 18- to 25-years-old English–Mandarin bilinguals performed four computerized executive function (EF) tasks (Stroop, Eriksen flanker, number–letter switching, and n-back task) that measure the EF components: inhibition, mental-set shifting, and information updating and monitoring. Results from multiple regression analyses, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping supported the positive association between age of second language acquisition and the interference cost in the Stroop task. Most importantly, we found a significant effect of balanced bilingualism (balanced usage of and balanced proficiency in two languages) on the Stroop and number–letter task (mixing cost only), indicating that a more balanced use and a more balanced level of proficiency in two languages resulted in better executive control skills in the adult bilinguals. We did not find any significant effect of bilingualism on flanker or n-back task. These findings provided important insights to the underlying mechanisms of the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, demonstrating that regular experience with extensive practice in controlling attention to their two language systems results in better performance in related EFs such as inhibiting prepotent responses and global set-shifting. PMID:25767451

  1. Balanced bilingualism and early age of second language acquisition as the underlying mechanisms of a bilingual executive control advantage: Why variations in bilingual experiences matter.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Quin eYow

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Recent studies revealed inconsistent evidences of a bilingual advantage in executive processing. One potential source of explanation is the multifaceted experience of the bilinguals in these studies. This study seeks to test whether bilinguals who engage in language selection more frequently would perform better in executive control tasks than those bilinguals who engage in language selection less frequently. We examined the influence of the degree of bilingualism (i.e., language proficiency, frequency of use of two languages, and age of second language acquisition on executive functioning in bilingual young adults using a comprehensive battery of executive control tasks. Seventy-two 18- to 25-year-old English-Mandarin bilinguals performed four computerized executive function tasks (Stroop, Eriksen flanker, number-letter switching and n-back task that measure the executive function components: inhibition, mental-set shifting, and information updating and monitoring. Results from multiple regression analyses, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping supported the positive association between age of second language acquisition and the interference cost in the Stroop task. Most importantly, we found a significant effect of balanced bilingualism (balanced usage of and balanced proficiency in two languages on the Stroop and number-letter task (mixing cost only, indicating that a more balanced use and a more balanced level of proficiency in two languages resulted in better executive control skills in the adult bilinguals. We did not find any significant effect of bilingualism on flanker or n-back task. These findings provided important insights to the underlying mechanisms of the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, demonstrating that regular experience with extensive practice in controlling attention to their two language systems results in better performance in related executive functions such as inhibiting prepotent responses and global

  2. Does Bilingualism Influence Cognitive Aging?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bak, Thomas H; Nissan, Jack J; Allerhand, Michael M; Deary, Ian J

    2014-01-01

    Recent evidence suggests a positive impact of bilingualism on cognition, including later onset of dementia. However, monolinguals and bilinguals might have different baseline cognitive ability. We present the first study examining the effect of bilingualism on later-life cognition controlling for childhood intelligence. We studied 853 participants, first tested in 1947 (age = 11 years), and retested in 2008–2010. Bilinguals performed significantly better than predicted from their baseline cognitive abilities, with strongest effects on general intelligence and reading. Our results suggest a positive effect of bilingualism on later-life cognition, including in those who acquired their second language in adulthood. PMID:24890334

  3. Language Control Abilities of Late Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Festman, Julia

    2012-01-01

    Although all bilinguals encounter cross-language interference (CLI), some bilinguals are more susceptible to interference than others. Here, we report on language performance of late bilinguals (Russian/German) on two bilingual tasks (interview, verbal fluency), their language use and switching habits. The only between-group difference was CLI:…

  4. Bilingual Identity Negotiation in Practice: Teacher Pedagogy and Classroom Interaction in a Bilingual Programme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fielding, Ruth

    2016-01-01

    This paper discusses how teachers in a bilingual education programme see their pedagogies and interactions influencing student connection to the languages of the bilingual programme. The teacher perception of the classroom is explored because the classroom is one of the principal settings in which the students negotiate their bilingual identities.…

  5. Bilingualism and National Development in Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozog, A. Conrad K.

    1993-01-01

    Malaysia's long tradition of English medium instruction and bilingualism officially ended in 1970. This paper reviews the role of bilingualism in the development of the country, including the role of a bilingual population in national development and the possible effects of the abandonment of bilingual education. (Contains 38 references.)…

  6. Un Bosquejo del Proyecto Bilingue (Outline of a Bilingual Project).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Compton City Schools, CA.

    Bilingual education in English and Spanish is intended to give native speakers of both languages insights into two cultures, a broader background, and greater life opportunities. Spanish-speaking students in bilingual programs can retain their language ties and the ability to communicate with their families and older relatives. The directors of…

  7. [Stimuli phrases of adductor spasmodic dysphonia phonatory break in mandarin Chinese].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ge, Pingjiang; Ren, Qingyi; Chen, Zhipeng; Cheng, Qiuhui; Sheng, Xiaoli; Wang, Ling; Chen, Shaohua; Zhang, Siyi

    2015-12-01

    To investigate the characteristics of adductor spasmodic dysphonia phonatory break in mandarin Chinese and select the stimuli phrases. Thirty-eight patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia were involved in this study. Standard phrase " fù mŭ xīn" and a speech corpus in mandarin Chinese with 229 syllables covering all vowel and constant of mandarin Chinese were selected. Every patient read the phrases above twice in normal speed and comfortable voice. Two auditory perpetual speech pathologists marked phonatory break syllables respectively. The frequency of phonatory break syllables and their located phrases were calculated, rated and described. The phrases including the most phonatory break syllables were selected as stimuli phrases, the phonatory break frequency of which was also higher than that of standard phrase "fù mŭ xīn". Phonatory break happened in the reading of all patients. The average number of phonatory break syllables was 14 (3-33). Phonatroy break occurred when saying 177 (77.3%) syllables in the speech corpus. The syllables "guŏ, rén, zāng, diàn, chē, gè, guăn, a, bā, ne, de" broke in 23.1%-41.0% patients. These syllables belonged to the phrases "pĭng guŏ, huŏ chē, shì de, nĭ shì gè hăo rén, wŏ mén shì yŏu zŏng shì bă qĭn shì nong dé hĕn zāng, wŏ mén nà biān yŏu wăng qiú yùn dong chăng, cān gŭan, jiŭ bā hé yī gè miàn bāo dìan, tā shì duō me kāng kăi a,wŏ yīng gāi zài xìn lĭ xiĕ yī xiē shén mē ne?". Thirty-seven patients (97.3%) had phonatory break in above mentioned words. Ratios of these words phonatory break also were more than "fù mŭ xīn". Adductor spasmodic dysphonic patients exhibited different degrees of phonatory break in mandarine Chinese. The phrases" shì de, pĭng guŏ, huŏ chē, nĭ shì gè hăo rén, wŏ mén nà biān yŏu wăng qiú yùn dong chăng, cān gŭan, jiŭ bā hé yī gè miàn bāo dìan, tā shì duō me kāng kăi a" were recommended as stimuli

  8. Dual Coding and Bilingual Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paivio, Allan; Lambert, Wallace

    1981-01-01

    Describes study which tested a dual coding approach to bilingual memory using tasks that permit comparison of the effects of bilingual encoding with verbal-nonverbal dual encoding items. Results provide strong support for a version of the independent or separate stories view of bilingual memory. (Author/BK)

  9. Increases in Individualistic Words and Phrases in American Books, 1960–2008

    Science.gov (United States)

    Twenge, Jean M.; Campbell, W. Keith; Gentile, Brittany

    2012-01-01

    Cultural products such as song lyrics, television shows, and books reveal cultural differences, including cultural change over time. Two studies examine changes in the use of individualistic words (Study 1) and phrases (Study 2) in the Google Books Ngram corpus of millions of books in American English. Current samples from the general population generated and rated lists of individualistic words and phrases (e.g., “unique,” “personalize,” “self,” “all about me,” “I am special,” “I’m the best”). Individualistic words and phrases increased in use between 1960 and 2008, even when controlling for changes in communal words and phrases. Language in American books has become increasingly focused on the self and uniqueness in the decades since 1960. PMID:22808113

  10. Assessment of bilingual children with inattention, over activity and impulsivity –Challenges and solutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meral Özerk

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available ADHD is one of the widespread neurological disorders among children. While a substantial amount of research have addressed the issues related to assessment practices and diagnosis criteria among majority language speaking children, ADHD among bilingual children or linguistic minority children has not yet been addressed and discussed so much in the research circles. The percentage of bilingual children with immigrant background in main stream schools in many countries is quite high. Despite this global demographic tendency, underdiagnostisation and assessment of bilingual children with inattention, over activity and impulsivity are being considered to be a psychiatric, psychological and educational challenge. In this paper we address several critical aspects of the assessment practices and medical diagnosis of bilingual children with immigrant background based on a research project. The paper presents also some solutions as an alternative to one-sided intelligence-test based approaches. We stress the importance of multidimensional, multisource and bilingual assessment model for identifying the knowledge-related and language-related elements of the academic learning gap that these children usually experience prior to and during the assessment period.

  11. Bilingual Advertising in Melbourne Chinatown

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Sherry Yong

    2014-01-01

    This paper explores the function of bilingual advertising by analyzing a case study of bilingual advertising in the Chinatown of Melbourne, Australia. The use of bilingual advertising in an immigrant setting differentiates itself from those in Asian settings where English is not used by dominant proportion of speakers in the society, and this…

  12. On Directionality of Phrase Structure Building

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chesi, Cristiano

    2015-01-01

    Minimalism in grammatical theorizing (Chomsky in "The minimalist program." MIT Press, Cambridge, 1995) led to simpler linguistic devices and a better focalization of the core properties of the structure building engine: a lexicon and a free (recursive) phrase formation operation, dubbed Merge, are the basic components that serve in…

  13. Nicht-referentielle Nominalphrasen (Non-Referential Noun Phrases)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leys, Odo

    1973-01-01

    Appeared as Working Report No. 21 of the Linguistic Institute of the University of Cologne; critical observations on S. Kuno's Some Properties of Non-Refential Noun Phrases,'' in Studies in General and Oriental Linguistics, 1970. (RS)

  14. Bilingual education in Slovakia: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Pokrivčáková

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Bilingual education is one of the areas in contemporary education that brings out some important controversies (philosophical, conceptual, sociological, political, economical, etc. and thus calls for extensive and intensive debate. Bilingual education in Europe (and here the European Union countries are meant has gained a very different status, due to the general European policy of developing language diversity and promoting “European plurilingualism and multilingualism”. In Slovakia, one of the younger members of the EU, bilingual education became an extraordinarily popular instrument for the fulfilment of this task.  Since the specifically defined topic of bilingual education and its current status in Slovakia has not been studied and systematically reviewed yet, the research presented in this paper was designed as a single-phenomenon revelatory case study investigating seven research areas: reflection of bilingual education in school legislation and state pedagogical documents, purposes of bilingual education in Slovakia, its organization (levels and types of schools, foreign languages incorporated, teachers, structure of bilingual schools curricula, types of bilingual education applied at Slovak bilingual schools, and how bilingual education is both reflected in and saturated by the latest research findings. The conclusions presented in the paper were collected from multiple sources: state curriculum, statistical data published by the Slovak Ministry of Education or its partner institutions, international treaties on establishing and supporting bilingual sections of schools, bilingual schools curricula, interviews with school directors, teachers, and learners, direct observations at bilingual schools, research studies and research reports, etc. In the conclusion, bilingual education in Slovakia is identified as a unique, dynamically developing system which is both significantly shaped by the foreign language education policy promoted by

  15. What Constitutes a Phrase in Sound-Based Music? A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Perception and Acoustics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olsen, Kirk N; Dean, Roger T; Leung, Yvonne

    2016-01-01

    Phrasing facilitates the organization of auditory information and is central to speech and music. Not surprisingly, aspects of changing intensity, rhythm, and pitch are key determinants of musical phrases and their boundaries in instrumental note-based music. Different kinds of speech (such as tone- vs. stress-languages) share these features in different proportions and form an instructive comparison. However, little is known about whether or how musical phrasing is perceived in sound-based music, where the basic musical unit from which a piece is created is commonly non-instrumental continuous sounds, rather than instrumental discontinuous notes. This issue forms the target of the present paper. Twenty participants (17 untrained in music) were presented with six stimuli derived from sound-based music, note-based music, and environmental sound. Their task was to indicate each occurrence of a perceived phrase and qualitatively describe key characteristics of the stimulus associated with each phrase response. It was hypothesized that sound-based music does elicit phrase perception, and that this is primarily associated with temporal changes in intensity and timbre, rather than rhythm and pitch. Results supported this hypothesis. Qualitative analysis of participant descriptions showed that for sound-based music, the majority of perceived phrases were associated with intensity or timbral change. For the note-based piano piece, rhythm was the main theme associated with perceived musical phrasing. We modeled the occurrence in time of perceived musical phrases with recurrent event 'hazard' analyses using time-series data representing acoustic predictors associated with intensity, spectral flatness, and rhythmic density. Acoustic intensity and timbre (represented here by spectral flatness) were strong predictors of perceived musical phrasing in sound-based music, and rhythm was only predictive for the piano piece. A further analysis including five additional spectral

  16. Does bilingualism influence cognitive aging?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bak, Thomas H; Nissan, Jack J; Allerhand, Michael M; Deary, Ian J

    2014-06-01

    Recent evidence suggests a positive impact of bilingualism on cognition, including later onset of dementia. However, monolinguals and bilinguals might have different baseline cognitive ability. We present the first study examining the effect of bilingualism on later-life cognition controlling for childhood intelligence. We studied 853 participants, first tested in 1947 (age = 11 years), and retested in 2008-2010. Bilinguals performed significantly better than predicted from their baseline cognitive abilities, with strongest effects on general intelligence and reading. Our results suggest a positive effect of bilingualism on later-life cognition, including in those who acquired their second language in adulthood. © 2014 The Authors Annals of Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Neurological Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

  17. Young children pause on phrase boundaries in self-paced music listening: The role of harmonic cues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kragness, Haley E; Trainor, Laurel J

    2018-05-01

    Proper segmentation of auditory streams is essential for understanding music. Many cues, including meter, melodic contour, and harmony, influence adults' perception of musical phrase boundaries. To date, no studies have examined young children's musical grouping in a production task. We used a musical self-pacing method to investigate (1) whether dwell times index young children's musical phrase grouping and, if so, (2) whether children dwell longer on phrase boundaries defined by harmonic cues specifically. In Experiment 1, we asked 3-year-old children to self-pace through chord progressions from Bach chorales (sequences in which metrical, harmonic, and melodic contour grouping cues aligned) by pressing a computer key to present each chord in the sequence. Participants dwelled longer on chords in the 8th position, which corresponded to phrase endings. In Experiment 2, we tested 3-, 4-, and 7-year-old children's sensitivity to harmonic cues to phrase grouping when metrical regularity cues and melodic contour cues were misaligned with the harmonic phrase boundaries. In this case, 7 and 4 year olds but not 3 year olds dwelled longer on harmonic phrase boundaries, suggesting that the influence of harmonic cues on phrase boundary perception develops substantially between 3 and 4 years of age in Western children. Overall, we show that the musical dwell time method is child-friendly and can be used to investigate various aspects of young children's musical understanding, including phrase grouping and harmonic knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  18. Descriptive and discourse-referential modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rijkhoff, Jan

    2008-01-01

    This article argues that adnominal modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase can be divided into two major subcategories: descriptive modifiers and discourse-referential modifiers. Whereas descriptive modifiers can be subdivided into classifying, qualifying, quantifying and localizing...... modifiers (section 2), discourse-referential modifiers in the noun phrase are concerned with the status of entities as referents in the world of discourse (section 3). I will pay particular attention to three issues: (i) formal reflections of the layered, semantic structure of the noun phrase (section 4...

  19. Speech and language intervention in bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eliane Ramos

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Increasingly, speech and language pathologists (SLPs around the world are faced with the unique set of issues presented by their bilingual clients. Some professional associations in different countries have presented recommendations when assessing and treating bilingual populations. In children, most of the studies have focused on intervention for language and phonology/ articulation impairments and very few focus on stuttering. In general, studies of language intervention tend to agree that intervention in the first language (L1 either increase performance on L2 or does not hinder it. In bilingual adults, monolingual versus bilingual intervention is especially relevant in cases of aphasia; dysarthria in bilinguals has been barely approached. Most studies of cross-linguistic effects in bilingual aphasics have focused on lexical retrieval training. It has been noted that even though a majority of studies have disclosed a cross-linguistic generalization from one language to the other, some methodological weaknesses are evident. It is concluded that even though speech and language intervention in bilinguals represents a most important clinical area in speech language pathology, much more research using larger samples and controlling for potentially confounding variables is evidently required.

  20. Translanguaging in Bilingual Teacher Preparation: Exploring Pre-Service Bilingual Teachers' Academic Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musanti, Sandra I.; Rodríguez, Alma D.

    2017-01-01

    Translanguaging, or the complex, dynamic, and integrated linguistic practices of bilinguals have been recently identified as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate learning in bilingual classrooms. Given its potential implications for teacher preparation, a qualitative case study was conducted at a university on the Texas-Mexico border to explore…

  1. Proyecto Bilingüe: Constructing a Figured World of Bilingual Education for Latina/o Bilingual Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ek, Lucila D.; Chávez, Guadalupe Domínguez

    2015-01-01

    Using theories of figured worlds, we demonstrate how Proyecto Bilingüe, a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction program, constructs a figured world of bilingual education for Latina/o bilingual teachers. We drew from a larger qualitative study to conduct a thematic analysis of interviews with Latina/o bilingual teachers, their written…

  2. Normal and abnormal aging in bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alfredo Ardila

    Full Text Available Abstract Bilinguals use two different language systems to mediate not only social communication, but also cognitive processes. Potential differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in task-solving strategies and patterns of cognitive decline during normal and abnormal aging have been suggested. Main contribution: A research review of the area suggests that normal aging is associated with increased interference between the two languages and tendency to retreat to a single language. General cognitive functioning has been found to be higher in demented bilingual patients if communication is carried out in L1 rather than in L2. Recent research has reported that bilingualism can have a protective effect during aging, attenuating the normal cognitive decline associated with aging, and delaying the onset of dementia. Conclusions: Regardless of the significant heterogeneity of bilingualism and the diversity of patterns in language use during life-span, current research suggests that bilingualism is associated with preserved cognitive test performance during aging, and potentially can have some protective effect in dementia.

  3. Individual and combined effects of enactment and testing on memory for action phrases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubik, Veit; Söderlund, Hedvig; Nilsson, Lars-Göran; Jönsson, Fredrik U

    2014-01-01

    We investigated the individual and combined effects of enactment and testing on memory for action phrases to address whether both study techniques commonly promote item-specific processing. Participants (N = 112) were divided into four groups (n = 28). They either exclusively studied 36 action phrases (e.g., "lift the glass") or both studied and cued-recalled them in four trials. During study trials participants encoded the action phrases either by motorically performing them, or by reading them aloud, and they took final verb-cued recall tests over 18-min and 1-week retention intervals. A testing effect was demonstrated for action phrases, however, only when they were verbally encoded, and not when they were enacted. Similarly, enactive (relative to verbal) encoding reduced the rate of forgetting, but only when the action phrases were exclusively studied, and not when they were also tested. These less-than-additive effects of enactment and testing on the rate of forgetting, as well as on long-term retention, support the notion that both study techniques effectively promote item-specific processing that can only be marginally increased further by combining them.

  4. Information Architecture for Bilingual Web Sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunliffe, Daniel; Jones, Helen; Jarvis, Melanie; Egan, Kevin; Huws, Rhian; Munro, Sian

    2002-01-01

    Discusses creating an information architecture for a bilingual Web site and reports work in progress on the development of a content-based bilingual Web site to facilitate shared resources between speech and language therapists. Considers a structural analysis of existing bilingual Web designs and explains a card-sorting activity conducted with…

  5. Semantic facilitation in bilingual first language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bilson, Samuel; Yoshida, Hanako; Tran, Crystal D; Woods, Elizabeth A; Hills, Thomas T

    2015-07-01

    Bilingual first language learners face unique challenges that may influence the rate and order of early word learning relative to monolinguals. A comparison of the productive vocabularies of 435 children between the ages of 6 months and 7 years-181 of which were bilingual English learners-found that monolinguals learned both English words and all-language concepts faster than bilinguals. However, bilinguals showed an enhancement of an effect previously found in monolinguals-the preference for learning words with more associative cues. Though both monolinguals and bilinguals were best fit by a similar model of word learning, semantic network structure and growth indicated that the two groups were learning English words in a different order. Further, in comparison with a model of two-monolinguals-in-one-mind, bilinguals overproduced translational equivalents. Our results support an emergent account of bilingual first language acquisition, where learning a word in one language facilitates its acquisition in a second language. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. How to Save You Skin When Processing L2 Idioms: An Eye Movement Analysis of Idiom Transparency and Cross-language Similarity among Bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Cieślicka

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The current study looks at whether bilinguals varying in language dominance show a processing advantage for idiomatic over non-idiomatic phrases and to what extent this effect is modulated by idiom transparency (i.e., the degree to which the idiom’s figurative meaning can be inferred from its literal analysis and cross-language similarity (i.e., the extent to which an idiom has an identical translation equivalent in another language. An eye tracking experiment was conducted in which Spanish-English bilinguals were presented with literally plausible (i.e., idioms that can be interpreted both figuratively and literally transparent (e.g., break the ice, where the figurative meaning can be deduced from analyzing the idiom literally and opaque idioms (e.g., hit the sack, where the meaning cannot be inferred from idiom constituents. Idioms varied along the dimension of cross-language similarity, with half the idioms having word for word translation equivalents in English and Spanish and another half being different, that is, having no similar counterpart in another language. Each idiom was used either in its literal (e.g., get cold feet: become coldor figurative meaning (e.g., get cold feet: become afraid. In control phrases the last word of the idiom was replaced by a carefully matched control (e.g., get cold hands. Reading measures (fixation count, first pass/gaze reading time and total reading time revealed that cross-language similarity interacts in an important way with idiom transparency, such that opaque idioms were more difficult to process than transparent ones, and different transparent idioms took faster to process than similar transparent idioms. Results are discussed with regard to the holistic vs. compositional views of idiom storage and the role of activated L1 (first language knowledge in the course of L2 (second language figurative processing.

  7. Bilingualism and Creativity in Early Childhood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leikin, Mark; Tovli, Esther

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the possible effect of bilingualism on creativity in nonmathematical and mathematical problem solving among bilingual and monolingual preschoolers. Two groups of children (M age = 71.9 months, SD = 3.6) from the same monolingual kindergartens participated in this study: 15 Russian/Hebrew balanced bilinguals and 16 native…

  8. Deaf Children's Bimodal Bilingualism and Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swanwick, Ruth

    2016-01-01

    This paper provides an overview of the research into deaf children's bilingualism and bilingual education through a synthesis of studies published over the last 15 years. This review brings together the linguistic and pedagogical work on bimodal bilingualism to inform educational practice. The first section of the review provides a synthesis of…

  9. Cognitive advantages and disadvantages in early and late bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelham, Sabra D; Abrams, Lise

    2014-03-01

    Previous research has documented advantages and disadvantages of early bilinguals, defined as learning a 2nd language by school age and using both languages since that time. Relative to monolinguals, early bilinguals manifest deficits in lexical access but benefits in executive function. We investigated whether becoming bilingual after childhood (late bilinguals) can produce the cognitive advantages and disadvantages typical of early bilinguals. Participants were 30 monolingual English speakers, 30 late English-Spanish bilinguals, and 30 early Spanish-English bilinguals who completed a picture naming task (lexical access) and an attentional network task (executive function). Late and early bilinguals manifested equivalent cognitive effects in both tasks, demonstrating lexical access deficits and executive function benefits. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that cognitive effects associated with bilingualism arise as the result of proficient, habitual use of 2 languages and not of developmental changes associated with becoming bilingual during childhood.

  10. Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bialystok, Ellen; Craik, Fergus I M; Luk, Gigi

    2012-04-01

    Building on earlier evidence showing a beneficial effect of bilingualism on children's cognitive development, we review recent studies using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods to examine the effects of bilingualism on cognition in adulthood and explore possible mechanisms for these effects. This research shows that bilingualism has a somewhat muted effect in adulthood but a larger role in older age, protecting against cognitive decline, a concept known as 'cognitive reserve'. We discuss recent evidence that bilingualism is associated with a delay in the onset of symptoms of dementia. Cognitive reserve is a crucial research area in the context of an aging population; the possibility that bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve is therefore of growing importance as populations become increasingly diverse. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. What can children tell us about the fixedness of idiomatic phrases? The psycholinguistic relevance of a linguistic model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kleopatra Diakogiorgi

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The present paper contains two distinct yet intricately linked studies concerning idiomatic phrases in Greek: a linguistic study and a psycholinguistic study. The linguistic study aims at investigating the degree of fixedness of idiomatic phrases, through a semantic-lexical categorization of 470 phrases with fixed subject. Three phrase categories were distinguished: typical phrases characterized by a strong semantic-lexical articulation between their constituents, and non-typical phrases, in which the constituents have a certain semantic autonomy. Non-typical phrases were further categorized into a quasi-phrases and b conventionalized phrases, the constituents of which have the highest degree of semantic autonomy. Α linguistic model was developed named “graded fixedness model”, and the psycholinguistic relevance of the model assessed by examining idiom comprehension in Greek elementary school children, aged 7.5 and 9.5 years old. To achieve this, a psycholinguistic study was then carried out. Children were presented with 8 typical, 8 quasi and 8 conventionalized phrases. For each phrase, they were asked to choose the one they thought correct out of three interpretations proposed (idiomatic, literal and other. The research findings presented and discussed herein provide evidence supporting the psychological reality of the notion of semantic autonomy even for the younger children’s processing which was overall quite poor: thus, the greater the semantic autonomy of a phrase’s constituents, the easier the access to its idiomatic meaning.Le présent article comporte deux études distinctes mais étroitement liées concernant les phrases idomatiques en grec : une étude linguistique et une étude psycholinguistique. L’étude linguistique vise à examiner le degré de figement des phrases idiomatiques, à travers une catégorisation sémantico-lexicale de 470 phrases à sujet fixe. Trois catégories de phrases ont été distingu

  12. Comparison of Word Intelligibility in Spoken and Sung Phrases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauren B. Collister

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Twenty listeners were exposed to spoken and sung passages in English produced by three trained vocalists. Passages included representative words extracted from a large database of vocal lyrics, including both popular and classical repertoires. Target words were set within spoken or sung carrier phrases. Sung carrier phrases were selected from classical vocal melodies. Roughly a quarter of all words sung by an unaccompanied soloist were misheard. Sung passages showed a seven-fold decrease in intelligibility compared with their spoken counterparts. The perceptual mistakes occurring with vowels replicate previous studies showing the centralization of vowels. Significant confusions are also evident for consonants, especially voiced stops and nasals.

  13. Simultaneous vs. Successive Bilingualism among Preschool-Aged Children: A Study of Four-Year-Old Korean-English Bilinguals in the USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Ah-Young; Park, Anne; Lust, Barbara

    2018-01-01

    The current study compares simultaneous vs. successive bilingualism through a mixed-method research design with four four-year-old Korean-English bilingual children who were born and raised in the USA. Two simultaneous bilinguals were exposed to Korean and English from birth, whereas two successive bilinguals were exposed to Korean from birth, but…

  14. Dealing with Phrase Level Co-Articulation (PLC) in speech recognition: a first approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ordelman, Roeland J.F.; van Hessen, Adrianus J.; van Leeuwen, David A.; Robinson, Tony; Renals, Steve

    1999-01-01

    Whereas nowadays within-word co-articulation effects are usually sufficiently dealt with in automatic speech recognition, this is not always the case with phrase level co-articulation effects (PLC). This paper describes a first approach in dealing with phrase level co-articulation by applying these

  15. Chinese-English Sourcebook of Classified Educational Phrases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chinese Education, 1976

    1976-01-01

    Official translation from Chinese to English of words and phrases commonly used in education and library work. Classifications include sayings of Chairman Mao, revolutionary mass criticism, revolution in education, "May 7" cadre schools, teaching methods and materials, disciplines and curricula, school names and terms, and library…

  16. Installing the ARL Phrase Book Android Application and Configuring its Dependencies

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-02-01

    application contains several third - party applications, which add additional steps to the installation process. Due to these dependencies, the installation...military terms, additional Dari terms, etc.) were added to the Phrase Book app. In addition, third - party apps (e.g., Carnegie Mellon University’s...Phrase Book app uses 2 third - party apps from the Google Play Store, Google’s app store. The Google Play Store is accessible by clicking on the white

  17. What is it like to grow up to be bilingual?-A survey report on bilingual high school students-

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Satoshi Tamiya

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In this era of globalization, Japanese teachers as well as teachers in other areas of the world have increasing chances of encountering bilingual students such as returnees and immigrants. It is important to understand the development of these students. The authors conducted a survey about bilingualism on 60 bilingual high school students at an international school in Japan. The survey questions asked about the students’ background and their experiences as a bilingual. Twenty-nine students responded to the survey. The responses were classified according to whether the reported advantages/disadvantages were linguistic, socio-cultural or identity-related. Linguistic disadvantages as well as advantages were experienced by most students. Bilingual influences on identity were mostly favorable, but some difficulties were common. Despite these disadvantages, socio-cultural advantages were prominent. It was reassuring to see that many bilingual high school students felt they were socio-culturally advantaged and mostly felt secure about their identity as a bilingual. However, we should not dismiss linguistic difficulties experienced by many of them and some cases of insecure identity, as these are crucially related to the mental health and creation of self-identity that is typical of adolescence.

  18. Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Outcome After Stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alladi, Suvarna; Bak, Thomas H; Mekala, Shailaja; Rajan, Amulya; Chaudhuri, Jaydip Ray; Mioshi, Eneida; Krovvidi, Rajesh; Surampudi, Bapiraju; Duggirala, Vasanta; Kaul, Subhash

    2016-01-01

    Bilingualism has been associated with slower cognitive aging and a later onset of dementia. In this study, we aimed to determine whether bilingualism also influences cognitive outcome after stroke. We examined 608 patients with ischemic stroke from a large stroke registry and studied the role of bilingualism in predicting poststroke cognitive impairment in the absence of dementia. A larger proportion of bilinguals had normal cognition compared with monolinguals (40.5% versus 19.6%; Pdementia and vascular mild cognitive impairment (monolinguals 77.7% versus bilinguals 49.0%; Pbilinguals 10.5%; P=0.354). Bilingualism was found to be an independent predictor of poststroke cognitive impairment. Our results suggest that bilingualism leads to a better cognitive outcome after stroke, possibly by enhancing cognitive reserve. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

  19. Being Bilingual: Issues for Cross-Language Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bogusia Temple

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available The current political debates in England highlight the role of language in citizenship, social exclusion, and discrimination. Similar debates can also be found around the world. Correspondingly, research addressing different language communities is burgeoning. Service providers and academics are increasingly employing bilingual community researchers or interpreters to carry out research. However, there is very little written about the effect of working with bilingual researchers. What it means to be bilingual is often essentialised and rarely problematised. Bilingual researchers are seen as unproblematically acting as bridges between communities just because they are bilingual. Their ties to communities, their use of language, and their perspectives on the research are rarely investigated. Language is tied in an unproblematic way to meaning, values, and beliefs. In this article, I use examples from my own research to question what it means to be bilingual and to do cross-language research. I argue that there is no straightforward way in which meanings can be read off from researchers’ ties to language and that being bilingual is not the same for everyone.

  20. Does Bilingualism Delay the Development of Dementia?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amy L Atkinson

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available It has been suggested that bilingualism (where individuals speak two languages may delay the development of dementia. However, much of the research is inconclusive. Some researchers have reported that bilingualism delays the onset and diagnosis of dementia, whilst other studies have found weak or even detrimental effects. This paper reviews a series of nine empirical studies, published up until March 2016, which investigated whether bilingualism significantly delays the onset of dementia. The article also explores whether the inconsistent findings can be attributed to differences in study designs or the definitions of bilingualism used between studies. Based on current evidence, it appears that lifelong bilingualism, where individuals frequently use both languages, may be protective against dementia. However, becoming bilingual in adulthood or using the second language infrequently is unlikely to substantially delay onset of the disease.

  1. Bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control among individuals with bilingual aphasia: evidence based on negative priming and flanker tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dash, Tanya; Kar, Bhoomika R

    2014-01-01

    Bilingualism results in an added advantage with respect to cognitive control. The interaction between bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control systems can also be understood by studying executive control among individuals with bilingual aphasia. objectives: The current study examined the subcomponents of cognitive control in bilingual aphasia. A case study approach was used to investigate whether cognitive control and language control are two separate systems and how factors related to bilingualism interact with control processes. Four individuals with bilingual aphasia performed a language background questionnaire, picture description task, and two experimental tasks (nonlinguistic negative priming task and linguistic and nonlinguistic versions of flanker task). A descriptive approach was used to analyse the data using reaction time and accuracy measures. The cumulative distribution function plots were used to visualize the variations in performance across conditions. The results highlight the distinction between general purpose cognitive control and bilingual language control mechanisms. All participants showed predominant use of the reactive control mechanism to compensate for the limited resources system. Independent yet interactive systems for bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control were postulated based on the experimental data derived from individuals with bilingual aphasia.

  2. Discourses on Bilingualism in Canadian French Immersion Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roy, Sylvie; Galiev, Albert

    2011-01-01

    The present article examines discourses on bilingualism in French immersion schools and connects local ideologies of bilingualism to a more global view of what it means to be bilingual in Canada. Bilingualism is usually regarded as two isolated monolingualisms (or monolingual systems) in which there is no place for code-switching, uneven language…

  3. Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different Sociolinguistic Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blom, Elma; Boerma, Tessel; Bosma, Evelyn; Cornips, Leonie; Everaert, Emma

    2017-01-01

    Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6–7 years, with a monolingual control group. We were specifically interested in testing whether the bilingual cognitive advantage is modulated by the sociolinguistic context of language use. All three bilingual groups were exposed to a minority language besides the nation’s dominant language (Dutch). Two bilingual groups were exposed to a regional language (Frisian, Limburgish), and a third bilingual group was exposed to a migrant language (Polish). All children participated in two working memory tasks (verbal, visuospatial) and two attention tasks (selective attention, interference suppression). Bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on selective attention. The cognitive effect of bilingualism was most clearly present in the Frisian-Dutch group and in a subgroup of migrant children who were relatively proficient in Polish. The effect was less robust in the Limburgish-Dutch sample. Investigation of the response patterns of the flanker test, testing interference suppression, suggested that bilingual children more often show an effect of response competition than the monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children attend to different aspects of the task than monolingual children. No bilingualism effects emerged for verbal and visuospatial working memory. PMID:28484403

  4. Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different Sociolinguistic Contexts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blom, Elma; Boerma, Tessel; Bosma, Evelyn; Cornips, Leonie; Everaert, Emma

    2017-01-01

    Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6-7 years, with a monolingual control group. We were specifically interested in testing whether the bilingual cognitive advantage is modulated by the sociolinguistic context of language use. All three bilingual groups were exposed to a minority language besides the nation's dominant language (Dutch). Two bilingual groups were exposed to a regional language (Frisian, Limburgish), and a third bilingual group was exposed to a migrant language (Polish). All children participated in two working memory tasks (verbal, visuospatial) and two attention tasks (selective attention, interference suppression). Bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on selective attention. The cognitive effect of bilingualism was most clearly present in the Frisian-Dutch group and in a subgroup of migrant children who were relatively proficient in Polish. The effect was less robust in the Limburgish-Dutch sample. Investigation of the response patterns of the flanker test, testing interference suppression, suggested that bilingual children more often show an effect of response competition than the monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children attend to different aspects of the task than monolingual children. No bilingualism effects emerged for verbal and visuospatial working memory.

  5. Distinct ERP Signatures of Word Frequency, Phrase Frequency, and Prototypicality in Speech Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendrix, Peter; Bolger, Patrick; Baayen, Harald

    2017-01-01

    Recent studies have documented frequency effects for word n-grams, independently of word unigram frequency. Further studies have revealed constructional prototype effects, both at the word level as well as for phrases. The present speech production study investigates the time course of these effects for the production of prepositional phrases in…

  6. Planning in Sentence Production: Evidence for the Phrase as a Default Planning Scope

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Randi C.; Crowther, Jason E.; Knight, Meredith; Tamborello, Franklin P., II; Yang, Chin-Lung

    2010-01-01

    Controversy remains as to the scope of advanced planning in language production. Smith and Wheeldon (1999) found significantly longer onset latencies when subjects described moving-picture displays by producing sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase than for matched sentences beginning with a simple noun phrase. While these findings are…

  7. An "Alms-Basket" of "Bric-a-Brac": "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunge, Charles A.

    1999-01-01

    Describes the development and history of "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," a reference source first published in 1870 that includes the etymology of phrases, allusions and words. Discusses reviews that reflected and shaped its status as a standard reference book, describes the current edition, and considers its enduring value.…

  8. Bilingualism accentuates children's conversational understanding.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Siegal

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Although bilingualism is prevalent throughout the world, little is known about the extent to which it influences children's conversational understanding. Our investigation involved children aged 3-6 years exposed to one or more of four major languages: English, German, Italian, and Japanese. In two experiments, we examined the children's ability to identify responses to questions as violations of conversational maxims (to be informative and avoid redundancy, to speak the truth, be relevant, and be polite. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In Experiment 1, with increasing age, children showed greater sensitivity to maxim violations. Children in Italy who were bilingual in German and Italian (with German as the dominant language L1 significantly outperformed Italian monolinguals. In Experiment 2, children in England who were bilingual in English and Japanese (with English as L1 significantly outperformed Japanese monolinguals in Japan with vocabulary age partialled out. CONCLUSIONS: As the monolingual and bilingual groups had a similar family SES background (Experiment 1 and similar family cultural identity (Experiment 2, these results point to a specific role for early bilingualism in accentuating children's developing ability to appreciate effective communicative responses.

  9. Effects of Marathi-Hindi Bilingualism on Neuropsychological Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamat, Rujvi; Ghate, Manisha; Gollan, Tamar H.; Meyer, Rachel; Vaida, Florin; Heaton, Robert K.; Letendre, Scott; Franklin, Donald; Alexander, Terry; Grant, Igor; Mehendale, Sanjay; Marcotte, Thomas D.

    2013-01-01

    The present study aimed to examine if bilingualism affects executive functions and verbal fluency in Marathi and Hindi, two major languages in India, with a considerable cognate (e.g., activity is actividad in Spanish) overlap. A total of 174 native Marathi speakers from Pune, India, with varying levels of Hindi proficiency were administered tests of executive functioning and verbal performance in Marathi. A bilingualism index was generated using self-reported Hindi and Marathi proficiency. After controlling for demographic variables, the association between bilingualism and cognitive performance was examined. Degree of bilingualism predicted better performance on the switching (Color Trails-2) and inhibition (Stroop Color-Word) components of executive functioning; but not for the abstraction component (Halstead Category Test). In the verbal domain, bilingualism was more closely associated with noun generation (where the languages share many cognates) than verb generation (which are more disparate across these languages), as predicted. However, contrary to our hypothesis that the bilingualism “disadvantage” would be attenuated on noun generation, bilingualism was associated with an advantage on these measures. These findings suggest distinct patterns of bilingualism effects on cognition for this previously unexamined language pair, and that the rate of cognates may modulate the association between bilingualism and verbal performance on neuropsychological tests. PMID:22206622

  10. Effects of Marathi-Hindi bilingualism on neuropsychological performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamat, Rujvi; Ghate, Manisha; Gollan, Tamar H; Meyer, Rachel; Vaida, Florin; Heaton, Robert K; Letendre, Scott; Franklin, Donald; Alexander, Terry; Grant, Igor; Mehendale, Sanjay; Marcotte, Thomas D

    2012-03-01

    The present study aimed to examine if bilingualism affects executive functions and verbal fluency in Marathi and Hindi, two major languages in India, with a considerable cognate (e.g., activity is actividad in Spanish) overlap. A total of 174 native Marathi speakers from Pune, India, with varying levels of Hindi proficiency were administered tests of executive functioning and verbal performance in Marathi. A bilingualism index was generated using self-reported Hindi and Marathi proficiency. After controlling for demographic variables, the association between bilingualism and cognitive performance was examined. Degree of bilingualism predicted better performance on the switching (Color Trails-2) and inhibition (Stroop Color-Word) components of executive functioning; but not for the abstraction component (Halstead Category Test). In the verbal domain, bilingualism was more closely associated with noun generation (where the languages share many cognates) than verb generation (which are more disparate across these languages), as predicted. However, contrary to our hypothesis that the bilingualism "disadvantage" would be attenuated on noun generation, bilingualism was associated with an advantage on these measures. These findings suggest distinct patterns of bilingualism effects on cognition for this previously unexamined language pair, and that the rate of cognates may modulate the association between bilingualism and verbal performance on neuropsychological tests.

  11. Bilingualism alters brain functional connectivity between "control" regions and "language" regions: Evidence from bimodal bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Le; Abutalebi, Jubin; Zou, Lijuan; Yan, Xin; Liu, Lanfang; Feng, Xiaoxia; Wang, Ruiming; Guo, Taomei; Ding, Guosheng

    2015-05-01

    Previous neuroimaging studies have revealed that bilingualism induces both structural and functional neuroplasticity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the left caudate nucleus (LCN), both of which are associated with cognitive control. Since these "control" regions should work together with other language regions during language processing, we hypothesized that bilingualism may also alter the functional interaction between the dACC/LCN and language regions. Here we tested this hypothesis by exploring the functional connectivity (FC) in bimodal bilinguals and monolinguals using functional MRI when they either performed a picture naming task with spoken language or were in resting state. We found that for bimodal bilinguals who use spoken and sign languages, the FC of the dACC with regions involved in spoken language (e.g. the left superior temporal gyrus) was stronger in performing the task, but weaker in the resting state as compared to monolinguals. For the LCN, its intrinsic FC with sign language regions including the left inferior temporo-occipital part and right inferior and superior parietal lobules was increased in the bilinguals. These results demonstrate that bilingual experience may alter the brain functional interaction between "control" regions and "language" regions. For different control regions, the FC alters in different ways. The findings also deepen our understanding of the functional roles of the dACC and LCN in language processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Bilingual Language Control and General Purpose Cognitive Control among Individuals with Bilingual Aphasia: Evidence Based on Negative Priming and Flanker Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dash, Tanya; Kar, Bhoomika R.

    2014-01-01

    Background. Bilingualism results in an added advantage with respect to cognitive control. The interaction between bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control systems can also be understood by studying executive control among individuals with bilingual aphasia. Objectives. The current study examined the subcomponents of cognitive control in bilingual aphasia. A case study approach was used to investigate whether cognitive control and language control are two separate systems and how factors related to bilingualism interact with control processes. Methods. Four individuals with bilingual aphasia performed a language background questionnaire, picture description task, and two experimental tasks (nonlinguistic negative priming task and linguistic and nonlinguistic versions of flanker task). Results. A descriptive approach was used to analyse the data using reaction time and accuracy measures. The cumulative distribution function plots were used to visualize the variations in performance across conditions. The results highlight the distinction between general purpose cognitive control and bilingual language control mechanisms. Conclusion. All participants showed predominant use of the reactive control mechanism to compensate for the limited resources system. Independent yet interactive systems for bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control were postulated based on the experimental data derived from individuals with bilingual aphasia. PMID:24982591

  13. Survey of Bilingualism in Autism Spectrum Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kay-Raining Bird, Elizabeth; Lamond, Erin; Holden, Jeanette

    2012-01-01

    This survey study investigates issues related to bilingualism and autism. Bilingualism is common around the world but there is little published information to guide professionals and parents in making decisions about bilingualism for children with autism. Participants were 49 parents or guardians of children with autism who were members of a…

  14. The Intonation of Noun Phrase Subjects and Clause- Modifying ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    FIRST LADY

    Oladipupo, Rotimi O. - Centre for Foundation Education, Bells University of. Technology ... native Englishes, especially at the level of phonology, this study investigates ... Keywords: Intonation tunes, Nigerian English, Noun Phrase Subjects,.

  15. Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain

    OpenAIRE

    Bialystok, Ellen; Craik, Fergus I. M.; Luk, Gigi

    2012-01-01

    Building on earlier evidence showing a beneficial effect of bilingualism on children’s cognitive development, we review recent studies using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods to examine the effects of bilingualism on cognition in adulthood and explore possible mechanisms for these effects. This research shows that bilingualism has a somewhat muted effect in adulthood but a larger role in older age, protecting against cognitive decline, a concept known as “cognitive reserve”. We discuss...

  16. The Effect of Script Similarity on Executive Control in Bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily L Coderre

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The need for executive control (EC during bilingual language processing is thought to enhance these abilities, conferring a ‘bilingual advantage’ on EC tasks. Recently, the reliability and robustness of the bilingual advantage has been questioned, with many variables reportedly affecting the size and presence of the bilingual advantage. This study investigates one further variable that may affect bilingual EC abilities: the similarity of a bilingual’s two languages. We hypothesize that bilinguals whose two languages have a larger degree of orthographic overlap will require greater EC to manage their languages compared to bilinguals who use two languages with less overlap. We tested three groups of bilinguals with language pairs ranging from high- to low-similarity (German-English (GE, Polish-English (PE, and Arabic-English (AE, respectively and a group of English monolinguals on a Stroop and Simon task. Two components of the bilingual advantage were investigated: an interference advantage, such that bilinguals have smaller interference effects than monolinguals; and a global RT advantage, such that bilinguals are faster overall than monolinguals. Between bilingual groups, these effects were expected to be modulated by script similarity. AE bilinguals showed the smallest Stroop interference effects, but the longest overall RTs in both tasks. These seemingly contradictory results are explained by the presence of cross-linguistic interference in the Stroop task. We conclude that similar-script bilinguals demonstrated more effective domain-general EC than different-script bilinguals, since high orthographic overlap creates more cross-linguistic activation and increases the daily demands on cognitive control. The role of individual variation is also discussed. These results suggest that script similarity is an important variable to consider in investigations of bilingual executive control abilities.

  17. Metalinguistic Aspects of Bilingual Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bialystok, Ellen

    2001-01-01

    Examines differences in metalinguistic development between monolingual and bilingual children in terms of three subcategories: word awareness, syntactic awareness, and phonological awareness. In each case, some studies have reported advantages for bilingual children, while others have found either no difference between the groups or monolingual…

  18. Bilingual Language Switching: Production vs. Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosca, Michela; de Bot, Kees

    2017-01-01

    This study aims at assessing how bilinguals select words in the appropriate language in production and recognition while minimizing interference from the non-appropriate language. Two prominent models are considered which assume that when one language is in use, the other is suppressed. The Inhibitory Control (IC) model suggests that, in both production and recognition, the amount of inhibition on the non-target language is greater for the stronger compared to the weaker language. In contrast, the Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA) model proposes that, in language recognition, the amount of inhibition on the weaker language is stronger than otherwise. To investigate whether bilingual language production and recognition can be accounted for by a single model of bilingual processing, we tested a group of native speakers of Dutch (L1), advanced speakers of English (L2) in a bilingual recognition and production task. Specifically, language switching costs were measured while participants performed a lexical decision (recognition) and a picture naming (production) task involving language switching. Results suggest that while in language recognition the amount of inhibition applied to the non-appropriate language increases along with its dominance as predicted by the IC model, in production the amount of inhibition applied to the non-relevant language is not related to language dominance, but rather it may be modulated by speakers' unconscious strategies to foster the weaker language. This difference indicates that bilingual language recognition and production might rely on different processing mechanisms and cannot be accounted within one of the existing models of bilingual language processing. PMID:28638361

  19. Presentacio?n. Experiencias y propuestas de educacio?n intercultural bilingu?e en los cantones Cayambe y Pedro Moncayo (Ecuador)

    OpenAIRE

    Granda Mercha?n, Sebastia?n

    2014-01-01

    En el 2004, luego de 10 an?os de experiencia en los pa?ramos andinos de la Provincia de Cotopaxi, la Universidad Polite?cnica Salesiana oferta la Carrera de Educacio?n Intercultural Bilingu?e en la ciudad de Cayambe con el objetivo de atender las demandas de formacio?n de los docentes de las escuelas y colegios de la Jurisdiccio?n de Educacio?n Intercultural Bilingu?e de la zona. Para ese entonces, habi?an transcurrido ya 15 an?os desde que se institucionalizo? la Educacio?n Intercultural Bil...

  20. Longitudinal effects of bilingualism on dual-tasking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sörman, Daniel Eriksson; Josefsson, Maria; Marsh, John E; Hansson, Patrik; Ljungberg, Jessica K

    2017-01-01

    An ongoing debate surrounds whether bilinguals outperform monolinguals in tests of executive processing. The aim of this study was to investigate if there are long-term (10 year) bilingual advantages in executive processing, as indexed by dual-task performance, in a sample that were 40-65 years at baseline. The bilingual (n = 24) and monolingual (n = 24) participants were matched on age, sex, education, fluid intelligence, and study sample. Participants performed free-recall for a 12-item list in three dual-task settings wherein they sorted cards either during encoding, retrieval, or during both encoding and retrieval of the word-list. Free recall without card sorting was used as a reference to compute dual-task costs. The results showed that bilinguals significantly outperformed monolinguals when they performed card-sorting during both encoding and retrieval of the word-list, the condition that presumably placed the highest demands on executive functioning. However, dual-task costs increased over time for bilinguals relative to monolinguals, a finding that is possibly influenced by retirement age and limited use of second language in the bilingual group.

  1. Materiales en Marcha Para El Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism), February 1973.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter is intended to promote the cause of bilingual-bicultural education. It contains a poem celebrating the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and articles on "Exploring Modern Bilingual Biology,""New Covers on the ESL Scene,""Bilingual-Bicultural Education: Background and Foreground," and "Field-Testing…

  2. Does simultaneous bilingualism aggravate children's specific language problems?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korkman, Marit; Stenroos, Maria; Mickos, Annika; Westman, Martin; Ekholm, Pia; Byring, Roger

    2012-09-01

    There is little data on whether or not a bilingual upbringing may aggravate specific language problems in children. This study analysed whether there was an interaction of such problems and simultaneous bilingualism. Participants were 5- to 7-year-old children with specific language problems (LANG group, N = 56) or who were typically developing (CONTR group, N = 60). Seventy-three children were Swedish-Finnish bilingual and 43 were Swedish-speaking monolingual. Assessments (in Swedish) included tests of expressive language, comprehension, repetition and verbal memory. Per definition, the LANG group had lower scores than the CONTR group on all language tests. The bilingual group had lower scores than the monolingual group only on a test of body part naming. Importantly, the interaction of group (LANG or CONTR) and bilingualism was not significant on any of the language scores. Simultaneous bilingualism does not aggravate specific language problems but may result in a slower development of vocabulary both in children with and without specific language problems. Considering also advantages, a bilingual upbringing is an option also for children with specific language problems. In assessment, tests of vocabulary may be sensitive to bilingualism, instead tests assessing comprehension, syntax and nonword repetition may provide less biased methods. © 2012 The Author(s)/Acta Paediatrica © 2012 Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

  3. Bilingual and Monolingual Children Prefer Native-Accented Speakers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andre L. eSouza

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Adults and young children prefer to affiliate with some individuals rather than others. Studies have shown that monolingual children show in-group biases for individuals who speak their native language without a foreign accent (Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2007. Some studies have suggested that bilingual children are less influenced than monolinguals by language variety when attributing personality traits to different speakers (Anisfeld & Lambert, 1964, which could indicate that bilinguals have fewer in-group biases and perhaps greater social flexibility. However, no previous studies have compared monolingual and bilingual children’s reactions to speakers with unfamiliar foreign accents. In the present study, we investigated the social preferences of 5-year-old English and French monolinguals and English-French bilinguals. Contrary to our predictions, both monolingual and bilingual preschoolers preferred to be friends with native-accented speakers over speakers who spoke their dominant language with an unfamiliar foreign accent. This result suggests that both monolingual and bilingual children have strong preferences for in-group members who use a familiar language variety, and that bilingualism does not lead to generalized social flexibility.

  4. Bilingual and monolingual children prefer native-accented speakers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Souza, André L; Byers-Heinlein, Krista; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

    2013-01-01

    Adults and young children prefer to affiliate with some individuals rather than others. Studies have shown that monolingual children show in-group biases for individuals who speak their native language without a foreign accent (Kinzler et al., 2007). Some studies have suggested that bilingual children are less influenced than monolinguals by language variety when attributing personality traits to different speakers (Anisfeld and Lambert, 1964), which could indicate that bilinguals have fewer in-group biases and perhaps greater social flexibility. However, no previous studies have compared monolingual and bilingual children's reactions to speakers with unfamiliar foreign accents. In the present study, we investigated the social preferences of 5-year-old English and French monolinguals and English-French bilinguals. Contrary to our predictions, both monolingual and bilingual preschoolers preferred to be friends with native-accented speakers over speakers who spoke their dominant language with an unfamiliar foreign accent. This result suggests that both monolingual and bilingual children have strong preferences for in-group members who use a familiar language variety, and that bilingualism does not lead to generalized social flexibility.

  5. How bilingualism shapes the functional architecture of the brain: A study on executive control in early bilinguals and monolinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costumero, Víctor; Rodríguez-Pujadas, Aina; Fuentes-Claramonte, Paola; Ávila, César

    2015-12-01

    The existence of a behavioral advantage of bilinguals over monolinguals during executive tasks is controversial. A new approach to this issue is to investigate the effect of bilingualism on neural control when performing these tasks as a window to understand when behavioral differences are produced. Here, we tested if early bilinguals use more language-related networks than monolinguals while performing a go/no-go task that includes infrequent no-go and go trials. The RTs and accuracy in both groups did not differ. An independent component analyses (ICA) revealed, however, that bilinguals used the left fronto-parietal network and the salience network more than monolinguals while processing go infrequent cues and no-go cues, respectively. It was noteworthy that the modulation of these networks had opposite correlates with performance in bilinguals and monolinguals, which suggests that between-group differences were more qualitative than quantitative. Our results suggest that bilinguals may differently develop the involvement of the executive control networks that comprise the left inferior frontal gyrus during cognitive control tasks than monolinguals. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. The Role of Sustained Attention in the Production of Conjoined Noun Phrases: An Individual Differences Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jongman, Suzanne R; Meyer, Antje S; Roelofs, Ardi

    2015-01-01

    It has previously been shown that language production, performed simultaneously with a nonlinguistic task, involves sustained attention. Sustained attention concerns the ability to maintain alertness over time. Here, we aimed to replicate the previous finding by showing that individuals call upon sustained attention when they plan single noun phrases (e.g., "the carrot") and perform a manual arrow categorization task. In addition, we investigated whether speakers also recruit sustained attention when they produce conjoined noun phrases (e.g., "the carrot and the bucket") describing two pictures, that is, when both the first and second task are linguistic. We found that sustained attention correlated with the proportion of abnormally slow phrase-production responses. Individuals with poor sustained attention displayed a greater number of very slow responses than individuals with better sustained attention. Importantly, this relationship was obtained both for the production of single phrases while performing a nonlinguistic manual task, and the production of noun phrase conjunctions in referring to two spatially separated objects. Inhibition and updating abilities were also measured. These scores did not correlate with our measure of sustained attention, suggesting that sustained attention and executive control are distinct. Overall, the results suggest that planning conjoined noun phrases involves sustained attention, and that language production happens less automatically than has often been assumed.

  7. Influencing feelings of cancer risk: direct and moderator effects of affectively laden phrases in risk communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janssen, Eva; van Osch, Liesbeth; Lechner, Lilian; de Vries, Hein

    2015-01-01

    Evidence is accumulating for the importance of feelings of risk in explaining cancer preventive behaviors, but best practices for influencing these feelings are limited. This study investigated the direct and moderational influence of affectively laden phrases in cancer risk messages. Two experimental studies were conducted in relation to different cancer-related behaviors--sunbed use (n = 112) and red meat consumption (n = 447)--among student and nonstudent samples. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) a cognitive message using cognitively laden phrases or (b) an affective message using affectively laden phrases. The results revealed that affective phrases did not directly influence feelings of risk in both studies. Evidence for a moderational influence was found in Study 2, suggesting that affective information strengthened the relation between feelings of risk and intention (i.e., participants relied more on their feelings in the decision-making process after exposure to affective information). These findings suggest that solely using affective phrases in risk communication may not be sufficient to directly influence feelings of risk and other methods need to be explored in future research. Moreover, research is needed to replicate our preliminary indications for a moderational influence of affective phrases to advance theory and practice.

  8. The long-term effects of bilingualism on children of immigration: student bilingualism and future earnings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Agirdag, O.

    2014-01-01

    In this study, we examine the largely neglected long-term effects of bilingualism for students with roots in immigration. Our central research question is whether students' bilingual proficiencies have an impact on their future earnings in the USA. For this purpose, we used two different data-sets,

  9. Neuroanatomical profiles of bilingual children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Archila-Suerte, Pilar; Woods, Elizabeth A; Chiarello, Christine; Hernandez, Arturo E

    2018-02-26

    The goal of the present study was to examine differences in cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and subcortical volume between bilingual children who are highly proficient in two languages (i.e., English and Spanish) and bilingual children who are mainly proficient in one of the languages (i.e., Spanish). All children (N = 49) learned Spanish as a native language (L1) at home and English as a second language (L2) at school. Proficiency of both languages was assessed using the standardized Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery. Five-minute high-resolution anatomical scans were acquired with a 3-Tesla scanner. The degree of discrepancy between L1 and L2 proficiency was used to classify the children into two groups: children with balanced proficiency and children with unbalanced proficiency. The groups were comparable on language history, parental education, and other variables except English proficiency. Values of cortical thickness and surface area of the transverse STG, IFG-pars opercularis, and MFG, as well as subcortical volume of the caudate and putamen, were extracted from FreeSurfer. Results showed that children with balanced bilingualism had thinner cortices of the left STG, left IFG, left MFG and a larger bilateral putamen, whereas unbalanced bilinguals showed thicker cortices of the same regions and a smaller putamen. Additionally, unbalanced bilinguals with stronger foreign accents in the L2 showed reduced surface areas of the MFG and STS bilaterally. The results suggest that balanced/unbalanced bilingualism is reflected in different neuroanatomical characteristics that arise from biological and/or environmental factors. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  10. Assessing multilingual children: disentangling bilingualism from language impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Armon-Lotem, S.; de Jong, J.; Meir, N.

    2015-01-01

    This book presents a comprehensive set of tools for assessing the linguistic abilities of bilingual children. It aims to disentangle effects of bilingualism from those of Specific Language Impairment (SLI), making use of both models of bilingualism and models of language impairment.

  11. A longitudinal study of memory advantages in bilinguals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessica K Ljungberg

    Full Text Available Typically, studies of cognitive advantages in bilinguals have been conducted previously by using executive and inhibitory tasks (e.g. Simon task and applying cross-sectional designs. This study longitudinally investigated bilingual advantages on episodic memory recall, verbal letter and categorical fluency during the trajectory of life. Monolingual and bilingual participants (n=178 between 35-70 years at baseline were drawn from the Betula Prospective Cohort Study of aging, memory, and health. Results showed that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals at the first testing session and across time both in episodic memory recall and in letter fluency. No interaction with age was found indicating that the rate of change across ages was similar for bilinguals and monolinguals. As predicted and in line with studies applying cross-sectional designs, no advantages associated with bilingualism were found in the categorical fluency task. The results are discussed in the light of successful aging.

  12. Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlson, Stephanie M; Meltzoff, Andrew N

    2008-03-01

    Advanced inhibitory control skills have been found in bilingual speakers as compared to monolingual controls (Bialystok, 1999). We examined whether this effect is generalized to an unstudied language group (Spanish-English bilingual) and multiple measures of executive function by administering a battery of tasks to 50 kindergarten children drawn from three language groups: native bilinguals, monolinguals (English), and English speakers enrolled in second-language immersion kindergarten. Despite having significantly lower verbal scores and parent education/income level, Spanish-English bilingual children's raw scores did not differ from their peers. After statistically controlling for these factors and age, native bilingual children performed significantly better on the executive function battery than both other groups. Importantly, the relative advantage was significant for tasks that appear to call for managing conflicting attentional demands (Conflict tasks); there was no advantage on impulse-control (Delay tasks). These results advance our understanding of both the generalizability and specificity of the compensatory effects of bilingual experience for children's cognitive development.

  13. The concept of a bilingual dictionary

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tarp, Sven

    2005-01-01

    The term bilingual dictionary is widely used, not only by librarians and dictionary users en general but also by professional lexicographers dedicated to the theory and practice of dictionary making. For this reason it should be expected that there were a common and well-established definition...... of the concept of a bilingual dictionary. It is evident that most people has an intuitive idea of what is meant by «bilingual dictionary». But science-based lexicographic theory - at least if it wants to be considered as such - must go beyond intuition and furnish precise definitions of the concepts used...... chapters, various definitions will be discussed and related to dictionary practice and, subsequently, the very concept of a bilingual dictionary will be examined in the light of a dictionary typology based upon the modern theory of lexicographic functions....

  14. Bilingualism and Cognition: Informing Research, Pedagogy, and Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Eugene E.; Nanez, Jose E., Sr.

    2011-01-01

    In the United States, approximately 7% to 10% of children are raised in bilingual households. Despite inherent advantages to bilingualism, some bilingual children experience a significant lag in academic success relative to other groups. Bridging the fields of cognitive psychology and education, this volume presents research-based knowledge on…

  15. The determiner phrase in Etsako: A minimalist approach ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper seeks to analyse the Determiner Phrase in Etsako within the theoretical framework of the Minimalist Program, the most recent version of Chomsky's Generative Grammar. We shall argue that the functional category of Determiner is Head of all nominal projections in Etsako as against earlier accounts in favour of ...

  16. The effects of bilingualism on children's perception of speech sounds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brasileiro, I.

    2009-01-01

    The general topic addressed by this dissertation is that of bilingualism, and more specifically, the topic of bilingual acquisition of speech sounds. The central question in this study is the following: does bilingualism affect children’s perceptual development of speech sounds? The term bilingual

  17. Immersive bilingualism reshapes the core of the brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pliatsikas, Christos; DeLuca, Vincent; Moschopoulou, Elisavet; Saddy, James Douglas

    2017-05-01

    Bilingualism has been shown to affect the structure of the brain, including cortical regions related to language. Less is known about subcortical structures, such as the basal ganglia, which underlie speech monitoring and language selection, processes that are crucial for bilinguals, as well as other linguistic functions, such as grammatical and phonological acquisition and processing. Simultaneous bilinguals have demonstrated significant reshaping of the basal ganglia and the thalamus compared to monolinguals. However, it is not clear whether these effects are due to learning of the second language (L2) at a very young age or simply due to continuous usage of two languages. Here, we show that bilingualism-induced subcortical effects are directly related to the amount of continuous L2 usage, or L2 immersion. We found significant subcortical reshaping in non-simultaneous (or sequential) bilinguals with extensive immersion in a bilingual environment, closely mirroring the recent findings in simultaneous bilinguals. Importantly, some of these effects were positively correlated to the amount of L2 immersion. Conversely, sequential bilinguals with comparable proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) but limited immersion did not show similar effects. Our results provide structural evidence to suggestions that L2 acquisition continuously occurs in an immersive environment, and is expressed as dynamic reshaping of the core of the brain. These findings propose that second language learning in the brain is a dynamic procedure which depends on active and continuous L2 usage.

  18. Bilingualism as a kind of therapy?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hulk, A.; Unsworth, S.

    2010-01-01

    In her very interesting Keynote Article, Johanne Paradis gives a clear overview of recent research at the interface of bilingual development and child language disorders, and highlights its theoretical and clinical implications. She raises the challenging question of "whether bilingualism can be

  19. Main Trands and Prospects of Bilingual Education Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Solntseva-Nakova

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the system of bilingual education, its development history, causes and effects of transformation of multi-ethnical education into polycultural one. The correlation between the bilingual and polycultural teaching is emphasized, its intensification resulting from the historical and socio-cultural background, as well as the global trends in philosophy, pedagogy and psychology. The author specifies the term of bilingual teaching; examines its various models emphasizing that their preferences depend on the particular socio-lingual backgrounds; demonstrates the relevance of bilingual teaching resulted from the general trend of economic, cultural and political integration. The advantages of bilingual education are enumerated: the access to information in various spheres and in a broader scale, continuing educational growth and competitiveness in the European and world labor markets. 

  20. Main Trands and Prospects of Bilingual Education Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Solntseva-Nakova

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the system of bilingual education, its development history, causes and effects of transformation of multi-ethnical education into polycultural one. The correlation between the bilingual and polycultural teaching is emphasized, its intensification resulting from the historical and socio-cultural background, as well as the global trends in philosophy, pedagogy and psychology. The author specifies the term of bilingual teaching; examines its various models emphasizing that their preferences depend on the particular socio-lingual backgrounds; demonstrates the relevance of bilingual teaching resulted from the general trend of economic, cultural and political integration. The advantages of bilingual education are enumerated: the access to information in various spheres and in a broader scale, continuing educational growth and competitiveness in the European and world labor markets. 

  1. Does Bilingualism Delay the Development of Dementia?

    OpenAIRE

    Amy L Atkinson

    2016-01-01

    It has been suggested that bilingualism (where individuals speak two languages) may delay the development of dementia. However, much of the research is inconclusive. Some researchers have reported that bilingualism delays the onset and diagnosis of dementia, whilst other studies have found weak or even detrimental effects. This paper reviews a series of nine empirical studies, published up until March 2016, which investigated whether bilingualism significantly delays the onset of dementia. Th...

  2. A CLOSE LOOK AT BILINGUALISM RESEARCH IN ASIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evynurul Laily Zen

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Asia is a ‘homeland’ for bilingualism research in regards to its diversity. It is considered as a vivid research site where there is significant growth of academic areas of exploration. Yet, there are very few scientific attempts to map bilingualism research in an Asian context so far. Thus, I bring the idea of mapping previous works through this literature study by specifically scrutinizing (a bilingualism research in Southeast Asia, (b bilingualism research in other parts of Asia, and (c lessons to learn as a stepping stone to define the future of Indonesian bilingualism. The general data mapping I have explored includes Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam and other parts of Asia (China, India, Israel, and Kazakhstan. The findings from the 33 previous works can be considered as empirical evidence that I will use to portray the research trends in Asia’s bilingualism. The trends show that 19 (55% works have approached bilingual data from sociolinguistics perspective, whereas the other 14 (45% have framed their analysis under psycholinguistic approach. Based on the methodological concerns from these works, I propose two major areas of exploration: Family Language Policy (FLP and trilingual acquisition. FLP in Indonesian is a promising ground, as it brings together issues in language maintenance and shift that instigate a wider aspect of investigation; these aspects include bilingual language dominance, cross language influence, and so forth. Trilingual acquisition, the situation most Indonesian children are growing with, has a potentially significant impact on education, especially where a language curriculum is carefully planned and implemented. In conclusion, this mapping will hopefully shed a light on how bilingualism has academically been very appealing and will continue to fascinate more researchers.

  3. Novel word retention in bilingual and monolingual speakers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kan, Pui Fong; Sadagopan, Neeraja

    2014-01-01

    The goal of this research was to examine word retention in bilinguals and monolinguals. Long-term word retention is an essential part of vocabulary learning. Previous studies have documented that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in terms of retrieving newly-exposed words. Yet, little is known about whether or to what extent bilinguals are different from monolinguals in word retention. Participants were 30 English-speaking monolingual adults and 30 bilingual adults who speak Spanish as a home language and learned English as a second language during childhood. In a previous study (Kan et al., 2014), the participants were exposed to the target novel words in English, Spanish, and Cantonese. In this current study, word retention was measured a week after the fast mapping task. No exposures were given during the one-week interval. Results showed that bilinguals and monolinguals retain a similar number of words. However, participants produced more words in English than in either Spanish or Cantonese. Correlation analyses revealed that language knowledge plays a role in the relationships between fast mapping and word retention. Specifically, within- and across-language relationships between bilinguals' fast mapping and word retention were found in Spanish and English, by contrast, within-language relationships between monolinguals' fast mapping and word retention were found in English and across-language relationships between their fast mapping and word retention performance in English and Cantonese. Similarly, bilinguals differed from monolinguals in the relationships among the word retention scores in three languages. Significant correlations were found among bilinguals' retention scores. However, no such correlations were found among monolinguals' retention scores. The overall findings suggest that bilinguals' language experience and language knowledge most likely contribute to how they learn and retain new words.

  4. Influence of Bilinguism on Socio-Cognitive Personality Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. V. Sokolova

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper gives an overeview of foreign studies devoted to bilinguism and its influence on socio-cognitive personality development. Experimental research conducted in the recent years has broken the myth of negative influence of childhood bilinguism. Moreover, based on the comparative analysis, the present research shows the advantages of children and adults grown up in the bilingual environment. Their advantages compared with the monolingual peers include the well-developed meta-lingual abilities and executive functions - executive control, attention, planning, concentration, rejection of inessential information - necessary for fulfilling verbal tasks and activity control. The paper emphasizes the influence of bilinguism on cognitive decentration, ability to learn foreign languages and develop higher social sensitivity regarding both verbal and non-verbal communication (i.e. interpretation of mimics, gestures, intonations, and more adequate reaction to communicative behavior of surrounding people.The author concludes that bilinguism stimulates creativity, facilitates divergent thinking necessary for observing a variety of possible solutions and creative ideas development. Bilingual skills broaden children’s mental horizons leaving them more prepared for adult life compared to their monolingual peers. 

  5. Bilingualism provides a neural reserve for aging populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abutalebi, Jubin; Guidi, Lucia; Borsa, Virginia; Canini, Matteo; Della Rosa, Pasquale A; Parris, Ben A; Weekes, Brendan S

    2015-03-01

    It has been postulated that bilingualism may act as a cognitive reserve and recent behavioral evidence shows that bilinguals are diagnosed with dementia about 4-5 years later compared to monolinguals. In the present study, we investigated the neural basis of these putative protective effects in a group of aging bilinguals as compared to a matched monolingual control group. For this purpose, participants completed the Erikson Flanker task and their performance was correlated to gray matter (GM) volume in order to investigate if cognitive performance predicts GM volume specifically in areas affected by aging. We performed an ex-Gaussian analysis on the resulting RTs and report that aging bilinguals performed better than aging monolinguals on the Flanker task. Bilingualism was overall associated with increased GM in the ACC. Likewise, aging induced effects upon performance correlated only for monolinguals to decreased gray matter in the DLPFC. Taken together, these neural regions might underlie the benefits of bilingualism and act as a neural reserve that protects against the cognitive decline that occurs during aging. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. The influence of bilingualism on statistical word learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poepsel, Timothy J; Weiss, Daniel J

    2016-07-01

    Statistical learning is a fundamental component of language acquisition, yet to date, relatively few studies have examined whether these abilities differ in bilinguals. In the present study, we examine this issue by comparing English monolinguals with Chinese-English and English-Spanish bilinguals in a cross-situational statistical learning (CSSL) task. In Experiment 1, we assessed the ability of both monolinguals and bilinguals on a basic CSSL task that contained only one-to-one mappings. In Experiment 2, learners were asked to form both one-to-one and two-to-one mappings, and were tested at three points during familiarization. Overall, monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ in their learning of one-to-one mappings. However, bilinguals more quickly acquired two-to-one mappings, while also exhibiting greater proficiency than monolinguals. We conclude that the fundamental SL mechanism may not be affected by language experience, in accord with previous studies. However, when the input contains greater variability, bilinguals may be more prone to detecting the presence of multiple structures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Interference Control In Elderly Bilinguals: Appearances Can Be Misleading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ansaldo, Ana Inés; Ghazi-Saidi, Ladan; Adrover-Roig, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Bilingualism has been associated with successful aging. In particular, research on the cognitive advantages of bilingualism suggests that it can enhance control over interference and help delay the onset of dementia signs. However, the evidence on the so-called cognitive advantage is not unanimous; furthermore, little is known about the neural basis of this supposed cognitive advantage in bilingual as opposed to monolingual elderly populations. In this study, elderly bilingual and monolingual participants performed a visuospatial interference control task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. Response times and accuracy rates were calculated for congruent and incongruent conditions of the Simon task, and the neurofunctional correlates of performance on the Simon task were examined. The results showed equivalent performance on the Simon task across groups but different underlying neural substrates in the two groups. With incongruent trials, monolinguals activated the right middle frontal gyrus, whereas bilinguals relied upon the left inferior parietal lobule. These results show that elderly bilinguals and monolinguals have equivalent interference control abilities, but relay on different neural substrates. Thus, while monolinguals show a classical PASA (posterior-anterior shift in aging) effect, recruiting frontal areas, bilinguals activate visuospatial processing alone and thus do not show this posterior-anterior shift. Moreover, a modulation of frontal activity with task-dynamic control of interference, observed in the elderly bilingual group alone, suggests that elderly bilinguals deal with interference control without recruiting a circuit that is particularly vulnerable to aging.

  8. Beneficial effect of bilingualism on Alzheimer's disease CSF biomarkers and cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estanga, Ainara; Ecay-Torres, Mirian; Ibañez, Almudena; Izagirre, Andrea; Villanua, Jorge; Garcia-Sebastian, Maite; Iglesias Gaspar, M Teresa; Otaegui-Arrazola, Ane; Iriondo, Ane; Clerigue, Monserrat; Martinez-Lage, Pablo

    2017-02-01

    Bilingualism as a component of cognitive reserve has been claimed to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, its effect on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD-biomarkers has not been investigated. We assessed cognitive performance and CSF AD-biomarkers, and potential moderation effect of bilingualism on the association between age, CSF AD-biomarkers, and cognition. Cognitively healthy middle-aged participants classified as monolinguals (n = 100, n CSF  = 59), early (n = 81, n CSF  = 55) and late bilinguals (n = 97, n CSF  = 52) were evaluated. Models adjusted for confounders showed that bilinguals performed better than monolinguals on digits backwards (early-bilinguals p = 0.003), Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO) (early-bilinguals p = 0.018; late-bilinguals p = 0.004), and Trail Making Test-B (late-bilinguals p = 0.047). Early bilingualism was associated with lower CSF total-tau (p = 0.019) and lower prevalence of preclinical AD (NIA-AA classification) (p = 0.02). Bilingualism showed a moderation effect on the relationship between age and CSF AD-biomarkers and the relationship between age and executive function. We conclude that bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve enhancing executive and visual-spatial functions. For the first time, this study reveals that early bilingualism is associated with more favorable CSF AD-biomarker profile. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. The effects of bilingual growth on toddlers' executive function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crivello, Cristina; Kuzyk, Olivia; Rodrigues, Monyka; Friend, Margaret; Zesiger, Pascal; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

    2016-01-01

    The mastery of two languages provides bilingual speakers with cognitive benefits over monolinguals, particularly on cognitive flexibility and selective attention. However, extant research is limited to comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals at a single point in time. This study investigated whether growth in bilingual proficiency, as shown by an increased number of translation equivalents (TEs) over a 7-month period, improves executive function. We hypothesized that bilingual toddlers with a larger increase of TEs would have more practice in switching across lexical systems, boosting executive function abilities. Expressive vocabulary and TEs were assessed at 24 and 31 months of age. A battery of tasks, including conflict, delay, and working memory tasks, was administered at 31 months. As expected, we observed a task-specific advantage in inhibitory control in bilinguals. More important, within the bilingual group, larger increases in the number of TEs predicted better performance on conflict tasks but not on delay tasks. This unique longitudinal design confirms the relation between executive function and early bilingualism. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Bilingualism, dementia, cognitive and neural reserve.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perani, Daniela; Abutalebi, Jubin

    2015-12-01

    We discuss the role of bilingualism as a source of cognitive reserve and we propose the putative neural mechanisms through which lifelong bilingualism leads to a neural reserve that delays the onset of dementia. Recent findings highlight that the use of more than one language affects the human brain in terms of anatomo-structural changes. It is noteworthy that recent evidence from different places and cultures throughout the world points to a significant delay of dementia onset in bilingual/multilingual individuals. This delay has been reported not only for Alzheimer's dementia and its prodromal mild cognitive impairment phase, but also for other dementias such as vascular and fronto-temporal dementia, and was found to be independent of literacy, education and immigrant status. Lifelong bilingualism represents a powerful cognitive reserve delaying the onset of dementia by approximately 4 years. As to the causal mechanism, because speaking more than one language heavily relies upon executive control and attention, brain systems handling these functions are more developed in bilinguals resulting in increases of gray and white matter densities that may help protect from dementia onset. These neurocognitive benefits are even more prominent when second language proficiency and exposure are kept high throughout life.

  11. Guia para padres y maestros de ninos bilingues (A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism). Parents' and Teachers' Guides Number 5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ada, Alma Flor; Baker, Colin

    This book provides a practical introduction to questions about bilingualism. It is for parents and teachers who are themselves bilingual, for monolinguals who want to know more, for those with some intuitive understanding of bilingual situations and for those who are starting from the very beginning. The book poses questions that people often ask…

  12. A Case for Multidimensional Bilingual Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchez, Serafin V.; Rodriguez, Billie Jo; Soto-Huerta, Mary Esther; Villarreal, Felicia Castro; Guerra, Norma Susan; Flores, Belinda Bustos

    2013-01-01

    Current assessment practices in the United States are not able to accurately capture the total linguistic, cognitive, and achievement abilities of bilingual learners. There are psychometric complexities involved when assessing and interpreting test results of bilingual students, which impact the validity of this practice. Further, the compromise…

  13. Performance on Auditory and Visual Tasks of Inhibition in English Monolingual and Spanish-English Bilingual Adults: Do Bilinguals Have a Cognitive Advantage?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desjardins, Jamie L.; Fernandez, Francisco

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: Bilingual individuals have been shown to be more proficient on visual tasks of inhibition compared with their monolingual counterparts. However, the bilingual advantage has not been evidenced in all studies, and very little is known regarding how bilingualism influences inhibitory control in the perception of auditory information. The…

  14. Enhanced music sensitivity in 9-month-old bilingual infants

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Liu, L.; Kager, R.W.J.

    This study explores the influence of bilingualism on the cognitive processing of language and music. Specifically, we investigate how infants learning a non-tone language perceive linguistic and musical pitch and how bilingualism affects cross-domain pitch perception. Dutch monolingual and bilingual

  15. Becoming Bilingual: A View Towards Communicative Competence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lilla Musyahda

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available The phenomenon of foreign language mastery shall always be the main issue in the pedagogy since it has numerous advantages in human life, especially in terms of economic value. The definition of bilingualism is connected with the speaking of two languages or expression in two languages and it can be used to describe societies or individuals (Lyon, 1995. The way that a bilingual adapts to a certain condition leads to a certain phenomenon, which is quite interesting to analyze. The texture of the bilingual's creativity is essentially the result of the process of translation and transcreation, and insightful approaches to stylistics-its theory and methodology must be take into consideration. When people speak more than one languages, they may have different levels of proficiency in each of the languages, and use them for very different social purposes and in different situations. The languages that a bilingual speaks affect each other in various ways, so much that there is a regular study of what happens when one language comes into contact with another. In educational setting, it is important to know how a bilingual's first language may affect the function of other languages. The paper will discuss the phenomenon of bilingual and the implication towards communicative competence which would consists, minimally, of four areas of knowledge and skills; grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence.

  16. Becoming Bilingual: A View Towards Communicative Competence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lilla Musyanda

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The phenomenon of foreign language mastery shall always be the main issue in the pedagogy since it has numerous advantages in human life, especially in terms of economic value. The definition of bilingualism is connected with the speaking of two languages or expression in two languages and it can be used to describe societies or individuals (Lyon, 1995. The way that a bilingual adapts to a certain condition leads to a certain phenomenon, which is quite interesting to analyze. The texture of the bilingual's creativity is essentially the result of the process of translation and transcreation, and insightful approaches to stylistics-its theory and methodology must be take into consideration. When people speak more than one languages, they may have different levels of proficiency in each of the languages, and use them for very different social purposes and in different situations. The languages that a bilingual speaks affect each other in various ways, so much that there is a regular study of what happens when one language comes into contact with another. In educational setting, it is important to know how a bilingual's first language may affect the function of other languages. The paper will discuss the phenomenon of bilingual and the implication towards communicative competence which would consists, minimally, of four areas of knowledge and skills; grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence.

  17. 7 CFR 15f.4 - What do certain words and phrases in these regulations mean?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false What do certain words and phrases in these regulations mean? 15f.4 Section 15f.4 Agriculture Office of the Secretary of Agriculture ADJUDICATIONS UNDER....4 What do certain words and phrases in these regulations mean? Agency means the USDA agency, office...

  18. Bilingualism and age are continuous variables that influence executive function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Incera, Sara; McLennan, Conor T

    2018-05-01

    We analyzed the effects of bilingualism and age on executive function. We examined these variables along a continuum, as opposed to dichotomizing them. We investigated the impact that bilingualism and age have on two measures of executive control (Stroop and Flanker). The mouse-tracking paradigm allowed us to examine the continuous dynamics of the responses as participants completed each trial. First, we found that the Stroop effect was reduced with younger age and higher levels of bilingualism; however, no Bilingualism by Age interaction emerged. Second, after controlling for baseline, the Flanker effect was not influenced by bilingualism or age. These results support the notion that bilingualism is one way of enhancing some aspects of executive function - specifically those related to the Stroop task - across the adult life span. In sum, different levels of bilingualism, and different ages, result in varying degrees of executive function as measured by the Stroop task.

  19. Semantic Convergence in the Bilingual Lexicon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ameel, Eef; Malt, Barbara C.; Storms, Gert; Van Assche, Fons

    2009-01-01

    Bilinguals' lexical mappings for their two languages have been found to converge toward a common naming pattern. The present paper investigates in more detail how semantic convergence is manifested in bilingual lexical knowledge. We examined how semantic convergence affects the centers and boundaries of lexical categories for common household…

  20. Bilingual Enhancements Have No Socioeconomic Boundaries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krizman, Jennifer; Skoe, Erika; Kraus, Nina

    2016-01-01

    To understand how socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism simultaneously operate on cognitive and sensory function, we examined executive control, language skills, and neural processing of sound in adolescents who differed in language experience (i.e. English monolingual or Spanish-English bilingual) and level of maternal education (a proxy…

  1. Bilingual education as a way to decolonization

    OpenAIRE

    Cocco, Elisa; Prip, Kasper; Arenas, Marisol; Todorova, Natalyia; Pedersen, Stefan

    2014-01-01

    This paper concerns the link between a post-colonial nation and a bilingual education and more specifically how bilingual education methods can be used as a means towards decolonization and a decolonized identity . The scope of our work is purposely focused on Peru in order to solve our problem formulation, which sounds: ‘‘Is it possible to create a conscious decolonized identity through a bilingual education program?’’ Comparative analyses of different relevant non-fiction literature as well...

  2. Cognitive advantages of bilingual children in different sociolinguistic contexts

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blom, E.; Boerma, T.; Bosma, E.; Cornips, L.M.E.A.; Everaert, E.

    2017-01-01

    Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6–7 years, with a monolingual control

  3. Working with Bilingual Learners: An Introduction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willenberg, Ingrid

    2015-01-01

    This article seeks to provide a theoretical overview of bilingualism and discuss the key concepts and theories that inform classroom pedagogy with bilingual learners. Although some specific classroom strategies are introduced, the primary purpose is not to offer strategies, but rather to offer guiding principles based on theory and research to…

  4. Lifelong bilingualism maintains neural efficiency for cognitive control in aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gold, Brian T; Kim, Chobok; Johnson, Nathan F; Kryscio, Richard J; Smith, Charles D

    2013-01-09

    Recent behavioral data have shown that lifelong bilingualism can maintain youthful cognitive control abilities in aging. Here, we provide the first direct evidence of a neural basis for the bilingual cognitive control boost in aging. Two experiments were conducted, using a perceptual task-switching paradigm, including a total of 110 participants. In Experiment 1, older adult bilinguals showed better perceptual switching performance than their monolingual peers. In Experiment 2, younger and older adult monolinguals and bilinguals completed the same perceptual task-switching experiment while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. Typical age-related performance reductions and fMRI activation increases were observed. However, like younger adults, bilingual older adults outperformed their monolingual peers while displaying decreased activation in left lateral frontal cortex and cingulate cortex. Critically, this attenuation of age-related over-recruitment associated with bilingualism was directly correlated with better task-switching performance. In addition, the lower blood oxygenation level-dependent response in frontal regions accounted for 82% of the variance in the bilingual task-switching reaction time advantage. These results suggest that lifelong bilingualism offsets age-related declines in the neural efficiency for cognitive control processes.

  5. Creating a Translanguaging Space for High School Emergent Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shuzhan; Luo, Wenjing

    2017-01-01

    Translanguaging is a rapidly developing concept in bilingual education. Working from the theoretical background of dynamic bilingualism, a translanguaging lens posits that bilingual learners draw on a holistic linguistic repertoire to make sense of the world and to communicate effectively with texts. What is relatively underdeveloped is the…

  6. Cognitive Advantages and Disadvantages in Early and Late Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelham, Sabra D.; Abrams, Lise

    2014-01-01

    Previous research has documented advantages and disadvantages of early bilinguals, defined as learning a 2nd language by school age and using both languages since that time. Relative to monolinguals, early bilinguals manifest deficits in lexical access but benefits in executive function. We investigated whether becoming bilingual "after"…

  7. Language, Culture and Identity: A Sociolinguistic Study of Bilingual ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper explores the dynamics of bilingual speech in the Lagos Island speech community in Central Lagos. Against the background of the unique social motivations for bilingual behaviour in this cosmopolitan community, this study explores the various sociolinguistic acts utilized by the Yoruba-English bilinguals in the ...

  8. Language preference and development of dementia among bilingual individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMurtray, Aaron; Saito, Erin; Nakamoto, Beau

    2009-10-01

    In bilingual individuals, regression to a primary language may be associated with development of cognitive impairment and increased risk for development of dementia. This report describes two bilingual patients who presented with early symptoms of dementia after regression to their primary language. The results of this study may help clinicians identify aging bilingual patients who are beginning to develop cognitive impairment or dementia and suggest that further studies on the long term cognitive effects of bilingualism and interactions with the aging process are indicated.

  9. RELATION OF DEAF PERSONS TOWARDS BILINGUALISM AS COMMUNICATION MODE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naim Salkić

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Bilingualism of a deaf child implies concurrent cognition and usage of sign language, as community language and oral-voice language as language of greater community in which deaf persons live. Today, most authors consider that deaf persons should know both of these languages and that deaf persons need to be educated in both languages, because of their general communication and complete psycho-social development. Through research on sample of 80 deaf examinees, we affirmed the kind of relation that deaf persons have towards bilingualism, bilingual way of education and communication. The research results have shown that bilingualism and bilingual way of education and communication is acceptable to deaf persons and that there is no statistically significant difference between the sub-samples of examinees.

  10. An Interaction Between the Effects of Bilingualism and Cross-linguistic Similarity in Balanced and Unbalanced Bilingual Adults' L2 Mandarin Word-Reading Production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Hsiu-Ling

    2017-08-01

    We conducted three experiments investigating in more detail the interaction between the two effects of bilingualism and L1-L2 similarity in the speech performance of balanced and unbalanced bilinguals. In Experiment 1, L1 Mandarin monolinguals and two groups of Hakka and Minnan balanced bilinguals (Hakka: more similar to Mandarin) performed a non-contextual single-character reading task in Mandarin, which required more inhibitory control. The two bilingual groups outperformed the monolinguals, regardless of their L1 background. However, the bilingual advantage was not found in a contextual multi-word task (Experiment 2), but instead the effect of cross-linguistic similarity emerged. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, the Hakka unbalanced bilinguals showed an advantage in the non-contextual task, while their Minnan counterparts did not, and the impact of L1-L2 similarity emerged in both tasks. These results unveiled the way the two effects dynamically interplayed depending on the task contexts and the relative degrees of using L1 and L2.

  11. Training Bilingual Educators at a PBI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montes, Amanda Lira Gordenstein; Valenciano, Cynthia Kay; Fernandez, Miguel

    2018-01-01

    While Bilingual Education has traditionally been associated with linguistic diversity, the rise of the number of African-American teacher candidates in a Bilingual Education program at a mid-west Predominantly Black Institution (PBI) is causing the authors to reevaluate the input of this program's curriculum and the output of the candidates'…

  12. Contribution of Bilingualism in Language Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sipra, Muhammad Aslam

    2013-01-01

    This study is an investigation into the contribution of the use of bilingualism as an aid in learning/teaching English as a foreign language and bilingualism in EFL classroom does not reduce students' communicative abilities but in effect can assist in teaching and learning process. The study employed a qualitative, interpretive research design…

  13. Cognitive control, cognitive reserve, and memory in the aging bilingual brain

    OpenAIRE

    Grant, Angela; Dennis, Nancy A.; Li, Ping

    2014-01-01

    In recent years bilingualism has been linked to both advantages in executive control and positive impacts on aging. Such positive cognitive effects of bilingualism have been attributed to the increased need for language control during bilingual processing and increased cognitive reserve, respectively. However, a mechanistic explanation of how bilingual experience contributes to cognitive reserve is still lacking. The current paper proposes a new focus on bilingual memory as an avenue to explo...

  14. How age of bilingual exposure can change the neural systems for language in the developing brain: a functional near infrared spectroscopy investigation of syntactic processing in monolingual and bilingual children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jasinska, K K; Petitto, L A

    2013-10-01

    Is the developing bilingual brain fundamentally similar to the monolingual brain (e.g., neural resources supporting language and cognition)? Or, does early-life bilingual language experience change the brain? If so, how does age of first bilingual exposure impact neural activation for language? We compared how typically-developing bilingual and monolingual children (ages 7-10) and adults recruit brain areas during sentence processing using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) brain imaging. Bilingual participants included early-exposed (bilingual exposure from birth) and later-exposed individuals (bilingual exposure between ages 4-6). Both bilingual children and adults showed greater neural activation in left-hemisphere classic language areas, and additionally, right-hemisphere homologues (Right Superior Temporal Gyrus, Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus). However, important differences were observed between early-exposed and later-exposed bilinguals in their earliest-exposed language. Early bilingual exposure imparts fundamental changes to classic language areas instead of alterations to brain regions governing higher cognitive executive functions. However, age of first bilingual exposure does matter. Later-exposed bilinguals showed greater recruitment of the prefrontal cortex relative to early-exposed bilinguals and monolinguals. The findings provide fascinating insight into the neural resources that facilitate bilingual language use and are discussed in terms of how early-life language experiences can modify the neural systems underlying human language processing. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  15. Bilingual teaching in nursing education in China: evolution, status, and future directions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Wei; Xu, Yu; Zhu, Jianhua

    2011-09-01

    Based on Chinese published literature and personal observations, this article reviews the history of bilingual teaching in nursing education in China, describes its current status and challenges, and predicts its future directions. Bilingual teaching in nursing education enjoys increasing popularity in China. The major factors that affect bilingual teaching are bilingual educators, students' English-language levels, bilingual teaching materials, and teaching models. Based on surveys of nursing schools, the English-language proficiency of the nursing educators varies greatly. The main issues with the teaching methods lie in over-translation, cramming, and limited interaction between the students and the teachers. Despite relatively inadequate English-language proficiency among Chinese nursing students, their interest can be strengthened greatly if international exchanges are available and promoted. Bilingual textbooks are more suitable in China's national context because of pricing and relevance. Although immersive bilingual teaching is the ideal, it is more feasible to begin with infiltrative bilingual teaching and move progressively towards increased English-language penetration. Future directions for improving bilingual teaching include training teaching faculty members, strengthening international exchanges, providing better bilingual study atmospheres, and gradually implementing bilingual textbooks. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

  16. Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Exploring the Limits of the Language Faculty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Genesee, Fred

    2001-01-01

    Reviews current research in three domains of bilingual acquisition: pragmatic features of bilingual code mixing, grammatical constraints on child bilingual code mixing, and bilingual syntactic development. Examines implications from these domains for the understanding of the limits of the mental faculty to acquire language. (Author/VWL)

  17. Using Bilingual Dictionaries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Geoff

    1987-01-01

    Monolingual dictionaries have serious disadvantages in many language teaching situations; bilingual dictionaries are potentially more efficient and more motivating sources of information for language learners. (Author/CB)

  18. Is bilingualism losing its advantage? A bibliometric approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchez-Azanza, Victor A; López-Penadés, Raúl; Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Adrover-Roig, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    This study uses several bibliometric indices to explore the temporal course of publication trends regarding the bilingual advantage in executive control over a ten-year window. These indices include the number of published papers, numbers of citations, and the journal impact factor. According to the information available in their abstracts, studies were classified into one of four categories: supporting, ambiguous towards, not mentioning, or challenging the bilingual advantage. Results show that the number of papers challenging the bilingual advantage increased notably in 2014 and 2015. Both the average impact factor and the accumulated citations as of June 2016 were equivalent between categories. However, of the studies published in 2014, those that challenge the bilingual advantage accumulated more citations in June 2016 than those supporting it. Our findings offer evidence-based bibliometric information about the current state of the literature and suggest a change in publication trends regarding the literature on the bilingual advantage.

  19. Language choice in bimodal bilingual development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diane eLillo-Martin

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Bilingual children develop sensitivity to the language used by their interlocutors at an early age, reflected in differential use of each language by the child depending on their interlocutor. Factors such as discourse context and relative language dominance in the community may mediate the degree of language differentiation in preschool age children.Bimodal bilingual children, acquiring both a sign language and a spoken language, have an even more complex situation. Their Deaf parents vary considerably in access to the spoken language. Furthermore, in addition to code-mixing and code-switching, they use code-blending – expressions in both speech and sign simultaneously – an option uniquely available to bimodal bilinguals. Code-blending is analogous to code-switching sociolinguistically, but is also a way to communicate without suppressing one language. For adult bimodal bilinguals, complete suppression of the non-selected language is cognitively demanding. We expect that bimodal bilingual children also find suppression difficult, and use blending rather than suppression in some contexts. We also expect relative community language dominance to be a factor in children’s language choices.This study analyzes longitudinal spontaneous production data from four bimodal bilingual children and their Deaf and hearing interlocutors. Even at the earliest observations, the children produced more signed utterances with Deaf interlocutors and more speech with hearing interlocutors. However, while three of the four children produced >75% speech alone in speech target sessions, they produced <25% sign alone in sign target sessions. All four produced bimodal utterances in both, but more frequently in the sign sessions, potentially because they find suppression of the dominant language more difficult.Our results indicate that these children are sensitive to the language used by their interlocutors, while showing considerable influence from the dominant

  20. How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa, Albert; Sebastián-Gallés, Núria

    2014-05-01

    The ability to speak two languages often marvels monolinguals, although bilinguals report no difficulties in achieving this feat. Here, we examine how learning and using two languages affect language acquisition and processing as well as various aspects of cognition. We do so by addressing three main questions. First, how do infants who are exposed to two languages acquire them without apparent difficulty? Second, how does language processing differ between monolingual and bilingual adults? Last, what are the collateral effects of bilingualism on the executive control system across the lifespan? Research in all three areas has not only provided some fascinating insights into bilingualism but also revealed new issues related to brain plasticity and language learning.

  1. Bilingualism--A Sanguine Step in ELT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anil, Beena

    2014-01-01

    Bilingualism can be used as a teaching aid in teaching and learning English language in an Indian classroom and to improve the language accuracy, fluency, and clarity of learners. Bilingualism can aid the teaching and learning process productively in the classroom. In India, most of the students consider English as a subject rather than a tool of…

  2. Effects of bilingualism on white matter integrity in older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, John A E; Grundy, John G; De Frutos, Jaisalmer; Barker, Ryan M; Grady, Cheryl; Bialystok, Ellen

    2018-02-15

    Bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia symptoms and has thus been characterized as a mechanism for cognitive or brain reserve, although the origin of this reserve is unknown. Studies with young adults generally show that bilingualism is associated with a strengthening of white matter, but there is conflicting evidence for how bilingualism affects white matter in older age. Given that bilingualism has been shown to help stave off the symptoms of dementia by up to four years, it is crucial that we clarify the mechanism underlying this reserve. The current study uses diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to compare monolinguals and bilinguals while carefully controlling for potential confounds (e.g., I.Q., MMSE, and demographic variables). We show that group differences in Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Radial Diffusivity (RD) arise from multivariable interactions not adequately controlled for by sequential bivariate testing. After matching and statistically controlling for confounds, bilinguals still had greater axial diffusivity (AD) in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus than monolingual peers, supporting a neural reserve account for healthy older bilinguals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. The impact of bilingualism on working memory in pediatric epilepsy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenstra, Amy L.; Riley, Jeffrey D.; Barrett, Lauren E.; Muhonen, Michael G.; Zupanc, Mary; Romain, Jonathan E.; Lin, Jack J.; Mucci, Grace

    2016-01-01

    Impairments in executive skills broadly span across multiple childhood epilepsy syndromes and can adversely affect quality of life. Bilingualism has been previously shown to correlate with enhanced executive functioning in healthy individuals. This study seeks to determine whether the bilingual advantage in executive functioning exists in the context of pediatric epilepsy. We retrospectively analyzed neuropsychological data in 52 children with epilepsy and compared executive function scores in monolingual versus bilingual children with epilepsy, while controlling for socioeconomic status and ethnicity. Bilingual children performed significantly better on the Working Memory scale than did monolingual children. There were no significant differences on the remaining executive function variables. The bilingual advantage appears to persist for working memory in children with epilepsy. These findings suggest that bilingualism is potentially a protective variable in the face of epilepsy-related working memory dysfunction. PMID:26720703

  4. Investigating the Usefulness of Lexical Phrases in Contemporary Coursebooks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koprowski, Mark

    2005-01-01

    Over the past decade, lexical theory, corpus statistics, and psycholinguistic research have pointed to the pedagogical value of lexical phrases. In response, commercial publishers have been quick to import these insights into their materials in a bid to accommodate consumers and to profit from the "lexical chunk" phenomenon. Contemporary British…

  5. The mirthless world of the bilingual dictionary

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Otto Hietsch

    1980-12-01

    Full Text Available A Critical Look at Two German­English Examples, and A Glossary. Officers, without a word of German, were billeted on fam­ ilies, and the town swarmed witb G.I.s. Lucia, whose English was always considered so good, had great difficulty in under­ standing what they said. She had a bewildered feeling of not being able - in the language sense - to 'hear' the phrases used. 'It beats the crap outa me,' she heard one say. She could not find the key-word in her English-German dictionary. Nor many other words they used. Ethel Mannin, Bavarian Story (London: Arrow Books, 1964, pp.143f. (abridged. Lucia's plight in 1945, and that of untold other non-native speakers before and after, is a common one.In the three decades and a half since then, some very good bilingual dictionaries in the pocket-size, desk and encyclopaedic ranges have been published. Yet, in spite of the praises that have been sung about such publications, most of them fail to do justice both to the richness of the spoken language on either side, and to the many ways , and means by which that richness can, and should, be matched level for level. Such a discovery is as inevi­ table as it is disconcerting.These general dictionaries, both in what they offer and in what they withhold, are, all in all, a sadly distorted reflection of living speech: far too frequently their renderings merely approximate to the usage of native speakers.

  6. Cognitive flexibility in drawings of bilingual children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adi-Japha, Esther; Berberich-Artzi, Jennie; Libnawi, Afaf

    2010-01-01

    A. Karmiloff-Smith's (1990) task of drawing a nonexistent object is considered to be a measure of cognitive flexibility. The notion of earlier emergence of cognitive flexibility in bilingual children motivated the current researchers to request 4- and 5-year-old English-Hebrew and Arabic-Hebrew bilingual children and their monolingual peers to draw a flower and a house that do not exist (N=80). Bilinguals exhibited a significantly higher rate of interrepresentational flexibility in their drawings (e.g., "a giraffe flower,"a chair-house," found in 28 of 54 drawings), whereas the level of complex intrarepresentational change was similar across groups. Interrepresentational drawings were previously reported only for children older than 7 years. The specific mechanisms by which bilinguals' language experience may lead to interrepresentational flexibility are discussed. © 2010 The Authors. Child Development © 2010 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  7. Can bilingual two-year-olds code-switch?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lanza, E

    1992-10-01

    Sociolinguists have investigated language mixing as code-switching in the speech of bilingual children three years old and older. Language mixing by bilingual two-year-olds, however, has generally been interpreted in the child language literature as a sign of the child's lack of language differentiation. The present study applies perspectives from sociolinguistics to investigate the language mixing of a bilingual two-year-old acquiring Norwegian and English simultaneously in Norway. Monthly recordings of the child's spontaneous speech in interactions with her parents were made from the age of 2;0 to 2;7. An investigation into the formal aspects of the child's mixing and the context of the mixing reveals that she does differentiate her language use in contextually sensitive ways, hence that she can code-switch. This investigation stresses the need to examine more carefully the roles of dominance and context in the language mixing of young bilingual children.

  8. The Economy of Fluent Speaking: Phrase-Level Reduction in a Patient with Pure Apraxia of Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Staiger, Anja; Ruttenauer, Anna; Ziegler, Wolfram

    2010-01-01

    The term "phrase-level reduction" refers to transformations of the phonetic forms of words in connected speech. They are a characteristic property of fluent speech in normal speakers. Phrase-level reductions contribute to a reduction of articulatory-motor effort and constitute an important aspect of speech naturalness. So far, these phenomena have…

  9. The Morphosyntactic Structure of the Noun and Verb Phrases in Dholuo/Kiswahili Code Switching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jael Anyango Ojanga

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Code switching, the use of any two or more languages or dialects interchangeably in a single communication context, is a common linguistic practice owing to the trend of multilingualism in the world today. In many situations of language in contact, constituents of one language can be found within the constituents of another language in a number of linguistic phenomenon namely lexical borrowing, transferring, interference, code switching and diffusion (Annamalai, 1989. Codeswitching is one of the linguistic phenomenon claimed to be the most prevalent and common mode of interaction among multilingual speakers. Brock and Eastman (1971 suggest that topic discussed influences the choice of the language. Nouns and verbs have been found to be the most code switched elements in bilingual exchange. The study took a qualitative approach with the descriptive research design. It was guided by the Matrix Language Frame Model which was formulated by Myers-Scotton in1993. This model expounds on the realization and structure of the major word classes as used in code switching. Data was collected in Nyangeta Zone, Winam Division of Kisumu East District. Winam Division is mostly inhabited by elite Dholuo L1 speakers. A sample of twenty four teachers was purposively selected to provide data needed for the study. Focus group discussion was used to collect a corpus of Dholuo/Kiswahili data which was recorded through audio taping. The recorded data was then analyzed morphosyntactaically using the Matrix Language Frame Model. The data revealed that the noun and verb phrases were realized under three categories: Matrix Language Island constituent (ML Island ML+EL and Embedded Language Island (EL Island. Keywords: Code switching, multilingualism, morphosyntactic

  10. Lithuanian speaking childrens' bilingualism. language situation and policy

    OpenAIRE

    Paškauskaitė, Ieva

    2017-01-01

    Lithuanian Speaking Childrens' Bilingualism. Language Situation and Policy The purpose of this study is to investigate the language situation of Lithuanian speaking children in Sweden and its causes. This study is specifically concerned with the subjects of bilingualism and family language policy: language strategies and methods. The concept of bilingualism is complex and can be defined in different ways, therefore this study is based on a table which was introduced by T. Skutnabb-Kangas in 1...

  11. The impact of bilingualism on working memory in pediatric epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenstra, Amy L; Riley, Jeffrey D; Barrett, Lauren E; Muhonen, Michael G; Zupanc, Mary; Romain, Jonathan E; Lin, Jack J; Mucci, Grace

    2016-02-01

    Impairments in executive skills broadly span across multiple childhood epilepsy syndromes and can adversely affect quality of life. Bilingualism has been previously shown to correlate with enhanced executive functioning in healthy individuals. This study sought to determine whether the bilingual advantage in executive functioning exists in the context of pediatric epilepsy. We retrospectively analyzed neuropsychological data in 52 children with epilepsy and compared executive function scores in monolingual versus bilingual children with epilepsy while controlling for socioeconomic status and ethnicity. Bilingual children performed significantly better on the Working Memory Index than did monolingual children. There were no significant differences on the remaining executive function variables. The bilingual advantage appears to persist for working memory in children with epilepsy. These findings suggest that bilingualism is potentially a protective variable in the face of epilepsy-related working memory dysfunction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. L1 and L2 Picture Naming in Mandarin-English Bilinguals: A Test of Bilingual Dual Coding Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jared, Debra; Poh, Rebecca Pei Yun; Paivio, Allan

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the nature of bilinguals' conceptual representations and the links from these representations to words in L1 and L2. Specifically, we tested an assumption of the Bilingual Dual Coding Theory that conceptual representations include image representations, and that learning two languages in separate contexts can result in…

  13. Enhanced music sensitivity in 9-month-old bilingual infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Liquan; Kager, René

    2017-02-01

    This study explores the influence of bilingualism on the cognitive processing of language and music. Specifically, we investigate how infants learning a non-tone language perceive linguistic and musical pitch and how bilingualism affects cross-domain pitch perception. Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants of 8-9 months participated in the study. All infants had Dutch as one of the first languages. The other first languages, varying among bilingual families, were not tone or pitch accent languages. In two experiments, infants were tested on the discrimination of a lexical (N = 42) or a violin (N = 48) pitch contrast via a visual habituation paradigm. The two contrasts shared identical pitch contours but differed in timbre. Non-tone language learning infants did not discriminate the lexical contrast regardless of their ambient language environment. When perceiving the violin contrast, bilingual but not monolingual infants demonstrated robust discrimination. We attribute bilingual infants' heightened sensitivity in the musical domain to the enhanced acoustic sensitivity stemming from a bilingual environment. The distinct perceptual patterns between language and music and the influence of acoustic salience on perception suggest processing diversion and association in the first year of life. Results indicate that the perception of music may entail both shared neural network with language processing, and unique neural network that is distinct from other cognitive functions.

  14. The bilingual brain: Flexibility and control in the human cortex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchweitz, Augusto; Prat, Chantel

    2013-12-01

    The goal of the present review is to discuss recent cognitive neuroscientific findings concerning bilingualism. Three interrelated questions about the bilingual brain are addressed: How are multiple languages represented in the brain? how are languages controlled in the brain? and what are the real-world implications of experience with multiple languages? The review is based on neuroimaging research findings about the nature of bilingual processing, namely, how the brain adapts to accommodate multiple languages in the bilingual brain and to control which language should be used, and when. We also address how this adaptation results in differences observed in the general cognition of bilingual individuals. General implications for models of human learning, plasticity, and cognitive control are discussed.

  15. Bilingualism at the core of the brain. Structural differences between bilinguals and monolinguals revealed by subcortical shape analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgaleta, Miguel; Sanjuán, Ana; Ventura-Campos, Noelia; Sebastian-Galles, Núria; Ávila, César

    2016-01-15

    Naturally acquiring a language shapes the human brain through a long-lasting learning and practice process. This is supported by previous studies showing that managing more than one language from early childhood has an impact on brain structure and function. However, to what extent bilingual individuals present neuroanatomical peculiarities at the subcortical level with respect to monolinguals is yet not well understood, despite the key role of subcortical gray matter for a number of language functions, including monitoring of speech production and language control - two processes especially solicited by bilinguals. Here we addressed this issue by performing a subcortical surface-based analysis in a sample of monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals (N=88) that only differed in their language experience from birth. This analysis allowed us to study with great anatomical precision the potential differences in morphology of key subcortical structures, namely, the caudate, accumbens, putamen, globus pallidus and thalamus. Vertexwise analyses revealed significantly expanded subcortical structures for bilinguals compared to monolinguals, localized in bilateral putamen and thalamus, as well as in the left globus pallidus and right caudate nucleus. A topographical interpretation of our results suggests that a more complex phonological system in bilinguals may lead to a greater development of a subcortical brain network involved in monitoring articulatory processes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Does bilingualism contribute to cognitive reserve? Cognitive and neural perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzmán-Vélez, Edmarie; Tranel, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Cognitive reserve refers to how individuals actively utilize neural resources to cope with neuropathology to maintain cognitive functioning. The present review aims to critically examine the literature addressing the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive reserve to elucidate whether bilingualism delays the onset of cognitive and behavioral manifestations of dementia. Potential neural mechanisms behind this relationship are discussed. PubMed and PsycINFO databases were searched (through January 2014) for original research articles in English or Spanish languages. The following search strings were used as keywords for study retrieval: "bilingual AND reserve," "reserve AND neural mechanisms," and "reserve AND multilingualism." Growing scientific evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve and delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms, allowing bilingual individuals affected by Alzheimer's disease to live an independent and richer life for a longer time than their monolingual counterparts. Lifelong bilingualism is related to more efficient use of brain resources that help individuals maintain cognitive functioning in the presence of neuropathology. We propose multiple putative neural mechanisms through which lifelong bilinguals cope with neuropathology. The roles of immigration status, education, age of onset, proficiency, and frequency of language use on the relationship between cognitive reserve and bilingualism are considered. Implications of these results for preventive practices and future research are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

  17. Does Bilingualism Contribute to Cognitive Reserve? Cognitive and Neural Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzmán-Vélez, Edmarie; Tranel, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Objective Cognitive reserve refers to how individuals actively utilize neural resources to cope with neuropathology in order to maintain cognitive functioning. The present review aims to critically examine the literature addressing the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive reserve in order to elucidate whether bilingualism delays the onset of cognitive and behavioral manifestations of dementia. Potential neural mechanisms behind this relationship are discussed. Method Pubmed and PsychINFO databases were searched (through January 2014) for original research articles in English or Spanish languages. The following search strings were employed as keywords for study retrieval: ‘bilingual AND reserve’, ‘reserve AND neural mechanisms’, and ‘reserve AND multilingualism’. Results Growing scientific evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve and delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms, allowing bilingual individuals affected by Alzheimer's disease to live an independent and richer life for a longer time than their monolingual counterparts. Lifelong bilingualism is related to more efficient use of brain resources that help individuals maintain cognitive functioning in the presence of neuropathology. We propose multiple putative neural mechanisms through which lifelong bilinguals cope with neuropathology. The roles of immigration status, education, age of onset, proficiency and frequency of language use on the relationship between cognitive reserve and bilingualism are considered. Conclusions Implications of these results for preventive practices and future research are discussed. PMID:24933492

  18. The Role of Ambulatory Care Pharmacists in an HIV Multidisciplinary Team within a Free and Bilingual Clinic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radha S Vanmali

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Describe the role and integration of ambulatory care pharmacists in a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV clinic within a free and bilingual clinic with regards to types of interventions made during the patient-pharmacist visit. Design: Retrospective, single-centered, chart review. Setting: Free, bilingual clinic in Richmond, VA. Participants: Thirty-two adult patients with diagnosed HIV receiving care in the clinic between June 30, 2010 and January 26, 2011. Main Outcome Measure: Types of interventions documented during the patient-pharmacist visit, categorized as medication review, patient education, or adherence monitoring. Results: Total of 32 patients accounted for 55 patient-pharmacist visits and 296 interventions. The most common interventions were medication review (66.9%, patient education (23.3%, and adherence monitoring (9.8%. Post-hoc analysis suggests Hispanic patients are more likely to be diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS (P = 0.01, have current or history of opportunistic infection (OI (P=0.01, and have current or history of OI prophylaxis (P = 0.03. Adherence monitoring was less common amongst the non-Hispanics (7.1% compared to the Hispanic sub-population (16.5%, (P = 0.04. Conclusion: The role of ambulatory care pharmacists in a free and bilingual clinic goes beyond adherence monitoring. Pharmacists can be a valuable part of the patient care team by providing medication review and patient education for HIV and other co-morbidities within free clinics. Further research is warranted to assess outcomes and to further explore the underlying barriers to early HIV diagnosis and adherence within the Hispanic population.   Type: Original Research

  19. The Role of Ambulatory Care Pharmacists in an HIV Multidisciplinary Team within a Free and Bilingual Clinic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ann M. Fugit, Pharm.D., BCPS

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Describe the role and integration of ambulatory care pharmacists in a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV clinic within a free and bilingual clinic with regards to types of interventions made during the patient-pharmacist visit. Design: Retrospective, single-centered, chart review. Setting: Free, bilingual clinic in Richmond, VA. Participants: Thirty-two adult patients with diagnosed HIV receiving care in the clinic between June 30, 2010 and January 26, 2011. Main Outcome Measure: Types of interventions documented during the patient-pharmacist visit, categorized as medication review, patient education, or adherence monitoring. Results: Total of 32 patients accounted for 55 patient-pharmacist visits and 296 interventions. The most common interventions were medication review (66.9%, patient education (23.3%, and adherence monitoring (9.8%. Post-hoc analysis suggests Hispanic patients are more likely to be diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS (P = 0.01, have current or history of opportunistic infection (OI (P=0.01, and have current or history of OI prophylaxis (P = 0.03. Adherence monitoring was less common amongst the non-Hispanics (7.1% compared to the Hispanic sub-population (16.5%, (P = 0.04. Conclusion: The role of ambulatory care pharmacists in a free and bilingual clinic goes beyond adherence monitoring. Pharmacists can be a valuable part of the patient care team by providing medication review and patient education for HIV and other co-morbidities within free clinics. Further research is warranted to assess outcomes and to further explore the underlying barriers to early HIV diagnosis and adherence within the Hispanic population.

  20. The relationship of bilingualism to cognitive decline: The Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mukadam, Naaheed; Jichi, Fatima; Green, David; Livingston, Gill

    2018-02-01

    We wished to clarify the link between bilingualism and cognitive decline, and examine whether improved executive function due to bilingualism may be a factor in preventing cognitive decline. We used the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing which collected data on 2087 participants aged over 65 over 20 years. We compared baseline demographics, health, and social characteristics between bilingual and non-bilingual participants. We used linear mixed models analysis to explore the effect of bilingualism on MMSE score over time and linear regression to explore the effect of bilingualism on baseline MMSE scores, controlling for pre-specified potential confounders. Bilingual participants had lower baseline MMSE scores than the non-bilingual population (mean difference = -2.3 points; 95% confidence intervals = 1.56-2.90). This was fully explained by education and National Adult Reading Test scores (17.4; standard deviation [SD] =7.7 versus 28.1; SD = 8.2) which also partly explained baseline executive function test scores differences. Bilingual and non-bilingual participants did not differ in MMSE decline over time (-0.33 points, P = 0.31) nor on baseline tests of executive function (-0.26, P = 0.051). In this cohort, education rather than bilingualism was a predictor of MMSE score, and being bilingual did not protect from cognitive decline. We conclude that bilingualism is complex, and when it is not the result of greater educational attainment, it does not always protect from cognitive decline. Neuroprotective effects of bilingualism over time may be attributable to the precise patterns of language use but not to bilingualism per se. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  1. Translanguaging and the Writing of Bilingual Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velasco, Patricia; García, Ofelia

    2014-01-01

    This article makes the case for using translanguaging in developing the academic writing of bilinguals. It reviews the emerging literature on learning and teaching theories of translanguaging and presents theoretical understandings of biliteracy development and specifically on the teaching of writing to bilingual learners. The article analyzes…

  2. Bilingualism modulates dual mechanisms of cognitive control: Evidence from ERPs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, Julia; Yudes, Carolina; Gómez-Ariza, Carlos J; Bajo, M Teresa

    2015-01-01

    Recent behavioral findings with the AX-Continous Performance Task (AX-CPT; Morales et al., 2013) show that bilinguals only outperform monolinguals under conditions that require the highest adjustment between monitoring (proactive) and inhibitory (reactive) control, which supports the idea that bilingualism modulates the coordination of different control mechanisms. In an ERP experiment we aimed to further investigate the role that bilingualism plays in the dynamic combination of proactive and reactive control in the AX-CPT. Our results strongly indicate that bilingualism facilitates an effective adjustment between both components of cognitive control. First, we replicated previous behavioral results. Second, ERP components indicated that bilingualism influences the conflict monitoring, response inhibition and error monitoring components of control (as indexed by the N2 and P3a elicited by the probe and the error-related negativity following incorrect responses, respectively). Thus, bilinguals exerted higher reactive control than monolinguals but only when they needed to overcome the competing cue-information. These findings join others in suggesting that a better understanding of the cognitive benefits of bilingualism may require consideration of a multi-component perspective. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Self-Repair and Language Selection in Bilingual Speech Processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Inga Hennecke

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available In psycholinguistic research the exact level of language selection in bilingual lexical access is still controversial and current models of bilingual speech production offer conflicting statements about the mechanisms and location of language selection. This paper aims to provide a corpus analysis of self-repair mechanisms in code-switching contexts of highly fluent bilingual speakers in order to gain further insights into bilingual speech production. The present paper follows the assumptions of the Selection by Proficiency model, which claims that language proficiency and lexical robustness determine the mechanism and level of language selection. In accordance with this hypothesis, highly fluent bilinguals select languages at a prelexical level, which should influence the occurrence of self-repairs in bilingual speech. A corpus of natural speech data of highly fluent and balanced bilingual French-English speakers of the Canadian French variety Franco-Manitoban serves as the basis for a detailed analysis of different self-repair mechanisms in code-switching environments. Although the speech data contain a large amount of code-switching, results reveal that only a few speech errors and self-repairs occur in direct code-switching environments. A detailed analysis of the respective starting point of code-switching and the different repair mechanisms supports the hypothesis that highly proficient bilinguals do not select languages at the lexical level.Le niveau exact de la sélection des langues lors de l’accès lexical chez le bilingue reste une question controversée dans la recherche psycholinguistique. Les modèles actuels de la production verbale bilingue proposent des arguments contradictoires concernant le mécanisme et le lieu de la sélection des langues. La présente recherche vise à fournir une analyse de corpus mettant l’accent sur les mécanismes d’autoréparation dans le contexte d’alternance codique dans la production verbale

  4. The joint effect of bilingualism and ADHD on executive functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mor, Billy; Yitzhaki-Amsalem, Sarin; Prior, Anat

    2015-06-01

    The current study investigated the combined effect of ADHD, previously associated with executive function (EF) deficits, and of bilingualism, previously associated with EF enhancement, on EF. Eighty University students, Hebrew monolinguals and Russian Hebrew bilinguals, with and without ADHD participated. Inhibition tasks were a Numeric Stroop task and a Simon arrows task. Shifting tasks were the Trail Making Test (TMT) and a task-switching paradigm. Participants with ADHD performed worse than controls, but we did not find a bilingual advantage in EF. The negative impact of ADHD was more pronounced for bilinguals than for monolinguals, but only in interference suppression tasks. Bilingual participants with ADHD had the lowest performance. Bilingualism might prove to be an added burden for adults with ADHD, leading to reduced EF abilities. Alternatively, the current findings might be ascribed to over- or under-diagnosis of ADHD due to cultural differences between groups. These issues should be pursued in future research. © 2014 SAGE Publications.

  5. Plasticity, Variability and Age in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Birdsong, David

    2018-01-01

    Much of what is known about the outcome of second language acquisition and bilingualism can be summarized in terms of inter-individual variability, plasticity and age. The present review looks at variability and plasticity with respect to their underlying sources, and at age as a modulating factor in variability and plasticity. In this context we consider critical period effects vs. bilingualism effects, early and late bilingualism, nativelike and non-nativelike L2 attainment, cognitive aging, individual differences in learning, and linguistic dominance in bilingualism. Non-uniformity is an inherent characteristic of both early and late bilingualism. This review shows how plasticity and age connect with biological and experiential sources of variability, and underscores the value of research that reveals and explains variability. In these ways the review suggests how plasticity, variability and age conspire to frame fundamental research issues in L2 acquisition and bilingualism, and provides points of reference for discussion of the present Frontiers in Psychology Research Topic.

  6. Bilingualism Alters Children's Frontal Lobe Functioning for Attentional Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arredondo, Maria M.; Hu, Xiao-Su; Satterfield, Teresa; Kovelman, Ioulia

    2017-01-01

    Bilingualism is a typical linguistic experience, yet relatively little is known about its impact on children's cognitive and brain development. Theories of bilingualism suggest early dual-language acquisition can improve children's cognitive abilities, specifically those relying on frontal lobe functioning. While behavioral findings present much conflicting evidence, little is known about its effects on children's frontal lobe development. Using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), the findings suggest that Spanish-English bilingual children (n=13, ages 7-13) had greater activation in left prefrontal cortex during a non-verbal attentional control task relative to age-matched English monolinguals. In contrast, monolinguals (n=14) showed greater right prefrontal activation than bilinguals. The present findings suggest early bilingualism yields significant changes to the functional organization of children's prefrontal cortex for attentional control and carry implications for understanding how early life experiences impact cognition and brain development. PMID:26743118

  7. Cognitive advantage in bilingualism: an example of publication bias?

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Bruin, Angela; Treccani, Barbara; Della Sala, Sergio

    2015-01-01

    It is a widely held belief that bilinguals have an advantage over monolinguals in executive-control tasks, but is this what all studies actually demonstrate? The idea of a bilingual advantage may result from a publication bias favoring studies with positive results over studies with null or negative effects. To test this hypothesis, we looked at conference abstracts from 1999 to 2012 on the topic of bilingualism and executive control. We then determined which of the studies they reported were subsequently published. Studies with results fully supporting the bilingual-advantage theory were most likely to be published, followed by studies with mixed results. Studies challenging the bilingual advantage were published the least. This discrepancy was not due to differences in sample size, tests used, or statistical power. A test for funnel-plot asymmetry provided further evidence for the existence of a publication bias. © The Author(s) 2014.

  8. Variation among heritage speakers: Sequential vs. simultaneous bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa Lee

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the differences in the grammatical knowledge of two types of heritage speakers of Korean. Early simultaneous bilinguals are exposed to both English and the heritage language from birth, whereas early sequential bilinguals are exposed to the heritage language first and then to English upon schooling. A listening comprehension task involving relative clauses was conducted with 51 beginning-level Korean heritage speakers. The results showed that the early sequential bilinguals exhibited much more accurate knowledge than the early simultaneous bilinguals, who lacked rudimentary knowledge of Korean relative clauses. Drawing on the findings of adult and child Korean L1 data on the acquisition of relative clauses, the performance of each group is discussed with respect to attrition and incomplete acquisition of the heritage language.

  9. Drafting. A Bilingual Text = Dibujo Mecanico. Un Texto Bilingue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Los Angeles Unified School District, CA. Div. of Career and Continuing Education.

    This bilingual instructional text, one in a series of six texts covering various vocational and technical topics, provides secondary level English and Spanish instruction in drafting. Addressed in the individual units are the following topics: safety, drafting tools and techniques, sketching, geometric construction, working drawings, sectioning,…

  10. SALT 2010 Bilingual S/E Version: A Tool for Assessing the Language Production of Bilingual (Spanish/English) Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Jon F.; Iglesias, Aquiles; Rojas, Raul

    2010-01-01

    Assessing the language development of bilingual children can be a challenge--too often, children in the complex process of learning both Spanish and English are under- or over-diagnosed with language disorders. SLPs can change that with "SALT 2010 Bilingual S/E Version" for grades K-3, the first tool to comprehensively assess children's language…

  11. The Value of Bilingualism in Pupils' Understanding of Scientific Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kearsey, John; Turner, Sheila

    1999-01-01

    Argues that, although some bilingual pupils may be at a disadvantage in understanding scientific language, there may be some circumstances where being bilingual is an advantage in understanding scientific language. Presents evidence of circumstances where being bilingual was an advantage and circumstances where it was a disadvantage in…

  12. Bilingualism in children with developmental disorders: A narrative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kay-Raining Bird, Elizabeth; Genesee, Fred; Verhoeven, Ludo

    Children with developmental disabilities (DD) often need and sometimes opt to become bilingual. The context for bilingual acquisition varies considerably and can impact outcomes. In this first article of the special issue, we review research on the timing and amount of bilingual exposure and outcomes of either direct language intervention or educational placements in three groups of children with DD: Specific Language Impairment (SLI), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and Down syndrome (DS). Children with SLI have been studied more than the other two groups. Findings showed that, on the one hand, the communication skills of simultaneous bilinguals and matched monolinguals with DD were similar for all groups when the stronger language or both languages of the bilingual children were considered. On the other hand, similar to typically developing children, sequential bilinguals and matched monolinguals with SLI (other groups not studied) differed on some but not all second language (L2) measures; even after an extended period of exposure, differences in L2 outcomes were not completely resolved. There is emerging evidence that the typological similarity of the languages being learned influences L2 development in sequential bilinguals, at least in children with SLI. Increasing the frequency of exposure seems to be more related to development of the weaker language in bilinguals with DD than their stronger language. Language intervention studies show the efficacy of interventions but provide little evidence for transfer across languages. In addition, only one (unpublished) study has compared the language and academic outcomes of children with DD in different language education programs. Research on bilingual children with DD in different educational settings/programs is limited, probably as a result of restricted inclusion of these children in some educational settings. We argue for the implementation of full inclusion policies that provide increased access to dual

  13. Bilingualism and increased attention to speech: Evidence from event-related potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuipers, Jan Rouke; Thierry, Guillaume

    2015-10-01

    A number of studies have shown that from an early age, bilinguals outperform their monolingual peers on executive control tasks. We previously found that bilingual children and adults also display greater attention to unexpected language switches within speech. Here, we investigated the effect of a bilingual upbringing on speech perception in one language. We recorded monolingual and bilingual toddlers' event-related potentials (ERPs) to spoken words preceded by pictures. Words matching the picture prime elicited an early frontal positivity in bilingual participants only, whereas later ERP amplitudes associated with semantic processing did not differ between groups. These results add to the growing body of evidence that bilingualism increases overall attention during speech perception whilst semantic integration is unaffected. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Detection of bilingual plagiarism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frank Zamora R.

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In this paper a computational algorithm for text alignment in the task of automatically detecting bilingual plagiarism is proposed. The method of detecting bilingual plagiarism uses machine translation services, in order to have the documents in question a base language, and apply techniques of monolingual plagiarism. The algorithm was tested with The corpus belonging to the International Competition Plagiarism 2013, with the objective of evaluating the step of detecting monolingual plagiarism. Besides it’s experimented with the collection of texts EUROPARL, a collection of documents pertaining to the meeting the European Parliament, specifically it´s to English and Spanish documents.

  15. Executive function and bilingualism in young and older adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shanna eKousaie

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Research suggests that being bilingual results in advantages on executive control processes and disadvantages on language tasks relative to monolinguals. Furthermore, the executive function advantage is thought to be larger in older than younger adults, suggesting that bilingualism may buffer against age-related changes in executive function. However, there are potential confounds in some of the previous research, as well as inconsistencies in the literature. The goal of the current investigation was to examine the presence of a bilingual advantage in executive control and a bilingual disadvantage on language tasks in the same sample of young and older monolingual anglophones, monolingual francophones, and French/English bilinguals. Participants completed a series of executive function tasks, including a Stroop task, a Simon task, a sustained attention to response task (SART, the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST, and the digit span subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and language tasks, including the Boston Naming Test (BNT, and category and letter fluency. The results do not demonstrate an unequivocal advantage for bilinguals on executive function tasks and raise questions about the reliability, robustness and/or specificity of previous findings. The results also did not demonstrate a disadvantage for bilinguals on language tasks. Rather, they suggest that there may be an influence of the language environment. It is concluded that additional research is required to fully characterize any language group differences in both executive function and language tasks.

  16. Materiales en Marcha Para El Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism), January 1973.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter, intended to promote the cause of bilingual-bicultural education, contains articles on "Chicano Federation and Bilingual-Bicultural Education,""Have I Got a Math Series for You!,""Puerto Rican Social Studies Perspective," and "Multilingual Assessment Program Builds Better Testing Mousetrap." The first article appears in Spanish and…

  17. Linguistic Predictors of Cultural Identification in Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Scott R.; Lam, Tuan Q.; Marian, Viorica

    2017-01-01

    Most of the world's population has knowledge of at least two languages. Many of these bilinguals are also exposed to and identify with at least two cultures. Because language knowledge enables participation in cultural practices and expression of cultural beliefs, bilingual experience and cultural identity are interconnected. However, the specific…

  18. Chinese Translation Errors in English/Chinese Bilingual Children's Picture Books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Qiaoya; Chen, Xiaoning

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to review the Chinese translation errors in 31 English/Chinese bilingual children's picture books. While bilingual children's books make definite contributions to language acquisition, few studies have examined the quality of these books, and even fewer have specifically focused on English/Chinese bilingual books.…

  19. Bilingualism and Creativity: Benefits in Convergent Thinking Come with Losses in Divergent Thinking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hommel, Bernhard; Colzato, Lorenza S.; Fischer, Rico; Christoffels, Ingrid K.

    2011-01-01

    Bilingualism is commonly assumed to improve creativity but the mechanisms underlying creative acts, and the way these mechanisms are affected by bilingualism, are not very well understood. We hypothesize that learning to master multiple languages drives individuals toward a relatively focused cognitive-control state that exerts strong top-down impact on information processing and creates strong local competition for selection between cognitive codes. Considering the control requirements posed by creativity tasks tapping into convergent and divergent thinking, this predicts that high-proficient bilinguals should outperform low-proficient bilinguals in convergent thinking, while low-proficient bilinguals might be better in divergent thinking. Comparing low- and high-proficient bilinguals on convergent-thinking and divergent-thinking tasks indeed showed a high-proficient bilingual advantage for convergent thinking but a low-proficient bilingual advantage for fluency in divergent thinking. These findings suggest that bilingualism should not be related to “creativity” as a unitary concept but, rather, to the specific processes and mechanisms that underlie creativity. PMID:22084634

  20. Bilingualism and creativity: Benefits in convergent thinking come with losses in divergent thinking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bernhard eHommel

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Bilingualism is commonly assumed to improve creativity but the mechanisms underlying creative acts, and the way these mechanisms are affected by bilingualism, are not very well understood. We hypothesize that learning to master multiple languages drives individuals towards a strongly focused cognitive-control state that exerts strong top-down impact on information processing and creates strong local competition for selection between cognitive codes. Considering the control requirements posed by creativity tasks tapping into convergent and divergent thinking, this predicts that high-proficient bilinguals should outperform low-proficient bilinguals in convergent thinking, while low-proficient bilinguals might be better in divergent thinking. Comparing low- and high-proficient bilinguals on convergent-thinking and divergent-thinking tasks indeed showed a high-proficient bilingual advantage for convergent thinking but a low-proficient bilingual advantage for fluency in divergent thinking. These findings suggest that bilingualism should not be related to creativity as a unitary concept but, rather, to the specific processes and mechanisms that underlie creativity.

  1. The Development of Bimodal Bilingualism: Implications for Linguistic Theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lillo-Martin, Diane; de Quadros, Ronice Müller; Pichler, Deborah Chen

    2016-01-01

    A wide range of linguistic phenomena contribute to our understanding of the architecture of the human linguistic system. In this paper we present a proposal dubbed Language Synthesis to capture bilingual phenomena including code-switching and 'transfer' as automatic consequences of the addition of a second language, using basic concepts of Minimalism and Distributed Morphology. Bimodal bilinguals, who use a sign language and a spoken language, provide a new type of evidence regarding possible bilingual phenomena, namely code-blending, the simultaneous production of (aspects of) a message in both speech and sign. We argue that code-blending also follows naturally once a second articulatory interface is added to the model. Several different types of code-blending are discussed in connection to the predictions of the Synthesis model. Our primary data come from children developing as bimodal bilinguals, but our proposal is intended to capture a wide range of bilingual effects across any language pair.

  2. Specificity of the bilingual advantage for memory: Examining cued recall, generalization, and working memory in monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual toddlers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalie Hiromi Brito

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The specificity of the bilingual advantage in memory was examined by testing groups of monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual 24-month-olds on tasks tapping cued recall, memory generalization and working memory. For the cued recall and memory generalization conditions, there was a 24-hour delay between time of encoding and time of retrieval. In addition to the memory tasks, parent-toddler dyads completed a picture-book reading task, in order to observe emotional responsiveness, and a parental report of productive vocabulary. Results indicated no difference between language groups on cued recall, working memory, emotional responsiveness, or productive vocabulary, but a significant difference was found in the memory generalization condition with only the bilingual group outperforming the baseline control group. These results replicate and extend results from past studies (Brito and Barr, 2012; 2014; Brito et al., in press and suggest a bilingual advantage specific to memory generalization.

  3. Specificity of the bilingual advantage for memory: examining cued recall, generalization, and working memory in monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual toddlers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brito, Natalie H; Grenell, Amanda; Barr, Rachel

    2014-01-01

    The specificity of the bilingual advantage in memory was examined by testing groups of monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual 24-month-olds on tasks tapping cued recall, memory generalization and working memory. For the cued recall and memory generalization conditions, there was a 24-h delay between time of encoding and time of retrieval. In addition to the memory tasks, parent-toddler dyads completed a picture-book reading task, in order to observe emotional responsiveness, and a parental report of productive vocabulary. Results indicated no difference between language groups on cued recall, working memory, emotional responsiveness, or productive vocabulary, but a significant difference was found in the memory generalization condition with only the bilingual group outperforming the baseline control group. These results replicate and extend results from past studies (Brito and Barr, 2012, 2014; Brito et al., 2014) and suggest a bilingual advantage specific to memory generalization.

  4. Bilingualism protects anterior temporal lobe integrity in aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abutalebi, Jubin; Canini, Matteo; Della Rosa, Pasquale A; Sheung, Lo Ping; Green, David W; Weekes, Brendan S

    2014-09-01

    Cerebral gray-matter volume (GMV) decreases in normal aging but the extent of the decrease may be experience-dependent. Bilingualism may be one protective factor and in this article we examine its potential protective effect on GMV in a region that shows strong age-related decreases-the left anterior temporal pole. This region is held to function as a conceptual hub and might be expected to be a target of plastic changes in bilingual speakers because of the requirement for these speakers to store and differentiate lexical concepts in 2 languages to guide speech production and comprehension processes. In a whole brain comparison of bilingual speakers (n = 23) and monolingual speakers (n = 23), regressing out confounding factors, we find more extensive age-related decreases in GMV in the monolingual brain and significantly increased GMV in left temporal pole for bilingual speakers. Consistent with a specific neuroprotective effect of bilingualism, region of interest analyses showed a significant positive correlation between naming performance in the second language and GMV in this region. The effect appears to be bilateral though because there was a nonsignificantly different effect of naming performance on GMV in the right temporal pole. Our data emphasize the vulnerability of the temporal pole to normal aging and the value of bilingualism as both a general and specific protective factor to GMV decreases in healthy aging. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Writing and Reading Knowledge of Spanish/English Second-Generation Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ardila, Alfredo; Garcia, Krystal; Garcia, Melissa; Mejia, Joselyn; Vado, Grace

    2017-01-01

    Written bilingualism represents a particular type of bilingualism that is not frequently approached. The aim of this study was to investigate the writing and reading abilities of second-generation immigrants, Spanish-English bilinguals in South Florida. 58 participants (36 females, 22 males; 18-39 years of age) were selected. Both parents were…

  6. Order in the noun phrase of the languages of Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rijkhoff, Jan

    1998-01-01

    The current investigation of the word order characteristics of the constituents of the noun phrase (NP) differs from other typological investigations of the issue in two major respects. First of all, it does not take for granted the existence of NPs or of the various NP-internal categories...... that it also has noun phrases: it may use a string of appositives rather than a proper, integral NP. The existence of NPs and the presence of various NP-internal categories is not an issue that has received considerable attention in typological word order studies. Yet how can we hope to establish the cross...... in a representative sample of European languages (Appendix 1), we first need to devote some attention to such basic questions as: Do all European languages have nouns? Do all European languages have proper NPs? Which NP-internal modifiers are attested in the European languages, and which are absent? These issues...

  7. Cognitive Flexibility in Drawings of Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adi-Japha, Esther; Berberich-Artzi, Jennie; Libnawi, Afaf

    2010-01-01

    A. Karmiloff-Smith's (1990) task of drawing a nonexistent object is considered to be a measure of cognitive flexibility. The notion of earlier emergence of cognitive flexibility in bilingual children motivated the current researchers to request 4- and 5-year-old English-Hebrew and Arabic-Hebrew bilingual children and their monolingual peers to…

  8. New Directions in ASL-English Bilingual Ebooks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Adam

    2014-01-01

    The widespread adoption of smartphones and tablet computers have enabled the rapid creation and distribution of innovative American Sign Language (ASL) and written English bilingual ebooks, aimed primarily at deaf and hard-of-hearing children. These sign-print bilingual ebooks are unique in how they take advantage of digital platforms to display…

  9. Developmental change in tone perception in Mandarin monolingual, English monolingual, and Mandarin-English bilingual infants: Divergences between monolingual and bilingual learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Leher; Fu, Charlene S L; Seet, Xian Hui; Tong, Ashley P Y; Wang, Joelle L; Best, Catherine T

    2018-09-01

    Most languages use lexical tone to discriminate the meanings of words. There has been recent interest in tracking the development of tone categories during infancy. These studies have focused largely on monolingual infants learning either a tone language or a non-tone language. It remains to be seen how bilingual infants learning one tone language (e.g., Mandarin) and one non-tone language (e.g., English) discriminate tones. Here, we examined infants' discrimination of two Mandarin tones pairs: one salient and one subtle. Discrimination was investigated in three groups: Mandarin-English bilinguals, English monolinguals, and Mandarin monolinguals at 6 months and 9 months of age in a cross-sectional design. Results demonstrated relatively strong Mandarin tone discrimination in Mandarin monolinguals, with salient tone discrimination at 6 months and both salient and subtle tone discrimination at 9 months. English monolinguals discriminated neither contrast at 6 months but discriminated the salient contrast at 9 months. Surprisingly, there was no evidence for tone discrimination in Mandarin-English bilingual infants. In a second experiment, 12- and 13-month-old Mandarin-English bilingual and English monolingual infants were tested to determine whether bilinguals would demonstrate tone sensitivity at a later age. Results revealed a lack of tone sensitivity at 12 or 13 months in bilingual infants, yet English monolingual infants were sensitive to both salient and subtle Mandarin tone contrasts at 12 or 13 months. Our findings provide evidence for age-related convergence in Mandarin tone discrimination in English and Mandarin monolingual infants and for a distinct pattern of tone discrimination in bilingual infants. Theoretical implications for phonetic category acquisition are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Lexical processing and organization in bilingual first language acquisition: Guiding future research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeAnda, Stephanie; Poulin-Dubois, Diane; Zesiger, Pascal; Friend, Margaret

    2016-06-01

    A rich body of work in adult bilinguals documents an interconnected lexical network across languages, such that early word retrieval is language independent. This literature has yielded a number of influential models of bilingual semantic memory. However, extant models provide limited predictions about the emergence of lexical organization in bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA). Empirical evidence from monolingual infants suggests that lexical networks emerge early in development as children integrate phonological and semantic information. These findings tell us little about the interaction between 2 languages in early bilingual memory. To date, an understanding of when and how languages interact in early bilingual development is lacking. In this literature review, we present research documenting lexical-semantic development across monolingual and bilingual infants. This is followed by a discussion of current models of bilingual language representation and organization and their ability to account for the available empirical evidence. Together, these theoretical and empirical accounts inform and highlight unexplored areas of research and guide future work on early bilingual memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  11. Language Assessment of a Farsi-Norwegian Bilingual Speaker with Aphasia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koumanidi Knoph, Monica I.

    2011-01-01

    The increased occurrence of strokes combined with the high incidence of bilingualism in many regions of the world has led to an increasing number of bilingual adults with aphasia. The literature on bilingual aphasia shows the need for valid, comprehensive and reliable assessment tools for diagnostic and treatment purposes. In spite of a growing…

  12. Making Bilingualism Work: Developments in Bilingual Education in ASEAN.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pakir, Ann

    1993-01-01

    Systems of bilingual education in three neighboring countries, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam are examined in an attempt to understand basic issues. These are all Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries that fall into the category of Small Young Countries as discussed in Pakir (1992a). (Contains 43 references.) (JL)

  13. The effect of lifelong bilingualism on regional grey and white matter volume.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olsen, Rosanna K; Pangelinan, Melissa M; Bogulski, Cari; Chakravarty, M Mallar; Luk, Gigi; Grady, Cheryl L; Bialystok, Ellen

    2015-07-01

    Lifelong bilingualism is associated with the delayed diagnosis of dementia, suggesting bilingual experience is relevant to brain health in aging. While the effects of bilingualism on cognitive functions across the lifespan are well documented, less is known about the neural substrates underlying differential behaviour. It is clear that bilingualism affects brain regions that mediate language abilities and that these regions are at least partially overlapping with those that exhibit age-related decline. Moreover, the behavioural advantages observed in bilingualism are generally found in executive function performance, suggesting that the frontal lobes may also be sensitive to bilingualism, which exhibit volume reductions with age. The current study investigated structural differences in the brain of lifelong bilingual older adults (n=14, mean age=70.4) compared with older monolinguals (n=14, mean age=70.6). We employed two analytic approaches: 1) we examined global differences in grey and white matter volumes; and, 2) we examined local differences in volume and cortical thickness of specific regions of interest previously implicated in bilingual/monolingual comparisons (temporal pole) or in aging (entorhinal cortex and hippocampus). We expected bilinguals would exhibit greater volume of the frontal lobe and temporal lobe (grey and white matter), given the importance of these regions in executive and language functions, respectively. We further hypothesized that regions in the medial temporal lobe, which demonstrate early changes in aging and exhibit neural pathology in dementia, would be more preserved in the bilingual group. As predicted, bilinguals exhibit greater frontal lobe white matter compared with monolinguals. Moreover, increasing age was related to decreasing temporal pole cortical thickness in the monolingual group, but no such relationship was observed for bilinguals. Finally, Stroop task performance was positively correlated with frontal lobe white

  14. Relationship between the Onset Age of Bilingualism and Development of Cognitive Control among Nigerians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasir Bdaiwi Jasim Al-Shujairi

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available An increasing body of studies suggests that bilingual persons are better than monolinguals on a variety of cognitive measures. Thus, the present study investigates the relationship between the onset age of bilingual and the development of cognitive control among Nigerians. 10 bilingual students studying at University Putra Malaysia have been selected to participate in this study.  They are divided into two groups: 5 early and 5 late bilinguals. The data are collected using online English proficiency test and E-prime software as instruments. Both groups are examined for English proficiency and performance on a flanker task. The result demonstrates that early bilinguals are more proficient in English than late bilinguals. Moreover, early bilingual performs better than late bilingual on flanker task. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that being early active bilinguals tend to have greater advantages in cognitive control and higher language proficiency. Keywords: onset age, bilingualism, and cognitive control

  15. Materiales en Marcha para el Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism). November, 1972.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter seeks to promote the concept of bilingual-bicultural education. Among its articles are "Arguments Against Bilingual Education,""Portuguese Reading Materials on Parade,""A Spanish Omnibus," and "Carrascolendas Makes Debut on Educational Television." There are announcements of the opening of a Portuguese materials resource center in…

  16. Materiales en Marcha para el Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism). September 1972.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter seeks to promote the concept of bilingual-bicultural education. Among its articles are "The Indispensable Community Contribution,""Meaningful, Enjoyable Musical Experience,""A Breakthrough for Bilingual Science," and "Six Readers for Spanish-Speaking Fourth-Graders." There is a short essay on the importance of local participation…

  17. Comparison of single-word and adjective-noun phrase production using event-related brain potentials

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lange, Violaine Michel

    2015-01-01

    stimuli varying in complexity -black and white line drawings, coloured line drawings, and arrays of drawings-in participants producing single nouns. Whilst naming latencies were similar for single noun production between visual stimuli conditions, ERPs differed between drawing arrays and single drawings...... in a time-window extending beyond early visual analysis. In a second experiment, different participants were asked to produce either single noun or adjective-noun dual-word phrases to black-and-white and coloured line drawings, respectively. Adjective-noun phrase production (2W) resulted in naming latencies...

  18. Mixed metaphors: Electrophysiological brain responses to (un)expected concrete and abstract prepositional phrases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zane, Emily; Shafer, Valerie

    2018-02-01

    Languages around the world use spatial terminology, like prepositions, to describe non-spatial, abstract concepts, including time (e.g., in the moment). The Metaphoric Mapping Theory explains this pattern by positing that a universal human cognitive process underlies it, whereby abstract concepts are conceptualized via the application of concrete, three-dimensional space onto abstract domains. The alternative view is that the use of spatial propositions in abstract phrases is idiomatic, and thus does not trigger metaphoric mapping. In the current study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to examine the time-course of neural processing of concrete and abstract phrases consisting of the prepositions in or on followed by congruent and incongruent nouns (e.g., in the bowl/plate and in the moment/mend). ERPs were recorded from the onset of reference nouns in 28 adult participants using a 128-channel electrode net. Results show that congruency has differential effects on neural measures, depending on whether the noun is concrete or abstract. Incongruent reference nouns in concrete phrases (e.g., on the bowl) elicited a significant central negativity (an N400 effect), while incongruent reference nouns in abstract phrases (e.g., on the moment) did not. These results suggest that spatially incongruent concrete nouns are semantically unexpected (N400 effect). A P600 effect, which might indicate rechecking, reanalysis and/or reconstruction, was predicted for incongruent abstract nouns, but was not observed, possibly due to the variability in abstract stimuli. Findings cast doubt on accounts claiming that abstract uses of prepositions are cognitively and metaphorically linked to their spatial sense during natural, on-line processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Turning Local Bilingualism into a Touristic Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schedel, Larissa Semiramis

    2018-01-01

    Local languages/varieties play a key role in the construction of an authentic and local tourism experience. This is also the case in the bilingual town of Murten, which uses its situation at the language border between the French- and the German-speaking part of Switzerland and the local bilingualism to attract and entertain tourists in different…

  20. Stuttering Characteristics of German-English Bilingual Speakers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schafer, Martina; Robb, Michael P.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine stuttering behavior in German-English bilingual people who stutter (PWS), with particular reference to the frequency of stuttering on content and function words. Fifteen bilingual PWS were sampled who spoke German as the first language (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Conversational speech was…

  1. Theory of Mind and Executive Functions in Young Bilingual Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dahlgren, SvenOlof; Almén, Helena; Dahlgren Sandberg, Annika

    2017-01-01

    Few studies have explored the relationship between theory of mind (ToM), executive function (EF), and bilingualism at the same time. In this study 14 young bilingual children were compared with monolingual children on a test battery composed of 5 ToM tests, 5 EF tests, and 1 test of general language ability. The result showed that despite significantly lower verbal ability, the bilingual children outperformed the monolingual ones on tests of EF. There were no differences in ToM performance. The authors argue that there is a strong relationship between bilingualism and EF, but, contrary to results from earlier studies, they could not find any relationship between bilingualism and ToM. EF did not predict ToM performance. Lack of a significant relationship could be due to the children's young age and consequently their low scores on the ToM tasks.

  2. Differential bilingual laterality: mythical monster found in Wales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Judith; Workman, Lance; Mayer, Peter; Crowley, Kevin

    2002-11-01

    Paradis (1992) likens studies of bilingual laterality to reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster, in that although some studies claim differential laterality much conflicting research evidence does not-and like the mythical Scottish monster, what reason have we to suspect that any such phenomenon might exist? This study reexamines differential bilingual laterality using four groups of English-Welsh bilinguals which differ in their age of acquisition and in their environment of acquisition. Using a split visual field paradigm we present evidence which, supports the notion of greater right hemisphere processing in a later learned language. Our findings also suggest the pattern of lateralization in bilinguals is strongly affected by the specific language environment during development such that the shift toward greater right hemisphere involvement for the later learned language will be more pronounced in individuals which are brought up in areas where that language is not regularly heard.

  3. The Literature Review on the Bilingualism in China from a Sociolinguistic View

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    康硕

    2015-01-01

    Against the background of globalization,sociolinguists have long been dediated in the study of bilingualism.The Chinese-English bilingualism is demonstrated through a literature review,and analyzed from a sociolinguistic view in this paper.It explores an umber of published articles,analyzes the bilingual education abd the phenomenon of Chinese-English bilingualism in China on the basis of literature review.

  4. The Literature Review on the Bilingualism in China from a Sociolinguistic View

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    康硕

    2015-01-01

    Against the background of globalization, sociolinguists have long been dedicated in the study of bilingualism.The Chinese-English bilingualism is demonstrated through a literature review,and analyzed from a sociolinguistic view in this paper.It explores a number of published articles,analyzes the bilingual education abd the phenomenon of Chinese-English bilingualism in China on the basis of literature review.

  5. Cross-Linguistic Interactions Influence Reading Development in Bilinguals: A Comparison between Early Balanced French-Basque and Spanish-Basque Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lallier, Marie; Acha, Joana; Carreiras, Manuel

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates whether orthographic consistency and transparency of languages have an impact on the development of reading strategies and reading sub-skills (i.e. phonemic awareness and visual attention span) in bilingual children. We evaluated 21 French (opaque)-Basque (transparent) bilingual children and 21 Spanish (transparent)-Basque…

  6. Effectiveness of Bilingual Education in Cambodia: A Longitudinal Comparative Case Study of Ethnic Minority Children in Bilingual and Monolingual Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Scott; Watt, Ron; Frawley, Jack

    2015-01-01

    There is little research in the developing countries of South East Asia on the effectiveness of bilingual education programmes that use first language instruction for ethnic minority children. This study investigated the effectiveness of a bilingual education programme involving ethnic minority children in Cambodia by comparing their performance…

  7. Bilingual children's social preferences hinge on accent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeJesus, Jasmine M; Hwang, Hyesung G; Dautel, Jocelyn B; Kinzler, Katherine D

    2017-12-01

    Past research finds that monolingual and bilingual children prefer native speakers to individuals who speak in unfamiliar foreign languages or accents. Do children in bilingual contexts socially distinguish among familiar languages and accents and, if so, how do their social preferences based on language and accent compare? The current experiments tested whether 5- to 7-year-olds in two bilingual contexts in the United States demonstrate social preferences among the languages and accents that are present in their social environments. We compared children's preferences based on language (i.e., English vs. their other native language) and their preferences based on accent (i.e., English with a native accent vs. English with a non-native [yet familiar] accent). In Experiment 1, children attending a French immersion school demonstrated no preference between English and French speakers but preferred American-accented English to French-accented English. In Experiment 2, bilingual Korean American children demonstrated no preference between English and Korean speakers but preferred American-accented English to Korean-accented English. Across studies, bilingual children's preferences based on accent (i.e., American-accented English over French- or Korean-accented English) were not related to their own language dominance. These results suggest that children from diverse linguistic backgrounds demonstrate social preferences for native-accented speakers. Implications for understanding the potential relation between social reasoning and language acquisition are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Verbal intelligence in bilinguals when measured in L1 and L2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ardila, Alfredo; Lopez-Recio, Alexandra; Sakowitz, Ariel; Sanchez, Estefania; Sarmiento, Stephanie

    2018-04-04

    This study was aimed at studying the Verbal IQ in two groups of Spanish/English bilinguals: simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals. 48 Spanish/English bilinguals born in the U.S. or Latin American countries but moving to United States before the age of 10 were selected. The verbal subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (English and Spanish) - Third Edition (WAIS-III) was administered. Overall, performance was significantly better in English for both groups of bilinguals. Verbal IQ difference when tested in Spanish and English was about one standard deviation higher in English for simultaneous bilinguals, and about half standard deviation for early sequential bilinguals. In both groups, Verbal IQ in English was about 100; considering the level of education of our sample (bachelor degree, on average), it can be assumed that Verbal IQ in English was lower than expected, suggesting that bilinguals may be penalized even when evaluated in the dominant language.

  9. Bilingual instruction in early childhood education, can it better develop children?

    OpenAIRE

    Djahimo Santri E. P.; Indahri Yulia

    2018-01-01

    This is a case study of teaching and learning using bilingual instruction in two schools of Early Childhood Education in Kupang-NTT, Indonesia. The aims of this study are to find out whether or not bilingual instruction in Early Childhood Education can better develop children (the outcomes) and if the issue of ‘the younger, the better” in children’s language acquisition in bilingual setting is acceptable and true. 4 students from one bilingual and one monolingual schools have been observed. I...

  10. Autism and Bilingualism: A Qualitative Interview Study of Parents' Perspectives and Experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hampton, Sarah; Rabagliati, Hugh; Sorace, Antonella; Fletcher-Watson, Sue

    2017-02-01

    Research into how bilingual parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make choices about their children's language environment is scarce. This study aimed to explore this issue, focusing on understanding how bilingual parents of children with ASD may make different language exposure choices compared with bilingual parents of children without ASD. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 bilingual parents with a child with ASD and 18 bilingual parents with a typically developing (TD) child. Thematic analysis revealed that, in contrast to parents of TD children, parents with a child with ASD expressed concerns that a bilingual environment would cause confusion for their child and exacerbate language delays. This was particularly common for parents of children with lower verbal ability. Parents also identified potential benefits of bilingualism, particularly in terms of maintaining a close and affectionate bond with their child. Parents of children with ASD have concerns about bilingualism not present for parents of TD children, and these concerns are greater for parents of children with lower verbal ability. Future research in this area should take into account factors such as parent-child bonds as well as communication and language development.

  11. Age of acquisition and allophony in Spanish-English bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barlow, Jessica A.

    2014-01-01

    This study examines age of acquisition (AoA) in Spanish-English bilinguals’ phonetic and phonological knowledge of /l/ in English and Spanish. In English, the lateral approximant /l/ varies in darkness by context [based on the second formant (F2) and the difference between F2 and the first formant (F1)], but the Spanish /l/ does not. Further, English /l/ is overall darker than Spanish /l/. Thirty-eight college-aged adults participated: 11 Early Spanish-English bilinguals who learned English before the age of 5 years, 14 Late Spanish-English bilinguals who learned English after the age of 6 years, and 13 English monolinguals. Participants’ /l/ productions were acoustically analyzed by language and context. The results revealed a Spanish-to-English phonetic influence on /l/ productions for both Early and Late bilinguals, as well as an English-to-Spanish phonological influence on the patterning of /l/ for the Late Bilinguals. These findings are discussed in terms of the Speech Learning Model and the effect of AoA on the interaction between a bilingual speaker’s two languages. PMID:24795664

  12. Assessing Bilingual Knowledge Organization in Secondary Science Classrooms =

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Jason S.

    Improving outcomes for English language learners (ELLs) in secondary science remains an area of high need. The purpose of this study is to investigate bilingual knowledge organization in secondary science classrooms. This study involved thirty-nine bilingual students in three biology classes at a public high school in The Bronx, New York City. Methods included an in-class survey on language use, a science content and English proficiency exam, and bilingual free-recalls. Fourteen students participated in bilingual free-recalls which involved a semi-structured process of oral recall of information learned in science class. Free-recall was conducted in both English and Spanish and analyzed using flow-map methods. Novel methods were developed to quantify and visualize the elaboration and mobilization of ideas shared across languages. It was found that bilingual narratives displayed similar levels of organizational complexity across languages, though English recalls tended to be longer. English proficiency was correlated with narrative complexity in English. There was a high degree of elaboration on concepts shared across languages. Finally, higher Spanish proficiency correlated well with greater overlapping elaboration across languages. These findings are discussed in light of current cognitive theory before presenting the study's limitations and future directions of research.

  13. THE BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF BILINGUALISM IN VISUAL MEDIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aliva Rosdiana

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Bilingualism is a phenomenon that affects people throughout the world. People use bilingualism in particular situations in society such as in education, job, mass media, etc. People who speak bilingualism means that they get second language learning. Radio, televison, and YouTube are important vehicles of mass communication. Mass communication differs from the studies of other forms of communication, such as interpersonal communication, in that it focuses on a single source transmitting information to a large group of receivers. The study of bilingualism in visual media is chiefly concerned with how the content of visual media persuades or otherwise affects either behavior, attitude, opinion, or emotion of the person or people receiving the information. The beneficial effect is the development of bilingualism. Watching video affects children‘s acquisition of their native language and hasten language shift to the majority language. By watching the video, it also enrich our knowledge to particular vocabularies based on particular topics. The Internet makes it possible to have conversations across countries and continents. Individuals have multiple identities and belong to other speakers of their heritage language. So, the linguistic competence will develop as a by-product of the interest. In addition, it brings people closer.

  14. “ALL IN ALL, I AM BILINGUAL” A STUDY OF BILINGUALISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zeynep CANLI

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available he aim of the study is to investigate whether EFL instructors in a university preparatory school consider themselves bilingual, or not; and the reasons for the EFL instructors to consider themselves bilingual or not. For the purpose of the study, a qualitative research was carried out. Thirty EFL instructors participated in this study. The data were collected via an open-ended questionnaire. Analyzing the results indicated that most of the participants considered themselves bilingual. The results of the study emphasized the importance of awareness of being bilingual in order to empower EFL instructors, encourage them to use more L2 in the classroom, and raise their self-esteem as non native speakers of English. The findings help instructors to make them less concerned about the grammar and focus more on communication, and explain their students that they would be bilingual too. This study might be of pedagogical help and significance to teachers interested in bilingualism in EFL context.

  15. Materiales en Marcha Para El Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism), March 1973.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter is designed to promote the concept of bilingual-bicultural education. Included in this issue are articles on "Bilingual Education: Acceptance and Allocation,""A World History Reference,""History Teachers, Take Heart,""Social Studies Materials in Spanish," and "Pride of Aztlan." Articles appear in Spanish and English. Included is a…

  16. Materiales en marcha para el esfuerzo bilingue-bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism), September 1973.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter is designed to promote the needs and interests of bilingual-bicultural education. This issue contains the following articles: (1) What in the World Is a Team-Teaching, Continuous Progress, Non-Graded, Open Classroom in Bilingual Bicultural Education?, (2) Laughter and Anaya's "Lenguaje," (3) "Alegrias" and the Language Experience…

  17. Materiales en Marcha para el Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism), August 1972.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter seeks to promote the concept of bilingual-bicultural education. Among its articles are "Steps Toward Effective Bilingualism,""A 'Used' Teacher's View of New Language Arts Materials,""Rich Resources for Reading," and "Tidbits to Turn On Science Students and Teachers." Book reviews and a list of recommended reading materials are…

  18. Corima: A Bilingual Experiment in the Tarahumara Region in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. How Does It Measure against Transitional Bilingual Programs in the United States?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nunez, Mario A.

    This report explores two bilingual educational approaches currently in use in Mexico and the United States. The study pursues a limited comparison between two modalities of bilingual instruction, as observed and reported in the consulted literature. The U.S. model featured is known as the two-way bilingual model, an additive approach to…

  19. Fully automatic multi-language translation with a catalogue of phrases – successful employment for the Swiss avalanche bulletin

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Winkler, K.; Kuhn, T.

    2016-01-01

    The Swiss avalanche bulletin is produced twice a day in four languages. Due to the lack of time available for manual translation, a fully automated translation system is employed, based on a catalogue of predefined phrases and predetermined rules of how these phrases can be combined to produce

  20. Bilingualism and Cognitive Decline: A Story of Pride and Prejudice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woumans, Evy; Versijpt, Jan; Sieben, Anne; Santens, Patrick; Duyck, Wouter

    2017-01-01

    In a recent review, Mukadam, Sommerlad, and Livingston (2017) argue that bilingualism offers no protection against cognitive decline. The authors examined the results of 13 studies (five prospective, eight retrospective) in which monolinguals and bilinguals were compared for cognitive decline and onset of dementia symptoms. Analysis of four of the five prospective studies resulted in the conclusion that there was no difference between monolinguals and bilinguals, whereas seven of the eight retrospective studies actually showed bilingualism to result in a four-to-five year delay of symptom onset. The authors decided to ignore the results from the retrospective studies in favor of those from the prospective studies, reasoning that the former may be confounded by participants' cultural background and education levels. In this commentary, we argue that most of these studies actually controlled for these two variables and still found a positive effect of bilingualism. Furthermore, we argue that the meta-analysis of the prospective studies is not complete, lacking the results of two crucial reports. We conclude that the literature offers substantial evidence for a bilingual effect on the development of cognitive decline and dementia.

  1. The auditory attention status in Iranian bilingual and monolingual people

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nayiere Mansoori

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Bilingualism, as one of the discussing issues of psychology and linguistics, can influence the speech processing. Of several tests for assessing auditory processing, dichotic digit test has been designed to study divided auditory attention. Our study was performed to compare the auditory attention between Iranian bilingual and monolingual young adults. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 students including 30 Turkish-Persian bilinguals and 30 Persian monolinguals aged between 18 to 30 years in both genders. Dichotic digit test was performed on young individuals with normal peripheral hearing and right hand preference. Results: No significant correlation was found between the results of dichotic digit test of monolinguals and bilinguals (p=0.195, and also between the results of right and left ears in monolingual (p=0.460 and bilingual (p=0.054 groups. The mean score of women was significantly more than men (p=0.031. Conclusion: There was no significant difference between bilinguals and monolinguals in divided auditory attention; and it seems that acquisition of second language in lower ages has no noticeable effect on this type of auditory attention.

  2. A Multidimensional Review of Bilingual Aphasia as a Language Disorder

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohsen Akbari

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Aphasia as a multifaceted language disorder associated with the complicated links between language and brain has been and is of interest and significance to the stream of research in different disciplines including neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive studies and language acquisition. Along with explorations into the manifestations of aphasia in monolingual speakers, bilingual aphasia has similarly become the most current form of this language disorder due to the rising number of bilingual speakers in recent decades all over the world and the probability of facing bilinguals suffering from this language deficit. To paint a picture of this multidimensional linguistic impairment and to get out of the labyrinth of aphasia and in particular bilingual aphasia, the present review study aims to provide a summary of aphasia-related studies in different contexts worldwide and run through the variables affecting the manifestations and language recovery patterns in bilingual aphasic speakers.

  3. Influence of Bilingualism on Memory Generalization during Infancy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brito, Natalie; Barr, Rachel

    2012-01-01

    Very few studies have examined the cognitive advantages of bilingualism during the first two years of development, and a majority of the studies examining bilingualism throughout the lifespan have focused on the relationship between multiple languages and cognitive control. Early experience with multiple language systems may influence…

  4. Bilingual Education: A Reference Handbook. Contemporary Education Issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feinberg, Rosa Castro

    This book describes the evolution of bilingual education in the United States, emphasizing its relationship to educational and civil rights reform. Federal, state, and district policies affecting the implementation of bilingual programs are identified, along with related legal, political, demographic, and economic factors and controversies.…

  5. Bilingual Education Act: Background and Reauthorization Issues. CRS Report for Congress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aleman, Steven R.

    The Bilingual Education Act (BEA) title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), is the federal program intended to help children who are limited English proficient (LEP) learn English. BEA activities focus on transitional bilingual education; developmental bilingual education; special alternative instruction (such as English as…

  6. Costs and Benefits of Bilingual Education in Guatemala: A Partial Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Velez, Eduardo

    2009-01-01

    The benefits of bilingual education for a disadvantaged indigenous population as an investment in human capital are significant. Students of bilingual schools in Guatemala have higher attendance and promotion rates, and lower repetition and dropout rates. Bilingual students receive higher scores on all subject matters, including mastery of…

  7. Polish-German bilingualism at school. A Polish perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pulaczewska, Hanna

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available This article presents the institutional frames for the acquisition of Polish literacy skills in Germany and the maintenance of Polish-German bilingualism after the repatriation of bilingual children to Poland. These processes are examined in the context of recent developments in the European domestic job market. While the European Union has placed proficiency in several languages among its educational objectives, and foreign languages have been made obligatory school subjects in all member countries, the potential advantages of internal European migrations for producing high-proficiency bilinguals are being ignored. Bilingualism resulting from migration and biculturalism enjoys little social prestige in the host countries. In Germany, there is significant regional variation in how school authorities react to challenges posed by the presence of minority languages. In many cases, the linguistic potential of many second-generation migrants and re-emigrants gets largely wasted because of lacking interest and incentives from German and Polish institutions alike.

  8. Bilingualism changes children's beliefs about what is innate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byers-Heinlein, Krista; Garcia, Bianca

    2015-03-01

    Young children engage in essentialist reasoning about natural kinds, believing that many traits are innately determined. This study investigated whether personal experience with second language acquisition could alter children's essentialist biases. In a switched-at-birth paradigm, 5- and 6-year-old monolingual and simultaneous bilingual children expected that a baby's native language, an animal's vocalizations, and an animal's physical traits would match those of a birth rather than of an adoptive parent. We predicted that sequential bilingual children, who had been exposed to a new language after age 3, would show greater understanding that languages are learned. Surprisingly, sequential bilinguals showed reduced essentialist beliefs about all traits: they were significantly more likely than other children to believe that human language, animal vocalizations, and animal physical traits would be learned through experience rather than innately endowed. These findings suggest that bilingualism in the preschool years can profoundly change children's essentialist biases. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Conceptual scoring of receptive and expressive vocabulary measures in simultaneous and sequential bilingual children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gross, Megan; Buac, Milijana; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

    2014-11-01

    The authors examined the effects of conceptual scoring on the performance of simultaneous and sequential bilinguals on standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary measures in English and Spanish. Participants included 40 English-speaking monolingual children, 39 simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children, and 19 sequential bilingual children, ages 5-7. The children completed standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary measures in English and also in Spanish for those who were bilingual. After the standardized administration, bilingual children were given the opportunity to respond to missed items in their other language to obtain a conceptual score. Controlling for group differences in socioeconomic status (SES), both simultaneous and sequential bilingual children scored significantly below monolingual children on single-language measures of English receptive and expressive vocabulary. Conceptual scoring removed the significant difference between monolingual and simultaneous bilingual children in the receptive modality but not in the expressive modality; differences remained between monolingual and sequential bilingual children in both modalities. However, in both bilingual groups, conceptual scoring increased the proportion of children with vocabulary scores within the average range. Conceptual scoring does not fully ameliorate the bias inherent in single-language standardized vocabulary measures for bilingual children, but the procedures employed here may assist in ruling out vocabulary deficits, particularly in typically developing simultaneous bilingual children.

  10. What can speech production errors tell us about cross-linguistic processing in bilingual aphasia? Evidence from four English/Afrikaans bilingual individuals with aphasia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diane Kendall

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The aim of this study is contribute to clinical practice of bilinguals around the globe, as well as to add to our understanding of bilingual aphasia processing, by analysing confrontation naming data from four Afrikaans/English bilingual individuals with acquired aphasia due to a left hemisphere stroke. Methods: This is a case series analysis of four Afrikaans/English bilingual aphasic individuals following a left cerebrovascular accident. Error analysis of confrontation naming data in both languages was performed. Research questions were directed toward the between language differences in lexical retrieval abilities, types of errors produced and degree of cognate overlap. Results: Three of the four participants showed significantly higher naming accuracy in first acquired language (L1 relative to the second acquired language (L2 and the largest proportion of error type for those three participants in both L1 and L2 was omission. One of the four participants (linguistically balanced showed no between language accuracy difference. Regarding cognate overlap, there was a trend for higher accuracy for higher cognate words (compared to low. Discussion: This study showed that naming performance in these four individuals was reflective of their relative language proficiency and use patterns prior to their stroke. These findings are consistent with the hierarchical model, in normal bilingual speakers and with persons with bilingual aphasia.

  11. Terminology extraction from medical texts in Polish.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marciniak, Małgorzata; Mykowiecka, Agnieszka

    2014-01-01

    Hospital documents contain free text describing the most important facts relating to patients and their illnesses. These documents are written in specific language containing medical terminology related to hospital treatment. Their automatic processing can help in verifying the consistency of hospital documentation and obtaining statistical data. To perform this task we need information on the phrases we are looking for. At the moment, clinical Polish resources are sparse. The existing terminologies, such as Polish Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), do not provide sufficient coverage for clinical tasks. It would be helpful therefore if it were possible to automatically prepare, on the basis of a data sample, an initial set of terms which, after manual verification, could be used for the purpose of information extraction. Using a combination of linguistic and statistical methods for processing over 1200 children hospital discharge records, we obtained a list of single and multiword terms used in hospital discharge documents written in Polish. The phrases are ordered according to their presumed importance in domain texts measured by the frequency of use of a phrase and the variety of its contexts. The evaluation showed that the automatically identified phrases cover about 84% of terms in domain texts. At the top of the ranked list, only 4% out of 400 terms were incorrect while out of the final 200, 20% of expressions were either not domain related or syntactically incorrect. We also observed that 70% of the obtained terms are not included in the Polish MeSH. Automatic terminology extraction can give results which are of a quality high enough to be taken as a starting point for building domain related terminological dictionaries or ontologies. This approach can be useful for preparing terminological resources for very specific subdomains for which no relevant terminologies already exist. The evaluation performed showed that none of the tested ranking procedures were

  12. Materiales en Marcha para el Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism), December 1972.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter seeks to promote the concept of bilingual-cultural education. Among its articles are "Political Power and Bilingualism,""Saturday Fun for Joao and Maria,""Student Selected Geography Texts," and "To Become Aware of One's Reality." Included is a list of distributors of educational materials in Spanish and Portuguese. Some of the…

  13. Electrophysiological explorations of the bilingual advantage: evidence from a Stroop task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coderre, Emily L; van Heuven, Walter J B

    2014-01-01

    Bilinguals have been shown to exhibit a performance advantage on executive control tasks, outperforming their monolingual counterparts. Although a wealth of research has investigated this 'bilingual advantage' behaviourally, electrophysiological correlates are lacking. Using EEG with a Stroop task that manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of word and colour presentation, the current study addressed two facets of the bilingual advantage. The possibility that bilinguals experience superior conflict processing relative to monolinguals (a 'conflict-specific advantage') was investigated by comparing behavioural interference effects as well as the amplitude of the Ninc, a conflict-related ERP component occurring from approximately 300-500 ms after the onset of conflict. In contrast, the hypothesis that bilinguals experience domain-general, conflict-independent enhancements in executive processing (a 'non-conflict-specific advantage') was evaluated by comparing the control condition (symbol strings) between groups. There was some significant, but inconsistent, evidence for a conflict-specific bilingual advantage. In contrast, strong evidence emerged for a non-conflict-specific advantage, with bilinguals demonstrating faster RTs and reduced ERP amplitudes on control trials compared to monolinguals. Importantly, when the control stimulus was presented before the colour, ERPs to control trials revealed group differences before the onset of conflict, suggesting differences in the ability to ignore or suppress distracting irrelevant information. This indicates that bilinguals experience superior executive processing even in the absence of conflict and semantic salience, and suggests that the advantage extends to more efficient proactive management of the environment.

  14. Electrophysiological explorations of the bilingual advantage: evidence from a Stroop task.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily L Coderre

    Full Text Available Bilinguals have been shown to exhibit a performance advantage on executive control tasks, outperforming their monolingual counterparts. Although a wealth of research has investigated this 'bilingual advantage' behaviourally, electrophysiological correlates are lacking. Using EEG with a Stroop task that manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA of word and colour presentation, the current study addressed two facets of the bilingual advantage. The possibility that bilinguals experience superior conflict processing relative to monolinguals (a 'conflict-specific advantage' was investigated by comparing behavioural interference effects as well as the amplitude of the Ninc, a conflict-related ERP component occurring from approximately 300-500 ms after the onset of conflict. In contrast, the hypothesis that bilinguals experience domain-general, conflict-independent enhancements in executive processing (a 'non-conflict-specific advantage' was evaluated by comparing the control condition (symbol strings between groups. There was some significant, but inconsistent, evidence for a conflict-specific bilingual advantage. In contrast, strong evidence emerged for a non-conflict-specific advantage, with bilinguals demonstrating faster RTs and reduced ERP amplitudes on control trials compared to monolinguals. Importantly, when the control stimulus was presented before the colour, ERPs to control trials revealed group differences before the onset of conflict, suggesting differences in the ability to ignore or suppress distracting irrelevant information. This indicates that bilinguals experience superior executive processing even in the absence of conflict and semantic salience, and suggests that the advantage extends to more efficient proactive management of the environment.

  15. The Effects of Bilingualism on Toddlers' Executive Functioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poulin-Dubois, Diane; Blaye, Agnes; Coutya, Julie; Bialystok, Ellen

    2011-01-01

    Bilingual children have been shown to outperform monolingual children on tasks measuring executive functioning skills. This advantage is usually attributed to bilinguals' extensive practice in exercising selective attention and cognitive flexibility during language use because both languages are active when one of them is being used. We examined…

  16. The impact of bilingualism on brain reserve and metabolic connectivity in Alzheimer's dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perani, Daniela; Farsad, Mohsen; Ballarini, Tommaso; Lubian, Francesca; Malpetti, Maura; Fracchetti, Alessandro; Magnani, Giuseppe; March, Albert; Abutalebi, Jubin

    2017-02-14

    Cognitive reserve (CR) prevents cognitive decline and delays neurodegeneration. Recent epidemiological evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism may act as CR delaying the onset of dementia by ∼4.5 y. Much controversy surrounds the issue of bilingualism and its putative neuroprotective effects. We studied brain metabolism, a direct index of synaptic function and density, and neural connectivity to shed light on the effects of bilingualism in vivo in Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Eighty-five patients with probable AD and matched for disease duration (45 German-Italian bilingual speakers and 40 monolingual speakers) were included. Notably, bilingual individuals were on average 5 y older than their monolingual peers. In agreement with our predictions and with models of CR, cerebral hypometabolism was more severe in the group of bilingual individuals with AD. The metabolic connectivity analyses crucially supported the neuroprotective effect of bilingualism by showing an increased connectivity in the executive control and the default mode networks in the bilingual, compared with the monolingual, AD patients. Furthermore, the degree of lifelong bilingualism (i.e., high, moderate, or low use) was significantly correlated to functional modulations in crucial neural networks, suggesting both neural reserve and compensatory mechanisms. These findings indicate that lifelong bilingualism acts as a powerful CR proxy in dementia and exerts neuroprotective effects against neurodegeneration. Delaying the onset of dementia is a top priority of modern societies, and the present in vivo neurobiological evidence should stimulate social programs and interventions to support bilingual or multilingual education and the maintenance of the second language among senior citizens.

  17. Prevalence of Stuttering in Javanroud\\'s Bilingual Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiva Mohammadi

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Study of prevalence of stuttering in Iranian bilingual societies is essential for determine the effects of linguistic factors in stuttering and therapy demands in these bilingual societies. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of stuttering among Javanrud’s bilingual students. Materials & Methods: In this cross- sectional, descriptive and analytical study, all of bilingual students of Javanrud’s schools were examined and in order to this purpose, teacher referral method was used for the primary screening of speech disorders at all. Essential information about speech disorders specifically stuttering had been given to teachers before this primary step. Then researcher diagnosed stuttering students based on personal interview, reading, spontaneous speech and description of serial images that tell a story in Kurdish and Persian. Data were analysed by statistical tests such as Chi-square and Logistic Regression. Results: Among 11425 bilingual students of Javanrud’s schools, 129 students were identified as stutterers. These findings indicated that overall prevalence of stuttering in this population is 1/13 percent. Among primary, guidance and high school students the prevalence of stuttering was 2/06, 0/87 and 0/5 percent respectively. Prevalence of stuttering among boys was 1/35 and among girls was 0/88 percent. An overall male/female ratio was 1/5. Prevalence of stuttering in primary, guidance and high school was differ from each other significantly (P<0/001. Prevalence of stuttering in male was higher than female significantly (P=0/034. Conclusion: Prevalence of stuttering among Javanrood’s bilingual students was higher than accepted prevalence in monolinguals (1%. Risk of being stuttering in male was higher than female.

  18. Bilingualism delays the onset of behavioral but not aphasic forms of frontotemporal dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alladi, Suvarna; Bak, Thomas H; Shailaja, Mekala; Gollahalli, Divyaraj; Rajan, Amulya; Surampudi, Bapiraju; Hornberger, Michael; Duggirala, Vasanta; Chaudhuri, Jaydip Ray; Kaul, Subhash

    2017-05-01

    Bilingualism has been found to delay onset of dementia and this has been attributed to an advantage in executive control in bilinguals. However, the relationship between bilingualism and cognition is complex, with costs as well as benefits to language functions. To further explore the cognitive consequences of bilingualism, the study used Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) syndromes, to examine whether bilingualism modifies the age at onset of behavioral and language variants of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) differently. Case records of 193 patients presenting with FTD (121 of them bilingual) were examined and the age at onset of the first symptoms were compared between monolinguals and bilinguals. A significant effect of bilingualism delaying the age at onset of dementia was found in behavioral variant FTD (5.7 years) but not in progressive nonfluent aphasia (0.7 years), semantic dementia (0.5 years), corticobasal syndrome (0.4 years), progressive supranuclear palsy (4.3 years) and FTD-motor neuron disease (3 years). On dividing all patients predominantly behavioral and predominantly aphasic groups, age at onset in the bilingual behavioral group (62.6) was over 6 years higher than in the monolingual patients (56.5, p=0.006), while there was no difference in the aphasic FTD group (60.9 vs. 60.6 years, p=0.851). The bilingual effect on age of bvFTD onset was shown independently of other potential confounding factors such as education, gender, occupation, and urban vs rural dwelling of subjects. To conclude, bilingualism delays the age at onset in the behavioral but not in the aphasic variants of FTD. The results are in line with similar findings based on research in stroke and with the current views of the interaction between bilingualism and cognition, pointing to advantages in executive functions and disadvantages in lexical tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Bilinguals Have Different Hemispheric Lateralization in Visual Word Processing from Monolinguals

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    Sze-Man Lam

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Previous bilingual studies showed reduced hemispheric asymmetry in visual tasks such as face perception in bilinguals compared with monolinguals, suggesting experience in reading one or two languages could be a modulating factor. Here we examined whether difference in hemispheric asymmetry in visual tasks can also be observed in bilinguals who have different language backgrounds. We compared the behavior of three language groups in a tachistoscopic English word sequential matching task: English monolinguals (or alphabetic monolinguals, A-Ms, bilinguals with an alphabetic-L1 and English-L2 (alphabetic-alphabetic bilinguals, AA-Bs, and bilinguals with Chinese-L1 and English-L2 (logographic-alphabetic bilinguals, LA-Bs. The results showed that AA-Bs had a stronger right visual field/ left hemispheric (LH advantage than A-Ms and LA-Bs, suggesting that different language learning experiences can influence how visual words are processed in the brain. In addition, we showed that this effect could be accounted for by a computational model that implements a theory of hemispheric asymmetry in perception (i.e., the Double Filtering by Frequency theory; Ivry & Robertson, 1998; the modeling data suggested that this difference may be due to both the difference in participants' vocabulary size and the difference in word-to-sound mapping between alphabetic and logographic languages.

  20. Validating Models of Clinical Word Recognition Tests for Spanish/English Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Lu-Feng

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Shi and Sánchez (2010) developed models to predict the optimal test language for evaluating Spanish/English (S/E) bilinguals' word recognition. The current study intended to validate their conclusions in a separate bilingual listener sample. Method: Seventy normal-hearing S/E bilinguals varying in language profile were included.…

  1. Examining the Text Quality of English/Chinese Bilingual Children's Picture Books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Qiaoya; Chen, Xiaoning

    2016-01-01

    As a branch of multicultural literature, bilingual children's picture books present a special opportunity for readers to expand their horizons and knowledge of other cultures. The researchers took a closer look at the text quality of 31 English/Chinese bilingual children's picture books. These bilingual books were examined on the aspects of the…

  2. The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kormi-Nouri, Reza; Shojaei, Razie-Sadat; Moniri, Sadegheh; Gholami, Ali-Reza; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Akbari-Zardkhaneh, Saeed; Nilsson, Lars-Göran

    2008-04-01

    Kormi-Nouri, Moniri and Nilsson (2003) demonstrated that Swedish-Persian bilingual children recalled at a higher level than Swedish monolingual children, when they were tested using Swedish materials. The present study was designed to examine the bilingual advantage of children who use different languages in their everyday life but have the same cultural background and live in their communities in the same way as monolingual children. In four experiments, 488 monolingual and bilingual children were compared with regard to episodic and semantic memory tasks. In experiments 1 and 2 there were 144 boys and 144 girls in three school groups (aged 9-10 years, 13-14 years and 16-17 years) and in three language groups (Persian monolingual, Turkish-Persian bilingual, and Kurdish-Persian bilingual). In experiments 3 and 4, there were 200 male students in two school groups (aged 9-10 years and 16-17 years) and in two language groups (Persian monolingual and Turkish-Persian bilingual). In the episodic memory task, children learned sentences (experiments 1-3) and words (Experiment 4). Letter and category fluency tests were used as measures of semantic memory. To change cognitive demands in memory tasks, in Experiment 1, the integration of nouns and verbs within sentences was manipulated by the level of association between verb and noun in each sentence. At retrieval, a recognition test was used. In experiments 2 and 3, the organization between sentences was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 2 and at both encoding and retrieval in Experiment 3 through the use of categories among the objects. At retrieval, free recall or cued recall tests were employed. In Experiment 4, the bilingual children were tested with regard to both their first and their second language. In all four experiments, a positive effect of bilingualism was found on episodic and semantic memory tasks; the effect was more pronounced for older than younger children. The bilingual advantage was not affected by

  3. Language Mediated Concept Activation in Bilingual Memory Facilitates Cognitive Flexibility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anatoliy V. Kharkhurin

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This is the first attempt of empirical investigation of language mediated concept activation (LMCA in bilingual memory as a cognitive mechanism facilitating divergent thinking. Russian–English bilingual and Russian monolingual college students were tested on a battery of tests including among others Abbreviated Torrance Tests for Adults assessing divergent thinking traits and translingual priming (TLP test assessing the LMCA. The latter was designed as a lexical decision priming test, in which a prime and a target were not related in Russian (language of testing, but were related through their translation equivalents in English (spoken only by bilinguals. Bilinguals outperformed their monolingual counterparts on divergent thinking trait of cognitive flexibility, and bilinguals’ performance on this trait could be explained by their TLP effect. Age of second language acquisition and proficiency in this language were found to relate to the TLP effect, and therefore were proposed to influence the directionality and strength of connections in bilingual memory.

  4. Working memory in multilingual children: is there a bilingual effect?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engel de Abreu, Pascale M J

    2011-07-01

    This research investigates whether early childhood bilingualism affects working memory performance in 6- to 8-year-olds, followed over a longitudinal period of 3 years. The study tests the hypothesis that bilinguals might exhibit more efficient working memory abilities than monolinguals, potentially via the opportunity a bilingual environment provides to train cognitive control by combating interference and intrusions from the non-target language. A total of 44 bilingual and monolingual children, matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status, completed assessments of working memory (simple span and complex span tasks), fluid intelligence, and language (vocabulary and syntax). The data showed that the monolinguals performed significantly better on the language measures across the years, whereas no language group effect emerged on the working memory and fluid intelligence tasks after verbal abilities were considered. The study suggests that the need to manage several language systems in the bilingual mind has an impact on children's language skills while having little effects on the development of working memory.

  5. Bilingual skills of deaf/hard of hearing children from Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guiberson, Mark

    2014-03-01

    This study described the first language (L1) and second language (L2) skills of a group of Spanish deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) children who were bilingual. Participants included parents of 51 DHH children from Spain. Parents completed an electronic survey that included questions on background, details on child's hearing loss, and bilingual status and L2 exposure. Parents also completed the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix, a rating scale that describes language skills. DHH bilingual children demonstrated L1 skills that were stronger than their monolingual DHH peers. Bilingual children demonstrated a wide range of L2 proficiency, and most were exposed to an L2 through parents and/or schooling. The majority of parents reported that their children demonstrated L2 skills that were either better than or at the level they had expected. These results correspond with earlier studies that indicate the DHH children are capable of becoming bilingual. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

  6. Graphic Arts. A Bilingual Text = Artes Graficas. Un Texto Bilingue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Los Angeles Unified School District, CA. Div. of Career and Continuing Education.

    This bilingual instructional text, one in a series of six texts covering various vocational and technical topics, provides secondary level English and Spanish instruction in graphic arts. Addressed in the individual sections are basic graphic arts (composition, stone and press work, offset printing, silk screen, and photography) and allied graphic…

  7. Motivations For Code-Switching Among Igboenglish Bilinguals: A ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Studies have shown that code-switching is not a manifestation of mental confusion but a rule-governed behaviour among bilinguals which is motivated by various socio-psychological as well as linguistic factors. It has been observed that code-switching is more predominant among Igbo-English bilinguals compared to any ...

  8. Bilingualism and performance on two widely used developmental neuropsychological test batteries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karlsson, Linda C; Soveri, Anna; Räsänen, Pekka; Kärnä, Antti; Delatte, Sonia; Lagerström, Emma; Mård, Lena; Steffansson, Mikaela; Lehtonen, Minna; Laine, Matti

    2015-01-01

    The present study investigated the effect of bilingualism on the two widely used developmental neuropsychological test batteries Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, Second Edition (NEPSY-II) in children. The sample consisted of 100 Finland-Swedish children in two age groups. About half (n = 52) of the participants were early simultaneous bilinguals, and the other half (n = 48) were monolinguals. As no Finland-Swedish versions of the tests are available at the moment, both tests were translated and adapted to suit this population. The results revealed no difference in the performance between bilingual and monolingual children. This speaks against a cognitive advantage in bilingual children and indicates that development of separate norms for monolingual and bilingual children is not needed for clinical use.

  9. INTERCULTURAL FEATURES AND THE THEME OF TRAVELLING IN BILINGUAL MATHEMATICS LESSONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zuzana Naštická

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The present qualitative research is focused on bilingual mathematics education. The research presents findings of a case study of one bilingual Slovak and English mathematics 40-minute lesson within an after school elective bilingual mathematics course running weekly since October, 2015. The lesson took place in March, 2016, and was attended by nine learners aged 12-13, eight boys and one girl. The learners are cases of successive school additive bilingual education. The elective course as a whole is a case of immerse bilingual educational programme. In terms of sociolinguistic settings, the course lessons are cases of bilingual education with external second language. The researcher designed and realized the course lessons in terms of CLIL approach, i.e. Content and Language Integrated Learning. The main aim of the case study was to examine if bilingual mathematics instruction does or does not prevent learners from solving math word problems. Secondly, the analysis of transcription of the lesson audio-record served for identification of intercultural features which might hinder the learning process. The analysis of the transcribed audio-record indicates that the bilingual context did not prevent students from solving math word problems, although each of the students worked at their individual rate. On the other hand, some students were confused by the comma as a thousands-separator in multi-digit numbers, and this actually hindered their learning and problem solving process. This fact has been identified as an intercultural difference which had to be explicitly explained to the students. In order to lessen the possible negative influences of bilingual context on mathematics education, teachers need to predict students’ responses to various intercultural differences which students are unfamiliar with.

  10. The effect of bilingualism on amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ossher, Lynn; Bialystok, Ellen; Craik, Fergus I M; Murphy, Kelly J; Troyer, Angela K

    2013-01-01

    Previous reports have found that lifelong bilingualism is associated with a delay in the onset of dementia, including Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type (DAT). Because amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is often a transition stage between normal aging and DAT, our aim in this paper was to establish whether this delay in symptom onset for bilinguals would also be seen in the onset of symptoms of aMCI and whether this delay would be consistent in different subtypes of aMCI. We examined the effect of bilingualism on the age of diagnosis in individuals with single- or multiple-domain aMCI who were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests and questionnaires about their language and social background. Our results showed an interaction between aMCI type and language history. Only individuals diagnosed with single-domain aMCI demonstrated a later age of diagnosis for bilinguals (M = 79.4 years) than monolinguals (M = 74.9 years). This preliminary evidence suggests that the early protective advantage of bilingualism may be specific to single-domain aMCI, which is the type of aMCI most specifically associated with progression to DAT.

  11. Dictogloss or Dicto-Phrase: Which Works Better for Listening Comprehension?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marashi, Hamid; Khaksar, Mojgan

    2013-01-01

    This research compared the effect of using dictogloss and dicto-phrase tasks on EFL learners' listening comprehension. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a piloted sample Key English Test (KET) was administered to a total number of 90 Iranian female teenage EFL learners at Kish Language School, Tehran, and then 60 were selected based on their…

  12. The On-Line Processing of Verb-Phrase Ellipsis in Aphasia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poirier, Josee; Shapiro, Lewis P.; Love, Tracy; Grodzinsky, Yosef

    2009-01-01

    We investigate the on-line processing of verb-phrase ellipsis (VPE) constructions in two brain injured populations: Broca's and Anomic aphasics. VPE constructions are built from two simple clauses; the first is the antecedent clause and the second is the ellipsis clause. The ellipsis clause is missing its verb and object (i.e., its verb phrase…

  13. Neuropsychological profiles and verbal abilities in lifelong bilinguals with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kowoll, Magdalena Eva; Degen, Christina; Gladis, Saskia; Schröder, Johannes

    2015-01-01

    Bilingualism is associated with enhanced executive functioning and delayed onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we investigated neuropsychological differences between mono- and bilingual patients with MCI and AD as well as the respective effects of dementia on the dominant and non-dominant language of bilinguals. 69 patients with MCI (n = 22) or AD (n = 47) and 17 healthy controls were included. 41 subjects were classified as lifelong bilinguals (mean age: 73.6; SD = 11.5) and 45 as monolinguals (mean age: 78.1; SD = 10.9). Neuropsychological performance was assessed on the CERAD-NP, the clock-drawing test, and the logical memory subscale of the Wechsler Memory Scale. Neuropsychological profiles showed only minor nonsignificant differences between mono- and bilingual subjects when compared between diagnostic groups. Bilingual MCI patients scored significantly lower on the verbal fluency and picture naming task in their dominant language than bilingual controls. Bilingual AD patients showed a reduced performance in their nondominant language when compared to bilingual MCI patients and bilingual controls (main effect language dominance: verbal fluency task p Bilingual MCI and AD patients show a similar pattern of neuropsychological deficits as monolingual patients do. The dominant language appears to be compromised first in bilingual MCI patients, while severe deficits of the nondominant language develop later in the course with manifestation of AD. These findings are important for the diagnostic work up of bilingual patients and the development of improved care concepts for bilingual patients such as migrant populations.

  14. Medical design anthropology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ventura, Jonathan; Gunn, Wendy

    Barnard and Spencer define medical anthropology in the Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology as "Medical anthropology is, as the phrase implies, unavoidably concerned with the paradigm of modern Western medicine, whether implicitly or explicitly" (2002: 541). Recently there is a new...... focus in medical sociology and anthropology, which is patient's practices and influence on wider global health environment (see for example vol. 36(2) of Sociology of Health & Illness). While various social science theoreticians have written about agentic abilities of objects, there is a gap...... in literature concerning various levels of socio-cultural influence of the medical environment through medical products. In our research we have outlined the importance of medical design anthropology (MDA) to the practice and theory of design (Ventura and Gunn, 2016). In this paper, we study the ways in which...

  15. Bilingualism as a Window into the Language Faculty: The Acquisition of Objects in French-Speaking Children in Bilingual and Monolingual Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perez-Leroux, Ana T.; Pirvulescu, Mihaela; Roberge, Yves

    2009-01-01

    Where do the two languages of the bilingual child interact? The literature has debated whether bilingual children have delays in the acquisition of direct objects. The variety of methods and languages involved have prevented clear conclusions. In a transitivity-based approach, null objects are a default structural possibility, present in all…

  16. Escaping Capture: Bilingualism Modulates Distraction from Working Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernandez, Mireia; Costa, Albert; Humphreys, Glyn W.

    2012-01-01

    We ask whether bilingualism aids cognitive control over the inadvertent guidance of visual attention from working memory and from bottom-up cueing. We compare highly-proficient Catalan-Spanish bilinguals with Spanish monolinguals in three visual search conditions. In the working memory (WM) condition, attention was driven in a top-down fashion by…

  17. English Verb Accuracy of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Knowledge of verb development in typically developing bilingual preschoolers may inform clinicians about verb accuracy rates during the 1st 2 years of English instruction. This study aimed to investigate tensed verb accuracy in 2 assessment contexts in 4- and 5-year-old Cantonese-English bilingual preschoolers. Method: The sample included…

  18. Breaking down the Bilingual Cost in Speech Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadat, Jasmin; Martin, Clara D.; Magnuson, James S.; Alario, François-Xavier; Costa, Albert

    2016-01-01

    Bilinguals have been shown to perform worse than monolinguals in a variety of verbal tasks. This study investigated this bilingual verbal cost in a large-scale picture-naming study conducted in Spanish. We explored how individual characteristics of the participants and the linguistic properties of the words being spoken influence this performance…

  19. Cognitive reserve in Parkinson's disease: the effects of welsh-english bilingualism on executive function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindle, John V; Martin-Forbes, Pamela A; Bastable, Alexandra J M; Pye, Kirstie L; Martyr, Anthony; Whitaker, Christopher J; Craik, Fergus I M; Bialystok, Ellen; Thomas, Enlli M; Mueller Gathercole, Virginia C; Clare, Linda

    2015-01-01

    Objective. Bilingualism has been shown to benefit executive function (EF) and delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. This study aims at examining whether a bilingual advantage applies to EF in Parkinson's disease (PD). Method. In a cross-sectional outpatient cohort of monolingual English (n = 57) and bilingual Welsh/English (n = 46) speakers with PD we evaluated the effects of bilingualism compared with monolingualism on performance on EF tasks. In bilinguals we also assessed the effects of the degree of daily usage of each language and the degree of bilingualism. Results. Monolinguals showed an advantage in performance of language tests. There were no differences in performance of EF tests in monolinguals and bilinguals. Those who used Welsh less in daily life had better performance on one test of English vocabulary. The degree of bilingualism correlated with one test of nonverbal reasoning and one of working memory but with no other tests of EF. Discussion. The reasons why the expected benefit in EF in Welsh-English bilinguals with PD was not found require further study. Future studies in PD should include other language pairs, analysis of the effects of the degree of bilingualism, and longitudinal analysis of cognitive decline or dementia together with structural or functional neuroimaging.

  20. Bilingualism and cognitive decline : a story of pride and prejudice

    OpenAIRE

    Woumans, Evy; Versijpt, Jan; Sieben, Anne; Santens, Patrick; Duyck, Wouter

    2017-01-01

    In a recent review, Mukadam, Sommerlad, and Livingston (2017) argue that bilingualism offers no protection against cognitive decline. The authors examined the results of 13 studies (five prospective, eight retrospective) in which monolinguals and bilinguals were compared for cognitive decline and onset of dementia symptoms. Analysis of four of the five prospective studies resulted in the conclusion that there was no difference between monolinguals and bilinguals, whereas seven of the eight re...

  1. Cultural diversity: blind spot in medical curriculum documents, a document analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paternotte, Emma; Fokkema, Joanne P I; van Loon, Karsten A; van Dulmen, Sandra; Scheele, Fedde

    2014-08-22

    Cultural diversity among patients presents specific challenges to physicians. Therefore, cultural diversity training is needed in medical education. In cases where strategic curriculum documents form the basis of medical training it is expected that the topic of cultural diversity is included in these documents, especially if these have been recently updated. The aim of this study was to assess the current formal status of cultural diversity training in the Netherlands, which is a multi-ethnic country with recently updated medical curriculum documents. In February and March 2013, a document analysis was performed of strategic curriculum documents for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the Netherlands. All text phrases that referred to cultural diversity were extracted from these documents. Subsequently, these phrases were sorted into objectives, training methods or evaluation tools to assess how they contributed to adequate curriculum design. Of a total of 52 documents, 33 documents contained phrases with information about cultural diversity training. Cultural diversity aspects were more prominently described in the curriculum documents for undergraduate education than in those for postgraduate education. The most specific information about cultural diversity was found in the blueprint for undergraduate medical education. In the postgraduate curriculum documents, attention to cultural diversity differed among specialties and was mainly superficial. Cultural diversity is an underrepresented topic in the Dutch documents that form the basis for actual medical training, although the documents have been updated recently. Attention to the topic is thus unwarranted. This situation does not fit the demand of a multi-ethnic society for doctors with cultural diversity competences. Multi-ethnic countries should be critical on the content of the bases for their medical educational curricula.

  2. Recognizing the Effects of Language Mode on the Cognitive Advantages of Bilingualism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ziying Yu

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available For bilinguals, it is argued that a cognitive advantage can be linked to the constant management and need for conflict resolution that occurs when the two languages are co-activated (Bialystok, 2015. Language mode (Grosjean, 1998, 2001 is a significant variable that defines and shapes the language experiences of bilinguals and consequently, the cognitive advantages of bilingualism. Previous work, however, has not sufficiently tested the effects of language mode on the bilingual experience. In this brief conceptual analysis, we discuss the significance of language mode in bilingual work on speech perception, production, and reading. We offer possible explanations for conflicting findings and ways in which future work should control for its modulating effects.

  3. Recognizing the Effects of Language Mode on the Cognitive Advantages of Bilingualism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Ziying; Schwieter, John W.

    2018-01-01

    For bilinguals, it is argued that a cognitive advantage can be linked to the constant management and need for conflict resolution that occurs when the two languages are co-activated (Bialystok, 2015). Language mode (Grosjean, 1998, 2001) is a significant variable that defines and shapes the language experiences of bilinguals and consequently, the cognitive advantages of bilingualism. Previous work, however, has not sufficiently tested the effects of language mode on the bilingual experience. In this brief conceptual analysis, we discuss the significance of language mode in bilingual work on speech perception, production, and reading. We offer possible explanations for conflicting findings and ways in which future work should control for its modulating effects. PMID:29615949

  4. Recognizing the Effects of Language Mode on the Cognitive Advantages of Bilingualism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Ziying; Schwieter, John W

    2018-01-01

    For bilinguals, it is argued that a cognitive advantage can be linked to the constant management and need for conflict resolution that occurs when the two languages are co-activated (Bialystok, 2015). Language mode (Grosjean, 1998, 2001) is a significant variable that defines and shapes the language experiences of bilinguals and consequently, the cognitive advantages of bilingualism. Previous work, however, has not sufficiently tested the effects of language mode on the bilingual experience. In this brief conceptual analysis, we discuss the significance of language mode in bilingual work on speech perception, production, and reading. We offer possible explanations for conflicting findings and ways in which future work should control for its modulating effects.

  5. Translanguaging Pedagogies for Positive Identities in Two-Way Dual Language Bilingual Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    García-Mateus, Suzanne; Palmer, Deborah

    2017-01-01

    Research suggests that identity matters for school success and that language and identity are powerfully intertwined. A monolingual solitudes understanding of bilingualism undermines children's bilingual identities, yet in most bilingual education classrooms, academic instruction is segregated by language and children are encouraged to engage in…

  6. A Comparison between Verbal Working Memory and Vocabulary in Bilingual and Monolingual South African School Beginners: Implications for Bilingual Language Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cockcroft, Kate

    2016-01-01

    This study compared bilingual and monolingual school beginners on measures of simple and complex verbal working memory and receptive and expressive vocabulary. The aim was to determine whether the tests of working memory are fairer measures of language ability than the vocabulary tests for bilingual children when tested in their second language.…

  7. Novel word retention in bilingual and monolingual speakers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pui Fong eKan

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this research was to examine word retention in bilinguals and monolinguals. Long-term word retention is an essential part of vocabulary learning. Previous studies have documented that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in terms of retrieving newly-exposed words. Yet, little is known about whether or to what extent bilinguals are different from monolinguals in word retention. Participants were 30 English-speaking monolingual adults and 30 bilingual adults who speak Spanish as a home language and learned English as a second language during childhood. In a previous study (Kan, Sadagopan, Janich, & Andrade, 2014, the participants were exposed to the target novel words in English, Spanish, and Cantonese. In this current study, word retention was measured a week after the fast mapping task. No exposures were given during the one-week interval. Results showed that bilinguals and monolinguals retain a similar number of words. However, participants produced more words in English than in either Spanish or Cantonese. Correlation analyses revealed that language knowledge plays a role in the relationships between fast mapping and word retention. Specifically, within- and across-language relationships between bilinguals’ fast mapping and word retention were found in Spanish and English, by contrast, within-language relationships between monolinguals’ fast mapping and word retention were found in English and across-language relationships between their fast mapping and word retention performance in English and Cantonese. Similarly, bilinguals differed from monolinguals in the relationships among the word retention scores in three languages. Significant correlations were found among bilinguals’ retention scores. However, no such correlations were found among monolinguals’ retention scores. The overall findings suggest that bilinguals’ language experience and language knowledge most likely contribute to how they learn and retain new words.

  8. The interdependencies of bilingual behaviour. Psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic profile of Hungarian-Romanian bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erika-Mária Tódor

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the specific features of a school population in Romania for whom Romanian is a non-native language, their mother tongue being Hungarian. The first part of the study offers a description of the main characteristics of the verbal behaviour of this bilingual population. The first subheading will discuss, on the one hand, the linguistic profile of the subjects (linguistic interference, linguistic pseudo-creativity etc. and, on the other hand, it will present the main aspects of the socio-affective dimension of verbal behaviour (such as communicational anguish, displacement of communicational intention, linguistic code switching etc.. Practically, these features can be followed in the case of other bi(multilingual speakers as well. The second part of the paper presents certain lexical and semantic interference and vocabulary activating habits in the case of bilingual persons, relating them to the linguistic context and the linguistic landscape.The formulated data and observations represent a synthesis of empirical research carried out between 2000–2013 through different methods, such as: observation, case studies (within the context of the data referring to the profile of language behaviour, structured interviews and questionnaires (employed in the study of the linguistic landscape. The main aim of this study is to offer a socio- and psycholinguistic profile of Hungarian-Romanian bilingualism set in a holistic context.

  9. Commit* to change? A call to end the publication of the phrase 'commit* suicide'.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Emma; Padmanathan, Prianka; Knipe, Duleeka

    2016-12-06

    Background. Countering stigma is a fundamental facet of suicide prevention efforts.  Integral to this is the promotion of accurate and sensitive language.  The phrase 'commit* suicide' has prompted marked opposition primarily due to the connotations of immorality and illegality.  Methods. The study investigated the frequency of the use of the wordstem 'commit', in relation to self-harm and suicidal behaviours, in the three leading suicide-specific academic journals between 2000 and 2015.  Results. One third (34%) of articles published since the year 2000 used the word 'commit*' when describing an act of self-harm or suicide. Over half of these articles (57%) used the phrase on more than one occasion, with 6% using it more than 10 times in the same manuscript. The percentage of papers utilising the word 'commit*' has fluctuated over time, but there is a promising downward trend in the use of this phrase from 33% in 2000 to 13% in 2015 ( p suicide. Whilst we call for collective responsibility amongst academics and clinicians, editors hold a unique position in ensuring that outdated, inaccurate and stigma-laden terms are expunged from the scientific literature.

  10. Families and Educators Supporting Bilingualism in Early Childhood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodríguez, M. Victoria

    2015-01-01

    This article explores the strategies that three Latino families in the U.S. employed in raising their children bilingually in Spanish and English. It also looks at their rationale for bilingualism as well as the challenges the parents failed to anticipate in implementing their strategies. The data were gleaned from comparative case studies over a…

  11. Neural processing of speech in children is influenced by bilingual experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krizman, Jennifer; Slater, Jessica; Skoe, Erika; Marian, Viorica; Kraus, Nina

    2014-01-01

    Language experience fine-tunes how the auditory system processes sound. For example, bilinguals, relative to monolinguals, have more robust evoked responses to speech that manifest as stronger neural encoding of the fundamental frequency (F0) and greater across-trial consistency. However, it is unknown whether such enhancements increase with increasing second language experience. We predict that F0 amplitude and neural consistency scale with dual-language experience during childhood, such that more years of bilingual experience leads to more robust F0 encoding and greater neural consistency. To test this hypothesis, we recorded auditory brainstem responses to the synthesized syllables ‘ba’ and ‘ga’ in two groups of bilingual children who were matched for age at test (8.4+/−0.67 years) but differed in their age of second language acquisition. One group learned English and Spanish simultaneously from birth (n=13), while the second group learned the two languages sequentially (n=15), spending on average their first four years as monolingual Spanish speakers. We find that simultaneous bilinguals have a larger F0 response to ‘ba’ and ‘ga’ and a more consistent response to ‘ba’ compared to sequential bilinguals. We also demonstrate that these neural enhancements positively relate with years of bilingual experience. These findings support the notion that bilingualism enhances subcortical auditory processing. PMID:25445377

  12. Developing the Bilingual Competence in Learning Foreign Languages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. A. Znamenskaya

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper considers the problem of bilingualism and its effect on the personality of the speaker. Various types of bilingualism are described along with the factors determining the bilingual competence formation: age, individual experience, socio-cultural conditions of the native and foreign language interaction. The author points out both the positive and negative impact on the native language as the result of the second language learning. The special emphasis is on language interference in the process of learning a foreign language. To make sure the students achieve the adequate degree of its authenticity, and therefore the bilingual competence, the teacher should take into account the specificity of national styles, communicative strategies and speech tactics of both languages. A comparative analysis of linguistic differences of the English and Russian languages is demonstrated on the level of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and national communicative stylistics. The author maintains that successful inter-language and cross-cultural communication requires the integrative cross-disciplinary approach, consolidation of the linguistic theory and methods of foreign language teaching. 

  13. Bilingual infants control their languages as they listen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byers-Heinlein, Krista; Morin-Lessard, Elizabeth; Lew-Williams, Casey

    2017-08-22

    Infants growing up in bilingual homes learn two languages simultaneously without apparent confusion or delay. However, the mechanisms that support this remarkable achievement remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that infants use language-control mechanisms to preferentially activate the currently heard language during listening. In a naturalistic eye-tracking procedure, bilingual infants were more accurate at recognizing objects labeled in same-language sentences ("Find the dog!") than in switched-language sentences ("Find the chien !"). Measurements of infants' pupil size over time indicated that this resulted from increased cognitive load during language switches. However, language switches did not always engender processing difficulties: the switch cost was reduced or eliminated when the switch was from the nondominant to the dominant language, and when it crossed a sentence boundary. Adults showed the same patterns of performance as infants, even though target words were simple and highly familiar. Our results provide striking evidence from infancy to adulthood that bilinguals monitor their languages for efficient comprehension. Everyday practice controlling two languages during listening is likely to explain previously observed bilingual cognitive advantages across the lifespan.

  14. Studying bilingual students’ literacy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Laursen, Helle Pia

    2012-01-01

    In the official educational discourse in the Nordic countries literacy teaching has become a central and contested issue. In both public and political debate literacy seems to be constructed as a unified concept streamlined for administration and measurement (Prinsloo & Baynham, 2008...... conceived of as a threat to a school’s profile (Rampton, Harris & Leung, 2001). In this paper, I focus on different conceptualizations of literacy and discuss the implications for research on bilingual children's literacy acquisition and the need to expand the understanding of literacy in ways, which might...... contribute to lift the basic understanding of bilinguals’ literacy out of a disqualifying political discourse. Drawing on the ongoing study Sign of Language (Laursen, 2011), I reflect on how a social semiotic framework might help open new research perspectives on bilingual children’s literacy acquisition...

  15. Home and Community Language Proficiency in Spanish-English Early Bilingual University Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidtke, Jens

    2017-10-17

    This study assessed home and community language proficiency in Spanish-English bilingual university students to investigate whether the vocabulary gap reported in studies of bilingual children persists into adulthood. Sixty-five early bilinguals (mean age = 21 years) were assessed in English and Spanish vocabulary and verbal reasoning ability using subtests of the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-Revised (Schrank & Woodcock, 2009). Their English scores were compared to 74 monolinguals matched in age and level of education. Participants also completed a background questionnaire. Bilinguals scored below the monolingual control group on both subtests, and the difference was larger for vocabulary compared to verbal reasoning. However, bilinguals were close to the population mean for verbal reasoning. Spanish scores were on average lower than English scores, but participants differed widely in their degree of balance. Participants with an earlier age of acquisition of English and more current exposure to English tended to be more dominant in English. Vocabulary tests in the home or community language may underestimate bilingual university students' true verbal ability and should be interpreted with caution in high-stakes situations. Verbal reasoning ability may be more indicative of a bilingual's verbal ability.

  16. Bilingual child acquisition through the lens of sociolinguistic approaches

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cornips, L.; Miller, David; Bayram, Fatih; Rothman, Jason; Serratrice, Ludovica

    2018-01-01

    This paper entails a perspective on bilingual child acquisition through the lens of sociolinguistic approaches. A discussion of the concepts of monolingual language ideology and power dynamics is undertaken in order to reveal their important consequences on studying bilingual child acquisition, in

  17. Verbal fluency in bilingual Spanish/English Alzheimer's disease patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salvatierra, Judy; Rosselli, Monica; Acevedo, Amarilis; Duara, Ranjan

    2007-01-01

    Studies have demonstrated that in verbal fluency tests, monolinguals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show greater difficulties retrieving words based on semantic rather than phonemic rules. The present study aimed to determine whether this difficulty was reproduced in both languages of Spanish/English bilinguals with mild to moderate AD whose primary language was Spanish. Performance on semantic and phonemic verbal fluency of 11 bilingual AD patients was compared to the performance of 11 cognitively normal, elderly bilingual individuals matched for gender, age, level of education, and degree of bilingualism. Cognitively normal subjects retrieved significantly more items under the semantic condition compared to the phonemic, whereas the performance of AD patients was similar under both conditions, suggesting greater decline in semantic verbal fluency tests. This pattern was produced in both languages, implying a related semantic decline in both languages. Results from this study should be considered preliminary because of the small sample size.

  18. Cognitive Reserve in Parkinson's Disease: The Effects of Welsh-English Bilingualism on Executive Function

    OpenAIRE

    Hindle, John V.; Martin-Forbes, Pamela A.; Bastable, Alexandra J. M.; Pye, Kirstie L.; Martyr, Anthony; Whitaker, Christopher J.; Craik, Fergus I. M.; Bialystok, Ellen; Thomas, Enlli M.; Mueller Gathercole, Virginia C.; Clare, Linda

    2015-01-01

    Objective. Bilingualism has been shown to benefit executive function (EF) and delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. This study aims at examining whether a bilingual advantage applies to EF in Parkinson's disease (PD). Method. In a cross-sectional outpatient cohort of monolingual English (n = 57) and bilingual Welsh/English (n = 46) speakers with PD we evaluated the effects of bilingualism compared with monolingualism on performance on EF tasks. In bilinguals we also assessed the effects of ...

  19. Materiales en Marcha para el Esfuerzo Bilingue--Bicultural (Materials on the March for the Promotion of Bilingualism/Biculturalism), March/April 1973.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Diego City Schools, CA.

    This newsletter is designed to promote the needs and aims of bilingual-bicultural education. This issue contains articles on: (1) Multi-ethnic Cooperation in Bilingual Education, (2) A Primary-Level Poetry Volume, (3) "Mi Escuela" for Your School, (4) An "Enciclopedia" That Is Also a "Tesoro," (5) Sample Lesson for "Abecedario Disney", (6) Bird of…

  20. Relevance and Phrase Searching in Summon: looking under the hood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Hodge

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available This article briefly examines the mechanisms behind seemingly counter-intuitive phrase search results in Serials Solutions’ discovery platform Summon. The authors use the platform’s search API to explain why users sometimes encounter greater numbers of results when typically they would expect fewer. The article explores the reasons behind the search results and the implications for library instruction.

  1. Bilingualism delays clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease

    OpenAIRE

    Woumans, Evy; Santens, Patrick; Sieben, Anne; Versijpt, Jan; Stevens, Michaël; Duyck, Wouter

    2015-01-01

    The current study investigated the effects of bilingualism on the clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a European sample of patients. We assessed all incoming AD patients in two university hospitals within a specified timeframe. Sixty-nine monolinguals and 65 bilinguals diagnosed with probable AD were compared for time of clinical AD manifestation and diagnosis. The influence of other potentially interacting variables was also examined. Results indicated a significant delay f...

  2. Bilingualism and Working Memory Capacity: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grundy, John G.; Timmer, Kalinka

    2017-01-01

    Bilinguals often outperform monolinguals on executive function tasks, including tasks that tap cognitive flexibility, conflict monitoring, and task-switching abilities. Some have suggested that bilinguals also have greater working memory capacity than comparable monolinguals, but evidence for this suggestion is mixed. We therefore conducted a…

  3. Maturation of Executive Functioning Skills in Early Sequential Bilingualism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalashnikova, Marina; Mattock, Karen

    2014-01-01

    Previous research has demonstrated that being bilingual from birth is advantageous for the development of skills of social cognition, executive functioning, and metalinguistic awareness due to bilingual children's extensive experience of processing and manipulating two linguistic systems. The present study investigated whether these cognitive…

  4. Bilingualism Alters Children's Frontal Lobe Functioning for Attentional Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arredondo, Maria M.; Hu, Xiao-Su; Satterfield, Teresa; Kovelman, Ioulia

    2017-01-01

    Bilingualism is a typical linguistic experience, yet relatively little is known about its impact on children's cognitive and brain development. Theories of bilingualism suggest that early dual-language acquisition can improve children's cognitive abilities, specifically those relying on frontal lobe functioning. While behavioral findings present…

  5. Bilingual Intercultural Education in Ecuador: A Study of Social Demand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Bastidas Jiménez

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The Intercultural Bilingual Education System in Ecuador is guaranteed by the Constitution and assured by the Organic Law of Intercultural Bilingual Education, in a process that took a few decades to the indigenous population. The Ecuadorian state currently counts with a Model of Intercultural Bilingual Education that has its own structure, attached to the Ministry of Education and responsible for generating educational guidelines for 35 indigenous nationalities that coexist in the country. The objective of this study is to analyze the social demand for the Bachelor in Intercultural Bilingual Education, offered by Universidad Politécnica Salesiana. The analysis was carried out through two studies, one of them quantitative, addressed to educational institutions, and the other one qualitative and directed to government officials. The research objectives were to determine the need for graduates in Intercultural Bilingual Education, identify the desired profile of graduates of the career and academic requirements for a successful career. The results highlighted that the current presence of professionals in bilingual intercultural education is 0,65 per institution, with an average necessity of 1,85, which determines the existence of a demand in the next three years of 3 315 professionals. The main conclusion is that there is a significant demand for this career. Although the deficiencies of the current educational system, there in a strengthening trend.

  6. Machine translation of noun phrases from English to Igala using the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Due to the structural differences between English and Igala, noun phrases coupled with the non- availability of large amount of parallel aligned corpus for English and Igala language, the rule based technology was adopted to develop the model. The model was implemented using VB.net programming language as front ...

  7. To electrify bilingualism: Electrophysiological insights into bilingual metaphor comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jankowiak, Katarzyna; Rataj, Karolina; Naskręcki, Ryszard

    2017-01-01

    Though metaphoric language comprehension has previously been investigated with event-related potentials, little attention has been devoted to extending this research from the monolingual to the bilingual context. In the current study, late proficient unbalanced Polish (L1)-English (L2) bilinguals performed a semantic decision task to novel metaphoric, conventional metaphoric, literal, and anomalous word pairs presented in L1 and L2. The results showed more pronounced P200 amplitudes to L2 than L1, which can be accounted for by differences in the subjective frequency of the native and non-native lexical items. Within the early N400 time window (300-400 ms), L2 word dyads evoked delayed and attenuated amplitudes relative to L1 word pairs, possibly indicating extended lexical search during foreign language processing, and weaker semantic interconnectivity for L2 compared to L1 words within the memory system. The effect of utterance type was observed within the late N400 time window (400-500 ms), with smallest amplitudes evoked by literal, followed by conventional metaphoric, novel metaphoric, and anomalous word dyads. Such findings are interpreted as reflecting more resource intensive cognitive mechanisms governing novel compared to conventional metaphor comprehension in both the native and non-native language. Within the late positivity time window (500-800 ms), Polish novel metaphors evoked reduced amplitudes relative to literal utterances. In English, on the other hand, this effect was observed for both novel and conventional metaphoric word dyads. This finding might indicate continued effort in information retrieval or access to the non-literal route during novel metaphor comprehension in L1, and during novel and conventional metaphor comprehension in L2. Altogether, the present results point to decreased automaticity of cognitive mechanisms engaged in non-native and non-dominant language processing, and suggest a decreased sensitivity to the levels of

  8. Autism and Bilingualism: A Qualitative Interview Study of Parents' Perspectives and Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hampton, Sarah; Rabagliati, Hugh; Sorace, Antonella; Fletcher-Watson, Sue

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Research into how bilingual parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make choices about their children's language environment is scarce. This study aimed to explore this issue, focusing on understanding how bilingual parents of children with ASD may make different language exposure choices compared with bilingual parents of…

  9. The Longitudinal Effect of Bilingual Immersion Schooling on Cognitive Control and Intelligence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woumans, Evy; Surmont, Jill; Struys, Esli; Duyck, Wouter

    2016-01-01

    Throughout the past century, the effects of bilingualism on general cognition have been extensively explored. Studies evolved from a negative to a more positive perspective, but longitudinal assessments of effects of bilingualism are scarce. This study investigated the long-term effect of becoming a bilingual on the development of general…

  10. Bilingual Teaching Research and Practice of Complex Function Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Lixin

    2011-01-01

    Mathematics bilingual teaching is assisted in Chinese with English teaching, and gradually enables students to independently use English to learn, study, reflect and exchange Mathematics. In order to better carry out mathematics teaching, department of mathematics in Dezhou University forms discussion groups and launches bilingual teaching…

  11. Using What Matters to Students in Bilingual Mathematics Problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dominguez, Higinio

    2011-01-01

    In this study, the author represented what matters to bilingual students in their everyday lives--namely bilingualism and everyday experiences--in school-based mathematical problems. Solving problems in pairs, students demonstrated different patterns of organizing and coordinating talk across problem contexts and across languages. Because these…

  12. English word frequency and recognition in bilinguals: Inter-corpus comparison and error analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Lu-Feng

    2015-01-01

    This study is the second of a two-part investigation on lexical effects on bilinguals' performance on a clinical English word recognition test. Focus is on word-frequency effects using counts provided by four corpora. Frequency of occurrence was obtained for 200 NU-6 words from the Hoosier mental lexicon (HML) and three contemporary corpora, American National Corpora, Hyperspace analogue to language (HAL), and SUBTLEX(US). Correlation analysis was performed between word frequency and error rate. Ten monolinguals and 30 bilinguals participated. Bilinguals were further grouped according to their age of English acquisition and length of schooling/working in English. Word frequency significantly affected word recognition in bilinguals who acquired English late and had limited schooling/working in English. When making errors, bilinguals tended to replace the target word with a word of a higher frequency. Overall, the newer corpora outperformed the HML in predicting error rate. Frequency counts provided by contemporary corpora predict bilinguals' recognition of English monosyllabic words. Word frequency also helps explain top replacement words for misrecognized targets. Word-frequency effects are especially prominent for bilinguals foreign born and educated.

  13. The effects of bilingualism on conflict monitoring, cognitive control, and garden-path recovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teubner-Rhodes, Susan E; Mishler, Alan; Corbett, Ryan; Andreu, Llorenç; Sanz-Torrent, Monica; Trueswell, John C; Novick, Jared M

    2016-05-01

    Bilinguals demonstrate benefits on non-linguistic tasks requiring cognitive control-the regulation of mental activity to resolve information-conflict during processing. This "bilingual advantage" has been attributed to the consistent management of two languages, yet it remains unknown if these benefits extend to sentence processing. In monolinguals, cognitive control helps detect and revise misinterpretations of sentence meaning. Here, we test if the bilingual advantage extends to parsing and interpretation by comparing bilinguals' and monolinguals' syntactic ambiguity resolution before and after practicing N-back, a non-syntactic cognitive-control task. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on a high-conflict but not a no-conflict version of N-back and on sentence comprehension, indicating that the advantage extends to language interpretation. Gains on N-back conflict trials also predicted comprehension improvements for ambiguous sentences, suggesting that the bilingual advantage emerges across tasks tapping shared cognitive-control procedures. Because the overall task benefits were observed for conflict and non-conflict trials, bilinguals' advantage may reflect increased cognitive flexibility. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Musical training, bilingualism, and executive function: working memory and inhibitory control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Souza, Annalise A; Moradzadeh, Linda; Wiseheart, Melody

    2018-01-01

    The current study investigated whether long-term experience in music or a second language is associated with enhanced cognitive functioning. Early studies suggested the possibility of a cognitive advantage from musical training and bilingualism but have failed to be replicated by recent findings. Further, each form of expertise has been independently investigated leaving it unclear whether any benefits are specifically caused by each skill or are a result of skill learning in general. To assess whether cognitive benefits from training exist, and how unique they are to each training domain, the current study compared musicians and bilinguals to each other, plus to individuals who had expertise in both skills, or neither. Young adults ( n = 153) were categorized into one of four groups: monolingual musician; bilingual musician; bilingual non-musician; and monolingual non-musician. Multiple tasks per cognitive ability were used to examine the coherency of any training effects. Results revealed that musically trained individuals, but not bilinguals, had enhanced working memory. Neither skill had enhanced inhibitory control. The findings confirm previous associations between musicians and improved cognition and extend existing evidence to show that benefits are narrower than expected but can be uniquely attributed to music compared to another specialized auditory skill domain. The null bilingual effect despite a music effect in the same group of individuals challenges the proposition that young adults are at a performance ceiling and adds to increasing evidence on the lack of a bilingual advantage on cognition.

  15. The gender congruency effect during bilingual spoken-word recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, Luis; Paolieri, Daniela; Dussias, Paola E.; Valdés kroff, Jorge R.; Gerfen, Chip; Bajo, María Teresa

    2016-01-01

    We investigate the ‘gender-congruency’ effect during a spoken-word recognition task using the visual world paradigm. Eye movements of Italian–Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals were monitored while they viewed a pair of objects on a computer screen. Participants listened to instructions in Spanish (encuentra la bufanda / ‘find the scarf’) and clicked on the object named in the instruction. Grammatical gender of the objects’ name was manipulated so that pairs of objects had the same (congruent) or different (incongruent) gender in Italian, but gender in Spanish was always congruent. Results showed that bilinguals, but not monolinguals, looked at target objects less when they were incongruent in gender, suggesting a between-language gender competition effect. In addition, bilinguals looked at target objects more when the definite article in the spoken instructions provided a valid cue to anticipate its selection (different-gender condition). The temporal dynamics of gender processing and cross-language activation in bilinguals are discussed. PMID:28018132

  16. Bilingualism in older Mexican-American immigrants is associated with higher scores on cognitive screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padilla, Claudia; Mendez, Mario F; Jimenez, Elvira E; Teng, Edmond

    2016-11-24

    Bilingualism may protect against cognitive aging and delay the onset of dementia. However, studies comparing monolinguals and bilinguals on such metrics have produced inconsistent results complicated by confounding variables and methodological concerns. We addressed this issue by comparing cognitive performance in a more culturally homogeneous cohort of older Spanish-speaking monolingual (n = 289) and Spanish-English bilingual (n = 339) Mexican-American immigrants from the Sacramento Longitudinal Study on Aging. After adjusting for demographic differences and depressive symptoms, both groups performed similarly at baseline on verbal memory but the bilingual group performed significantly better than the monolingual group on a cognitive screening test, the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS; p bilingual group, neither language of testing nor degree of bilingualism was significantly associated with 3MS or verbal memory scores. Amongst individuals who performed in the normal or better range on both tests at baseline and were followed for an average of 6 years, both monolinguals and bilinguals exhibited similar rates of cognitive decline on both measures. These findings suggest that bilingualism is associated with modest benefits in cognitive screening performance in older individuals in cross-sectional analyses that persist across longitudinal analyses. The effects of bilingualism should be considered when cognitively screening is performed in aging immigrant populations.

  17. Requirements for an "ideal" bilingual L1 →L2 translation- oriented ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The major aim of this article is to outline the requirements for an "ideal" bilingual L1 →L2 dictionary of the general vocabulary specifically designed for the purposes of professional translation. The article challenges three commonly accepted beliefs: (a) a bilingual dictionary equals a translation dictionary; (b) a bilingual ...

  18. Bilingualism in the English of tertiary students: A sine-qua-non for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Effects of Bilingualism on the English of Tertiary Students as a mentorship and entrepreneurial tool were investigated. The term bilingualism is the use of two languages (repertoire) of an individual or a speech community. An important feature of bilingualism is that it is a consequence of language in contact which deals with ...

  19. Predictors of Processing-Based Task Performance in Bilingual and Monolingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buac, Milijana; Gross, Megan; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

    2016-01-01

    In the present study we examined performance of bilingual Spanish-English-speaking and monolingual English-speaking school-age children on a range of processing-based measures within the framework of Baddeley’s working memory model. The processing-based measures included measures of short-term memory, measures of working memory, and a novel word-learning task. Results revealed that monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on the short-term memory tasks but not the working memory and novel word-learning tasks. Further, children’s vocabulary skills and socioeconomic status (SES) were more predictive of processing-based task performance in the bilingual group than the monolingual group. Together, these findings indicate that processing-based tasks that engage verbal working memory rather than short-term memory may be better-suited for diagnostic purposes with bilingual children. However, even verbal working memory measures are sensitive to bilingual children’s language-specific knowledge and demographic characteristics, and therefore may have limited clinical utility. PMID:27179914

  20. Examining Bilingual Children's Gender Ideologies through Critical Discourse Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Roldan, Carmen M.

    2005-01-01

    This article presents a case study of young bilingual students' discussions of literature in a second-grade Spanish/English bilingual classroom in the US. Sociocultural, critical, and Chicana feminist perspectives informed an analysis of the ways the children worked at understanding, marking, and resisting gender boundaries. This critical…

  1. Identity Constructions in Bilingual Advertising: A Critical-Cognitive Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Songqing

    2017-01-01

    Does English always play an important role in constructing identities within the multimodal ad? This question has wide-ranging implications for the study of identity constructions in bilingual advertising in particular, and for bilingualism and multilingualism generally. This article presents a critical-cognitive approach that is an evidence-based…

  2. Oral Narratives in Monolingual and Bilingual Preschoolers with SLI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezzonico, Stefano; Chen, Xi; Cleave, Patricia L.; Greenberg, Janice; Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Johnson, Carla J.; Milburn, Trelani; Pelletier, Janette; Weitzman, Elaine; Girolametto, Luigi

    2015-01-01

    Background: The body of literature on narratives of bilingual children with and without specific language impairment (SLI) is growing. However, little is known about the narrative abilities of bilingual preschool children with SLI and their patterns of growth. Aims: To determine the similarities and differences in narrative abilities between…

  3. Code-switching among chiShona-English bilinguals in courtroom ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    As has become the norm in bilingual situations, code-switching in both formal and informal contexts has increased recognition as a verbal mode of communication. This article presents a parsimonious exegesis of the patterns and functions of code-switching in the courtroom discourse of chiShona-English bilinguals.

  4. Cognitive Reserve in Parkinson’s Disease: The Effects of Welsh-English Bilingualism on Executive Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John V. Hindle

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. Bilingualism has been shown to benefit executive function (EF and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. This study aims at examining whether a bilingual advantage applies to EF in Parkinson’s disease (PD. Method. In a cross-sectional outpatient cohort of monolingual English (n=57 and bilingual Welsh/English (n=46 speakers with PD we evaluated the effects of bilingualism compared with monolingualism on performance on EF tasks. In bilinguals we also assessed the effects of the degree of daily usage of each language and the degree of bilingualism. Results. Monolinguals showed an advantage in performance of language tests. There were no differences in performance of EF tests in monolinguals and bilinguals. Those who used Welsh less in daily life had better performance on one test of English vocabulary. The degree of bilingualism correlated with one test of nonverbal reasoning and one of working memory but with no other tests of EF. Discussion. The reasons why the expected benefit in EF in Welsh-English bilinguals with PD was not found require further study. Future studies in PD should include other language pairs, analysis of the effects of the degree of bilingualism, and longitudinal analysis of cognitive decline or dementia together with structural or functional neuroimaging.

  5. Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily Byers

    Full Text Available Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a "foreign accent" in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or "schwas," have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than

  6. Does bilingualism increase brain or cognitive reserve in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reyes, Anny; Paul, Brianna M; Marshall, Anisa; Chang, Yu-Hsuan A; Bahrami, Naeim; Kansal, Leena; Iragui, Vicente J; Tecoma, Evelyn S; Gollan, Tamar H; McDonald, Carrie R

    2018-05-01

    Bilingual healthy adults have been shown to exhibit an advantage in executive functioning (EF) that is associated with microstructural changes in white matter (WM) networks. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often show EF deficits that are associated with WM compromise. In this study, we investigate whether bilingualism can increase cognitive reserve and/or brain reserve in bilingual patients with TLE, mitigating EF impairment and WM compromise. Diffusion tensor imaging was obtained in 19 bilingual and 26 monolingual patients with TLE, 12 bilingual healthy controls (HC), and 21 monolingual HC. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were calculated for the uncinate fasciculus (Unc) and cingulum (Cing), superior frontostriatal tract (SFS), and inferior frontostriatal tract (IFS). Measures of EF included Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B) and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Color-Word Inhibition/Switching. Analyses of covariance were conducted to compare FA and MD of the Unc, Cing, SFS, and IFS and EF performance across groups. In bilingual patients, FA was lower in the ipsilateral Cing and Unc compared to all other groups. For both patient groups, MD of the ipsilateral Unc was higher relative to HC. Despite more pronounced reductions in WM integrity, bilingual patients performed similarly to monolingual TLE and both HC groups on EF measures. By contrast, monolingual patients performed worse than HC on TMT-B. In addition, differences in group means between bilingual and monolingual patients on TMT-B approached significance when controlling for the extent of WM damage (P = .071; d = 0.62), suggesting a tendency toward higher performance for bilingual patients. Despite poorer integrity of regional frontal lobe WM, bilingual patients performed similarly to monolingual patients and HC on EF measures. These findings align with studies suggesting that bilingualism may provide a protective factor for individuals with neurological disease, potentially

  7. The Bilingual Adaptation: How Minds Accommodate Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bialystok, Ellen

    2017-01-01

    According to some estimates, more than half of the world’s population is multilingual to some extent. Because of the centrality of language use to human experience and the deep connections between linguistic and nonlinguistic processing, it would not be surprising to find that there are interactions between bilingualism and cognitive and brain processes. The present review uses the framework of experience-dependent plasticity to evaluate the evidence for systematic modifications of brain and cognitive systems that can be attributed to bilingualism. The review describes studies investigating the relation between bilingualism and cognition in infants and children, younger and older adults, and patients, using both behavioral and neuroimaging methods. Excluded are studies whose outcomes focus primarily on linguistic abilities because of their more peripheral contribution to the central question regarding experience-dependent changes to cognition. Although most of the research discussed in the review reports some relation between bilingualism and cognitive or brain outcomes, several areas of research, notably behavioral studies with young adults, largely fail to show these effects. These discrepancies are discussed and considered in terms of methodological and conceptual issues. The final section proposes an account based on “executive attention” to explain the range of research findings and to set out an agenda for the next steps in this field. PMID:28230411

  8. More Limitations to Monolingualism: Bilinguals Outperform Monolinguals in Implicit Word Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Escudero, Paola; Mulak, Karen E; Fu, Charlene S L; Singh, Leher

    2016-01-01

    To succeed at cross-situational word learning, learners must infer word-object mappings by attending to the statistical co-occurrences of novel objects and labels across multiple encounters. While past studies have investigated this as a learning mechanism for infants and monolingual adults, bilinguals' cross-situational word learning abilities have yet to be tested. Here, we compared monolinguals' and bilinguals' performance on a cross-situational word learning paradigm that featured phonologically distinct word pairs (e.g., BON-DEET) and phonologically similar word pairs that varied by a single consonant or vowel segment (e.g., BON-TON, DEET-DIT, respectively). Both groups learned the novel word-referent mappings, providing evidence that cross-situational word learning is a learning strategy also available to bilingual adults. Furthermore, bilinguals were overall more accurate than monolinguals. This supports that bilingualism fosters a wide range of cognitive advantages that may benefit implicit word learning. Additionally, response patterns to the different trial types revealed a relative difficulty for vowel minimal pairs than consonant minimal pairs, replicating the pattern found in monolinguals by Escudero et al. (2016) in a different English accent. Specifically, all participants failed to learn vowel contrasts differentiated by vowel height. We discuss evidence for this bilingual advantage as a language-specific or general advantage.

  9. Differences in Word Recognition between Early Bilinguals and Monolinguals: Behavioral and ERP Evidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lehtonen, Minna; Hulten, Annika; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni; Cunillera, Toni; Tuomainen, Jyrki; Laine, Matti

    2012-01-01

    We investigated the behavioral and brain responses (ERPs) of bilingual word recognition to three fundamental psycholinguistic factors, frequency, morphology, and lexicality, in early bilinguals vs. monolinguals. Earlier behavioral studies have reported larger frequency effects in bilinguals' nondominant vs. dominant language and in some studies…

  10. Specifying the Needs of a "Bilingual" Developmentally Disabled Population: Issues and Case Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenlee, Mel

    Linguistic and cognitive assessment of children whose home language is not English involves a number of complex issues: minority labeling, the relationship between cognition and bilingualism, "normal" data on bilingual development, and monolingual versus bilingual environment for children experiencing delay. This paper concentrates on reviewing…

  11. Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alladi, Suvarna; Bak, Thomas H; Duggirala, Vasanta; Surampudi, Bapiraju; Shailaja, Mekala; Shukla, Anuj Kumar; Chaudhuri, Jaydip Ray; Kaul, Subhash

    2013-11-26

    The purpose of the study was to determine the association between bilingualism and age at onset of dementia and its subtypes, taking into account potential confounding factors. Case records of 648 patients with dementia (391 of them bilingual) diagnosed in a specialist clinic were reviewed. The age at onset of first symptoms was compared between monolingual and bilingual groups. The influence of number of languages spoken, education, occupation, and other potentially interacting variables was examined. Overall, bilingual patients developed dementia 4.5 years later than the monolingual ones. A significant difference in age at onset was found across Alzheimer disease dementia as well as frontotemporal dementia and vascular dementia, and was also observed in illiterate patients. There was no additional benefit to speaking more than 2 languages. The bilingual effect on age at dementia onset was shown independently of other potential confounding factors such as education, sex, occupation, and urban vs rural dwelling of subjects. This is the largest study so far documenting a delayed onset of dementia in bilingual patients and the first one to show it separately in different dementia subtypes. It is the first study reporting a bilingual advantage in those who are illiterate, suggesting that education is not a sufficient explanation for the observed difference. The findings are interpreted in the context of the bilingual advantages in attention and executive functions.

  12. The Impact of Early Bilingualism on Face Recognition Processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandel, Sonia; Burfin, Sabine; Méary, David; Ruiz-Tada, Elisa; Costa, Albert; Pascalis, Olivier

    2016-01-01

    Early linguistic experience has an impact on the way we decode audiovisual speech in face-to-face communication. The present study examined whether differences in visual speech decoding could be linked to a broader difference in face processing. To identify a phoneme we have to do an analysis of the speaker's face to focus on the relevant cues for speech decoding (e.g., locating the mouth with respect to the eyes). Face recognition processes were investigated through two classic effects in face recognition studies: the Other-Race Effect (ORE) and the Inversion Effect. Bilingual and monolingual participants did a face recognition task with Caucasian faces (own race), Chinese faces (other race), and cars that were presented in an Upright or Inverted position. The results revealed that monolinguals exhibited the classic ORE. Bilinguals did not. Overall, bilinguals were slower than monolinguals. These results suggest that bilinguals' face processing abilities differ from monolinguals'. Early exposure to more than one language may lead to a perceptual organization that goes beyond language processing and could extend to face analysis. We hypothesize that these differences could be due to the fact that bilinguals focus on different parts of the face than monolinguals, making them more efficient in other race face processing but slower. However, more studies using eye-tracking techniques are necessary to confirm this explanation.

  13. Multiple literacies: Linking the research on bilingualism and biliteracies to the practical.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dufresne, Therese; Masny, Diana

    2006-11-01

    The present article addresses the fundamental developmental differences between monolingualism and bilingualism, as outlined in the literature. It takes into account research using qualitative and quantitative methodologies and reviews the advantages and possible disadvantages of bilingualism in preschool children. It then moves on to biliteracies in early childhood education. The questions addressed are: Will the early learning of a second language delay a child's language development? What effect does bilingualism have on the development of phonemic awareness, and does that have an impact on reading development? Do bilingual children have an advantage over monolingual children? What happens when a child with language impairment is called upon to develop two languages? What are some challenges regarding the acquisition of biliteracies? The present article concludes with recommendations for physicians who counsel bilingual families regarding early childhood literacy promotion and development.

  14. On the Economic Approach to Bilingual Education in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Zhiwei; Shao, Cheng

    2009-01-01

    In the process of globalization, each country culture retains an independence from the others besides in reality a fusion of several cultures. Bilingual education as an effective means and intangible resource, which have long been neglected, will play an important part in social and economic development in China. Bilingual education, in this…

  15. Bilingual Lexical Interactions in an Unsupervised Neural Network Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Xiaowei; Li, Ping

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we present an unsupervised neural network model of bilingual lexical development and interaction. We focus on how the representational structures of the bilingual lexicons can emerge, develop, and interact with each other as a function of the learning history. The results show that: (1) distinct representations for the two lexicons…

  16. Cognitive Development in Bilingual and Monolingual Lower-Class Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Barbara; Goldstein, David

    1979-01-01

    The cognitive development of lower-class English-speaking monolingual and English-Spanish speaking bilingual children in kindergarten, third, and sixth grades was compared by means of standard verbal and nonverbal measures. The verbal ability of bilingual children was assessed in both English and Spanish. Their scores in both languages were low.…

  17. Latino Bilingual Teachers: Negotiating the Figured World of Masculinity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lara, Gilberto P.; Fránquiz, María E.

    2015-01-01

    This article focuses on a group of male teachers from Proyecto Bilingüe, a professional development master's degree program for bilingual teachers. The study is guided by one broad research question: How do Latino male bilingual teachers negotiate their identities in a gendered profession? Specifically the study addresses: What spaces for…

  18. Colonial Bilingual Heritage and Post-Colonial Myths in Cameroon's ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Thus, the study traces and shows that an uncritical support of the existing school bilingualism, a aspect of the general political objective of national unity and integration, hinges on a fictitious collective post-colonial dream about using the bilingual heritage of French and English, and the cultures that lie behind them, ...

  19. Silencing Bilingualism: A Day in a Life of a Bilingual Practitioner

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Leena H.; Drury, Rose; Cable, Carrie

    2014-01-01

    Based on sociocultural theories of learning, this paper draws on findings from a research project "a day in a life of a bilingual practitioner". It explores how two multilingual practitioners in English early years settings supported the learning of young 3-4 year-old children, and their parents and teachers. The paper challenges the…

  20. English Words and Phrases in Croatian: A Small-Scale Study of Language Awareness and Attitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marija Perić

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The focus of this paper is on language attitudes towards English words and phrases in the Croatian language. In order to prevent loanwords, linguistic purism has arisen as a theory about what languages should be like. The tradition of linguistic purism in Croatia has been shaped by various socio-historical factors. English may be viewed as a language of opportunity, or as a threat to the survival of other, usually minority and endangered, languages. In order to provide an insight into the use of English words and phrases in the Croatian context, a questionnaire about language attitudes and awareness was conducted on 534 participants. The aim of the questionnaire was to determine participants’ language attitudes and familiarity with English words and phrases. The results show that although people in Croatia generally like English, many of them are not familiar with English words, especially older participants and those with little or no knowledge of the English language. Moreover, the results indicate that the younger generation is more inclined towards English than the older generation; however, they are not as familiar with Croatian equivalents as they claim.

  1. Commit* to change? A call to end the publication of the phrase ‘commit* suicide’

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Emma; Padmanathan, Prianka; Knipe, Duleeka

    2016-01-01

    Background. Countering stigma is a fundamental facet of suicide prevention efforts.  Integral to this is the promotion of accurate and sensitive language.  The phrase ‘commit* suicide’ has prompted marked opposition primarily due to the connotations of immorality and illegality.  Methods. The study investigated the frequency of the use of the wordstem ‘commit’, in relation to self-harm and suicidal behaviours, in the three leading suicide-specific academic journals between 2000 and 2015.  Results. One third (34%) of articles published since the year 2000 used the word ‘commit*’ when describing an act of self-harm or suicide. Over half of these articles (57%) used the phrase on more than one occasion, with 6% using it more than 10 times in the same manuscript. The percentage of papers utilising the word ‘commit*’ has fluctuated over time, but there is a promising downward trend in the use of this phrase from 33% in 2000 to 13% in 2015 ( p suicide. Whilst we call for collective responsibility amongst academics and clinicians, editors hold a unique position in ensuring that outdated, inaccurate and stigma-laden terms are expunged from the scientific literature. PMID:28286872

  2. The timing and magnitude of Stroop interference and facilitation in monolinguals and bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coderre, Emily L; VAN Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy

    2013-04-01

    Executive control abilities and lexical access speed in Stroop performance were investigated in English monolinguals and two groups of bilinguals (English-Chinese and Chinese-English) in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Predictions were based on a bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, implicating cognitive control ability as the critical factor determining Stroop interference; and two bilingual lexical disadvantage hypotheses, focusing on lexical access speed. Importantly, each hypothesis predicts different response patterns in a Stroop task manipulating stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). There was evidence for a bilingual cognitive advantage, although this effect was sensitive to a number of variables including proficiency, language immersion, and script. In lexical access speed, no differences occurred between monolinguals and bilinguals in their native languages, but there was evidence for a delay in L2 processing speed relative to the L1. Overall, the data highlight the multitude of factors affecting executive control and lexical access speed in bilinguals.

  3. Cognate costs in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirjam Broersma

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates cross-language lexical competition in the bilingual mental lexicon. It provides evidence for the occurrence of inhibition as well as the commonly reported facilitation during the production of cognates (words with similar phonological form and meaning in two languages in a mixed picture naming task by highly proficient Welsh-English bilinguals. Previous studies have typically found cognate facilitation. It has previously been proposed (with respect to non-cognates that cross-language inhibition is limited to low-proficient bilinguals; therefore, we tested highly proficient, early bilinguals. In a mixed naming experiment (i.e., picture naming with language switching, 48 highly proficient, early Welsh-English bilinguals named pictures in Welsh and English, including cognate and non-cognate targets. Participants were English-dominant, Welsh-dominant, or had equal language dominance. The results showed evidence for cognate inhibition in to ways. First, both facilitation and inhibition were found on the cognate trials themselves, compared to non-cognate controls, modulated by the participants’ language dominance. The English-dominant group showed cognate inhibition when naming in Welsh (and no difference between cognates and controls when naming in English, and the Welsh-dominant and equal dominance groups generally showed cognate facilitation. Second, cognate inhibition was found as a behavioral adaptation effect, with slower naming for non-cognate filler words in trials after cognates than after non-cognate controls. This effect was consistent across all language dominance groups and both target languages, suggesting that cognate production involved cognitive control even if this was not measurable in the cognate trials themselves. Finally, the results replicated patterns of symmetrical switch costs, as commonly reported for balanced bilinguals. We propose that cognate processing might be affected by two different

  4. “ALL IN ALL, I AM BILINGUAL” A STUDY OF BILINGUALISM

    OpenAIRE

    Zeynep CANLI; Bekir CANLI

    2016-01-01

    he aim of the study is to investigate whether EFL instructors in a university preparatory school consider themselves bilingual, or not; and the reasons for the EFL instructors to consider themselves bilingual or not. For the purpose of the study, a qualitative research was carried out. Thirty EFL instructors participated in this study. The data were collected via an open-ended questionnaire. Analyzing the results indicated that most of the participants considered themselves bilingual. The res...

  5. A Progress Evaluation of Four Bilingual Children's Television Shows.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Stephen P.; And Others

    An evaluation of a bilingual education TV series was conducted involving 6-year-old English speaking, Spanish speaking, and bilingual children at four sites. Children were assigned to control and experimental groups with the latter group seeing four 30 minute shows. A pretest-posttest design was employed with the pretest serving as the covariate…

  6. Bilingualism does not alter cognitive decline or dementia risk among Spanish-speaking immigrants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zahodne, Laura B; Schofield, Peter W; Farrell, Meagan T; Stern, Yaakov; Manly, Jennifer J

    2014-03-01

    Clinic-based studies suggest that dementia is diagnosed at older ages in bilinguals compared with monolinguals. The current study sought to test this hypothesis in a large, prospective, community-based study of initially nondemented Hispanic immigrants living in a Spanish-speaking enclave of northern Manhattan. Participants included 1,067 participants in the Washington/Hamilton Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP) who were tested in Spanish and followed at 18-24 month intervals for up to 23 years. Spanish-English bilingualism was estimated via both self-report and an objective measure of English reading level. Multilevel models for change estimated the independent effects of bilingualism on cognitive decline in 4 domains: episodic memory, language, executive function, and speed. Over the course of the study, 282 participants developed dementia. Cox regression was used to estimate the independent effect of bilingualism on dementia conversion. Covariates included country of origin, gender, education, time spent in the United States, recruitment cohort, and age at enrollment. Independent of the covariates, bilingualism was associated with better memory and executive function at baseline. However, bilingualism was not independently associated with rates of cognitive decline or dementia conversion. Results were similar whether bilingualism was measured via self-report or an objective test of reading level. This study does not support a protective effect of bilingualism on age-related cognitive decline or the development of dementia. In this sample of Hispanic immigrants, bilingualism is related to higher initial scores on cognitive tests and higher educational attainment and may not represent a unique source of cognitive reserve. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  7. Errors in the Production of Adult Early and Late Bilinguals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa Lee

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the grammatical knowledge of adult second language (L2 learners and heritage speakers. Given the differences in the mode and age of acquisition between L2 learners (late bilinguals and heritage speakers (early bilinguals, the question arises as to whether and how these groups differ from each other in their knowledge of Korean. To address this question, the present study looks at the production of Korean relative clauses by three groups of learners (26 L2 learners, 11 simultaneous bilinguals, and 38 early sequential bilinguals. The results of a written production task showed that all three groups made similar types of errors such as those involving the use of incorrect word order and case markers. Yet differences were also observed in the nature of errors made by these three groups. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications are drawn for classroom instruction.

  8. Planning Abilities in Bilingual and Monolingual Children: Role of Verbal Mediation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gangopadhyay, Ishanti; McDonald, Margarethe; Ellis Weismer, Susan; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

    2018-01-01

    We examined the role of verbal mediation in planning performance of English–Spanish-speaking bilingual children and monolingual English-speaking children, between the ages of 9 and 12 years. To measure planning, children were administered the Tower of London (ToL) task. In a dual-task paradigm, children completed ToL problems under three conditions: with no secondary task (baseline), with articulatory suppression, and with non-verbal motor suppression. Analyses revealed generally shorter planning times for bilinguals than monolinguals but both groups performed similarly on number of moves and execution times. Additionally, bilingual children were more efficient at planning throughout the duration of the task while monolingual children showed significant gains with more practice. Children’s planning times under articulatory suppression were significantly shorter than under motor suppression as well as the baseline condition, and there was no difference in planning times between monolingual and bilingual children during articulatory suppression. These results demonstrate that bilingualism influences performance on a complex EF measure like planning, and that these effects are not related to verbal mediation. PMID:29593620

  9. Planning Abilities in Bilingual and Monolingual Children: Role of Verbal Mediation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gangopadhyay, Ishanti; McDonald, Margarethe; Ellis Weismer, Susan; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

    2018-01-01

    We examined the role of verbal mediation in planning performance of English-Spanish-speaking bilingual children and monolingual English-speaking children, between the ages of 9 and 12 years. To measure planning, children were administered the Tower of London (ToL) task. In a dual-task paradigm, children completed ToL problems under three conditions: with no secondary task (baseline), with articulatory suppression, and with non-verbal motor suppression. Analyses revealed generally shorter planning times for bilinguals than monolinguals but both groups performed similarly on number of moves and execution times. Additionally, bilingual children were more efficient at planning throughout the duration of the task while monolingual children showed significant gains with more practice. Children's planning times under articulatory suppression were significantly shorter than under motor suppression as well as the baseline condition, and there was no difference in planning times between monolingual and bilingual children during articulatory suppression. These results demonstrate that bilingualism influences performance on a complex EF measure like planning, and that these effects are not related to verbal mediation.

  10. An Understanding of the Concept and Conditions of Bilingualism: A Study in an EFL Setting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Patricia Lastra R.

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a study carried out at a private school that implemented a bilingual program more than a decade ago. The main aim of the project was to find out how the school community understands the concept of bilingualism and the conditions required to fulfill the goals of a bilingual curriculum at the school. Data were collected through surveys and focus groups made up of different members of the school community. The results showed that bilingualism is associated with a high intensification of English classes and the necessity of having English-speaking employees. Results also depict some theoretical issues about bilingualism and important conditions for implementing a bilingual program.

  11. Evaluation of speech and language assessment approaches with bilingual children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Lamo White, Caroline; Jin, Lixian

    2011-01-01

    British society is multicultural and multilingual, thus for many children English is not their main or only language. Speech and language therapists are required to assess accurately the speech and language skills of bilingual children if they are suspected of having a disorder. Cultural and linguistic diversity means that a more complex assessment procedure is needed and research suggests that bilingual children are at risk of misdiagnosis. Clinicians have identified a lack of suitable assessment instruments for use with this client group. This paper highlights the challenges of assessing bilingual children and reviews available speech and language assessment procedures and approaches for use with this client group. It evaluates different approaches for assessing bilingual children to identify approaches that may be more appropriate for carrying out assessments effectively. This review discusses and evaluates the efficacy of norm-referenced standardized measures, criterion-referenced measures, language-processing measures, dynamic assessment and a sociocultural approach. When all named procedures and approaches are compared, the sociocultural approach appears to hold the most promise for accurate assessment of bilingual children. Research suggests that language-processing measures are not effective indicators for identifying speech and language disorders in bilingual children, but further research is warranted. The sociocultural approach encompasses some of the other approaches discussed, including norm-referenced measures, criterion-referenced measures and dynamic assessment. The sociocultural approach enables the clinician to interpret results in the light of the child's linguistic and cultural background. In addition, combining approaches mitigates the weaknesses inherent in each approach. © 2011 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

  12. Bilingualism in older Mexican-American immigrants is associated with higher scores on cognitive screening

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Padilla

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Bilingualism may protect against cognitive aging and delay the onset of dementia. However, studies comparing monolinguals and bilinguals on such metrics have produced inconsistent results complicated by confounding variables and methodological concerns. Methods We addressed this issue by comparing cognitive performance in a more culturally homogeneous cohort of older Spanish-speaking monolingual (n = 289 and Spanish-English bilingual (n = 339 Mexican-American immigrants from the Sacramento Longitudinal Study on Aging. Results After adjusting for demographic differences and depressive symptoms, both groups performed similarly at baseline on verbal memory but the bilingual group performed significantly better than the monolingual group on a cognitive screening test, the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS; p < 0.001. Group differences on the 3MS were driven by language/executive and language/praxis factors. Within the bilingual group, neither language of testing nor degree of bilingualism was significantly associated with 3MS or verbal memory scores. Amongst individuals who performed in the normal or better range on both tests at baseline and were followed for an average of 6 years, both monolinguals and bilinguals exhibited similar rates of cognitive decline on both measures. Conclusions These findings suggest that bilingualism is associated with modest benefits in cognitive screening performance in older individuals in cross-sectional analyses that persist across longitudinal analyses. The effects of bilingualism should be considered when cognitively screening is performed in aging immigrant populations.

  13. Pulling it all together: The road to lasting bilingualism for children with developmental disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kay-Raining Bird, Elizabeth; Trudeau, Natacha; Sutton, Ann

    Children with DD must and do become bilingual, but the research reported in this special issue raises questions about equitable access to bilingual opportunities and provision of appropriate supports to ensure optimal bilingual growth in these children. The purpose of the present article was to apply the findings from our international collaboration to inform policy and practice on bilingualism in children with developmental disabilities (DD). To do this, we first overview the research presented in detail in other articles of this special issue: a narrative literature review, a review of site policies and practices related to special education and language education, a qualitative analysis of key informant interviews, and a quantitative analysis of surveys of practitioners. From these overviews emerge a complex set of contextual factors that impact bilingual development in children with DD. We then use the Bioecological Systems model of Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2007) and conceptual maps (C-maps) to examine the particular circumstances of three hypothetical children with DD who are in very different bilingual contexts. In so doing, areas of both positive and negative influence on lasting bilingualism are identified for each child. We end with recommendations for increasing access to and support for bilingualism in children with DD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population.

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    Anderson, John A E; Mak, Lorinda; Keyvani Chahi, Aram; Bialystok, Ellen

    2018-02-01

    Research examining the cognitive consequences of bilingualism has expanded rapidly in recent years and has revealed effects on aspects of cognition across the lifespan. However, these effects are difficult to find in studies investigating young adults. One problem is that there is no standard definition of bilingualism or means of evaluating degree of bilingualism in individual participants, making it difficult to directly compare the results of different studies. Here, we describe an instrument developed to assess degree of bilingualism for young adults who live in diverse communities in which English is the official language. We demonstrate the reliability and validity of the instrument in analyses based on 408 participants. The relevant factors for describing degree of bilingualism are: (1) the extent of non-English language proficiency and use at home, and (2) non-English language use socially. We then use the bilingualism scores obtained from the instrument to demonstrate their association with: (1) performance on executive function tasks, and (2) previous classifications of participants into categories of monolinguals and bilinguals.

  15. Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-01

    Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a “foreign accent” in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or “schwas,” have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than spectral

  16. The Cultured Word: Cultural Background, Bilingualism, and the School Library.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agosto, Denise E.

    2001-01-01

    Presents major research related to cultural background as a framework for textual meaning-making, bilingualism, and literacy development. Discusses bilingualism, literacy, and social context; considers why these issues are important to school librarians; and offers suggestions for making multicultural materials central aspects of school library…

  17. Bilingualism, executive control, and age at diagnosis among people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease in Wales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clare, Linda; Whitaker, Christopher J; Craik, Fergus I M; Bialystok, Ellen; Martyr, Anthony; Martin-Forbes, Pamela A; Bastable, Alexandra J M; Pye, Kirstie L; Quinn, Catherine; Thomas, Enlli M; Gathercole, Virginia C Mueller; Hindle, John V

    2016-09-01

    The observation of a bilingual advantage in executive control tasks involving inhibition and management of response conflict suggests that being bilingual might contribute to increased cognitive reserve. In support of this, recent evidence indicates that bilinguals develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) later than monolinguals, and may retain an advantage in performance on executive control tasks. We compared age at the time of receiving an AD diagnosis in bilingual Welsh/English speakers (n = 37) and monolingual English speakers (n = 49), and assessed the performance of bilinguals (n = 24) and monolinguals (n = 49) on a range of executive control tasks. There was a non-significant difference in age at the time of diagnosis, with bilinguals being on average 3 years older than monolinguals, but bilinguals were also significantly more cognitively impaired at the time of diagnosis. There were no significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in performance on executive function tests, but bilinguals appeared to show relative strengths in the domain of inhibition and response conflict. Bilingual Welsh/English speakers with AD do not show a clear advantage in executive function over monolingual English speakers, but may retain some benefits in inhibition and management of response conflict. There may be a delay in onset of AD in Welsh/English bilinguals, but if so, it is smaller than that found in some other clinical populations. In this Welsh sample, bilinguals with AD came to the attention of services later than monolinguals, and reasons for this pattern could be explored further. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  18. Translanguaging, TexMex, and Bilingual Pedagogy: Emergent Bilinguals Learning through the Vernacular

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    Sayer, Peter

    2013-01-01

    This article presents an ethnographic study of how bilingual teachers and children use their home language, TexMex, to mediate academic content and standard languages. From the premise that TESOL educators can benefit from a fuller understanding of students' linguistic repertoires, the study describes language practices in a second-grade classroom…

  19. Towards culturally competent health care: language use of bilingual staff.

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    Johnson, M; Noble, C; Matthews, C; Aguilar, N

    1998-01-01

    The presence of diverse language skills within health staff provides opportunities to better meet the needs of a multicultural population. A cross-sectional survey of all staff within the South Western Sydney Area Health Service was undertaken to compare language skills with population needs and examine the context of language use. Thirty-one per cent of staff (n = 964) were bilingual or multilingual, with the predominant languages spoken being Tagalog (Filipino), Cantonese, Hindi, Spanish, Vietnamese and Italian. Thirty-seven per cent of bilingual staff used their language skills at least weekly, predominantly in situations of simple conversation and giving directions. Bilingual staff are a valuable resource for the organisation and the presence of a similar overall proportion of bilingual and bicultural staff may engender tolerance and adaptability in providing care to a diverse population. However, supply does not directly match community demand. This mismatch will continue unless recruitment is focused towards identified language groups. The high proportion of staff who rarely used their language skills (37%) may be due to lack of opportunity or limited need, and suggests that further research needs to examine service models that locate bilingual workers close to client need. This study takes a crucial first step towards realising equitable and culturally appropriate care utilising the principles of productive diversity.

  20. Bilingualism modulates the white matter structure of language-related pathways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hämäläinen, Sini; Sairanen, Viljami; Leminen, Alina; Lehtonen, Minna

    2017-05-15

    Learning and speaking a second language (L2) may result in profound changes in the human brain. Here, we investigated local structural differences along two language-related white matter trajectories, the arcuate fasciculus and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), between early simultaneous bilinguals and late sequential bilinguals. We also examined whether early exposure to two languages might lead to a more bilateral structural organization of the arcuate fasciculus. Fractional anisotropy, mean and radial diffusivities (FA, MD, and RD respectively) were extracted to analyse tract-specific changes. Additionally, global voxel-wise effects were investigated with Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). We found that relative to late exposure, early exposure to L2 leads to increased FA along a phonology-related segment of the arcuate fasciculus, but induces no modulations along the IFOF, associated to semantic processing. Late sequential bilingualism, however, was associated with decreased MD along the bilateral IFOF. Our results suggest that early vs. late bilingualism may lead to qualitatively different kind of changes in the structural language-related network. Furthermore, we show that early bilingualism contributes to the structural laterality of the arcuate fasciculus, leading to a more bilateral organization of these perisylvian language-related tracts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. The impact of late, non-balanced bilingualism on cognitive performance.

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    Vega-Mendoza, Mariana; West, Holly; Sorace, Antonella; Bak, Thomas H

    2015-04-01

    We present a study examining cognitive functions in late non-balanced bilinguals with different levels of second language proficiency. We examined in two experiments a total of 193 mono- and bilingual university students. We assessed different aspects of attention (sustained, selective and attentional switching), verbal fluency (letter and category) as well as picture-word association as a measure of language proficiency. In Experiment 2 we also compared students in their first/initial (Y1) and fourth/final (Y4) year of either language or literature studies. There were no differences between both groups in category fluency. In selective attention, bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in Y1 and this difference remained significant in Y4 despite overall improvement in both groups. Contrasting results were found in attentional switching and letter fluency: while no differences were found in Y1 in both tasks, in Y4 there was an advantage for bilinguals in attentional switching and for monolinguals in letter fluency. We conclude that overall late-acquisition non-balanced bilinguals experience similar cognitive effects as their early-acquisition balanced counterparts. However, different cognitive effects may appear at different stages of adult second language acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Elite vs. Folk Bilingualism: The Mismatch between Theories and Educational and Social Conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerrer, Carmen Helena

    2010-01-01

    This article aims at contributing to the ongoing discussion about how bilingualism is understood in the current National Bilingualism Plan (PNB for its initials in Spanish). Based on previous research and discussions held at academic events, it is evident that the promoters of the PNB use the term "bilingualism" in a rather…

  3. Bilingualism modulates infants' selective attention to the mouth of a talking face.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pons, Ferran; Bosch, Laura; Lewkowicz, David J

    2015-04-01

    Infants growing up in bilingual environments succeed at learning two languages. What adaptive processes enable them to master the more complex nature of bilingual input? One possibility is that bilingual infants take greater advantage of the redundancy of the audiovisual speech that they usually experience during social interactions. Thus, we investigated whether bilingual infants' need to keep languages apart increases their attention to the mouth as a source of redundant and reliable speech cues. We measured selective attention to talking faces in 4-, 8-, and 12-month-old Catalan and Spanish monolingual and bilingual infants. Monolinguals looked more at the eyes than the mouth at 4 months and more at the mouth than the eyes at 8 months in response to both native and nonnative speech, but they looked more at the mouth than the eyes at 12 months only in response to nonnative speech. In contrast, bilinguals looked equally at the eyes and mouth at 4 months, more at the mouth than the eyes at 8 months, and more at the mouth than the eyes at 12 months, and these patterns of responses were found for both native and nonnative speech at all ages. Thus, to support their dual-language acquisition processes, bilingual infants exploit the greater perceptual salience of redundant audiovisual speech cues at an earlier age and for a longer time than monolingual infants. © The Author(s) 2015.

  4. Methods for Identifying Specific Language Impairment in Bilingual Populations in Germany

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    Cornelia Hamann

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the performance of 22 monolingual and 54 bilingual children with and without specific language impairment (SLI, in a non-word repetition task (NWRT and a sentence repetition task (SRT. Both tasks were constructed according to the principles for LITMUS tools (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings developed within COST Action IS0804 and incorporated phonological or syntactic structures that are linguistically complex and have been shown to be difficult for children with SLI across languages. For phonology these are in particular (nonwords containing consonant clusters. In morphosyntax, complexity has been attributed to factors such as embedding and/or syntactic movement. Tasks focusing on such structures are expected to identify SLI in bilinguals across language combinations. This is notoriously difficult because structures that are problematic for typically developing bilinguals (BiTDs and monolingual children with SLI (MoSLI often overlap. We show that the NWRT and the SRT are reliable tools for identification of SLI in bilingual contexts. However, interpretation of the performance of bilingual children depends on background information as provided by parental questionnaires. To evaluate the accuracy of our tasks, we recruited children in ordinary kindergartens or schools and in speech language therapy centers and verified their status with a battery of standardized language tests, assessing bilingual children in both their languages. We consider a bilingual child language impaired if she shows impairments in two language domains in both her languages. For assessment, we used tests normed for monolinguals (with one exception and adjusted the norms for bilingualism and for language dominance. This procedure established the following groups: 10 typical monolinguals (MoTD, 12 MoSLI, 46 BiTD, and 8 bilingual children with SLI (BiSLI. Our results show that both tasks target relevant structures: monolingual

  5. Elite Vs. Folk Bilingualism: The Mismatch between Theories and Educational and Social Conditions

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    Carmen Helena Guerrero

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available This article aims at contributing to the ongoing discussion about how bilingualism is understood in the current National Bilingualism Plan (PNB for its initials in Spanish. Based on previous research and discussions held at academic events, it is evident that the promoters of the PNB use the term “bilingualism” in a rather indiscriminate way, without adopting a clear approach or definition. This ambiguity in conceptualization has serious consequences in the way the PNB is implemented around the country. The main contribution of this reflection article is, then, to explore from a theoretical perspective two opposite types of bilingualism: elite/folk bilingualism to show that even though on the surface the PNB seems to aim at an elite bilingualism, the educational and social conditions show otherwise.

  6. Perceived Requirements of MIS Curriculum Implementation in Bilingual Developing Countries

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    Kabeil, Magdy M.

    2005-01-01

    This paper addresses additional requirements associated with implementing a standard curriculum of Management Information Systems (MIS) in bilingual developing countries where both students and workplace users speak English as a second language. In such countries, MIS graduates are required to develop bilingual computer applications and to…

  7. Perceptions of Cataloguers and End-Users towards Bilingual Authority Files.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdoulaye, Kaba

    2002-01-01

    Analyzes and describes bilingual authority files at the main library of the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Highlights include a review of multilingual research; perceptions of end users and catalogers; problems with bilingual files; and use of the OPAC (online public access catalog) by users. (Author/LRW)

  8. Positive Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism and Multilingualism on Cerebral Function: a Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quinteros Baumgart, Cibel; Billick, Stephen Bates

    2018-06-01

    A review of the current literature regarding bilingualism demonstrates that bilingualism is linked to higher levels of controlled attention and inhibition in executive control and can protect against the decline of executive control in aging by contributing to cognitive reserve. Bilinguals may also have smaller vocabulary size and slower lexical retrieval for each language. The joint activation theory is proposed to explain these results. Older trilingual adults experience more protection against cognitive decline and children and young adults showed similar cognitive advantages to bilinguals in inhibitory control. Second language learners do not yet show cognitive changes associated with multilingualism. The Specificity Principle states that the acquisition of multiple languages is moderated by multiple factors and varies between experiences. Bilingualism and multilingualism are both associated with immigration but different types of multilingualism can develop depending on the situation. Cultural cues and language similarity also play a role in language switching and multiple language acquisition.

  9. A proposal of methodology for automatic indexation using noun phrases

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    Renato Rocha Souza

    2006-07-01

    Full Text Available It can be noticed that the indexing and representation strategies nowadays seems to be near the exhaustion, and it is worth to investigate new approaches to the indexing and information retrieving systems. Among these, a branch tries to consider the intrinsic semantics of the textual documents using noun phrases as descriptors instead of single keywords. We present in this article a methodology that was developed in the scope of a doctorate research.

  10. Use of Monolingual and Bilingual Dictionaries among Students of English

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    Monika Kavalir

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The study of dictionary use in 32 firstyear students of English at the University of Ljubljana in the academic year 2009/2010 shows that students use a variety of dictionaries with a slight preponderance of monolingual dictionaries over bilingual ones. The bilingual dictionaries listed do not include some of the most recent and most comprehensive dictionaries while some of the most frequently used resources are quite modest sized. The students are already predominantly users of electronic and online dictionaries with a lower frequency of printed resources – a trend which is only likely to accelerate with the advent of new bilingual online dictionaries. These results have practical relevance for teachers in all sectors, from primary and secondary schools to universities, as they point towards a need for additional training in the use of bilingual dictionaries. The transition from printed to electronic and online resources can also be expected to induce changes in EFL methodology at all levels.

  11. Early Acquisition of Gender Agreement in the Spanish Noun Phrase: Starting Small

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    Mariscal, Sonia

    2009-01-01

    Nativist and constructivist accounts differ in their characterization of children's knowledge of grammatical categories. In this paper we present research on the process of acquisition of a particular grammatical system, gender agreement in the Spanish noun phrase, in children under three years of age. The design of the longitudinal study employed…

  12. Dvandvas, Blocking, and the Associative: The Bumpy Ride from Phrase to Word

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiparsky, Paul

    2010-01-01

    The oldest form of Sanskrit has a class of expressions that are in some respects like asyndetically coordinated syntactic phrases, in other respects like single compound words. I propose to resolve the conflicting evidence by drawing on prosodic phonology, stratal optimality theory, and the lexicalist approach to morphological blocking. I then…

  13. When learning a second language does not mean losing the first: bilingual language development in low-income, Spanish-speaking children attending bilingual preschool.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winsler, A; Díaz, R M; Espinosa, L; Rodríguez, J L

    1999-01-01

    This article discusses two investigations which explored the bilingual language development outcomes of comparable groups of low-income, Spanish-speaking, Mexican American children who either did or did not attended a bilingual (Spanish/English) preschool. Study 1 is a replication of a study by Rodríguez, Díaz, Duran, and Espinosa, involving a new sample of 26 children who attended bilingual preschool for one year and 20 control children who remained at home. Study 2 represents a 1-year, longitudinal follow-up of Rodríguez et al.'s, sample of children during and after the children spent another year at home or in the preschool. In both investigations, standardized, objective measures of three components of children's language proficiency (productive language, receptive language, and language complexity) in English and Spanish were obtained at the beginning and end of the academic year. Contrary to fears that have been expressed by some that early exposure to English would lead to children's native language loss, the results of both studies offered no evidence of Spanish proficiency loss for children attending bilingual preschool. Children who attended bilingual preschool, compared to those who remained at home, showed significant and parallel gains in Spanish language development as well as significant and greater increases in English language proficiency over time. Results are discussed in terms of the need for more systematic research to be conducted in this area to inform policy and practice in the early education and development of language-minority children.

  14. A Comparative Analysis of Methods in the Research of Bilingual Semantic Memory

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    Tanja Gulan

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The facts that cognitive functioning of the bilingual speakers is different from that of the monolinguals, and that there is a growing number of bilinguals motivated us to write this paper. Such knowledge sets requirements on researchers to include bilingualism as an important variable in their research, even if the bilingualism is not the primary topic of their interest. However, the main topic of this paper was concerned with the methodology and was pointed toward researchers who are new to this area, as well as to those who are more experienced and wish to improve their research in the field of bilingualism. Taken that there is an increase in a number of published papers dealing with the bilingualism, especially regarding the organization of bilingual mental lexicon, we felt the need to offer a review of the most often used research paradigms and findings from this area of research.  This paper consists of three major parts. In the first part, we briefly defined main concepts in the field of bilingualism research followed by a brief discussion on the most important research questions. In the second part of this paper, we gave a review of the most important methods that are used in order to answer the aforementioned research questions. The methods were evaluated with regard to the scope they could be used to answer research questions. Moreover, this paper offered further recommendations for adequate method selection. And finally, the third part of the paper referred to the key methodological factors which a researcher needs to take into account while conceptualizing research and designing the experiment. Also, we gave some recommendations for how to control or annul the effects of those factors on the dependent variable.

  15. Monolingual or bilingual intervention for primary language impairment? A randomized control trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thordardottir, Elin; Cloutier, Geneviève; Ménard, Suzanne; Pelland-Blais, Elaine; Rvachew, Susan

    2015-04-01

    This study investigated the clinical effectiveness of monolingual versus bilingual language intervention, the latter involving speech-language pathologist-parent collaboration. The study focuses on methods that are currently being recommended and that are feasible within current clinical contexts. Bilingual children with primary language impairment who speak a minority language as their home language and French as their second (n=29, mean age=5 years) were randomly assigned to monolingual treatment, bilingual treatment, and no-treatment (delayed-treatment) conditions. Sixteen sessions of individual language intervention were offered, targeting vocabulary and syntactic skills in French only or bilingually, through parent collaboration during the clinical sessions. Language evaluations were conducted before and after treatment by blinded examiners; these evaluations targeted French as well as the home languages. An additional evaluation was conducted 2 months after completion of treatment to assess maintenance of gains. Both monolingual and bilingual treatment followed a focused stimulation approach. Results in French showed a significant treatment effect for vocabulary but no difference between treatment conditions. Gains were made in syntax, but these gains could not be attributed to treatment given that treatment groups did not improve more than the control group. Home language probes did not suggest that the therapy had resulted in gains in the home language. The intervention used in this study is in line with current recommendations of major speech-language pathology organizations. However, the findings indicate that the bilingual treatment created through collaboration with parents was not effective in creating a sufficiently intense bilingual context to make it significantly different from the monolingual treatment. Further studies are needed to assess the gains associated with clinical modifications made for bilingual children and to search for effective ways

  16. Minimalism and Bilingualism: How and Why Bilingualism Could Benefit Children with SLI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roeper, Thomas

    2012-01-01

    We begin with the hypothesis that all people are "bilingual" because every language contains ingredients from several grammars, just as English exhibits both an Anglo-Saxon and a Latinate vocabulary system. We argue that the dominant grammar is defined by productivity and recursion in particular. Although current evidence is sparse, in principle,…

  17. The Bilingual Advantage: Language, Literacy and the US Labor Market

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callahan, Rebecca M., Ed.; Gándara, Patricia C., Ed.

    2014-01-01

    The Bilingual Advantage draws together researchers from education, economics, sociology, anthropology and linguistics to examine the economic and employment benefits of bilingualism in the US labor market, countering past research that shows no such benefits exist. Collectively, the authors draw on novel methodological approaches and new data to…

  18. HOW CAN BILINGUAL EDUCATION CONTRIBUTE TO LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN THE 21st CENTURY?

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    José Ignacio Vila Mendiburu

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available This article is a reflection about the future which does not obviate all the knowledge acquired in nearly a hundred years time of research about bilingualism and bilingual education. In the first part, it considers the psycho-educational base where bilingualism lies on. In the second part, this article shows the possibilities and the limits of bilingual education in societies which are more and more diversified on linguistic terms. Finally, it reviews some of the guidelines about linguistic education both in Europe and in this country, while it points out some methods to promote the multilingual competence of students.

  19. Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quam, Carolyn; Creel, Sarah C

    2017-01-01

    Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like-not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context.

  20. Syntactic bootstrapping in children with Down syndrome: the impact of bilingualism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cleave, Patricia L; Kay-Raining Bird, Elizabeth; Trudeau, Natacha; Sutton, Ann

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the study was to add to our knowledge of bilingual learning in children with Down syndrome (DS) using a syntactic bootstrapping task. Four groups of children and youth matched on non-verbal mental age participated. There were 14 bilingual participants with DS (DS-B, mean age 12;5), 12 monolingual participants with DS (DS-M, mean age 10;10), 9 bilingual typically developing children (TD-B; mean age 4;1) and 11 monolingual typically developing children (TD-M; mean age 4;1). The participants completed a computerized syntactic bootstrapping task involving unfamiliar nouns and verbs. The syntactic cues employed were a for the nouns and ing for the verbs. Performance was better on nouns than verbs. There was also a main effect for group. Follow-up t-tests revealed that there were no significant differences between the TD-M and TD-B or between the DS-M and DS-B groups. However, the DS-M group performed more poorly than the TD-M group with a large effect size. Analyses at the individual level revealed a similar pattern of results. There was evidence that Down syndrome impacted performance; there was no evidence that bilingualism negatively affected the syntactic bootstrapping skills of individuals with DS. These results from a dynamic language task are consistent with those of previous studies that used static or product measures. Thus, the results are consistent with the position that parents should be supported in their decision to provide bilingual input to their children with DS. Readers of this article will identify (1) research evidence regarding bilingual development in children with Down syndrome and (2) syntactic bootstrapping skills in monolingual and bilingual children who are typically developing or who have Down syndrome. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. A comparative study on students' attitudes towards bilingualism

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    Marina Furlan

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the research was to assess the existence of differences between attitudes towards bilingualism held by students of the Faculty of Humanities Koper and those held by students of Italian language and literacy from the Faculty of Philosophy in Split (Croatia. We investigated whether there are differences between attitudes towards bilingualism of both groups and if attitudes towards bilingualism held by students from Split are more favorable than those held by students from the Faculty of Humanities Koper. The results confirmed the first hypothesis partially, and the second one completely. 11 items out of 20 have shown to conduct to statistically different attitudes, whereas in one case a tendency towards statistically significant difference is to be found. In all cases, where statistically significant differences are to be found, attitudes held by students from Split are more positive, if compared to those held by students from Koper.

  2. The perception and expression of verb morphology in bilinguals with specific language impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hourieh Ahadi

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Most of the researches are about bilingual children with specific language impairment and importance of it in recognition and treatment. This study aimed to assess verb morphology in bilinguals with specific language impairment (SLI and compare them with normal bilinguals.Methods: Six bilingual (Azeri and Persian children with specific language impairment at the age of 7-8 years were collected from clinics of Tehran, Iran. They were evaluated about verb morphology using narrative speech and specific language impairment test and then, compared with six age-matched and six other language-matched children as control group. Children with specific language impairment were diagnosed by exhibiting a significant delay (more than one year in language that can not be explained by intelligence deficits, hearing loss or visual impairment. We used Man-Whitney test for comparing the groups.Results: Bilingual children with specific language impairment had delay in comparison with their age-matched group in subject-verb agreement (p=0.020 and articulating tense morphemes (p=0.019. They also had meaningful delay in using proper tense of verbs (past, present, and future in comparison with language-matched control group (p=0.029.Conclusion: Comparison of typical development of bilingual children and bilinguals with specific language impairment shows that verb morphology is a good clinical marker for diagnosing and treatment of these children.

  3. Bilingual children referred for psychiatric services: associations of language disorders, language skills, and psychopathology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toppelberg, Claudio O; Medrano, Laura; Peña Morgens, Liana; Nieto-Castañon, Alfonso

    2002-06-01

    To investigate (1) the prevalence of language deficits and disorders and (2) the relationship of bilingual language skills and psychopathology, in Spanish-English bilingual children referred for child and adolescent psychiatry services. Bilingual language skills, emotional/behavioral problems, sociodemographics, immigration variables, and nonverbal IQ were studied in 50 consecutively referred children. Estimated prevalence was high for language deficits (48%) and disorders (41%), with most cases (>79%) being of the mixed receptive-expressive type. In children with clinically significant emotional/behavioral problems, bilingual language skills were strongly and inversely correlated with problem scores, particularly global problems (r = -0.67, p or = -0.54; p language disorders and delays and (2) the close tie between poor language skills and emotional/behavioral problems. The data strongly suggest the clinical importance and feasibility of language assessment and the significance of receptive problems in bilingual children referred for psychiatric services. A safe approach is to fully assess language skills, rather than misattributing these children's language delays to normal bilingual acquisition processes.

  4. Bilingualism increases neural response consistency and attentional control: evidence for sensory and cognitive coupling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krizman, Jennifer; Skoe, Erika; Marian, Viorica; Kraus, Nina

    2014-01-01

    Auditory processing is presumed to be influenced by cognitive processes - including attentional control - in a top-down manner. In bilinguals, activation of both languages during daily communication hones inhibitory skills, which subsequently bolster attentional control. We hypothesize that the heightened attentional demands of bilingual communication strengthens connections between cognitive (i.e., attentional control) and auditory processing, leading to greater across-trial consistency in the auditory evoked response (i.e., neural consistency) in bilinguals. To assess this, we collected passively-elicited auditory evoked responses to the syllable [da] in adolescent Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals and separately obtained measures of attentional control and language ability. Bilinguals demonstrated enhanced attentional control and more consistent brainstem and cortical responses. In bilinguals, but not monolinguals, brainstem consistency tracked with language proficiency and attentional control. We interpret these enhancements in neural consistency as the outcome of strengthened attentional control that emerged from experience communicating in two languages. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Cross-Cultural Transfer in Gesture Frequency in Chinese-English Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    So, Wing Chee

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in gesture frequency and the extent to which exposure to two cultures would affect the gesture frequency of bilinguals when speaking in both languages. The Chinese-speaking monolinguals from China, English-speaking monolinguals from America, and Chinese-English bilinguals from…

  6. Teacher Beliefs regarding Bilingualism in an English Medium Reading Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaish, Viniti

    2012-01-01

    Reading classes in schools where English is the medium of instruction are increasingly servicing a linguistically diverse population; however, teacher-training for English teachers lacks a focus on bilingualism. Using the context of Singapore, this paper analyses beliefs on bilingualism of English teachers in an early intervention reading program.…

  7. Emergent Bilingualism and Working Memory Development in School Aged Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, Laura Birke; Macizo, Pedro; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni; Saldaña, David; Carreiras, Manuel; Fuentes, Luis J.; Bajo, M. Teresa

    2016-01-01

    The present research explores working memory (WM) development in monolingual as well as emergent bilingual children immersed in an L2 at school. Evidence from recent years suggests that bilingualism may boost domain-general executive control, but impair nonexecutive linguistic processing. Both are relevant for verbal WM, but different paradigms…

  8. Medical Tourism in Malaysia: Prospect and Challenges

    OpenAIRE

    SARWAR, Abdullah

    2013-01-01

    Background: Tourism, combined with the phrase medical, seems to be a new form of tourism which has gained huge popularity in recent decades. Though, a number of literatures available with regard to the tourism industry and the competitiveness of the destination, however, the major aspects which determine the satisfaction of medical tourists are hardly focused specifically on Malaysia. There is a lack of empirical evidence in this area of study which needs to be bridged. Hence, this study aime...

  9. Medical Tourism and the Libyan National Health Services

    OpenAIRE

    Taguri, Adel El

    2007-01-01

    Medical tourism is a term that is used frequently by the media and travel agencies as a catchall phrase to describe a process where people travel to other countries to obtain medical, dental, and/or surgical care [1,2]. Leisure aspects of traveling are usually included on such a medical travel trip [1]. The term is also used to describe a situation where doctors travel to other places to deliver services to endogenous populations [3].Many factors have led to the recent increase in popularity ...

  10. Challenging the Dominant Narrative: Critical Bilingual Leadership ("Liderazgo") for Emergent Bilingual Latin@ Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiemelt, Joseph; Welton, Anjale

    2015-01-01

    The growing "Latinization" of the United States is drastically changing the demographics of the students served in PK-12 public schools (Irizarry, 2011). To understand how educational leaders can best serve this changing student population, we used Critical Bilingual leadership, "Liderazgo," to interrogate the aim to create a…

  11. Second language proficiency modulates conflict-monitoring in an oculomotor Stroop task: evidence from Hindi-English bilinguals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niharika eSingh

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Many studies have confirmed the presence of a bilingual advantage which is manifested as enhanced cognitive and attention control. However, very few studies have investigated the role of second language proficiency on the modulation of conflict-monitoring in bilinguals. We investigated this by comparing high and low proficient Hindi-English bilinguals on a modified saccadic arrow Stroop task under different monitoring conditions, and tested the predictions of the bilingual executive control advantage proposal. The task of the participants was to make an eye movement towards the colour patch in the same colour as the central arrow, ignoring the patch to which the arrow was pointing. High-proficient bilinguals had overall faster saccade latency on all types of trials as compared to the low proficient bilinguals. The overall saccadic latency for high proficiency bilinguals was similarly affected by the different types of monitoring conditions, whereas conflict resolution advantage was found only for high monitoring demanding condition. The results support a conflict-monitoring account in a novel oculomotor task and also suggest that language proficiency could modulate executive control in bilinguals.

  12. A Comparison of Bilingual Education Policies and Practices in Peru and the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minaya-Rowe, Liliana

    This comparison of the development of bilingual education policies and practices presents the legal framework of Peruvian and American policies, the processes of their establishment, and bilingual program implementation. The sociocultural and historical circumstances out of which the policies grew and which the bilingual programs reflect are also…

  13. Early bilingualism, language attainment, and brain development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berken, Jonathan A; Gracco, Vincent L; Klein, Denise

    2017-04-01

    The brain demonstrates a remarkable capacity to undergo structural and functional change in response to experience throughout the lifespan. Evidence suggests that, in many domains of skill acquisition, the manifestation of this neuroplasticity depends on the age at which learning begins. The fact that most skills are acquired late in childhood or in adulthood has proven to be a limitation in studies aimed at determining the relationship between age of acquisition and brain plasticity. Bilingualism, however, provides an optimal model for discerning differences in how the brain wires when a skill is acquired from birth, when the brain circuitry for language is being constructed, versus later in life, when the pathways subserving the first language are already well developed. This review examines some of the existing knowledge about optimal periods in language development, with particular attention to the attainment of native-like phonology. It focuses on the differences in brain structure and function between simultaneous and sequential bilinguals and the compensatory mechanisms employed when bilingualism is achieved later in life, based on evidence from studies using a variety of neuroimaging modalities, including positron emission tomography (PET), task-based and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and structural MRI. The discussion concludes with the presentation of recent neuroimaging studies that explore the concept of nested optimal periods in language development and the different neural paths to language proficiency taken by simultaneous and sequential bilinguals, with extrapolation to general notions of the relationship between age of acquisition and ultimate skill performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Bilingualism as a potential strategy to improve executive function in preterm infants: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Head, Lauren M; Baralt, Melissa; Darcy Mahoney, Ashley E

    2015-01-01

    Preterm birth is associated with long-term deficits in executive functioning and cognitive performance. Using the model of brain plasticity as a theoretical framework, it is possible that preterm infants' neurodevelopmental sequelae can be altered. Evidence suggests that bilingualism confers cognitive advantages on executive functioning, so it is possible that bilingualism may improve preterm infants' neurodevelopment. However, bilingualism has only been studied in term children. This review examined literature that compared the performance of preterm-born children to term children and bilingual children to monolingual children on executive function tasks. To address cognitive disparities in preterm-born children, studies investigating the effect of bilingualism on preterm infants' executive functioning is warranted. Copyright © 2015 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. "One Glove Does Not Fit All" in Bilingual Reading Acquisition: Using the Age of First Bilingual Language Exposure to Understand Optimal Contexts for Reading Success

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kovelman, Ioulia; Salah-Ud-Din, Maha; Berens, Melody S.; Petitto, Laura-Ann

    2015-01-01

    In teaching reading, educators strive to find the balance between a code-emphasis approach and a meaning-oriented literacy approach. However, little is known about how different approaches to literacy can benefit bilingual children's early reading acquisition. To investigate the novel hypothesis that children's age of first bilingual exposure can…

  16. Generating descriptive visual words and visual phrases for large-scale image applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Shiliang; Tian, Qi; Hua, Gang; Huang, Qingming; Gao, Wen

    2011-09-01

    Bag-of-visual Words (BoWs) representation has been applied for various problems in the fields of multimedia and computer vision. The basic idea is to represent images as visual documents composed of repeatable and distinctive visual elements, which are comparable to the text words. Notwithstanding its great success and wide adoption, visual vocabulary created from single-image local descriptors is often shown to be not as effective as desired. In this paper, descriptive visual words (DVWs) and descriptive visual phrases (DVPs) are proposed as the visual correspondences to text words and phrases, where visual phrases refer to the frequently co-occurring visual word pairs. Since images are the carriers of visual objects and scenes, a descriptive visual element set can be composed by the visual words and their combinations which are effective in representing certain visual objects or scenes. Based on this idea, a general framework is proposed for generating DVWs and DVPs for image applications. In a large-scale image database containing 1506 object and scene categories, the visual words and visual word pairs descriptive to certain objects or scenes are identified and collected as the DVWs and DVPs. Experiments show that the DVWs and DVPs are informative and descriptive and, thus, are more comparable with the text words than the classic visual words. We apply the identified DVWs and DVPs in several applications including large-scale near-duplicated image retrieval, image search re-ranking, and object recognition. The combination of DVW and DVP performs better than the state of the art in large-scale near-duplicated image retrieval in terms of accuracy, efficiency and memory consumption. The proposed image search re-ranking algorithm: DWPRank outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithm by 12.4% in mean average precision and about 11 times faster in efficiency.

  17. CODE SWITCHING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC SYSTEM OF SIMULTANEOUS BILINGUAL CHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leni Amelia Suek

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Code switching and code mixing are the phenomena commonly seen done by a bilingual. This behavior is influenced by several aspects such as the linguistic system, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and language competence of the bilingual. If children are able to distinguish two different languages since early age, they will be considered simultaneous bilinguals. They show that they develop multiple, rather than single, linguistic systems. However, it was understood that code switching and code mixing were due to the failure in using proper words, language features, and sociolinguistic competence. Yet, recent studies have shown that bilingual children are able to use both languages proficiently with no signs of confusion or failure in language use. This ability also does not hinder their cognitive development.

  18. How Do Siblings Shape the Language Environment in Bilingual Families?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obied, Vicky Macleroy

    2009-01-01

    This article investigates the home literacy practices of Portuguese-English bilingual children raised in Portugal. The ethnographic research was inspired by experience with bilingual families, whose children were all of school age, so acquisition of literacy in English as the non-school language had surfaced as an issue. The research opens up new…

  19. Cross-Linguistic Influence in French-English Bilingual Children's Possessive Constructions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicoladis, Elena

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this article was to test the predictions of a speech production model of cross-linguistic influence in French-English bilingual children. A speech production model predicts bidirectional influence (i.e., bilinguals' greater use of periphrastic constructions like the hat of the dog relative to monolinguals in English and reversed…

  20. Bilingual Education and L3 Learning: Metalinguistic Advantage or Not?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rutgers, Dieuwerke; Evans, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Metalinguistic skills are highlighted in the literature as providing bilinguals with an advantage in additional language (L3) learning. The extent to which this may apply to bilingual education and content-and-language-integrated-learning settings, however, is as yet little understood. This article reports on a study exploring and comparing the…

  1. Literacy Outcomes of a Chinese/English Bilingual Program in Ontario

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koh, Poh Wee; Chen, Xi; Cummins, James; Li, Jia

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the performance of Mandarin-speaking students in a K-Grade 4 50/50 Chinese/English bilingual program. The program was intended to facilitate students' learning of English and their adjustment to English-medium instruction within the school context. The bilingual-program students were compared to students from Mandarin-speaking…

  2. Designing Science Learning Environments That Support Emerging Bilingual Students to Problematize Electrical Phenomena

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suarez, Enrique A.

    This dissertation investigates how emerging bilingual students make sense of natural phenomena through engaging in certain epistemic practices of science, and the elements of the learning environment that created those opportunities. Specifically, the dissertation focuses on how emerging bilingual students problematized electrical phenomena, like electric flow and electrical resistance, and how the design features of the environment (e.g., sequencing of activities, linguistic practices) may have supported students as they made sense of phenomena. The first study describes how for students presented and evaluated mechanistic models of electric flow, focusing specifically on how students identified and negotiated a disagreement between their explanatory models. The results from this study highlight the complexity of students' disagreements, not only because of the epistemological aspects related to presenting and evaluating knowledge, but also due to interpersonal dynamics and the discomfort associated with disagreeing with another person. The second study focuses on the design features of the learning environment that supported emerging bilingual students' investigations of electrical phenomena. The findings from this study highlight how a carefully designed set of activities, with the appropriate material resources (e.g., experimental tools), could support students to problematize electrical resistance. The third study describes how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices and the contextual features of the learning environment that created and hindered opportunities for translanguaging. The findings from this study identify and articulate how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices when problematizing electrical resistance, and strengthen the perspective that, in order to be equitable for emerging bilingual students, science learning environments need to act as translanguaging spaces. This dissertation makes three

  3. Bicultural-Bilinguals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ringberg, Torsten; Luna, David; Reihlen, Markus

    2010-01-01

    Cross-cultural management research suggests that bicultural-bilinguals are ideal cultural mediators as they are able to access dual cultural frameworks and seamlessly switch back and forth between these. The assumption is that this switching between cultural frameworks ensures equivalency...... in meaning across cultures. Yet previous research has only shown this effect at a between-subject level during which cultural variables were not controlled for. Our research controls for such influences by relying on a within-subject approach, illustrating that language triggers frame switching among...

  4. Lifelong bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve against white matter integrity declines in aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gold, Brian T; Johnson, Nathan F; Powell, David K

    2013-11-01

    Recent evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve (CR) in normal aging. However, there is currently no neuroimaging evidence to suggest that lifelong bilinguals can retain normal cognitive functioning in the face of age-related neurodegeneration. Here we explored this issue by comparing white matter (WM) integrity and gray matter (GM) volumetric patterns of older adult lifelong bilinguals (N=20) and monolinguals (N=20). The groups were matched on a range of relevant cognitive test scores and on the established CR variables of education, socioeconomic status and intelligence. Participants underwent high-resolution structural imaging for assessment of GM volume and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for assessment of WM integrity. Results indicated significantly lower microstructural integrity in the bilingual group in several WM tracts. In particular, compared to their monolingual peers, the bilingual group showed lower fractional anisotropy and/or higher radial diffusivity in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus/inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus bilaterally, the fornix, and multiple portions of the corpus callosum. There were no group differences in GM volume. Our results suggest that lifelong bilingualism contributes to CR against WM integrity declines in aging. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  5. From Test Scores to Language Use: Emergent Bilinguals Using English to Accomplish Academic Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez-Mojica, Claudia

    2018-01-01

    Prominent discourses about emergent bilinguals' academic abilities tend to focus on performance as measured by test scores and perpetuate the message that emergent bilinguals trail far behind their peers. When we remove the constraints of formal testing situations, what can emergent bilinguals do in English as they engage in naturally occurring…

  6. Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quam, Carolyn; Creel, Sarah C.

    2017-01-01

    Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like—not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context. PMID:28076400

  7. Linguistic and Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism with Regional Minority Languages: A Study of Sardinian–Italian Adult Speakers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garraffa, Maria; Obregon, Mateo; Sorace, Antonella

    2017-01-01

    This study explores the effects of bilingualism in Sardinian as a regional minority language on the linguistic competence in Italian as the dominant language and on non-linguistic cognitive abilities. Sardinian/Italian adult speakers and monolingual Italian speakers living in the same geographical area of Sardinia were compared in two kinds of tasks: (a) verbal and non-verbal cognitive tasks targeting working memory and attentional control and (b) tasks of linguistic abilities in Italian focused on the comprehension of sentences differing in grammatical complexity. Although no difference was found between bilinguals and monolinguals in the cognitive control of attention, bilinguals performed better on working memory tasks. Bilinguals with lower formal education were found to be faster at comprehension of one type of complex sentence (center embedded object relative clauses). In contrast, bilinguals and monolinguals with higher education showed comparable slower processing of complex sentences. These results show that the effects of bilingualism are modulated by type of language experience and education background: positive effects of active bilingualism on the dominant language are visible in bilinguals with lower education, whereas the effects of higher literacy in Italian obliterate those of active bilingualism in bilinguals and monolinguals with higher education. PMID:29163288

  8. Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development in monolingual Dutch and bilingual Turkish-Dutch preschoolers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Messer, M.H.

    2010-01-01

    With increasing immigration, bilingualism has become part and parcel of the everyday lives of many children. Although research indicates that under favourable circumstances bilingual children can become balanced bilinguals, especially immigrant children seem to have difficulty coping with the

  9. Parsing and Tagging of Bilingual Dictionary

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Ma, Huanfeng; Karagol-Ayan, Burcu; Doermann, David S; Oard, Doug; Wang, Jianqiang

    2003-01-01

    Bilingual dictionaries hold great potential as a source of lexical resources for training and testing automated systems for optical character recognition, machine translation, and cross-language information retrieval...

  10. Comparing Bilingual to Monolingual Learners on English Spelling: A Meta-analytic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jing; Quiroz, Blanca; Dixon, L Quentin; Joshi, R Malatesha

    2016-08-01

    This study reports on a meta-analysis to examine how bilingual learners compare with English monolingual learners on two English spelling outcomes: real-word spelling and pseudo-word spelling. Eighteen studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014 were retrieved. The study-level variables and characteristics (e.g. sample size, study design and research instruments) were coded, and 29 independent effect sizes across the 18 retrieved studies were analysed. We found that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on real-word spelling overall and more so in early grades, but monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on pseudo-word spelling. Further, bilinguals at risk for reading difficulties did better on real-word spelling than monolinguals at risk for reading difficulties. Having investigated systematic sources of variability in effect sizes, we conclude that in comparison with their monolingual peers, bilingual learners, especially those from alphabetic L1 backgrounds, are able to master constrained skills, such as English spelling, in the current instructional context. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  11. The Noun Phrase in Functional Discourse Grammar

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    reintroduce Dik’s idea of Dynamic Term Construction and extend the current ontology of entities. The result would be a more cogent treatment of scope and NP syntax, which does not force the theory to abandon any of its fundamental methodological principles. Evelien Keizer (University of Amsterdam...... can account for NP-internal agreement phenomena, including speech errors, as attested in a large corpus of spoken German. Daniel García Velasco (University of Oviedo) examines the so-called Complex Noun Phrase Constraint within the context of FDG. The existence of restrictions on the displacement......, with regard to both form and content. Daniel García Velasco also wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the Dept. of Anglogermanic and French Studies and the Research Vice-Rectorate of the University of Oviedo....

  12. Privileging Bilingualism: Using Biliterate Writing Outcomes to Understand Emerging Bilingual Learners' Literacy Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hopewell, Susan; Butvilofsky, Sandra

    2016-01-01

    Language planning and policy with regard to bilingual education are greatly influenced by the ideologies outlined by Richard Ruiz. In this article, we demonstrate that Ruiz's language-as-resource orientation requires that we use two-language assessments to study how program models are both developing and conserving the languages that students…

  13. Evolving 50–50% bilingual pedagogy in Alberta: what does the research say?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naqvi, Rahat; Schmidt, Elaine; Krickhan, Marlene

    2014-01-01

    This paper outlines the provincial frameworks that define the Spanish bilingual program in Alberta, Canada, provides an historical overview of its pedagogic constraints and evolution, and proposes a framework for bilingual pedagogy. The framework is conceptualized from the research evidence of three local case studies, and is based on the centrality of cross-linguistic transfer, in relation to linguistic interdependence and bilingual learning. PMID:24987378

  14. Implications of Bilingual Development for Specific Language Impairments in Turkey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Topbas, Seyhun

    2011-01-01

    The potential impact of bilingualism on children's language development has emerged as a crucial concern for Turkey, but so far it has not been addressed from the point of view of language disorders. This short review examines the potential impact of bilingual language development for language impairments in Turkey, with special emphasis on the…

  15. Speed of Processing, Anticipation, Inhibition and Working Memory in Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonifacci, Paola; Giombini, Lucia; Bellocchi, Stephanie; Contento, Silvana

    2011-01-01

    Literature on the so-called bilingual advantage is directed towards the investigation of whether the mastering of two languages fosters cognitive skills in the non-verbal domain. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the bilingual advantage in non-verbal skills could be best defined as domain-general or domain-specific, and, in the latter…

  16. Bilingualism, social cognition and executive functions: A tale of chickens and eggs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, Simon R; Bak, Thomas H; Allerhand, Michael; Redmond, Paul; Starr, John M; Deary, Ian J; MacPherson, Sarah E

    2016-10-01

    The influence of bilingualism on cognitive functioning is currently a topic of intense scientific debate. The strongest evidence for a cognitive benefit of bilingualism has been demonstrated in executive functions. However, the causal direction of the relationship remains unclear: does learning other languages improve executive functions or are people with better executive abilities more likely to become bilingual? To address this, we examined 90 male participants of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936; 26 were bilingual, 64 monolingual. All participants underwent an intelligence test at age 11 years and were assessed on a wide range of executive and social cognition tasks at age 74. The only notable differences between both groups were found for the Simon Effect (which indexes stimulus-response conflict resolution; β=-.518, p=0.025) and a trend effect for the Faux Pas task (a measure of complex theory of mind; ToM, β=0.432, p=0.060). Controlling for the influence of childhood intelligence, parental and own social class significantly attenuated the bilingual advantage on the Faux Pas test (β=0.058, p=0.816), whereas the Simon task advantage remained (β=-.589, p=0.049). We find some weak evidence that the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive functions may be selective and bi-directional. Pre-existing cognitive and social class differences from childhood may influence both ToM ability in older age and the likelihood of learning another language; yet, bilingualism does not appear to independently contribute to Faux Pas score. Conversely, learning a second language is related to better conflict processing, irrespective of initial childhood ability or social class. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  17. Issues on raising a bilingual child in Costa Rica: a myth or a reality?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Allen Quesada Pacheco

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available This article deals with main issues concerning bilingualism and bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA. A review of the literature is presented on how children learn languages. In addition, this paper summarizes what bilingualism is and addresses how the One-parent One-language (OPOL and the Minority Language at Home (ML@H methods work. The paper includes sample testimonies of Itzel, a three-year-old child, raised with these methods. It also illustrates samples of her code-switching and code-mixing as part of her evolution in bilingual first language acquisition. Based on this evolution, there is some evidence that a child can become bilingual under foreign language conditions. Finally, the article reflects on the decisive role that dedication, consistency and effort have as crucial components to accomplish BFLA.

  18. Child healthcare nurses believe that bilingual children show slower language development, simplify screening procedures and delay referrals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nayeb, Laleh; Wallby, Thomas; Westerlund, Monica; Salameh, Eva-Kristina; Sarkadi, Anna

    2015-02-01

    A significant number of children living in Sweden are bilingual, but how language screening is performed in this group is unknown. We investigated child healthcare nurses' perceptions of the language screening of bilingual children aged 30-36 months, together with their clinical practices. An online questionnaire was completed by 863 nurses who performed language screening of bilingual children in Sweden at least once a month, corresponding to 89% of the target population. Cox regression identified predictors of the nurses' tendency to simplify the screening of bilingual children. The nurses reported a greater lack of confidence and more difficulties in interpreting screening outcomes for bilingual than monolingual children (p bilingual children and 74% postponed referrals to speech and language services, basing these adaptations on their perceptions of the children's Swedish language skills (p bilingual children, and this was the strongest predictor of simplified screening practices (RR=2.00, 95% CI 1.44-2.77). Child healthcare nurses need easily accessible information and clear guidelines on the language development of bilingual children to ensure that bilingual and monolingual children receive equitable language screening services. ©2014 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Bilingual Facebook Users’ Cognitive Writing Processes / Processus cognitifs d’écriture des utilisateurs bilingues de Facebook

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacqueline Riley

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This study seeks to explore the cognitive processes involved as bilinguals wrote English and Spanish Facebook status updates. Three phases of data collection were employed: individual interviews, examination of participants’ Facebook status updates and a group interview. The findings suggested that regardless of the language in which participants wrote, they made a series of decisions as they selected the content, chose the language, formulated the text and typed the status updates. The findings also indicated that for the individuals in this study, higher language proficiencies resulted in increased automaticity when converting thoughts to nonstandard online communications. While participants engaged in many experiences found in Flower and Hayes’ Cognitive Process Model (1981, additional explanation was needed to illustrate how this process varied for online bilingual writers. Cette étude cherche à explorer les processus cognitifs utilisés lorsque des personnes bilingues écrivent des statuts Facebook en anglais et en espagnol. Trois phases de collecte de données ont été utilisées : entrevues individuelles, examen des mises à jour de statut Facebook des participants et entrevue de groupe. Les résultats suggèrent que peu importe la langue de rédaction utilisée par les participants, ceux-ci procédaient à une série de décisions en sélectionnant le contenu, choisissant la langue, formulant le texte et entrant les mises à jour. Les résultats indiquent également que pour les personnes de cette étude, de meilleures compétences linguistiques se traduisaient par une automaticité accrue au moment de convertir les pensées en communications en ligne non standards. Bien que les participants aient pris part à certaines expériences décrites par Flower et Hayes dans leur Cognitive Process Model (1981, de plus amples explications sont requises pour illustrer comment ce processus varie pour les rédacteurs bilingues en ligne.

  20. Bilingual Education Model in Prekmurje, and the Dictionary as a Teaching Aid

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jutka Rudaš

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The model of bilingual education is one of the two-way models of preserving two languages and cultures. This paper describes the successful implementation of a bilingual education process, with a short developmental span and an emphasis on the key deficiencies of the model. By getting to know two cultures and two social relationships and by understanding them, pupils develop a positive attitude to cultural diversity as well as intercultural relationships. Within the framework of school subjects, we teach professional terminology in both languages and thus educate speakers in a way that they experience linguistic and cultural diversity in the ethnically mixed area of Prekmurje. The model of the two-way preservation of the mother tongue makes sense only if the community and the society benefit from bilingualism, and if important and above-average intercultural and social competences that contribute to peaceful coexistence of different cultures are allowed access. Practice shows that so far these goals have not been fully implemented, that there is no ideal relationship between the languages of instruction and that the desired results are not implemented. We have found that there are two shortcomings in this respect: the incomplete didactic aspect and the inadequate competence of teachers in bilingual educational institutions owing to the lack of possibility of acquiring the appropriate competences, particularly in the Hungarian language. Among the most important means for the efficiency of the language structure acquisition and language use are bilingual textbooks and other teaching aids. Based on these findings, this paper presents cognitive and other skills that enable the integration of a bilingual dictionary into the teaching process. As this is a demanding and important skill, it is crucial that teachers and pupils are trained in this activity. The dictionary as a didactic tool is not merely a means of information but also a basis for the

  1. Technology-Enhanced L2 Reading: The Effects of Hierarchical Phrase Segmentation

    OpenAIRE

    Park, Youngmin

    2016-01-01

    Sentence processing skills contribute to successful L2 reading, and require understanding and manipulation of the order and interdependence of words within a sentence. Acknowledging that this syntactic awareness is significant but challenging in language development, a small number of researchers have explored whether modified text format increases reading abilities by raising syntactic awareness. This mixed within- and between-subjects study aims to examine whether phrase-segmented format, s...

  2. Zionism & Bilingualism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvid, Carmit Romano

    2010-01-01

    In Today’s Israel the school system is divided by nationality and language. Jews study in Jewish only schools and the medium of instruction is Hebrew, while Arabs study in Arab only schools and the medium of instruction is Arabic. The first initiative of Arab-Jewish bilingual education is from...... schools throughout the country. In those schools, pupils from the two populations, Jews and Arabs receive their primary schooling in the two languages concurrently. This unique educational phenomenon has attracted considerable attention in the media and the published press, and both documentary films...

  3. Onset age of L2 acquisition influences language network in early and late Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiaojin; Tu, Liu; Wang, Junjing; Jiang, Bo; Gao, Wei; Pan, Ximin; Li, Meng; Zhong, Miao; Zhu, Zhenzhen; Niu, Meiqi; Li, Yanyan; Zhao, Ling; Chen, Xiaoxi; Liu, Chang; Lu, Zhi; Huang, Ruiwang

    2017-11-01

    Early second language (L2) experience influences the neural organization of L2 in neuro-plastic terms. Previous studies tried to reveal these plastic effects of age of second language acquisition (AoA-L2) and proficiency-level in L2 (PL-L2) on the neural basis of language processing in bilinguals. Although different activation patterns have been observed during language processing in early and late bilinguals by task-fMRI, few studies reported the effect of AoA-L2 and high PL-L2 on language network at resting state. In this study, we acquired resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) data from 10 Cantonese (L1)-Mandarin (L2) early bilinguals (acquired L2: 3years old) and 11 late bilinguals (acquired L2: 6years old), and analyzed their topological properties of language networks after controlling the language daily exposure and usage as well as PL in L1 and L2. We found that early bilinguals had significantly a higher clustering coefficient, global and local efficiency, but significantly lower characteristic path length compared to late bilinguals. Modular analysis indicated that compared to late bilinguals, early bilinguals showed significantly stronger intra-modular functional connectivity in the semantic and phonetic modules, stronger inter-modular functional connectivity between the semantic and phonetic modules as well as between the phonetic and syntactic modules. Differences in global and local parameters may reflect different patterns of neuro-plasticity respectively for early and late bilinguals. These results suggested that different L2 experience influences topological properties of language network, even if late bilinguals achieve high PL-L2. Our findings may provide a new perspective of neural mechanisms related to early and late bilinguals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Do bilinguals outperform monolinguals?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sejdi Sejdiu

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The relationship between second dialect acquisition and the psychological capacity of the learner is still a divisive topic that generates a lot of debate. A few researchers contend that the acquisition of the second dialect tends to improve the cognitive abilities in various individuals, but at the same time it could hinder the same abilities in other people. Currently, immersion is a common occurrence in some countries. In the recent past, it has significantly increased in its popularity, which has caused parents, professionals, and researchers to question whether second language acquisition has a positive impact on cognitive development, encompassing psychological ability. In rundown, the above might decide to comprehend the effects of using a second language based on the literal aptitudes connected with the native language. The issue of bilingualism was seen as a disadvantage until recently because of two languages being present which would hinder or delay the development of languages. However, recent studies have proven that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in tasks which require more attention.

  5. Dutch-Cantonese Bilinguals Show Segmental Processing during Sinitic Language Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kalinka Timmer

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study addressed the debate on the primacy of syllable vs. segment (i.e., phoneme as a functional unit of phonological encoding in syllabic languages by investigating both behavioral and neural responses of Dutch-Cantonese (DC bilinguals in a color-object picture naming task. Specifically, we investigated whether DC bilinguals exhibit the phonemic processing strategy, evident in monolingual Dutch speakers, during planning of their Cantonese speech production. Participants named the color of colored line-drawings in Cantonese faster when color and object matched in the first segment than when they were mismatched (e.g., 藍駱駝, /laam4/ /lok3to4/, “blue camel;” 紅饑駝, /hung4/ /lok3to4/, “red camel”. This is in contrast to previous studies in Sinitic languages that did not reveal such phoneme-only facilitation. Phonemic overlap also modulated the event-related potentials (ERPs in the 125–175, 200–300, and 300–400 ms time windows, suggesting earlier ERP modulations than in previous studies with monolingual Sinitic speakers or unbalanced Sinitic-Germanic bilinguals. Conjointly, our results suggest that, while the syllable may be considered the primary unit of phonological encoding in Sinitic languages, the phoneme can serve as the primary unit of phonological encoding, both behaviorally and neurally, for DC bilinguals. The presence/absence of a segment onset effect in Sinitic languages may be related to the proficiency in the Germanic language of bilinguals.

  6. Knowledge of Some Derivational Processes in Two Samples of Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marckworth, M. Lois

    1978-01-01

    A report on a study concerning the bilingual child in a monolingual community. It investigates the acquisition of a set of English derivational morphemes by bilingual children and the effect of external factors, such as school, exposure time, age and home, in the children's language experience. (AMH)

  7. The Mutual Symbiosis between Inclusive Bi-Lingual Education and Multicultural Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irby, Beverly J.; Tong, Fuhui; Lara-Alecio, Rafael

    2011-01-01

    In this article the authors postulate a mutual symbiosis between multicultural and inclusive bi-lingual education. Combining bi-lingual and multicultural education to create a symbiotic relationship can stimulate reform in schools and can promote inclusive educational systems, thereby keeping native languages and cultures alive for minority…

  8. Key-phrase based classification of public health web pages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolamic, Ljiljana; Boyer, Célia

    2013-01-01

    This paper describes and evaluates the public health web pages classification model based on key phrase extraction and matching. Easily extendible both in terms of new classes as well as the new language this method proves to be a good solution for text classification faced with the total lack of training data. To evaluate the proposed solution we have used a small collection of public health related web pages created by a double blind manual classification. Our experiments have shown that by choosing the adequate threshold value the desired value for either precision or recall can be achieved.

  9. Syntactic mixing across generations in an environment of community-wide bilingualism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabine eStoll

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available A quantitative analysis of a trans-generational, conversational corpus of Chintang (Tibeto-Burman speakers with community-wide bilingualism in Nepali (Indo-European reveals that children show more code-switching into Nepali than older speakers. This confirms earlier proposals in the literature that code-switching in bilingual children decreases when they gain proficiency in their dominant language, especially in vocabulary. Contradicting expectations from other studies, our corpus data also reveal that for adults, multi-word insertions of Nepali into Chintang are just as likely to undergo full syntactic integration as single-word insertions. Speakers of younger generations show less syntactic integration. We propose that this reflects a change between generations, from strongly asymmetrical, Chintang-dominated bilingualism in older generations to more balanced bilingualism where Chintang and Nepali operate as clearly separate systems in younger generations. This change is likely to have been triggered by the increase of Nepali presence over the past few decades.

  10. PENGARUH MODEL PEMBELAJARAN QUANTUM TEACHING BERBANTUAN MODUL QT-BILINGUAL TERHADAP HASIL BELAJAR SISWA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Husna Amalana

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Quantum teaching learning model supported by QT(Quantum Teaching-bilingual module emphasize optimization all multiple intelligences and learning style of students in learning activities with TANDUR frame. This research aimed to find out the effect of quantum teaching learning model supported by QT-bilingual module to the achievement of X grade students of SMA in Kedungwuni, how much the effect magnitude, and how student response. This research uses true experimental design with X.1 and X.8 classes as reasearch samples which determined by cluster random sampling technique. Data were collected through documentation, test, observation and questionnaire method. The results of hypothesis test analysis showed correlation and determination coefficient are 0.54 and 29.16%. The results of questionnaire stated that the students’ response is very good to quantum teaching learning model assisted by QT-bilingual module. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that quantum teaching learning model assisted by QT-bilingual module effects on student learning outcomes by achieving the medium level of effect with contribution is 29.16%. Students’ response is very good actually to quantum teaching learning model supported by QT-bilingual module.Keywords: Quantum Teaching, QT-Bilingual Module 

  11. How Bilingual Is Bilingual? Mother-Tongue Proficiency and Learning through a Second Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yazici, Zeliha; Ilter, Binnur Genc; Glover, Philip

    2010-01-01

    In a bilingual context, the mother tongue plays a key role in a child's social and personal development, in education and in second-language learning. There is a complex relationship between these three areas. Support for children receiving education through a second language is often in the form of additional learning opportunities in the second…

  12. Understanding Bilingual Education: An Overview of Key Notions in the Literature and the Implications for Chinese University EFL Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ping, Wang

    2017-01-01

    This article starts with a review of definitions of bilingualism. It then discusses the definition of bilingual education with its focus on the analysis of bilingual competence. It is subsequently suggested that a theoretical hard nut to be cracked in today's bilingual research is to establish the scope of discussion of bilingualism models meeting…

  13. BEST: Bilingual environmental science training: Kindergarten level

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1996-03-01

    This booklet is one of a series of bilingual guides to environmental-science learning activities for students to do at home. Lesson objectives, materials required, procedure, vocabulary, and subjects integrated into the lesson are described in English for each lesson. A bilingual glossary, alphabetized by English entries, with Spanish equivalents in both English and Spanish, follows the lesson descriptions, and is itself followed by a bibliography of English-language references. This booklet includes descriptions of six lessons covering the senses of touch and sight, the sense of smell, how to distinguish living and non-living things, cell structures, the skeletal system, and the significance of food groups. 8 figs.

  14. Research-Based Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment in a Deaf Bilingual Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Laura

    2012-01-01

    The California School for the Deaf (CSD), Fremont, is a deaf-centered bilingual program. CSD's approach to curriculum development, instructional pedagogy, and assessment integrates best practices in deaf education, bilingual education, and general education. The goals of the program are outlined in the Expected School-wide Learning Results which…

  15. Conceptual Scoring and Classification Accuracy of Vocabulary Testing in Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anaya, Jissel B.; Peña, Elizabeth D.; Bedore, Lisa M.

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: This study examined the effects of single-language and conceptual scoring on the vocabulary performance of bilingual children with and without specific language impairment. We assessed classification accuracy across 3 scoring methods. Method: Participants included Spanish-English bilingual children (N = 247) aged 5;1 (years;months) to…

  16. The Influence of Bilingualism on Third Language Acquisition: Focus on Multilingualism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cenoz, Jasone

    2013-01-01

    This paper focuses on the advantages that bilinguals have over monolinguals when acquiring an additional language. Bilinguals are more experienced language learners and have potentially developed learning strategies to a larger extent than monolinguals. They also have a larger linguistic and intercultural repertoire at their disposal. In this…

  17. Official Bilingualism and Field Narratives: Does School Practice Echo Policy Discourse?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nana, Genevoix

    2013-01-01

    This research builds on several layers of meaning representing views from education officials, head teachers, teachers and pupils to investigate the discourse and implementation of official bilingualism policy in primary schools in Cameroon. While at the macro-level, the celebration of the "National Bilingualism Day" in schools has…

  18. The impact of bilingualism on brain reserve and metabolic connectivity in Alzheimer's dementia

    OpenAIRE

    Perani, Daniela; Farsad, Mohsen; Ballarini, Tommaso; Lubian, Francesca; Malpetti, Maura; Fracchetti, Alessandro; Magnani, Giuseppe; March, Albert; Abutalebi, Jubin

    2017-01-01

    Cognitive reserve (CR) prevents cognitive decline and delays neurodegeneration. Recent epidemiological evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism may act as CR delaying the onset of dementia by ∼4.5 y. Much controversy surrounds the issue of bilingualism and its putative neuroprotective effects. We studied brain metabolism, a direct index of synaptic function and density, and neural connectivity to shed light on the effects of bilingualism in vivo in Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Eighty-five p...

  19. Age of dementia diagnosis in community dwelling bilingual and monolingual Hispanic Americans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawton, Deborah M; Gasquoine, Philip G; Weimer, Amy A

    2015-05-01

    Bilingualism has been reported to delay the age of retrospective report of first symptom in dementia. This study determined if the age of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia occurred later for bilingual than monolingual, immigrant and U.S. born, Hispanic Americans. It involved a secondary analysis of the subset of 81 bi/monolingual dementia cases identified at yearly follow-up (1998 through 2008) using neuropsychological test results and objective diagnostic criteria from the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging that involved a random sampling of community dwelling Hispanic Americans (N = 1789). Age of dementia diagnosis was analyzed in a 2 × 2 (bi/monolingualism × immigrant/U.S. born) ANOVA that space revealed both main effects and the interaction were non-significant. Mean age of dementia diagnosis was descriptively (but not significantly) higher in the monolingual (M = 81.10 years) than the bilingual (M = 79.31) group. Overall, bilingual dementia cases were significantly better educated than monolinguals, but U.S. born bilinguals and monolinguals did not differ significantly in education. Delays in dementia symptomatology pertaining to bilingualism are less likely to be found in studies: (a) that use age of clinical diagnosis vs. retrospective report of first dementia symptom as the dependent variable; and (b) involve clinical cases derived from community samples rather than referrals to specialist memory clinics. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. The construction of bilingual teaching of optoelectronic technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yang; Zhao, Enming; Yang, Fan; Li, Qingbo; Zhu, Zheng; Li, Cheng; Sun, Peng

    2017-08-01

    This paper combines the characteristics of optoelectronic technology with that of bilingual teaching. The course pays attention to integrating theory with practice, and cultivating learners' ability. Reform and exploration have been done in the fields of teaching materials, teaching content, teaching methods, etc. The concrete content mainly includes five parts: selecting teaching materials, establishing teaching syllabus, choosing suitable teaching method, making multimedia courseware and improving the test system, which can arouse students' interest in their study and their autonomous learning ability to provide beneficial references for improving the quality of talents of optoelectronic bilingual courses.

  1. Rapid naming, phonological memory and reading fluency in Brazilian bilingual students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleury, Fernanda Oppenheimer; Avila, Clara Regina Brandão de

    2015-01-01

    To characterize the performance of Brazilian students exposed to two languages in reading fluency, phonological memory, and rapid naming, according to grade level, and to investigate correlations between these variables. Sixty students took part in this study (50% female), enrolled in the third to the fifth grades of two elementary schools of the city of São Paulo. They constituted two groups - bilingual group: 30 Brazilian children whose mother tongue and language spoken at home was Brazilian Portuguese and who were daily exposed to English at school for a period not shorter than three years; monolingual group: 30 students, from a monolingual Brazilian elementary school, who were paired by gender, age, and grade level with the bilingual students. Foreign children, children with complaint or indication of speech and language disorder, or who had been retained were excluded. A rapid automatized naming, pseudoword repetition, and oral reading tests were administered. The bilingual children were assessed in both languages and their performances were compared among themselves and with the monolingual group, which was only assessed in Brazilian Portuguese. The bilingual group showed better performance in English, rapid naming, and pseudoword repetition tasks, whereas Brazilian Portuguese, in reading fluency. A higher number of correlations were found in Brazilian Portuguese. The results suggest that the acquisition of a second language may positively influence the abilities of rapid naming, reading rate, and accuracy. Brazilian bilingual students performed better in tasks of phonological memory in English and Brazilian Portuguese performed better in reading fluency. Different correlation patterns were found between the rapid naming, accuracy, and reading rate, in the bilingual group analysis, in both languages.

  2. DEEP LEARNING MODEL FOR BILINGUAL SENTIMENT CLASSIFICATION OF SHORT TEXTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. B. Abdullin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Sentiment analysis of short texts such as Twitter messages and comments in news portals is challenging due to the lack of contextual information. We propose a deep neural network model that uses bilingual word embeddings to effectively solve sentiment classification problem for a given pair of languages. We apply our approach to two corpora of two different language pairs: English-Russian and Russian-Kazakh. We show how to train a classifier in one language and predict in another. Our approach achieves 73% accuracy for English and 74% accuracy for Russian. For Kazakh sentiment analysis, we propose a baseline method, that achieves 60% accuracy; and a method to learn bilingual embeddings from a large unlabeled corpus using a bilingual word pairs.

  3. Some Research-Based Issues and Recommendations Expressed at the Seminario Internacional Sobre la Educacion Bilingue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernal, Ernesto M.

    The first Seminario Internacional Sobre la Educacion Bilingue (International Seminar on Bilingual Education), under the aegis of the National Association for Bilingual Education and the Mexican secretary for public education, brought together professionals from Canada, the United States, and Mexico in Oaxtepec, Mexico in November 1986 to share…

  4. Biology enters the scene-a new perspective on bilingualism, cognition, and dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bak, Thomas H; Robertson, Ian

    2017-02-01

    The question of whether bilingualism can influence cognitive functions in healthy aging as well as in brain diseases is currently a topic of an intense debate. In a study published in this issue of the "Neurobiology of Ageing", Estanga et al. are breaking new ground by combining cognitive and biological approaches. Based on the data from the Guipuzkoa Alzheimer Project, they report that, compared with monolinguals, early bilinguals are not only characterized by a better cognitive performance in several domains and a lower prevalence of Alzheimer's disease but also by lower levels of t-tau in their cerebrospinal fluid. We suggest that sustained activation of noradrenergic signaling pathways associated with bilingualism could provide a possible mechanism linking results of this study with previous observations of delayed onset of dementia in bilinguals. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. "Cultivando Confianza": A Bilingual Community of Practice Negotiates Restrictive Language Policies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newcomer, Sarah N.; Puzio, Kelly

    2016-01-01

    Drawing from an ethnographic study of how one school community negotiates English-only policy in Arizona, we investigated how a bilingual community of practice was established at one school. Integral to establishing this bilingual community was the mobilization of Spanish-speaking families in the school's daily life and operation. This…

  6. Learning across Languages: Bilingual Experience Supports Dual Language Statistical Word Segmentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antovich, Dylan M.; Graf Estes, Katharine

    2018-01-01

    Bilingual acquisition presents learning challenges beyond those found in monolingual environments, including the need to segment speech in two languages. Infants may use statistical cues, such as syllable-level transitional probabilities, to segment words from fluent speech. In the present study we assessed monolingual and bilingual 14-month-olds'…

  7. Bilingualism, Cultural Transmutation, and Fields of Coexistence: California's Spanish Language Legacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Sara

    2006-01-01

    This is an historical analysis of English Only programs in California and their impact on bilingualism as a natural acquisition process. Factors that propagate bilingualism such as a continual flow of Spanish speaking immigrants, and social, economic and ethnic isolation, are delineated for theorizing about key aspects of multilingualism, the…

  8. Cognitive Representation of Colour in Bilinguals: The Case of Greek Blues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Athanasopoulos, Panos

    2009-01-01

    A number of recent studies demonstrate that bilinguals with languages that differ in grammatical and lexical categories may shift their cognitive representation of those categories towards that of monolingual speakers of their second language. The current paper extended that investigation to the domain of colour in Greek-English bilinguals with…

  9. Language profiles of monolingual and bilingual Finnish preschool children at risk for language impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westman, Martin; Korkman, Marit; Mickos, Annika; Byring, Roger

    2008-01-01

    A large proportion of children are exposed to more than one language, yet research on simultaneous bilingualism has been relatively sparse. Traditionally, there has been concern that bilingualism may aggravate language difficulties of children with language impairment. However, recent studies have not found specific language impairment (SLI) or language-related problems to be increased by bilingualism. The topic of bilingualism and its effects has high actuality in Finland, where increasing numbers of children in the country's 6% Swedish-speaking minority grow up in bilingual families, where one parent's primary language is Swedish and the other's Finnish. The present study aimed at exploring the influence of such bilingualism on the language profiles of children from this population at risk for language impairment (LI). Participants were recruited from a language screening of 339 children from kindergartens with instruction only in Swedish, from the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. Of these children, 33 (9.7%) were defined as a Risk Group for LI, whereas 48 non-risk children were randomly selected to form a control group. When subdividing the children according to home language, 35 were found to be monolingual, Swedish-speaking, and 46 were Swedish-Finnish bilingual. The children underwent neuropsychological assessment during their preschool year. Assessment methods included subtests from the Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence - Revised and the NEPSY Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment. A repeated-measures multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed a significant effect of risk of LI on the NEPSY language scores. The effect of home language was not significant and there was no interaction between home language and risk for LI. Non-verbal IQ was controlled for. Across groups, bilingual children scored lower than monolingual children only on measures of vocabulary and sentence repetition. Although a slight general cost of

  10. Serial-position effects on a free-recall task in bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoo, Jeewon; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we examined mechanisms that underlie free-recall performance in bilinguals' first language (L1) and second language (L2) through the prism of serial-position effects. On free-recall tasks, a typical pattern of performance follows a U-shaped serial-position curve, where items from the beginning of the list (the primacy effect) and items from the end of the list (the recency effect) are recalled with higher accuracy than items from the middle of the list. The present study contrasted serial-position effects on the free-recall task in Korean-English bilinguals' L1 vs. L2 and examined the relationship between an independent working memory (WM) measure and serial-position effects in bilinguals' two languages. Results revealed stronger pre-recency (primacy and middle) effects in L1 than in L2, but similar recency effects in the two languages. A close association was observed between WM and recall performance in the pre-recency region in the L1 but not in the L2. Together, these findings suggest that linguistic knowledge constrains free-recall performance in bilinguals, but only in the pre-recency region.

  11. 20 CFR 345.302 - Definition of terms and phrases used in experience-rating.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... for the current calendar year. This ratio is computed to four decimal places. (k) Pooled credit ratio... employer for the calendar year involved in the computation. This ratio is computed to four decimal places... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Definition of terms and phrases used in...

  12. Executive functions in mono- and bilingual children with language impairment - issues for speech-language pathology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandgren, Olof; Holmström, Ketty

    2015-01-01

    The clinical assessment of language impairment (LI) in bilingual children imposes challenges for speech-language pathology services. Assessment tools standardized for monolingual populations increase the risk of misinterpreting bilingualism as LI. This Perspective article summarizes recent studies on the assessment of bilingual LI and presents new results on including non-linguistic measures of executive functions in the diagnostic assessment. Executive functions shows clinical utility as less subjected to language use and exposure than linguistic measures. A possible bilingual advantage, and consequences for speech-language pathology practices and future research are discussed.

  13. Bilingualism as Conceptualized and Bilingualism as Lived: A Critical Examination of the Monolingual Socialization of a Child with Autism in a Bilingual Family

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Betty

    2016-01-01

    This is an ethnographic and discourse analytic case study of a bilingual, minority-language family of a six-year-old child with autism whose family members were committed to speaking English with him. Drawing on "family language policy," the study examines the tensions between the family members' stated beliefs, management efforts, and…

  14. Sign"geist": Promoting Bilingualism through the Linguistic Landscape of School Signage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dressler, Roswita

    2015-01-01

    This study is an examination of signage and sign-making practices in one elementary (Kindergarten to sixth grade) public school which offers a German Bilingual Program (GBP) for the development of German-English bilingualism. Schools are public spaces in which the visible language choice on signs reveals the circulating discourses around language…

  15. Patterns of Stuttering in a Spanish/English Bilingual: A Case Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ardila, Alfredo; Ramos, Eliane; Barrocas, Robert

    2011-01-01

    Stuttering patterns may differ when comparing two languages. In bilinguals, specific patterns of stuttering in each one of the languages may potentially be found. This study reports on the case of a 27-year-old Spanish/English simultaneous bilingual whose dominant language is English. Speech and language testing was performed in both languages…

  16. Novel Morpheme Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gross, Megan; Sheena, Enanna; Roman, Rachel

    2017-01-01

    Purpose The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of a novel morpheme learning task for indexing typical language abilities in children characterized by diverse language backgrounds. Method Three groups of 5- to 6-year-old children were tested: monolingual speakers of English, native speakers of Spanish who also spoke English (Spanish-L1 bilinguals), and native speakers of English who also spoke Spanish (English-L1 bilinguals). All children were taught a new derivational morpheme /ku/ marking part–whole distinction in conjunction with English nouns. Retention was measured via a receptive task, and sensitivity and reaction time (RT) data were collected. Results All three groups of children learned the novel morpheme successfully and were able to generalize its use to untaught nouns. Furthermore, language characteristics (degree of exposure and levels of performance on standardized measures) did not contribute to bilingual children's learning outcomes. Conclusion Together, the findings indicate that this particular version of the novel morpheme learning task may be resistant to influences associated with language background and suggest potential usefulness of the task to clinical practice. PMID:28399578

  17. Degree of bilingualism predicts age of diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in low-education but not in highly educated Hispanics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gollan, Tamar H; Salmon, David P; Montoya, Rosa I; Galasko, Douglas R

    2011-12-01

    The current study investigated the relationship between bilingual language proficiency and onset of probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 44 Spanish-English bilinguals at the UCSD Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Degree of bilingualism along a continuum was measured using Boston Naming Test (BNT) scores in each language. Higher degrees of bilingualism were associated with increasingly later age-of-diagnosis (and age of onset of symptoms), but this effect was driven by participants with low education level (a significant interaction between years of education and bilingualism) most of whom (73%) were also Spanish-dominant. Additionally, only objective measures (i.e., BNT scores), not self-reported degree of bilingualism, predicted age-of-diagnosis even though objective and self-reported measures were significantly correlated. These findings establish a specific connection between knowledge of two languages and delay of AD onset, and demonstrate that bilingual effects can be obscured by interactions between education and bilingualism, and by failure to obtain objective measures of bilingualism. More generally, these data support analogies between the effects of bilingualism and "cognitive reserve" and suggest an upper limit on the extent to which reserve can function to delay dementia. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Constructing and positioning oneself bilingual: Code-switching in classroom interactions of two Turkish-Norwegian fifth-graders.

    OpenAIRE

    Kucherenko, Svitlana

    2011-01-01

    This case-study compares the language use of two Turkish-Norwegian fifth-graders, examining how they utilize their bilingual resources in order to position themselves as learning and social individuals. A common perception of bilingualism as a mental quality of an individual often results in measurement of the bilingual practices in accordance to monolingual criteria. Thus, the fact that bilinguals daily appear to be a part of a setting with two or more languages present, often remains ignore...

  19. The impact of early bilingualism on face recognition processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Kandel

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Early linguistic experience has an impact on the way we decode audiovisual speech in face-to-face communication. The present study examined whether differences in visual speech decoding could be linked to a broader difference in face processing. To identify a phoneme we have to do an analysis of the speaker’s face to focus on the relevant cues for speech decoding (e.g., locating the mouth with respect to the eyes. Face recognition processes were investigated through two classic effects in face recognition studies: the Other Race Effect (ORE and the Inversion Effect. Bilingual and monolingual participants did a face recognition task with Caucasian faces (own race, Chinese faces (other race and cars that were presented in an Upright or Inverted position. The results revealed that monolinguals exhibited the classic ORE. Bilinguals did not. Overall, bilinguals were slower than monolinguals. These results suggest that bilinguals’ face processing abilities differ from monolinguals’. Early exposure to more than one language may lead to a perceptual organization that goes beyond language processing and could extend to face analysis. We hypothesize that these differences could be due to the fact that bilinguals focus on different parts of the face than monolinguals, making them more efficient in other race face processing but slower. However, more studies using eye-tracking techniques are necessary to confirm this explanation.

  20. Language-invariant verb processing regions in Spanish-English bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willms, Joanna L; Shapiro, Kevin A; Peelen, Marius V; Pajtas, Petra E; Costa, Albert; Moo, Lauren R; Caramazza, Alfonso

    2011-07-01

    Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of all languages. Studies of brain-damaged patients and healthy individuals have demonstrated that verb processing can be dissociated from noun processing at a neuroanatomical level. In cases where bilingual patients have a noun or verb deficit, the deficit has been observed in both languages. This suggests that the noun-verb distinction may be based on neural components that are common across languages. Here we investigated the cortical organization of grammatical categories in healthy, early Spanish-English bilinguals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a morphophonological alternation task. Four regions showed greater activity for verbs than for nouns in both languages: left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG), left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG); no regions showed greater activation for nouns. Multi-voxel pattern analysis within verb-specific regions showed indistinguishable activity patterns for English and Spanish, indicating language-invariant bilingual processing. In LMTG and LMFG, patterns were more similar within than across grammatical category, both within and across languages, indicating language-invariant grammatical class information. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying verb-specific processing are largely independent of language in bilinguals, both at the macroscopic neuroanatomical level and at the level of voxel activity patterns. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. The Effects of Bilingualism on Efficiency and Lateralization of Attentional Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marzecova, Anna; Asanowicz, Dariusz; Kriva, L'Uba; Wodniecka, Zofia

    2013-01-01

    The present study investigated the impact of bilingualism on efficiency of alerting, orienting and executive attention by means of the Lateralized Attention Network Test (LANT). Young adult bilinguals who had been exposed to their second language before the age of four years showed a reduced conflict cost and a larger alerting effect in terms of…

  2. Print Knowledge in Yucatec Maya-Spanish Bilingual Children: An Initial Inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bengochea, Alain; Justice, Laura M.; Hijlkema, Maria J.

    2017-01-01

    This study serves as an initial inquiry regarding the early print knowledge of emergent bilingual preschool-age children living in an Indigenous community in Mexico. In this research, we examine various dimensions of print knowledge with Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children for whom one of their languages (Yucatec Maya) is seldom seen in print…

  3. Bilingualism yields language-specific plasticity in left hemisphere's circuitry for learning to read in young children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jasińska, K K; Berens, M S; Kovelman, I; Petitto, L A

    2017-04-01

    How does bilingual exposure impact children's neural circuitry for learning to read? Theories of bilingualism suggests that exposure to two languages may yield a functional and neuroanatomical adaptation to support the learning of two languages (Klein et al., 2014). To test the hypothesis that this neural adaptation may vary as a function of structural and orthographic characteristics of bilinguals' two languages, we compared Spanish-English and French-English bilingual children, and English monolingual children, using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy neuroimaging (fNIRS, ages 6-10, N =26). Spanish offers consistent sound-to-print correspondences ("phonologically transparent" or "shallow"); such correspondences are more opaque in French and even more opaque in English (which has both transparent and "phonologically opaque" or "deep" correspondences). Consistent with our hypothesis, both French- and Spanish-English bilinguals showed hyperactivation in left posterior temporal regions associated with direct sound-to-print phonological analyses and hypoactivation in left frontal regions associated with assembled phonology analyses. Spanish, but not French, bilinguals showed a similar effect when reading Irregular words. The findings inform theories of bilingual and cross-linguistic literacy acquisition by suggesting that structural characteristics of bilinguals' two languages and their orthographies have a significant impact on children's neuro-cognitive architecture for learning to read. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  4. Impact of Bilingual Education Programs on Limited English Proficient Students and Their Peers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Daysal, N. Meltem; Chin, Aimee; Imberman, Scott

    2013-01-01

    bilingual education above this 20-student cutoff. Using this discontinuity as an instrument for district bilingual education provision, we find that providing bilingual education programs (relative to providing only English as a Second Language programs) does not significantly impact the standardized test...... scores of students with Spanish as their home language (comprised primarily of ever-LEP students). However, we find significant positive impacts on non-LEP students’ achievement, which indicates that education programs for LEP students have spillover effects to non-LEP students.......Texas requires a school district to offer bilingual education when its enrollment of limited English proficient (LEP) students in a particular elementary grade and language is twenty or higher. Using school panel data, we find a significant increase in the probability that a district provides...

  5. Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bialystok, Ellen; Craik, Fergus I M; Freedman, Morris

    2007-01-28

    This study examined the effect of lifelong bilingualism on maintaining cognitive functioning and delaying the onset of symptoms of dementia in old age. The sample was selected from the records of 228 patients referred to a Memory Clinic with cognitive complaints. The final sample consisted of 184 patients diagnosed with dementia, 51% of whom were bilingual. The bilinguals showed symptoms of dementia 4 years later than monolinguals, all other measures being equivalent. Additionally, the rate of decline in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores over the 4 years subsequent to the diagnosis was the same for a subset of patients in the two groups, suggesting a shift in onset age with no change in rate of progression.

  6. Differences in the Association between Segment and Language: Early Bilinguals Pattern with Monolinguals and Are Less Accurate than Late Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanco, Cynthia P.; Bannard, Colin; Smiljanic, Rajka

    2016-01-01

    Early bilinguals often show as much sensitivity to L2-specific contrasts as monolingual speakers of the L2, but most work on cross-language speech perception has focused on isolated segments, and typically only on neighboring vowels or stop contrasts. In tasks that include sounds in context, listeners’ success is more variable, so segment discrimination in isolation may not adequately represent the phonetic detail in stored representations. The current study explores the relationship between language experience and sensitivity to segmental cues in context by comparing the categorization patterns of monolingual English listeners and early and late Spanish–English bilinguals. Participants categorized nonce words containing different classes of English- and Spanish-specific sounds as being more English-like or more Spanish-like; target segments included phonemic cues, cues for which there is no analogous sound in the other language, or phonetic cues, cues for which English and Spanish share the category but for which each language varies in its phonetic implementation. Listeners’ language categorization accuracy and reaction times were analyzed. Our results reveal a largely uniform categorization pattern across listener groups: Spanish cues were categorized more accurately than English cues, and phonemic cues were easier for listeners to categorize than phonetic cues. There were no differences in the sensitivity of monolinguals and early bilinguals to language-specific cues, suggesting that the early bilinguals’ exposure to Spanish did not fundamentally change their representations of English phonology. However, neither did the early bilinguals show more sensitivity than the monolinguals to Spanish sounds. The late bilinguals however, were significantly more accurate than either of the other groups. These findings indicate that listeners with varying exposure to English and Spanish are able to use language-specific cues in a nonce-word language categorization

  7. THE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTICAL INTERFERENCE IN ENGLISH PHRASES IN STUDENTS’ WRITING (A Descriptive Study at the Second Grade Students of SMP 2 Kuta Baro, Aceh Besar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salwa Chaira

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This qualitative-descriptive research attempts to describe Indonesian interference in building English phrases in writing. The research was undertaken to the second year students of SMP 2 Kuta Baro, Aceh Besar. This study aims to verify the Indonesian interference made by students in English phrases. The data were collected through document analysis which then the sample was selected to be analyzed. The sample of this study was twelve narrative texts composed by the students. The finding of data analysis reveals that there are some syntactical interference samples made by them as in scenery roads, voice strange, morning Sunday, water bath, garden flower, and advice future. These are resulted from Indonesian interference because they applied Indonesian structure in building English phrases. In conclusion, the research result shows that the students have lack of grammar knowledge in constructing English phrases. Therefore, they borrow Indonesian structure as a solution for their difficulties. For this reason, the teaching should focus more on how to build English phrases correctly by giving many samples of nounʸ + nounˣ (where nounˣ means head and nounʸ means modifier pattern all well as explaining the rule in English as the target language they are learning. It hopes that they will not transfer the Indonesian pattern when they are writing in English.Keywords: interference, syntactical, phrases

  8. Effects of Early and Late Bilingualism on Resting-State Functional Connectivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berken, Jonathan A; Chai, Xiaoqian; Chen, Jen-Kai; Gracco, Vincent L; Klein, Denise

    2016-01-27

    Of current interest is how variations in early language experience shape patterns of functional connectivity in the human brain. In the present study, we compared simultaneous (two languages from birth) and sequential (second language learned after age 5 years) bilinguals using a seed-based resting-state MRI approach. We focused on the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) as our ROI, as recent studies have demonstrated both neurofunctional and neurostructural changes related to age of second language acquisition in bilinguals in this cortical area. Stronger functional connectivity was observed for simultaneous bilinguals between the left and right IFG, as well as between the inferior frontal gyrus and brain areas involved in language control, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and cerebellum. Functional connectivity between the left IFG and the right IFG and right inferior parietal lobule was also significantly correlated with age of acquisition for sequential bilinguals; the earlier the second language was acquired, the stronger was the functional connectivity. In addition, greater functional connectivity between homologous regions of the inferior frontal gyrus was associated with reduced neural activation in the left IFG during speech production. The increased connectivity at rest and reduced neural activation during task performance suggests enhanced neural efficiency in this important brain area involved in both speech production and domain-general cognitive processing. Together, our findings highlight how the brain's intrinsic functional patterns are influenced by the developmental timeline in which second language acquisition occurs. Of current interest is how early life experience leaves its footprint on brain structure and function. In this regard, bilingualism provides an optimal way to determine the effects of the timing of language learning because a second language can be learned from birth or later in life. We used resting

  9. Prospective associations between bilingualism and executive function in Latino children: sustained effects while controlling for biculturalism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riggs, Nathaniel R; Shin, Hee-Sung; Unger, Jennifer B; Spruijt-Metz, Donna; Pentz, Mary Ann

    2014-10-01

    The study purpose was to test 1-year prospective associations between English-Spanish bilingualism and executive function in 5th to 6th grade students while controlling for biculturalism. Participants included 182 US Latino students (50 % female). Self-report surveys assessed biculturalism, bilingualism, and executive function (i.e., working memory, organizational skills, inhibitory control, and emotional control, as well as a summary executive function score). General linear model regressions demonstrated that bilingualism significantly predicted the summary executive function score as well as working memory such that bilingual proficiency was positively related to executive function. Results are the first to demonstrate (a) prospective associations between bilingualism to executive function while controlling for the potential third variable of biculturalism, and (b) a principal role for working memory in this relationship. Since executive function is associated with a host of health outcomes, one implication of study findings is that bilingualism may have an indirect protective influence on youth development.

  10. Survey of Spanish parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing: decision-making factors associated with communication modality and bilingualism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guiberson, Mark

    2013-06-01

    The purpose of the present study was (a) to describe factors and trends associated with Spanish parents’ choice of communication modality and spoken language bilingualism for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and (b) to identify if bilingual variables predict children’s bilingual status in a country where bilingualism is common. Seventy-one Spanish parents of children who are DHH completed an online survey that included questions about demographics, family and professional involvement and support, accessibility to information and services, and bilingual background and beliefs. Analyses were completed to describe groups and to examine how variables were associated with parents’ decisions. Thirty-eight percent of parents chose to raise their children to be spoken-language bilingual. Most parents indicated that they believed being bilingual was beneficial for their children and that children who are DHH are capable of becoming bilingual in spoken languages. Parent’s bilingual score, beliefs about raising children who are DHH bilingually, and encouragement to do so, were significantly associated with children’s bilingual status. In communities where bilingualism is common, bilingual parents will often choose to raise children who are DHH bilingual in spoken languages. Implications for practice and future studies in the United States are provided.

  11. Bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve: evidence from brain atrophy in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schweizer, Tom A; Ware, Jenna; Fischer, Corinne E; Craik, Fergus I M; Bialystok, Ellen

    2012-09-01

    Much of the research on delaying the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has focused on pharmacotherapy, but environmental factors have also been acknowledged to play a significant role. Bilingualism may be one factor contributing to 'cognitive reserve' (CR) and therefore to a delay in symptom onset. If bilingualism is protective, then the brains of bilinguals should show greater atrophy in relevant areas, since their enhanced CR enables them to function at a higher level than would be predicted from their level of disease. We analyzed a number of linear measurements of brain atrophy from the computed tomography (CT) scans of monolingual and bilingual patients diagnosed with probable AD who were matched on level of cognitive performance and years of education. Bilingual patients with AD exhibited substantially greater amounts of brain atrophy than monolingual patients in areas traditionally used to distinguish AD patients from healthy controls, specifically, the radial width of the temporal horn and the temporal horn ratio. Other measures of brain atrophy were comparable for the two groups. Bilingualism appears to contribute to increased CR, thereby delaying the onset of AD and requiring the presence of greater amounts of neuropathology before the disease is manifest. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

  12. Bilingual Preschool Education in the United States and Panama: A Comparative Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valdivia, Rebeca

    This paper compares bilingual education policy and practice in Panama and the United States. Particular issues studied include the following: the social context of bilingual education in the two countries; programming and policy differences; teacher qualifications; availability of age-appropriate materials; and administrative support, level of…

  13. Differential Language Functioning of Monolinguals and Bilinguals on Positive-Negative Emotional Expression

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kheirzadeh, Shiela; Hajiabed, Mohammadreza

    2016-01-01

    The present interdisciplinary research investigates the differential emotional expression between Persian monolinguals and Persian-English bilinguals. In other words, the article was an attempt to answer the questions whether bilinguals and monolinguals differ in the expression of positive and negative emotions elicited through sad and happy…

  14. Behavioral and Electrophysiological Differences in Executive Control between Monolingual and Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barac, Raluca; Moreno, Sylvain; Bialystok, Ellen

    2016-01-01

    This study examined executive control in sixty-two 5-year-old children who were monolingual or bilingual using behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) measures. All children performed equivalently on simple response inhibition (gift delay), but bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on interference suppression and complex response…

  15. The Relationship between Applied Linguistic Research and Language Policy for Bilingual Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, David Cassels

    2010-01-01

    Currently, restrictive-language policies seem to threaten bilingual education throughout the USA. Anti-bilingual education initiatives have passed easily in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, while one was closely defeated in Colorado, and federal education policy has re-invigorated the focus on English education for English language…

  16. Communication, Constructivism, and Transfer of Knowledge in the Education of Bilingual Learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olivares, Rafael A.

    2002-01-01

    Discusses a theoretical framework to educate bilingual learners that links the communicative approach and the constructivist approach to learning with the transfer of knowledge from one language to another. The framework is illustrated in the communication, constructivism, and transference of knowledge (CCT) model where bilingual students use…

  17. Age of Bilingual Exposure Is Related to the Contribution of Phonological and Semantic Knowledge to Successful Reading Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jasińska, Kaja K; Petitto, Laura-Ann

    2018-01-01

    Bilingual children's reading as a function of age of first bilingual language exposure (AoE) was examined. Bilingual (varied AoE) and monolingual children (N = 421) were compared in their English language and reading abilities (6-10 years) using phonological awareness, semantic knowledge, and reading tasks. Structural equation modeling was applied to determine how bilingual AoE predicts reading outcomes. Early exposed bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on phonological awareness and word reading. Phonology and semantic (vocabulary) knowledge differentially predicted reading depending on the bilingual experience and AoE. Understanding how bilingual experiences impact phonological awareness and semantic knowledge, and in turn, impact reading outcomes is relevant for our understanding of what language and reading skills are best to focus on, and when, to promote optimal reading success. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  18. Bilingual Phonological Awareness: Multilevel Construct Validation among Spanish-Speaking Kindergarteners in Transitional Bilingual Education Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Branum-Martin, Lee; Mehta, Paras D.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Carlson, Coleen D.; Ortiz, Alba; Carlo, Maria; Francis, David J.

    2006-01-01

    The construct validity of English and Spanish phonological awareness (PA) tasks was examined with a sample of 812 kindergarten children from 71 transitional bilingual education program classrooms located in 3 different types of geographic regions in California and Texas. Tasks of PA, including blending nonwords, segmenting words, and phoneme…

  19. Non-Selective Lexical Access in Late Arabic-English Bilinguals: Evidence from Gating.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boudelaa, Sami

    2018-02-07

    Previous research suggests that late bilinguals who speak typologically distant languages are the least likely to show evidence of non-selective lexical access processes. This study puts this claim to test by using the gating task to determine whether words beginning with speech sounds that are phonetically similar in Arabic and English (e.g., [b,d,m,n]) give rise to selective or non-selective lexical access processes in late Arabic-English bilinguals. The results show that an acoustic-phonetic input (e.g., [bæ]) that is consistent with words in Arabic (e.g., [bædrun] "moon") and English (e.g., [bæd] "bad") activates lexical representations in both languages of the bilingual. This non-selective activation holds equally well for mixed lists with words from both Arabic and English and blocked lists consisting only of Arabic or English words. These results suggest that non-selective lexical access processes are the default mechanism even in late bilinguals of typologically distant languages.

  20. The effects of bilingualism on the white matter structure of the brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pliatsikas, Christos; Moschopoulou, Elisavet; Saddy, James Douglas

    2015-02-03

    Recent studies suggest that learning and using a second language (L2) can affect brain structure, including the structure of white matter (WM) tracts. This observation comes from research looking at early and older bilingual individuals who have been using both their first and second languages on an everyday basis for many years. This study investigated whether young, highly immersed late bilinguals would also show structural effects in the WM that can be attributed to everyday L2 use, irrespective of critical periods or the length of L2 learning. Our Tract-Based Spatial Statistics analysis revealed higher fractional anisotropy values for bilinguals vs. monolinguals in several WM tracts that have been linked to language processing and in a pattern closely resembling the results reported for older and early bilinguals. We propose that learning and actively using an L2 after childhood can have rapid dynamic effects on WM structure, which in turn may assist in preserving WM integrity in older age.