WorldWideScience

Sample records for language acquisition research

  1. [First language acquisition research and theories of language acquisition].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, S; Jungheim, M; Ptok, M

    2014-04-01

    In principle, a child can seemingly easily acquire any given language. First language acquisition follows a certain pattern which to some extent is found to be language independent. Since time immemorial, it has been of interest why children are able to acquire language so easily. Different disciplinary and methodological orientations addressing this question can be identified. A selective literature search in PubMed and Scopus was carried out and relevant monographies were considered. Different, partially overlapping phases can be distinguished in language acquisition research: whereas in ancient times, deprivation experiments were carried out to discover the "original human language", the era of diary studies began in the mid-19th century. From the mid-1920s onwards, behaviouristic paradigms dominated this field of research; interests were focussed on the determination of normal, average language acquisition. The subsequent linguistic period was strongly influenced by the nativist view of Chomsky and the constructivist concepts of Piaget. Speech comprehension, the role of speech input and the relevance of genetic disposition became the centre of attention. The interactionist concept led to a revival of the convergence theory according to Stern. Each of these four major theories--behaviourism, cognitivism, interactionism and nativism--have given valuable and unique impulses, but no single theory is universally accepted to provide an explanation of all aspects of language acquisition. Moreover, it can be critically questioned whether clinicians consciously refer to one of these theories in daily routine work and whether therapies are then based on this concept. It remains to be seen whether or not new theories of grammar, such as the so-called construction grammar (CxG), will eventually change the general concept of language acquisition.

  2. Generative Research on Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eubank, Lynn

    1995-01-01

    Reviews recent trends in generative research on second language acquisition, focusing on the role of universal grammar, parameter resetting, and anaphoric binding. An annotated bibliography discusses five important works in the field. (61 references) (MDM)

  3. Review Article: Second Language Acquisition of Bantu Languages--A (Mostly) Untapped Research Opportunity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spinner, Patti

    2011-01-01

    This review article presents a summary of research on the second language acquisition of Bantu languages, including Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa and Lingala. Although second language (L2) research on these languages is currently very limited, work in morphosyntax and phonology suggests promising directions for future study, particularly on noun class,…

  4. Linguistic Diversity in First Language Acquisition Research: Moving beyond the Challenges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Barbara F.; Forshaw, William; Nordlinger, Rachel; Wigglesworth, Gillian

    2015-01-01

    The field of first language acquisition (FLA) needs to take into account data from the broadest typological array of languages and language-learning environments if it is to identify potential universals in child language development, and how these interact with socio-cultural mechanisms of acquisition. Yet undertaking FLA research in remote…

  5. Neuroimaging and Research into Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabourin, Laura

    2009-01-01

    Neuroimaging techniques are becoming not only more and more sophisticated but are also coming to be increasingly accessible to researchers. One thing that one should take note of is the potential of neuroimaging research within second language acquisition (SLA) to contribute to issues pertaining to the plasticity of the adult brain and to general…

  6. Informed Consent in Research on Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Margaret; Pettitt, Nicole

    2017-01-01

    The practice of securing informed consent from research participants has a relatively low profile in second language (L2) acquisition research, despite its prominence in the biomedical and social sciences. This review article analyses the role that informed consent now typically plays in L2 research; discusses an example of an L2 study where…

  7. A Research on Second Language Acquisition and College English Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Changyu

    2009-01-01

    It was in the 1970s that American linguist S.D. Krashen created the theory of "language acquisition". The theories on second language acquisition were proposed based on the study on the second language acquisition process and its rules. Here, the second language acquisition process refers to the process in which a learner with the…

  8. Research Notes ~ Second Language Acquisition Theories as a Framework for Creating Distance Learning Courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eileen N. Ariza

    2003-10-01

    Full Text Available Moore and Kearsley (1996 maintain distance educators should provide for three types of interaction: a learner-content; b learner-instructor; and c learner-learner. According to interactionist second language acquisition (SLA theories that reflect Krashen’s theory (1994 that comprehensible input is critical for second language acquisition, interaction can enhance second language acquisition and fluency. Effective output is necessary as well. We reviewed the research on distance learning for second language learners and concluded that SLA theories can, and should, be the framework that drives the development of courses for students seeking to learn languages by distance technology. This article delineates issues to consider in support of combining SLA theories and research literature as a guide in creating distance language learning courses.

  9. Combining Language Corpora with Experimental and Computational Approaches for Language Acquisition Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monaghan, Padraic; Rowland, Caroline F.

    2017-01-01

    Historically, first language acquisition research was a painstaking process of observation, requiring the laborious hand coding of children's linguistic productions, followed by the generation of abstract theoretical proposals for how the developmental process unfolds. Recently, the ability to collect large-scale corpora of children's language…

  10. Studies in Filipino Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramos, Teresita V.

    Very little research has been done on first or second language acquisition in the Philippines. Most second language learning studies cited in the literature concern acquisition of English in English-speaking communities, and most American studies of Filipino language acquisition are superficial, consisting primarily of morpheme analysis. The…

  11. The comparative method of language acquisition research: a Mayan case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pye, Clifton; Pfeiler, Barbara

    2014-03-01

    This article demonstrates how the Comparative Method can be applied to cross-linguistic research on language acquisition. The Comparative Method provides a systematic procedure for organizing and interpreting acquisition data from different languages. The Comparative Method controls for cross-linguistic differences at all levels of the grammar and is especially useful in drawing attention to variation in contexts of use across languages. This article uses the Comparative Method to analyze the acquisition of verb suffixes in two Mayan languages: K'iche' and Yucatec. Mayan status suffixes simultaneously mark distinctions in verb transitivity, verb class, mood, and clause position. Two-year-old children acquiring K'iche' and Yucatec Maya accurately produce the status suffixes on verbs, in marked distinction to the verbal prefixes for aspect and agreement. We find evidence that the contexts of use for the suffixes differentially promote the children's production of cognate status suffixes in K'iche' and Yucatec.

  12. Modularity, Working Memory, and Second Language Acquisition: A Research Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truscott, John

    2017-01-01

    Considerable reason exists to view the mind, and language within it, as modular, and this view has an important place in research and theory in second language acquisition (SLA) and beyond. But it has had very little impact on the study of working memory and its role in SLA. This article considers the need for modular study of working memory,…

  13. Some Implications of Research in Second Language Acquisition for Foreign Language Teaching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lombardo, Linda

    On the continuum along which theories of first and second language acquisition are located, the two extremes represent the classic controversy of nature (nativist) vs. nurture (environmentalist), while those in the middle view language acquisition as a result of a more or less balanced interaction between innate capacities and linguistic…

  14. Acquisition of a bodily-tactile language as first language

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ask Larsen, Flemming

    2013-01-01

    Language acquisition in the bodily-tactile modality is difficult to understand, describe, and support. This chapter advocates a reinterpretation of the gestural and idiosyncratic bodily-tactile communication of people with congenital deafblindness (CDB) in terms of early language acquisition...... towards Tactile Sign Language (TSL). The access to participation in complex TSL culture is crucial for language acquisition. We already know how to transfer the patterns of social interaction into the bodily-tactile modality. This is the fundation on which to build actual linguistic participation. TSL...... as a first language is presently a theoretic possibility. We need more research on how to accommodate TSL to language Development and on how to fit TSL into participation in complex cultural activities....

  15. Second-language acquisition research in the laboratory: possibilities and limitations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hulstijn, J.H.

    1997-01-01

    This paper discusses some possibilities and limitations of laboratory research methods for testing theories of second language acquisition. The paper includes a review of 20 experimental lab studies. The review focuses on the motivation for conducting lab studies, the use of artificial or

  16. Memory Retention in Second Language Acquisition and Instruction: Insights from Literature and Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanatullova-Allison , Elvira

    2014-01-01

    This article reviews some essential theoretical and empirical research literature that discusses the role of memory in second language acquisition and instruction. Two models of literature review--thematic and study-by-study--were used to analyze and synthesize the existing research. First, issues of memory retention in second language acquisition…

  17. First and second language acquisition: Towards a reconcillation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nau Nicole

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available For the past two decades, research on first language acquisition on the one side, and on second language acquisition and learning on the other have largely developed separately, probably as a reaction to the failure of earlier attempts to use the same methods or simply transfer insights gained in one of the fields to the other. T his article argues that a reconciliation may be fruitful, provided that different aspects which have often got blurred in the discussion are considered separately. These aspects include the assessment of multilingualism and monolingualism, the age factor and the definition of “first” and “second” language, the understanding of linguistic competence and of completeness of acquisition, different forms of acquisition and learning, and uniformity vs. individual differences in the process of language acquisition. By challenging some widely held views on characteristics of first language acquisition and its differences to second language learning, more fine-grained research questions are revealed, some of which have been addressed in recent studies on language acquisition and multilingualism

  18. Multilingual Communication and Language Acquisition: New Research Directions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canagarajah, A. Suresh; Wurr, Adrian J.

    2011-01-01

    In this article, we outline the differences between a monolingual and multilingual orientation to language and language acquisition. The increasing contact between languages in the context of globalization motivates such a shift of paradigms. Multilingual communicative practices have remained vibrant in non-western communities for a long time. We…

  19. Child Language Acquisition: Contrasting Theoretical Approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambridge, Ben; Lieven, Elena V. M.

    2011-01-01

    Is children's language acquisition based on innate linguistic structures or built from cognitive and communicative skills? This book summarises the major theoretical debates in all of the core domains of child language acquisition research (phonology, word-learning, inflectional morphology, syntax and binding) and includes a complete introduction…

  20. Statistical Literacy among Applied Linguists and Second Language Acquisition Researchers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loewen, Shawn; Lavolette, Elizabeth; Spino, Le Anne; Papi, Mostafa; Schmidtke, Jens; Sterling, Scott; Wolff, Dominik

    2014-01-01

    The importance of statistical knowledge in applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) research has been emphasized in recent publications. However, the last investigation of the statistical literacy of applied linguists occurred more than 25 years ago (Lazaraton, Riggenbach, & Ediger, 1987). The current study undertook a partial…

  1. Research in the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Costa, Peter I.; Bernales, Carolina; Merrill, Margaret

    2011-01-01

    Faculty and graduate students in the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison engage in a broad spectrum of research. From Professor Sally Magnan's research on study abroad and Professor Monika Chavez's work in foreign language policy through Professor Richard Young's examination of…

  2. Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLaughlin, Barry; Harrington, Michael

    1989-01-01

    A distinction is drawn between representational and processing models of second-language acquisition. The first approach is derived primarily from linguistics, the second from psychology. Both fields, it is argued, need to collaborate more fully, overcoming disciplinary narrowness in order to achieve more fruitful research. (GLR)

  3. First Language Acquisition and Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena

    2011-01-01

    "First language acquisition" commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child's natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. "First language teaching" concerns schooling in…

  4. Foreign Language Acquisition Of Souvenir Seller In Bawomataluo Village

    OpenAIRE

    Saniago Dakhi; Nur Intan Zagoto

    2016-01-01

    This research is addresses language functional and lexical acquisition domains of souvenir seller in Bawomataluo village, South Nias, North Sumatera. The reasons of lexical items acquired by souvenir seller is regarded as the function of language acquisition. On the contrary, form and process of lexical items acquired are totally viewed as language lexical domains. To obtain the whole accurate data of these research problems interview and observation were conducted. The research ...

  5. The Influence of Language Distance and Language Status on the Acquisition of L3 Phonology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llama, Raquel; Cardoso, Walcir; Collins, Laura

    2010-01-01

    Research in the field of third language acquisition has consistently identified two key factors which have an effect on the ways in which the two known languages may influence the acquisition of a third. These factors are language distance (typology) and language status (more specifically, second language, L2, or non-native language status). To…

  6. The Associations between Language Aptitude and Second Language Grammar Acquisition: A Meta-Analytic Review of Five Decades of Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shaofeng

    2015-01-01

    This study reports a meta-analysis that synthesizes the empirical research on the role of language aptitude in second language grammar acquisition. A total of 33 study reports were identified including 17 predictive studies that investigated the correlations between aptitude and ultimate L2 attainment and 16 interactional studies that examined the…

  7. How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sturdy, Christopher B; Nicoladis, Elena

    2017-01-01

    Since the 1950s, when Chomsky argued that Skinner's arguments could not explain syntactic acquisition, psychologists have generally avoided explicitly invoking operant or instrumental conditioning as a learning mechanism for language among human children. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. We focus on research that has been done on language learning in human infants and toddlers in order to illustrate our points. Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in actual practice, not only resemble but also in fact are examples of operant conditioning (OC) by any other name they select. We argue that language acquisition researchers should proceed by first ruling out OC before invoking alternative learning mechanisms. While it is possible that OC cannot explain all of the language acquisition, simple learning mechanisms that work across species may have some explanatory power in children's language learning.

  8. How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sturdy, Christopher B.; Nicoladis, Elena

    2017-01-01

    Since the 1950s, when Chomsky argued that Skinner’s arguments could not explain syntactic acquisition, psychologists have generally avoided explicitly invoking operant or instrumental conditioning as a learning mechanism for language among human children. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. We focus on research that has been done on language learning in human infants and toddlers in order to illustrate our points. Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in actual practice, not only resemble but also in fact are examples of operant conditioning (OC) by any other name they select. We argue that language acquisition researchers should proceed by first ruling out OC before invoking alternative learning mechanisms. While it is possible that OC cannot explain all of the language acquisition, simple learning mechanisms that work across species may have some explanatory power in children’s language learning. PMID:29163295

  9. How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher B. Sturdy

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Since the 1950s, when Chomsky argued that Skinner’s arguments could not explain syntactic acquisition, psychologists have generally avoided explicitly invoking operant or instrumental conditioning as a learning mechanism for language among human children. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. We focus on research that has been done on language learning in human infants and toddlers in order to illustrate our points. Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in actual practice, not only resemble but also in fact are examples of operant conditioning (OC by any other name they select. We argue that language acquisition researchers should proceed by first ruling out OC before invoking alternative learning mechanisms. While it is possible that OC cannot explain all of the language acquisition, simple learning mechanisms that work across species may have some explanatory power in children’s language learning.

  10. Language Acquisition without an Acquisition Device

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Grady, William

    2012-01-01

    Most explanatory work on first and second language learning assumes the primacy of the acquisition phenomenon itself, and a good deal of work has been devoted to the search for an "acquisition device" that is specific to humans, and perhaps even to language. I will consider the possibility that this strategy is misguided and that language…

  11. Schizophrenia and second language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bersudsky, Yuly; Fine, Jonathan; Gorjaltsan, Igor; Chen, Osnat; Walters, Joel

    2005-05-01

    Language acquisition involves brain processes that can be affected by lesions or dysfunctions in several brain systems and second language acquisition may depend on different brain substrates than first language acquisition in childhood. A total of 16 Russian immigrants to Israel, 8 diagnosed schizophrenics and 8 healthy immigrants, were compared. The primary data for this study were collected via sociolinguistic interviews. The two groups use language and learn language in very much the same way. Only exophoric reference and blocking revealed meaningful differences between the schizophrenics and healthy counterparts. This does not mean of course that schizophrenia does not induce language abnormalities. Our study focuses on those aspects of language that are typically difficult to acquire in second language acquisition. Despite the cognitive compromises in schizophrenia and the manifest atypicalities in language of speakers with schizophrenia, the process of acquiring a second language seems relatively unaffected by schizophrenia.

  12. 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).

  13. A Shared Platform for Studying Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacWhinney, Brian

    2017-01-01

    The study of second language acquisition (SLA) can benefit from the same process of datasharing that has proven effective in areas such as first language acquisition and aphasiology. Researchers can work together to construct a shared platform that combines data from spoken and written corpora, online tutors, and Web-based experimentation. Many of…

  14. Looking Ahead: Future Directions in, and Future Research into, Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen-Freeman, Diane

    2018-01-01

    This article begins by situating modern-day second language acquisition (SLA) research in a historical context, tracing its evolution from cognitive to social to sociocognitive accounts. Next, the influence of the zeitgeist is considered. In this era of rapid change and turmoil, there are both perils and opportunities afforded by globalization. In…

  15. Innovation in Researching the Effects of Frame – Focused Instruction on Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena SOKOLOVA

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In the context of globalization the research of innovative teaching methods and techniques becomes relevant. The traditional teaching approach where the training of practice material is preceded by rule-presentation (explanation + mechanical formoriented practice doesn’t meet the requirements of constantly developing rational language processing. Contemporary studies are considering the ways how to allow second language learners to be rational in the sense that their mental models of language functioning are the most optimal. This paper outlines current cognitive perspectives on second language acquisition. Language learning involves the acquisition of frame instructions or input-processing instructions (explanation + structured-input activities. Competence and performance both emerge from the dynamic system of frequently used memorized constructions. Frames are dynamic contextualized activation of stereotyped situations. This system proves to be rational since it aims at optimal reflection of prior first language usage and induces learners to think consciously about some sort of rule in order to work out the meaning. The frame–based instruction consists of activities which present learners with a stimulus and require them to respond choosing the appropriate language form for communication. The targeted feature of such communicative tasks has two aims: 1. to stimulate communicative language use and 2. to target the use of a particular predetermined linguistic feature. The empirical research shows that frame-focused tasks direct learners attention to the meaning realized by the target form. Methodological basis includes some theoretical propositions from recent Relevance theory and cognitive linguistics.

  16. Foreign Language Acquisition Of Souvenir Seller In Bawomataluo Village

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saniago Dakhi

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This research is addresses language functional and lexical acquisition domains of souvenir seller in Bawomataluo village, South Nias, North Sumatera. The reasons of lexical items acquired by souvenir seller is regarded as the function of language acquisition. On the contrary, form and process of lexical items acquired are totally viewed as language lexical domains. To obtain the whole accurate data of these research problems interview and observation were conducted. The research finding indicates four specified language lexical acquisition reasons: internal motivation, external motivation, access to native speaker and experience. In addition, eight English part of speech are acquired.It is discovered that lexical items acquired are dominated by noun. Verb and adjective posites at the next level of the amount of lexicals acquired. Adverb, conjunction, pronoun are less acquired. Interjection is more easily acquired by souvenir sellers. The processes involved to acquire the lexical consist of social, memory, compensation, and affective process. Finally, the research finding is thoroughly expected to be language teacher’s consideration in employing material selection and determining natural, contextual and situational language teaching model. Language leaners are highly advised to recall the language competence theoretically mastered in naturall setting in attempt to obtain practical competence.

  17. The Use of Web Questionnaires in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Research

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    Wilson, Rosemary; Dewaele, Jean-Marc

    2010-01-01

    The present article focuses on data collection through web questionnaires, as opposed to the traditional pen-and-paper method for research in second language acquisition and bilingualism. It is argued that web questionnaires, which have been used quite widely in psychology, have the advantage of reaching out to a larger and more diverse pool of…

  18. Language Acquisition and Language Revitalization

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Grady, William; Hattori, Ryoko

    2016-01-01

    Intergenerational transmission, the ultimate goal of language revitalization efforts, can only be achieved by (re)establishing the conditions under which an imperiled language can be acquired by the community's children. This paper presents a tutorial survey of several key points relating to language acquisition and maintenance in children,…

  19. An Application of Second Language Acquisition Research to ESL Grammar Teaching: What To Do with Novel Passives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balcom, Patricia A.

    2001-01-01

    Demonstrates how second language acquisition research can inform textbook writers and language teachers. Presents an analysis of 40 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) grammar textbooks, which shows that few mention unaccusative verbs or inappropriate passives in their presentation of active and passive voice. Offers suggestions for dealing with…

  20. Assess the Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Lihong

    2010-01-01

    The Critical Period Hypothesis aims to investigate the reason for significant difference between first language acquisition and second language acquisition. Over the past few decades, researchers carried out a series of studies to test the validity of the hypothesis. Although there were certain limitations in these studies, most of their results…

  1. "Language Learning" Roundtable: Memory and Second Language Acquisition 2012, Hong Kong

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Zhisheng; McNeill, Arthur; Mota, Mailce Borges

    2014-01-01

    Organized under the auspices of the "Language Learning" Roundtable Conference Grant (2012), this seminar aimed to provide an interactive forum for a group of second language acquisition (SLA) researchers with particular interests in cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics to discuss key theoretical and methodological issues in the…

  2. The role of affordances in Libras acquisition as second language

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    Jéssica Puhl

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Libras is a visual-spatial language used by the Brazilian deaf community. Following the principles of spatiality and vision, the user of the sign language resorts more easily to stimuli from the environment than the user of the oral language. Thus, the hypothesis of this research is that the affordances (environmental properties that enable psychologically possible actions would be a facilitator element in the process of Libras acquisition. In this paper we use the narrative and interpretive-qualitative research to discuss the role of affordances in the listener perception, interpretation and action cycle in Libras acquisition as second language. Results show that the Libras’ iconic signs can be considered important affordances in the early stages of the acquisition. It is also observed the importance of the permanence in the niche where Libras is used for the sign language development.

  3. Individual Differences in Language Acquisition and Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kidd, Evan; Donnelly, Seamus; Christiansen, Morten H

    2018-02-01

    Humans differ in innumerable ways, with considerable variation observable at every level of description, from the molecular to the social. Traditionally, linguistic and psycholinguistic theory has downplayed the possibility of meaningful differences in language across individuals. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that there is significant variation among speakers at any age as well as across the lifespan. Here, we review recent research in psycholinguistics, and argue that a focus on individual differences (IDs) provides a crucial source of evidence that bears strongly upon core issues in theories of the acquisition and processing of language; specifically, the role of experience in language acquisition, processing, and attainment, and the architecture of the language system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. A Critical Review of Motivation in Second Language Acquisition Research

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    欧阳晓娟

    2009-01-01

    As one of the major factors affecting second language learners' success to their acquisition achievement, motivation has been examined in a wide variety of research papers. It is thus instructive to conduct a critical review of both theoretical and empirical developments in SLA research from over the last few decades. This approach will provide a broad, and integrated perspective onto the current understanding of the complex topic of motivation. Such an undertaking is valuable for teachers, and researchers alike, in developing useful teaching methods, and finding future avenues of SLA motivation research respectively.The following paper provides an overview of recent theoretical and empirical findings, examines some of the problems and contradictions found/11 current SLA research, and gives an initial departure point for future directions of research in the area of motivation. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the implications for teachers, and possible classroom strategies that axe drawn from the current body of motivation research.

  5. A Correlational Study: Personality Types and Foreign Language Acquisition in Undergraduate Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capellan, Frank

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality types and second language acquisition. The study addressed a problem that is inadequately investigated in foreign language acquisition research; specifically, personality traits as predictors of language learning in college students studying Spanish as a foreign…

  6. A brief discussion on the biological factors in the acquisition of language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ronivaldo Braz da Silva

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available The understanding of how language is acquired and the role the brain plays in the language acquisition process are crucial because the development of language is one of the most important factcrs in human development. The analysis of language development is intrinsically connected with one's awareness of how human beings or human brains perceive, learn, control, and coordinate elaborate behaviour. The study of language development, therefore, involves research on motor, perceptual, and cognitive development. This paper reviews the three major theories of language acquisition, namely, behaviouristic, psycholinguistic, and interactionistic and examines the biological component of language acquisition and the brain's role in the language development process.

  7. The Relationship between Second Language Acquisition Process and English Language Teaching in Indonesia

    OpenAIRE

    Pritz Hutabarat

    2016-01-01

    English as a global language is learned worldwide and a plethora of methods and approaches have been developed and practiced in English classrooms by dedicated teachers and students. Understanding the underlying theories of second and foreign language acquisition and learning will help both teachers and students in learning and teaching a target language. There has not been many research conducted in the area, especially within Indonesian context. This research therefore attempts to fill in g...

  8. First and second language acquisition: Towards a reconcillation

    OpenAIRE

    Nau Nicole

    2015-01-01

    For the past two decades, research on first language acquisition on the one side, and on second language acquisition and learning on the other have largely developed separately, probably as a reaction to the failure of earlier attempts to use the same methods or simply transfer insights gained in one of the fields to the other. T his article argues that a reconciliation may be fruitful, provided that different aspects which have often got blurred in the discussion are considered separately. T...

  9. The Effects of Foreign Language Motivation in Second Language Acquisition

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    WU Miao-ru

    2013-01-01

    Foreign language motivation is regarded as one source of individual differences in second language acquisition. Learn-ing motivation is a dynamic mechanism which gives rise to learning activities. Learners ’motivation is a decisive factor for the suc-cess of second language acquisition.

  10. Complexity in language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Alexander; Lappin, Shalom

    2013-01-01

    Learning theory has frequently been applied to language acquisition, but discussion has largely focused on information theoretic problems-in particular on the absence of direct negative evidence. Such arguments typically neglect the probabilistic nature of cognition and learning in general. We argue first that these arguments, and analyses based on them, suffer from a major flaw: they systematically conflate the hypothesis class and the learnable concept class. As a result, they do not allow one to draw significant conclusions about the learner. Second, we claim that the real problem for language learning is the computational complexity of constructing a hypothesis from input data. Studying this problem allows for a more direct approach to the object of study--the language acquisition device-rather than the learnable class of languages, which is epiphenomenal and possibly hard to characterize. The learnability results informed by complexity studies are much more insightful. They strongly suggest that target grammars need to be objective, in the sense that the primitive elements of these grammars are based on objectively definable properties of the language itself. These considerations support the view that language acquisition proceeds primarily through data-driven learning of some form. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  11. 76 FR 14954 - National Professional Development Program; Office of English Language Acquisition, Language...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-18

    ... Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students; Overview... to provide instruction that accelerates ELs' acquisition of language, literacy, and content knowledge.... Rosalinda Barrera, Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director for English Language Acquisition, Language...

  12. Some Aspects of Developing Background Knowledge in Second Language Acquisition Revisited

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zashchitina, Galina; Moysyak, Natalia

    2017-01-01

    The article focuses on defining how background knowledge impacts on second-language acquisition by giving a brief overview of schema theory, the interaction of the basic modes of information processing. A challenge of dealing with culturally specific texts in second language acquisition is also touched upon. Different research-supported views on…

  13. Unsupervised Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Marcken, Carl

    1996-11-01

    This thesis presents a computational theory of unsupervised language acquisition, precisely defining procedures for learning language from ordinary spoken or written utterances, with no explicit help from a teacher. The theory is based heavily on concepts borrowed from machine learning and statistical estimation. In particular, learning takes place by fitting a stochastic, generative model of language to the evidence. Much of the thesis is devoted to explaining conditions that must hold for this general learning strategy to arrive at linguistically desirable grammars. The thesis introduces a variety of technical innovations, among them a common representation for evidence and grammars, and a learning strategy that separates the ``content'' of linguistic parameters from their representation. Algorithms based on it suffer from few of the search problems that have plagued other computational approaches to language acquisition. The theory has been tested on problems of learning vocabularies and grammars from unsegmented text and continuous speech, and mappings between sound and representations of meaning. It performs extremely well on various objective criteria, acquiring knowledge that causes it to assign almost exactly the same structure to utterances as humans do. This work has application to data compression, language modeling, speech recognition, machine translation, information retrieval, and other tasks that rely on either structural or stochastic descriptions of language.

  14. Papers in Language Learning and Language Acquisition. AFinLA Yearbook 1980. No. 28.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sajavaara, Kari, Ed.; And Others

    Papers include: (1) "Language Acquisitional Universals: L1, L2, Pidgins, and FLT" (Henning Wode); (2) "Language Acquisition, Language Learning and the School Curriculum" (Norman F. Davies); (3) "Language Teaching and Acquisition of Communication" (Kari Sajavaara, Jaakko Lehtonen); (4) "On the Distinction between…

  15. Interaction and Instructed Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loewen, Shawn; Sato, Masatoshi

    2018-01-01

    Interaction is an indispensable component in second language acquisition (SLA). This review surveys the instructed SLA research, both classroom and laboratory-based, that has been conducted primarily within the interactionist approach, beginning with the core constructs of interaction, namely input, negotiation for meaning, and output. The review…

  16. 75 FR 13751 - Office of English Language Acquisition; Overview Information; Language Enhancement, and Academic...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-23

    ... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of English Language Acquisition; Overview Information; Language... Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA) may... Secretary and Director, Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic...

  17. Music and Early Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandt, Anthony; Gebrian, Molly; Slevc, L. Robert

    2012-01-01

    Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence. Music, while recognized as a human universal, is often treated as an ancillary ability – one dependent on or derivative of language. In contrast, we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development. PMID:22973254

  18. The Spacing Effect and Its Relevance to Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, John

    2017-01-01

    This commentary discusses some theoretical and methodological issues related to research on the spacing effect in second language acquisition research (SLA). There has been a growing interest in SLA in how the temporal distribution of input might impact language development. SLA research in this area has frequently drawn upon the rich field of…

  19. The Ubiquity of Frequency Effects in First Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambridge, Ben; Kidd, Evan; Rowland, Caroline F.; Theakston, Anna L.

    2015-01-01

    This review article presents evidence for the claim that frequency effects are pervasive in children's first language acquisition, and hence constitute a phenomenon that any successful account must explain. The article is organized around four key domains of research: children's acquisition of single words, inflectional morphology, simple…

  20. Authentic Language Input Through Audiovisual Technology and Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taher Bahrani

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Second language acquisition cannot take place without having exposure to language input. With regard to this, the present research aimed at providing empirical evidence about the low and the upper-intermediate language learners’ preferred type of audiovisual programs and language proficiency development outside the classroom. To this end, 60 language learners (30 low level and 30 upper-intermediate level were asked to have exposure to their preferred types of audiovisual program(s outside the classroom and keep a diary of the amount and the type of exposure. The obtained data indicated that the low-level participants preferred cartoons and the upper-intermediate participants preferred news more. To find out which language proficiency level could improve its language proficiency significantly, a post-test was administered. The results indicated that only the upper-intermediate language learners gained significant improvement. Based on the findings, the quality of the language input should be given priority over the amount of exposure.

  1. Learning theories in computer-assisted foreign language acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Baeva, D.

    2013-01-01

    This paper reviews the learning theories, focusing to the strong interest in technology use for language learning. It is important to look at how technology has been used in the field thus far. The goals of this review are to understand how computers have been used in the past years to support foreign language learning, and to explore any research evidence with regards to how computer technology can enhance language skills acquisition

  2. Neurolinguistics Aspects of Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laleh Fakhraee Faruji

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available   Fundamental breakthroughs in the neurosciences, combined with technical innovations for measuring brain activity, are shedding new light on the neural basis of second language (L2
    processing, and on its relationship to native language processing (L1 (Perani & Abutalebi, 2005.  Over the past two decades, a large body of neuroimaging studies has been devoted to the study of the neural organization of language (De´monet, Thierry, & Cardebat, 2005; Indefrey & Levelt, 2004; Price, 2000 as cited in Abutalebi, 2008. The value that functional neuroimaging adds to language research is to improve the perspective on the distributed anatomy of language. Thus, it can be used with considerable precision to identify the neural networks underlying the different domains of language processing. In this paper some main issues related to neurolinguistics and second language acquisition with a focus on bilingualism will be discussed.

  3. Input and Intake in Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gagliardi, Ann C.

    2012-01-01

    This dissertation presents an approach for a productive way forward in the study of language acquisition, sealing the rift between claims of an innate linguistic hypothesis space and powerful domain general statistical inference. This approach breaks language acquisition into its component parts, distinguishing the input in the environment from…

  4. 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)

  5. Foreign language aptitude of pupils with learning disabilities at the beginning of the foreign language acquisition at the elementary school

    OpenAIRE

    Špačková, Klára

    2011-01-01

    The dissertation is dealing with the issue of foreign language aptitude and foreign language abilities of pupils with learning disabilities at the beginning of the foreign language acquisition. The first part of the work describes general theories of the foreign language acquisition and introduces the current trends in education of pupils with learning disabilities in the process of foreign language learning. The second part of the work describes the research, which aim was to investigate the...

  6. Serbian language acquisition in communist Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sorescu-Marinković Annemarie

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyzes a unique linguistic phenomenon characterizing Romania’s western border areas for almost a decade, in the 1980s: the acquisition of the Serbian language by Romanians in Timişoara under the communist regime, primarily through exposure to Yugoslav television programmes. It gives a necessarily sketchy overview of private life under communism, notably the situation in the Banat province, whose privileged position as a result of being closest to the West both geographically and culturally was reflected in the acceptance of pluralism and a critical attitude towards authoritarianism. Taking into account the literature on foreign language acquisition through exposure to television programmes, the study is based on a research involving Romanian natives of Timişoara who, although lacking any formal instruction in Serbian, intensively and regularly watched Yugoslav television programmes in the period in question, and on evaluating their competence and proficiency in Serbian, through language tests, narrative interviews in Romanian and free conversations in Serbian. The conclusion is that most respondents, despite the varying degree of proficiency in Serbian depending on their active use of the language before and after 1989, showed a strong pragmatic competence, which appears to contradict the author’s initial hypothesis.

  7. Very Early Processing Skills and Language Acquisition in Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kushner, Nicole Blake

    2017-01-01

    With the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses, large percentage of diagnosed individuals with comorbid language difficulties, and negative effects of these difficulties on language development and overall functioning, research on language acquisition in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder is essential. The current study used data…

  8. Book Review : A DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW OF KEY TERMS IN FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

    OpenAIRE

    Kaswan Kaswan

    2014-01-01

    As  with language, language acquisition (LA), particularly second language acquisition (SLA)  is not simple. SLA  is complex  and paradoxical.  SLA is complex because it cannot be scrutinized using a single approach.  SLA  is complex;  nevertheless  it is  a curious fact that the study of  (SLA has historically been dominated by a single broad approach—that which goes by the name of “cognitive (Atkinson (ed), 2011). Among views on acquisition which can be characterized as cognitive are: 1...

  9. Language Aptitude and Its Relationship to Instructional Effectiveness in Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erlam, Rosemary

    2005-01-01

    Experimental second language acquisition research typically investigates the effectiveness of instruction in terms of overall group gains. A particular instructional method may not, however, benefit all learners uniformly. This study, conducted in a New Zealand secondary school, establishes whether there is any relationship between the…

  10. QAL: a language for nuclear physics data acquisition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Perry, D.G.

    1979-01-01

    QAL is a data-acquisition language designed to facilitate the experimental interface to the LAMPF-designed Q data-acquisition system. The language constructs available are reviewed. The language is designed around the CAMAC standard and provides experimenters a language interface to the hardware which is easy to understand. Software written in the QAL language is modular and simple to modify

  11. Language Acquisition and Language Learning: Developing the System of External and Internal Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zascerinska, Jelena

    2010-01-01

    Introduction. The use of three-five languages is of the greatest importance in order to form varied cooperative networks for the creation of new knowledge. Aim of the paper is to analyze the synergy between language acquisition and language learning. Materials and Methods. The search for the synergy between language acquisition and language…

  12. How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?

    OpenAIRE

    Sturdy, Christopher B.; Nicoladis, Elena

    2017-01-01

    Since the 1950s, when Chomsky argued that Skinner’s arguments could not explain syntactic acquisition, psychologists have generally avoided explicitly invoking operant or instrumental conditioning as a learning mechanism for language among human children. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. We focus on research that has been done on language learning in human infants and toddlers in order to illustrate our points. Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in ...

  13. Language acquisition from a biolinguistic perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crain, Stephen; Koring, Loes; Thornton, Rosalind

    2017-10-01

    This paper describes the biolinguistic approach to language acquisition. We contrast the biolinguistic approach with a usage-based approach. We argue that the biolinguistic approach is superior because it provides more accurate and more extensive generalizations about the properties of human languages, as well as a better account of how children acquire human languages. To distinguish between these accounts, we focus on how child and adult language differ both in sentence production and in sentence understanding. We argue that the observed differences resist explanation using the cognitive mechanisms that are invoked by the usage-based approach. In contrast, the biolinguistic approach explains the qualitative parametric differences between child and adult language. Explaining how child and adult language differ and demonstrating that children perceive unity despite apparent diversity are two of the hallmarks of the biolinguistic approach to language acquisition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Dissimilation in the Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hang

    2016-01-01

    This article extends Optimality Theoretic studies to the research on second language tone phonology. Specifically, this work analyses the acquisition of identical tone sequences in Mandarin Chinese by adult speakers of three non-tonal languages: English, Japanese and Korean. This study finds that the learners prefer not to use identical lexical…

  15. Psychological Features of Foreign Language Acquisition in Different Age Groups

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N V Kudinova

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The influence of age factor on the foreign language learning is examined in the article from the practical point of view. The specific age features and their influence on the foreign language acquisition at different stages of age are highlighted and analyzed on the basis of psychological research.

  16. A review of theoretical perspectives on language learning and acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Norbahira Mohamad Nor

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews three main theoretical perspectives on language learning and acquisition in an attempt to elucidate how people acquire their first language (L1 and learn their second language (L2. Behaviorist, Innatist and Interactionist offer different perspectives on language learning and acquisition which influence the acceptance of how an L2 should be taught and learned. This paper also explicates the relationship between L1 and L2, and elaborates on the similarities and differences between the two. This paper concludes that there is no one solid linguistic theory which can provide the ultimate explanation of L1 acquisition and L2 learning as there are many interrelated factors that influence the success of language acquisition or language learning. The implication is that teachers should base their classroom management practices and pedagogical techniques on several theories rather than a single theory as learners learn and acquire language differently. It is hoped that this paper provides useful insights into the complex process involved in language acquisition and learning, and contributes to the increased awareness of the process among the stakeholders in the field of language education. Keywords: behaviorist, innatist, interactionist, language acquisition, second language learning

  17. Language acquisition is model-based rather than model-free.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Felix Hao; Mintz, Toben H

    2016-01-01

    Christiansen & Chater (C&C) propose that learning language is learning to process language. However, we believe that the general-purpose prediction mechanism they propose is insufficient to account for many phenomena in language acquisition. We argue from theoretical considerations and empirical evidence that many acquisition tasks are model-based, and that different acquisition tasks require different, specialized models.

  18. MODEL NATIVIS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (SEBUAH TEORI PEMEROLEHAN BAHASA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mamluatul Hasanah

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available The ability of using mother tongue has been possessed by every child. They can master the language without getting specific education. In a short time a child has mastered the language to communicate with others. There are many theories of language acquisition. One of them that still exists is The Native Model of Language Acquisition (LAD. This theory was pioneered by Noam Chomsky. In this language naturally. This ability develops automatically when the language is used is Language Acquisition Device (LAD. LAD constitutes a hypothesis of feature of grammatical rules used progressively by a child in accordance with his psychological development.

  19. Acquisition of speech rhythm in first language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polyanskaya, Leona; Ordin, Mikhail

    2015-09-01

    Analysis of English rhythm in speech produced by children and adults revealed that speech rhythm becomes increasingly more stress-timed as language acquisition progresses. Children reach the adult-like target by 11 to 12 years. The employed speech elicitation paradigm ensured that the sentences produced by adults and children at different ages were comparable in terms of lexical content, segmental composition, and phonotactic complexity. Detected differences between child and adult rhythm and between rhythm in child speech at various ages cannot be attributed to acquisition of phonotactic language features or vocabulary, and indicate the development of language-specific phonetic timing in the course of acquisition.

  20. On Cultivating Students' Motivation in Second Language Acquisition

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    沈小平

    2009-01-01

    This paper attempts to explore the cultivation of motivation in second language acquisition based on shedding new light on the definition, the importance, and the classification of learners' motivation in second language acquisition.

  1. Second Language Acquisition and Its Pscycho-cultural Implications

    OpenAIRE

    Waskita, Dana

    2009-01-01

    Bilingualism or multilingualism may imply socioeconomic advantages. But a further literature study indicates that this may also affect psychological and cultural viewpoints. The acquisition of second language would significantly influence the mentality or perceptual framework of the language users. Consequently, this finding may inspire to the appropriate pedagogical methods in language acquisition.

  2. Foreign Language Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Volume 2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Bot, Kees, Ed.; And Others

    Papers from a conference on empirical research on foreign language instruction in Europe and the United States include: "Foreign Language Instruction and Second Language Acquisition Research in the United States" (Charles A. Fergurson, Thom Huebner); "Empirical Foreign Language Research in Europe" (Theo van Els, Kees de Bot,…

  3. Book Review : A DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW OF KEY TERMS IN FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaswan Kaswan

    2014-10-01

    • To apply individual learning styles to language data. 4      The infant’s limited cognitive capacity renders it more sensitive to the features of language than it might be before or later  (Tavakoli, 2012   Apart from cognitivism, the other approaches to SLA are, among others: sociocultural approach, complexity theory, identity approach, language socialization approach, language socialization approaches, conversation analytic approach, and socio cognitive approach (Atkinson (ed, 2011. By examining a variety approaches to SLA , we arrive at the conclusion that SLA is not as simple as we thought. We,  therefore, need an authoritative reference to facilitate our better understanding and avoid misconception of SLA. To this end, A Dictionary of Language Acquisition: A Comprehensive Overview of Key Terms in First and Second Language Acquisition by Hossein Tavakoli is incredibly helpful and useful.   The function of this book, as stated by the writer,  is to collect and synthesize the knowledge base that is already well accepted and that has been well researched. Thus, it is a reference guide which offers an authoritative and encyclopedic survey of key terms and concepts in the areas of language acquisition and development. The volume is intended as a resource to elucidate various concepts, issues, approaches, models, and theories of language acquisition in an efficient and accessible style.   To illustrate key terms and concepts in the areas of LA, some of them are quoted and analyzed here.  To begin with, first language acquisition, also child language acquisition refers to “the process of learning a native language” (Tavakoli, 2013: 131. Furthermore, Clark (2009 elaborates on this. When children learn a first language, they might construct  preexisting notions of what to represent with language and prior notions of  communication. Or they could start from nothing and find what is (and isn’t represented in language. And since languages differ

  4. The Bilingual Brain: Human Evolution and Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Kirk Hagen

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available For the past half-century, psycholinguistic research has concerned itself with two mysteries of human cognition: (1 that children universally acquire a highly abstract, computationally complex set of linguistic rules rapidly and effortlessly, and (2 that second language acquisition (SLA among adults is, conversely, slow, laborious, highly variable, and virtually never results in native fluency. We now have a decent, if approximate, understanding of the biological foundations of first language acquisition, thanks in large part to Lenneberg's (1964, 1984 seminal work on the critical period hypothesis. More recently, the elements of a promising theory of language and evolution have emerged as well (see e.g. Bickerton, 1981, 1990; Leiberman, 1984, 1987. I argue here that the empirical foundations of an evolutionary theory of language are now solid enough to support an account of bilingualism and adult SLA as well. Specifically, I will show that evidence from the environment of evolutionary adaptation of paleolithic humans suggests that for our nomadic ancestors, the ability to master a language early in life was an eminently useful adaptation. However, the ability to acquire another language in adulthood was not, and consequently was not selected for propagation.

  5. Innovations in Second Language Research Methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gass, Susan M.

    2001-01-01

    Focuses on two approaches to research in second language acquisition: (1) various types of acceptability judgments or probes aimed at assessing acquisition of syntactic structure; and (2) various types of stimulated recall designed to gather learners' accounts of their own thought processes. (Author/VWL)

  6. Minimalism and Beyond: Second Language Acquisition for the Twenty-First Century.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balcom, Patricia A.

    2001-01-01

    Provides a general overview of two books--"The Second Time Around: Minimalism and Second Language Acquisition" and "Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction--and shows how the respond to key issues in second language acquisition, including the process of second language acquisition, access to universal grammar, the role of…

  7. First language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British Sign Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cormier, Kearsy; Schembri, Adam; Vinson, David; Orfanidou, Eleni

    2012-07-01

    Age of acquisition (AoA) effects have been used to support the notion of a critical period for first language acquisition. In this study, we examine AoA effects in deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users via a grammaticality judgment task. When English reading performance and nonverbal IQ are factored out, results show that accuracy of grammaticality judgement decreases as AoA increases, until around age 8, thus showing the unique effect of AoA on grammatical judgement in early learners. No such effects were found in those who acquired BSL after age 8. These late learners appear to have first language proficiency in English instead, which may have been used to scaffold learning of BSL as a second language later in life. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Facilitating vocabulary acquisition of young English language learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lugo-Neris, Mirza J; Jackson, Carla Wood; Goldstein, Howard

    2010-07-01

    This study examined whether English-only vocabulary instruction or English vocabulary instruction enhanced with Spanish bridging produced greater word learning in young Spanish-speaking children learning English during a storybook reading intervention while considering individual language characteristics. Twenty-two Spanish-speaking children learning English (ages 4-6) who participated in a summer education program for migrant families were randomly assigned to receive 2 weeks of each instruction: (a) word expansions in English or (b) English readings with word expansions in Spanish. Researcher-created measures of target vocabulary were administered, as were English and Spanish standardized measures of language proficiency and vocabulary. Results revealed significant improvement in naming, receptive knowledge, and expressive definitions for those children who received Spanish bridging. Spanish expansions produced the greatest gains in the children's use of expressive definitions. Initial language proficiency in both languages was found to affect participants' gains from intervention, as those with limited skills in both languages showed significantly less vocabulary growth than those with strong skills in Spanish. Additional benefits to using Spanish expansions in vocabulary instruction were observed. Future research should explore additional ways of enhancing the vocabulary growth of children with limited skills in both languages in order to support and strengthen the child's first language and promote second language acquisition.

  9. Age of language acquisition and cortical language organization in multilingual patients undergoing awake brain mapping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernández-Coello, Alejandro; Havas, Viktória; Juncadella, Montserrat; Sierpowska, Joanna; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Gabarrós, Andreu

    2017-06-01

    OBJECTIVE Most knowledge regarding the anatomical organization of multilingualism is based on aphasiology and functional imaging studies. However, the results have still to be validated by the gold standard approach, namely electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) during awake neurosurgical procedures. In this ESM study the authors describe language representation in a highly specific group of 13 multilingual individuals, focusing on how age of acquisition may influence the cortical organization of language. METHODS Thirteen patients who had a high degree of proficiency in multiple languages and were harboring lesions within the dominant, left hemisphere underwent ESM while being operated on under awake conditions. Demographic and language data were recorded in relation to age of language acquisition (for native languages and early- and late-acquired languages), neuropsychological pre- and postoperative language testing, the number and location of language sites, and overlapping distribution in terms of language acquisition time. Lesion growth patterns and histopathological characteristics, location, and size were also recorded. The distribution of language sites was analyzed with respect to age of acquisition and overlap. RESULTS The functional language-related sites were distributed in the frontal (55%), temporal (29%), and parietal lobes (16%). The total number of native language sites was 47. Early-acquired languages (including native languages) were represented in 97 sites (55 overlapped) and late-acquired languages in 70 sites (45 overlapped). The overlapping distribution was 20% for early-early, 71% for early-late, and 9% for late-late. The average lesion size (maximum diameter) was 3.3 cm. There were 5 fast-growing and 7 slow-growing lesions. CONCLUSIONS Cortical language distribution in multilingual patients is not homogeneous, and it is influenced by age of acquisition. Early-acquired languages have a greater cortical representation than languages acquired

  10. Direct Instruction in Second Language Acquisition: A Critical Review of Related Literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernandez, Hjalmar Punla

    2017-01-01

    Second Language Acquisition (SLA), as a sub-discipline in applied linguistics, is rapidly growing and changing (Ellis & Shintani, 2014). As such, it has yielded stirring issues on both naturalistic and instructed settings causing reviews and/or investigations by language researchers. This paper accordingly serves as a humble attempt at…

  11. Music Perception Influences Language Acquisition: Melodic and Rhythmic-Melodic Perception in Children with Specific Language Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sallat, Stephan; Jentschke, Sebastian

    2015-01-01

    Language and music share many properties, with a particularly strong overlap for prosody. Prosodic cues are generally regarded as crucial for language acquisition. Previous research has indicated that children with SLI fail to make use of these cues. As processing of prosodic information involves similar skills to those required in music perception, we compared music perception skills (melodic and rhythmic-melodic perception and melody recognition) in a group of children with SLI (N = 29, five-year-olds) to two groups of controls, either of comparable age (N = 39, five-year-olds) or of age closer to the children with SLI in their language skills and about one year younger (N = 13, four-year-olds). Children with SLI performed in most tasks below their age level, closer matching the performance level of younger controls with similar language skills. These data strengthen the view of a strong relation between language acquisition and music processing. This might open a perspective for the possible use of musical material in early diagnosis of SLI and of music in SLI therapy.

  12. Music Perception Influences Language Acquisition: Melodic and Rhythmic-Melodic Perception in Children with Specific Language Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sallat, Stephan; Jentschke, Sebastian

    2015-01-01

    Language and music share many properties, with a particularly strong overlap for prosody. Prosodic cues are generally regarded as crucial for language acquisition. Previous research has indicated that children with SLI fail to make use of these cues. As processing of prosodic information involves similar skills to those required in music perception, we compared music perception skills (melodic and rhythmic-melodic perception and melody recognition) in a group of children with SLI (N = 29, five-year-olds) to two groups of controls, either of comparable age (N = 39, five-year-olds) or of age closer to the children with SLI in their language skills and about one year younger (N = 13, four-year-olds). Children with SLI performed in most tasks below their age level, closer matching the performance level of younger controls with similar language skills. These data strengthen the view of a strong relation between language acquisition and music processing. This might open a perspective for the possible use of musical material in early diagnosis of SLI and of music in SLI therapy. PMID:26508812

  13. Music Perception Influences Language Acquisition: Melodic and Rhythmic-Melodic Perception in Children with Specific Language Impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephan Sallat

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Language and music share many properties, with a particularly strong overlap for prosody. Prosodic cues are generally regarded as crucial for language acquisition. Previous research has indicated that children with SLI fail to make use of these cues. As processing of prosodic information involves similar skills to those required in music perception, we compared music perception skills (melodic and rhythmic-melodic perception and melody recognition in a group of children with SLI (N=29, five-year-olds to two groups of controls, either of comparable age (N=39, five-year-olds or of age closer to the children with SLI in their language skills and about one year younger (N=13, four-year-olds. Children with SLI performed in most tasks below their age level, closer matching the performance level of younger controls with similar language skills. These data strengthen the view of a strong relation between language acquisition and music processing. This might open a perspective for the possible use of musical material in early diagnosis of SLI and of music in SLI therapy.

  14. Implications of Second Language Acquisition Theory for Business English Teaching in Current China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenzhong, Zhu; Muchun, Wan

    2015-01-01

    Second language acquisition (SLA) as a sub-branch of applied linguistics has been researched by Chinese and foreign scholars for over 40 years, but few researches have been done on its implications for Business English teaching which needs more language teaching theories to support. This paper makes a review of related studies, and puts forward a…

  15. Psychological and linguistic features of the Russian language acquisition by international students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I A Novikova

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the results of a full-scale interview with Russian language teachers that teach Russian as a foreign language at the preparatory departments at multinational universities. The research findings identified the basic psychological and linguistic features that are typical for the Russian language acquisition by the students from different regions of the world (Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Arab countries.

  16. Variability and Variation in Second Language Acquisition Orders: A Dynamic Reevaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowie, Wander; Verspoor, Marjolijn

    2015-01-01

    The traditional morpheme order studies in second language acquisition have tried to demonstrate the existence of a fixed order of acquisition of English morphemes, regardless of the second language learner's background. Such orders have been taken as evidence of the preprogrammed nature of language acquisition. This article argues for a…

  17. [Prosody, speech input and language acquisition].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jungheim, M; Miller, S; Kühn, D; Ptok, M

    2014-04-01

    In order to acquire language, children require speech input. The prosody of the speech input plays an important role. In most cultures adults modify their code when communicating with children. Compared to normal speech this code differs especially with regard to prosody. For this review a selective literature search in PubMed and Scopus was performed. Prosodic characteristics are a key feature of spoken language. By analysing prosodic features, children gain knowledge about underlying grammatical structures. Child-directed speech (CDS) is modified in a way that meaningful sequences are highlighted acoustically so that important information can be extracted from the continuous speech flow more easily. CDS is said to enhance the representation of linguistic signs. Taking into consideration what has previously been described in the literature regarding the perception of suprasegmentals, CDS seems to be able to support language acquisition due to the correspondence of prosodic and syntactic units. However, no findings have been reported, stating that the linguistically reduced CDS could hinder first language acquisition.

  18. Language Acquisition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Developmental Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eigsti, Inge-Marie; de Marchena, Ashley B.; Schuh, Jillian M.; Kelley, Elizabeth

    2011-01-01

    This paper reviews the complex literature on language acquisition in the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Because of the high degree of interest in ASD in the past decade, the field has been changing rapidly, with progress in both basic science and applied clinical areas. In addition, psycholinguistically-trained researchers have increasingly…

  19. Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen-Freeman, Diane

    2000-01-01

    Discusses the second language acquisition (SLA) process and the differential success of second language learners. Examines the fundamental challenges that this characterization faces, and highlights the contributions SLA is capable of in the coming decade. Offers topics for a training and development of curriculum for future applied linguists from…

  20. The Ecology of Second Language Acquisition and Socialization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Steffensen, Sune Vork; Kramsch, Claire

    2017-01-01

    Various theories of second language acquisition (SLA) and socialization (SLS) have adopted ecology as a convenient metaphor to promote sociocultural (van Lier 2004) or sociocognitive (Atkinson 2011) approaches to the study of SLA, and socioethnographic approaches (Duff 2011; Duff and Talmy 2011...... such a development is to be welcomed, it also raises serious concerns about the autonomy of the language learner, the collective pressure on individuals to align with the expectations of the community, alternative theories of knowledge and of knowledge acquisition, and the socializing dominance of English around...... the world. This chapter discusses the history of the relationship between acquisition and socialization with regard to foreign/second language learning and use, and the role played by ecological theory in that relationship....

  1. Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Attitudes towards ‘Language Acquisition Courses’

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nalan Kızıltan

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available This study discusses the attitudes of pre-service English language teachers towards „Language Acquisition Courses‟ in English Language Teacher Education Programs. The data have been collected through a developed questionnaire of 20 questions given to 324 students in the department of Pre-service English Language Teacher Education at Ondokuz Mayıs University. SPSS has been used for the evaluation of the data. The results indicate that the pre-service teachers of English believe in the importance of language acquisition courses for their career. However, they think that they need some preliminary courses on linguistics before they take “Language Acquisition Courses”. Otherwise, since they may not have any background knowledge in linguistics, they may have some problems in the comprehension competence.

  2. FACTORS INFLUENCING SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siti Khasinah

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Motivation, attitude, age, intelligence, aptitude, cognitive style, and personality are considered as factors that greatly influence someone in the process of his or her second language acquisition. Experts state that those factors give a more dominant contribution in SLA to learners variedly, depend on who the learners are, their age, how they behave toward the language, their cognitive ability, and also the way they learn.

  3. Is CALL Obsolete? Language Acquisition and Language Learning Revisited in a Digital Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarvis, Huw; Krashen, Stephen

    2014-01-01

    In this article, Huw Jarvis and Stephen Krashen ask "Is CALL Obsolete?" When the term CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) was introduced in the 1960s, the language education profession knew only about language learning, not language acquisition, and assumed the computer's primary contribution to second language acquisition…

  4. 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.

  5. The critical period hypothesis in second language acquisition: a statistical critique and a reanalysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanhove, Jan

    2013-01-01

    In second language acquisition research, the critical period hypothesis (cph) holds that the function between learners' age and their susceptibility to second language input is non-linear. This paper revisits the indistinctness found in the literature with regard to this hypothesis's scope and predictions. Even when its scope is clearly delineated and its predictions are spelt out, however, empirical studies-with few exceptions-use analytical (statistical) tools that are irrelevant with respect to the predictions made. This paper discusses statistical fallacies common in cph research and illustrates an alternative analytical method (piecewise regression) by means of a reanalysis of two datasets from a 2010 paper purporting to have found cross-linguistic evidence in favour of the cph. This reanalysis reveals that the specific age patterns predicted by the cph are not cross-linguistically robust. Applying the principle of parsimony, it is concluded that age patterns in second language acquisition are not governed by a critical period. To conclude, this paper highlights the role of confirmation bias in the scientific enterprise and appeals to second language acquisition researchers to reanalyse their old datasets using the methods discussed in this paper. The data and R commands that were used for the reanalysis are provided as supplementary materials.

  6. Analytical Review of Universal Grammar (UG) Approach on Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irwandy

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to explore the analysis of Universal Grammar (UG) approach on Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This paper is significant as the sources for teacher or researcher of the second language since this elaboration is deeply focusing on the use of UG on SLA. The method used in this academic writing is inductive method of…

  7. The acquisition of English as a second language in Rwanda ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The acquisition of English as a second language in Rwanda: Challenges and ... E Sibomana ... Building on the factors which are believed to affect second language (L2) acquisition and learning, this article explores constraints, challenges, ...

  8. Transfer and access to universal grammar in adult second language acquisition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sauter, Kim

    2002-01-01

    Summary This dissertation focuses on the roles of first language transfer and Universal Grammar in adult second (or foreign) language acquisition. It contributes to the ongoing debate whether second language acquisition is constrained by Universal Grammar. According to generative linguists,

  9. Revisiting First Language Acquisition through Empirical and Rational Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tahriri, Abdorreza

    2012-01-01

    Acquisition in general and first language acquisition in particular is a very complex and a multifaceted phenomenon. The way that children acquire a language in a very limited period is astonishing. Various approaches have been proposed so far to account for this extraordinary phenomenon. These approaches are indeed based on various philosophical…

  10. Spanish as a Second Language when L1 Is Quechua: Endangered Languages and the SLA Researcher

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalt, Susan E.

    2012-01-01

    Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Quechua is the largest indigenous language family to constitute the first language (L1) of second language (L2) Spanish speakers. Despite sheer number of speakers and typologically interesting contrasts, Quechua-Spanish second language acquisition is a nearly untapped research area,…

  11. Variability and Variation in Second Language Acquisition Orders : A Dynamic Reevaluation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lowie, Wander; Verspoor, Marjolijn

    2015-01-01

    The traditional morpheme order studies in second language acquisition have tried to demonstrate the existence of a fixed order of acquisition of English morphemes, regardless of the second language learner's background. Such orders have been taken as evidence of the preprogrammed nature of language

  12. Naturalistic acquisition in an early language classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dahl, Anne; Vulchanova, Mila D

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated whether it is possible to provide naturalistic second language acquisition (SLA) of vocabulary for young learners in a classroom situation without resorting to a classical immersion approach. Participants were 60 first-grade pupils in two Norwegian elementary schools in their first year. The control group followed regular instruction as prescribed by the school curriculum, while the experimental group received increased naturalistic target language input. This entailed extensive use of English by the teacher during English classes, and also during morning meetings and for simple instructions and classroom management throughout the day. Our hypothesis was that it is possible to facilitate naturalistic acquisition through better quality target language exposure within a normal curriculum. The students' English vocabulary knowledge was measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, version 4 (PPVT-IV, Dunn and Dunn, 2007a), at the beginning and the end of the first year of school. Findings are that (1) early-start second-language (L2) programs in school do not in themselves guarantee vocabulary development in the first year, (2) a focus on increased exposure to the L2 can lead to a significant increase in receptive vocabulary comprehension in the course of only 8 months, and (3) even with relatively modest input, learners in such an early-start L2 program can display vocabulary acquisition comparable in some respects to that of younger native children matched on vocabulary size. The overall conclusion is that naturalistic vocabulary acquisition is in fact possible in a classroom setting.

  13. Incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary through brief multi-modal exposure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J

    2013-01-01

    First language acquisition requires relatively little effort compared to foreign language acquisition and happens more naturally through informal learning. Informal exposure can also benefit foreign language learning, although evidence for this has been limited to speech perception and production. An important question is whether informal exposure to spoken foreign language also leads to vocabulary learning through the creation of form-meaning links. Here we tested the impact of exposure to foreign language words presented with pictures in an incidental learning phase on subsequent explicit foreign language learning. In the explicit learning phase, we asked adults to learn translation equivalents of foreign language words, some of which had appeared in the incidental learning phase. Results revealed rapid learning of the foreign language words in the incidental learning phase showing that informal exposure to multi-modal foreign language leads to foreign language vocabulary acquisition. The creation of form-meaning links during the incidental learning phase is discussed.

  14. Temporal Dynamics of Late Second Language Acquisition: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinhauer, Karsten; White, Erin J.; Drury, John E.

    2009-01-01

    The ways in which age of acquisition (AoA) may affect (morpho)syntax in second language acquisition (SLA) are discussed. We suggest that event-related brain potentials (ERPs) provide an appropriate online measure to test some such effects. ERP findings of the past decade are reviewed with a focus on recent and ongoing research. It is concluded…

  15. Social and Psychological Factors in Second Language Acquisition: A Study of an Individual. Proceedings of the Los Angeles Second Language Research Forum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Rebecca A.

    The social and psychological factors which affect one person's acquisition of a second language are described in journal format. The psychological factors discussed are: (1) language shock, (2) culture shock, and (3) culture stress. The two social factors examined are both grouped under the term "social distance" but include (1) types of…

  16. Toward More Substantial Theories of Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenson, Cinnamon Ann

    2015-01-01

    Cognitive linguists argue that certain sets of knowledge of language are innate. However, critics have argued that the theoretical concept of "innateness" should be eliminated since it is ambiguous and insubstantial. In response, I aim to strengthen theories of language acquisition and identify ways to make them more substantial. I…

  17. Incidental Foreign-Language Acquisition by Children Watching Subtitled Television Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ina, Lekkai

    2014-01-01

    Series of international studies have shown that subtitled television programs provide a rich context for foreign language acquisition. This study investigated whether incidental language acquisition occurs from watching a television program with/without subtitles. Children in the experimental conditions watch: (a) a 15 minute snapshot of a well…

  18. Acquisition of Speech Acts by Second Language Learners : Suggestion for future research on Japanese language education

    OpenAIRE

    畑佐, 由紀子

    2014-01-01

    This paper examines previous studies on the use and acquisition of speech acts by second language learners in order to identify issues that are yet to be investigated. The paper begins with a brief overview of the theoretical background for L2 speech act theory. Then, factors that affect native speakers’ choice of expressions are explained and the extent to which they are investigated in L2 pragmatic studies is considered. Thirdly, the strengths and weaknesses of methodology employed are disc...

  19. Research Timeline: Form-Focused Instruction and Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nassaji, Hossein

    2016-01-01

    This article provides a timeline of research on form-focused instruction (FFI). Over the past 40 years, research on the role of instruction has undergone many changes. Much of the early research concentrated on determining whether formal instruction makes any difference in the development of learner language. This question was motivated in part by…

  20. Processability in Scandinavian second language acquisition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Glahn, Esther; Håkansson, Gisela; Hammerberg, Björn

    2001-01-01

    . The three languages mentioned are very closely related and have the same adjective morphology and subordinate clause syntax. We can, therefore, treat them as one language for the purposes of this study. Three analyses have been carried out: The first follows Pienemann's theory and is concerned only...... with syntactic levels; the second is a semantic analysis of the acquisition of number versus that of gender; the third analysis studies the various kinds of mismatches between the inflection of the noun, the controller, and the adjective. The results are the following: The first test supports PT as it has been...... described by Pienemann. The second analysis shows that there is an acquisitional hierarchy such that number is acquired before gender (in adjectives), and the mismatch analysis raises questions about the fundamental assumptions of the theory....

  1. Relating SLA Research to Language Teaching Materials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vivian J. Cook

    1998-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract This article discusses applications of Second Language Acquisition (SLA research to the preparation of language coursebooks. The author suggests a number of ways in which SLA research findings can help improve coursebooks and thereby enhance the learning of large numbers of students. Research leads us to consider learners as genuine speakers of the L2, as bilinguals who still have an L1 present in their minds and who do not all go about learning the L2 in the same way. Few coursebooks take into account these and other findings of SLA research, for example: that the acquisition of basic syntax precedes the acquisition of inflectional morphology, that most of the syntax to be learned is really part of the lexicon, or that vocabulary needs to be encountered in a structural and semantic context in order to be effectively acquired. Coursebook authors also need to bear in mind that pronunciation is necessary not only for communication but also for the actual learning of L2 forms, and that some aspects of the L2 writing system need to be explicitly taught. The author provides two sample lessons to illustrate how these research findings might be applied to the writing of a coursebook.

  2. Self-Organizing Map Models of Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ping eLi

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Connectionist models have had a profound impact on theories of language. While most early models were inspired by the classic PDP architecture, recent models of language have explored various other types of models, including self-organizing models for language acquisition. In this paper we aim at providing a review of the latter type of models, and highlight a number of simulation experiments that we have conducted based on these models. We show that self-organizing connectionist models can provide significant insights into long-standing debates in both monolingual and bilingual language development.

  3. 75 FR 60261 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Award-Fee Language Revision

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-29

    ...-AL42 Federal Acquisition Regulation; Award-Fee Language Revision AGENCIES: Department of Defense (DoD...: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have adopted as final, with changes, the interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition...

  4. Structural brain changes linked to delayed first language acquisition in congenitally deaf individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pénicaud, Sidonie; Klein, Denise; Zatorre, Robert J; Chen, Jen-Kai; Witcher, Pamela; Hyde, Krista; Mayberry, Rachel I

    2013-02-01

    Early language experience is essential for the development of a high level of linguistic proficiency in adulthood and in a recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, we showed that a delayed acquisition of a first language results in changes in the functional organization of the adult brain (Mayberry et al., 2011). The present study extends the question to explore if delayed acquisition of a first language also modulates the structural development of the brain. To this end, we carried out anatomical MRI in the same group of congenitally deaf individuals who varied in the age of acquisition of a first language, American Sign Language -ASL (Mayberry et al., 2011) and used a neuroanatomical technique, Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), to explore changes in gray and white matter concentrations across the brain related to the age of first language acquisition. The results show that delayed acquisition of a first language is associated with changes in tissue concentration in the occipital cortex close to the area that has been found to show functional recruitment during language processing in these deaf individuals with a late age of acquisition. These findings suggest that a lack of early language experience affects not only the functional but also the anatomical organization of the brain. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Frames of reference in spatial language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shusterman, Anna; Li, Peggy

    2016-08-01

    Languages differ in how they encode spatial frames of reference. It is unknown how children acquire the particular frame-of-reference terms in their language (e.g., left/right, north/south). The present paper uses a word-learning paradigm to investigate 4-year-old English-speaking children's acquisition of such terms. In Part I, with five experiments, we contrasted children's acquisition of novel word pairs meaning left-right and north-south to examine their initial hypotheses and the relative ease of learning the meanings of these terms. Children interpreted ambiguous spatial terms as having environment-based meanings akin to north and south, and they readily learned and generalized north-south meanings. These studies provide the first direct evidence that children invoke geocentric representations in spatial language acquisition. However, the studies leave unanswered how children ultimately acquire "left" and "right." In Part II, with three more experiments, we investigated why children struggle to master body-based frame-of-reference words. Children successfully learned "left" and "right" when the novel words were systematically introduced on their own bodies and extended these words to novel (intrinsic and relative) uses; however, they had difficulty learning to talk about the left and right sides of a doll. This difficulty was paralleled in identifying the left and right sides of the doll in a non-linguistic memory task. In contrast, children had no difficulties learning to label the front and back sides of a doll. These studies begin to paint a detailed account of the acquisition of spatial terms in English, and provide insights into the origins of diverse spatial reference frames in the world's languages. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Age of acquisition effects in word recognition and production in first and second languages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew W. Ellis

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available Four experiments explored the age of acquisition effects in the first and second languages of dominant Spanish-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1 (picture naming task and Experiment 2 (lexical decision task, an age of acquisition effect was observed in a second language acquired after childhood as well as in the first language. The results suggest that age of acquisition effects reflect the order of word acquisition, which may in turn reflect the state of the lexical network when new words are learnt. The results do not support the idea that age of acquisition effects reflect differences between words learned during some critical period in childhood and words learned later in life. In Experiments 3 and 4, the age/order of second language acquisition affected lexical decision latencies regardless of the age at which translation equivalents were acquired in the first language, suggesting that the age of acquisition effect is linked to the acquisition of word forms rather than meanings.

  7. Acquisition of speech rhythm in a second language by learners with rhythmically different native languages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

    2015-08-01

    The development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) acquisition was investigated. Speech rhythm was defined as durational variability that can be captured by the interval-based rhythm metrics. These metrics were used to examine the differences in durational variability between proficiency levels in L2 English spoken by French and German learners. The results reveal that durational variability increased as L2 acquisition progressed in both groups of learners. This indicates that speech rhythm in L2 English develops from more syllable-timed toward more stress-timed patterns irrespective of whether the native language of the learner is rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Although both groups showed similar development of speech rhythm in L2 acquisition, there were also differences: German learners achieved a degree of durational variability typical of the target language, while French learners exhibited lower variability than native British speakers, even at an advanced proficiency level.

  8. Ovide Decroly's Views on Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lebrun, Yvan; Van De Craen, Piet

    1975-01-01

    Belgian physician and psychologist Ovide Decroly, keenly interested in language acquisition, devised tests to measure verbal skills in children and campaigned for the adoption of the sentence method rather than the word-building method in teaching reading and writing. (Author/CL)

  9. SECOND-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CAMELIA NEAGU

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available As a branch of applied linguistics, language education or educational linguistics2 has had a long history dating back in ancient times. However, at present, under the influence of globalization, second-language acquisition3 has become a sine qua non condition for any potential employee or employer in the knowledge society. Basically, democratic regimes and developing countries encourage language education which they regard as an important asset in the process of globalization. Moreover, the study of foreign languages significantly contributes to the development of any human being’s personality and implicitly of any society by eliminating cultural biases and borders. Currently, countries which fail to understand the importance of second-language acquisition deprive their citizens of a key social and cultural development factor. Last but not least, we could say that at present the ability to speak English has become synonym with acquiring a universal language. In consequence, educational policies should seriously focus on the study of the new lingua franca4, i.e. English, while accepting as an undeniable possibility – given the rapidly changing political and economic environment – the fact that another language (such as Chinese or Spanish etc. may replace English in time.

  10. Bootstrapping language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abend, Omri; Kwiatkowski, Tom; Smith, Nathaniel J; Goldwater, Sharon; Steedman, Mark

    2017-07-01

    The semantic bootstrapping hypothesis proposes that children acquire their native language through exposure to sentences of the language paired with structured representations of their meaning, whose component substructures can be associated with words and syntactic structures used to express these concepts. The child's task is then to learn a language-specific grammar and lexicon based on (probably contextually ambiguous, possibly somewhat noisy) pairs of sentences and their meaning representations (logical forms). Starting from these assumptions, we develop a Bayesian probabilistic account of semantically bootstrapped first-language acquisition in the child, based on techniques from computational parsing and interpretation of unrestricted text. Our learner jointly models (a) word learning: the mapping between components of the given sentential meaning and lexical words (or phrases) of the language, and (b) syntax learning: the projection of lexical elements onto sentences by universal construction-free syntactic rules. Using an incremental learning algorithm, we apply the model to a dataset of real syntactically complex child-directed utterances and (pseudo) logical forms, the latter including contextually plausible but irrelevant distractors. Taking the Eve section of the CHILDES corpus as input, the model simulates several well-documented phenomena from the developmental literature. In particular, the model exhibits syntactic bootstrapping effects (in which previously learned constructions facilitate the learning of novel words), sudden jumps in learning without explicit parameter setting, acceleration of word-learning (the "vocabulary spurt"), an initial bias favoring the learning of nouns over verbs, and one-shot learning of words and their meanings. The learner thus demonstrates how statistical learning over structured representations can provide a unified account for these seemingly disparate phenomena. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. First language transfer in second language writing: An examination of current research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khaled Karim

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available First language (L1 transfer has been a key issue in the field of applied linguistics, second language acquisition (SLA, and language pedagogy for almost a century. Its importance, however, has been re-evaluated several times within the last few decades. The aim of this paper is to examine current research that has investigated the role of L1 transfer in second language (L2 writing. The paper begins by discussing the different views of L1 transfer and how they have changed over time and then reviews some of the major studies that have examined the role of L1 transfer both as a learning tool and as a communicative strategy in L2 writing. The paper concludes with a number of suggestions for L2 writing instruction and future research.

  12. Syntactic transfer in the initial stages of adult third language and fourth language acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahbube Tavakol

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper elucidates the articulated proposals for the initial stages of adult third language (L3 syntactic transfer, addressing their application for L3 and the subsequent fourth language (L4 acquisition. The study was set to demonstrate empirical evidence in line with or against the tenets of the models and to indicate if and how syntactic transfer might obtain differently depending on the language being acquired– L3 vs. L4. The models to be tested were Full Transfer/Full Access (FT/FA, L2 Status Factor Hypothesis (LSFH, Cumulative Enhancement Model (CEM and Typological Primacy Model (TPM. Following a principles and parameters framework, six parameters were selected to generate several language pairings and an adult female’s L3 Italian and L4 German’s early spontaneous productions of the selected features were audio-recorded. The accuracy levels with which the features were produced in tandem with the results of error analyses violated the positions of FT/FA as considered for L3/s acquisition and CEM and consistently identified Typological proximity and L2 status as affecting syntactic transfer during the early stages multilingual acquisition.

  13. Language Learning Strategies in Second & Foreign Language Acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    TAKEUCHI, Osamu

    1991-01-01

    This article is an attempt to the work on language learning strategies(LLS) in second & foreign language acquisiton (SFLA) research, and to give suggestions for future language learning strategies research. In the first section, I will discuss briefly the background of language learning strategies reserch, and in the ensuing sections, I will review articles on: (i) the identification & classification of language learning strategies; (ii) the variables affecting the use of language learning st...

  14. Second Language Acquisition, Culture Shock and Language Stress of Adult Latina Students in New York.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buttaro, Lucia

    This study identified the second language acquisition, culture shock, and language stress of adult Latinas in New York as related to language, culture, and education. Participants were eight adult Latinas, for whom Spanish was the first language, who had come to the United States 10-15 years previously and developed some functioning English as a…

  15. Environmental Correlates of Individual Differences in Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Furrow, David; Nelson, Katherine

    1984-01-01

    Reports on a study of mothers' uses of nouns and pronouns and their references to objects and persons as environmental variables which might relate to children's nominal preferences. Findings suggest that environmental factors do contribute to stylistic differences in language acquisition and that the communicative functions of language are an…

  16. Comparison of Three Models Dealing with Working Memory and Its Dimensions in Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdulaziz Alshahrani

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The current status of research on working memory (WM and its components in second language acquisition (SLA was examined in this review. Literature search was done on four aspects using search terms in Google Scholar. Hence, the review results are given and introduced. 1. In the definition of WM, some confusion exists on whether short term memory (STM or recent memory is the same as WM or different. 2. In this review, three main models have been discussed elaborately, as they are the only ones discussed in literature. They are: multicomponent model of Baddeley (2000, embedded process model of Cowan (2005 and attention control model of Engle and Kane (2003. 3. The phonological and executive components of WM were examined in more detail, as these determine the two basic aspects of language acquisition: language characteristics and acquisition methods (Wen, 2012. Overall, the variables related to phonological and executive working memories are evident from published research, but their interactive relationships and affecting factors are not entirely clear. 4. Admittedly, several diverse internal and external factors affect WM in relation to SLA. Some practically useful interventions are indicated by certain findings.

  17. Declarative vs. Procedural Memory: Roles in Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laleh Fakhraee Faruji

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Memory is not a single faculty but is a combination of multiple distinct abilities (Schacter, 1987. The declarative-procedural distinction is used both with regard to knowledge and memory that stores this knowledge. Ellis (2008 used the terms explicit/implicit, and declarative/procedural interchangeably. In this article the researcher aims at identifying the different aspects of declarative/procedural memory, interaction between these two types of memory, and the role they may play in second language acquisition.

  18. The "Globularization Hypothesis" of the Language-ready Brain as a Developmental Frame for Prosodic Bootstrapping Theories of Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irurtzun, Aritz

    2015-01-01

    In recent research (Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco, 2014a,b) have advanced the hypothesis that our species-specific language-ready brain should be understood as the outcome of developmental changes that occurred in our species after the split from Neanderthals-Denisovans, which resulted in a more globular braincase configuration in comparison to our closest relatives, who had elongated endocasts. According to these authors, the development of a globular brain is an essential ingredient for the language faculty and in particular, it is the centrality occupied by the thalamus in a globular brain that allows its modulatory or regulatory role, essential for syntactico-semantic computations. Their hypothesis is that the syntactico-semantic capacities arise in humans as a consequence of a process of globularization, which significantly takes place postnatally (cf. Neubauer et al., 2010). In this paper, I show that Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco's hypothesis makes an interesting developmental prediction regarding the path of language acquisition: it teases apart the onset of phonological acquisition and the onset of syntactic acquisition (the latter starting significantly later, after globularization). I argue that this hypothesis provides a developmental rationale for the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis of language acquisition (cf. i.a. Gleitman and Wanner, 1982; Mehler et al., 1988, et seq.; Gervain and Werker, 2013), which claim that prosodic cues are employed for syntactic parsing. The literature converges in the observation that a large amount of such prosodic cues (in particular, rhythmic cues) are already acquired before the completion of the globularization phase, which paves the way for the premises of the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis, allowing babies to have a rich knowledge of the prosody of their target language before they can start parsing the primary linguistic data syntactically.

  19. The globularization hypothesis of the language-ready brain as a developmental frame for prosodic bootstrapping theories of language acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aritz eIrurtzun

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In recent research Boeckx & Benítez-Burraco (2014a,b have advanced the hypothesis that our species-specific language-ready brain should be understood as the outcome of developmental changes that occurred in our species after the split from Neanderthals-Denisovans, which resulted in a more globular braincase configuration in comparison to our closest relatives, who had elongated endocasts. According to these authors, the development of a globular brain is an essential ingredient for the language faculty and in particular, it is the centrality occupied by the thalamus in a globular brain that allows its modulatory or regulatory role, essential for syntactico-semantic computations. Their hypothesis is that the syntactico-semantic capacities arise in humans as a consequence of a process of globularization, which significantly takes place postnatally (cf. Neubauer et al. (2010. In this paper, I show that Boeckx & Benítez-Burraco’s hypothesis makes an interesting developmental prediction regarding the path of language acquisition: it teases apart the onset of phonological acquisition and the onset of syntactic acquisition (the latter starting significantly later, after globularization. I argue that this hypothesis provides a developmental rationale for the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis of language acquisition (cf. i.a. Gleitman & Wanner (1982; Mehler et al. (1988, et seq.; Gervain & Werker (2013, which claim that prosodic cues are employed for syntactic parsing. The literature converges in the observation that a large amount of such prosodic cues (in particular, rhythmic cues are already acquired before the completion of the globularization phase, which paves the way for the premises of prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis, allowing babies to have a rich knowledge of the prosody of their target language before they can start parsing the primary linguistic data syntactically.

  20. Specific Cognitive Antecedents of Structures and Functions Involved in Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moerk, Ernst L.

    1973-01-01

    The antecedents of verbal behavior, together with the teaching skills of the adult linguistic community, probably constitute all the necessary bases for language acquisition. As they seemed to be sufficient for the explanation of all the known phenomena, an assumption of an innate linguistic language acquisition device was rejected as superfluous.…

  1. Predictors of second language acquisition in Latino children with specific language impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela; Sweet, Monica

    2012-02-01

    This study evaluated the extent to which the language of intervention, the child's development in Spanish, and the effects of English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure predict differences in the rates of acquisition of English in Latino children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this randomized controlled trial, 188 Latino preschoolers with SLI participated in a small-group academic enrichment program for 12 weeks and were followed up 3 and 5 months later. Children were randomly assigned to either a bilingual or an English-only program. Predictors of English growth included measures of Spanish language skills and English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure. Performance on English outcomes (i.e., picture description and narrative sample) was assessed over time. A series of longitudinal models were tested via multilevel modeling with baseline and posttreatment measures nested within child. Children demonstrated growth on the English outcomes over time. The language of intervention, Spanish skills, English vocabulary, and English use significantly predicted differences in rates of growth across children for specific measures of English development. This study underscores the role of the child's first language skills, the child's level of English vocabulary development, and level of English use for predicting differences in English acquisition in Latino preschoolers with SLI. These factors should be carefully considered in making clinical decisions.

  2. Researching language teaching: Understanding practice through ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In this article we argue that second language acquisition (SLA) research and theory have a significant role to play in teacher education, especially at the masters level. The danger of overly practical approaches is that they cannot challenge current practice in ways that are both critical and rigorous. However, to engage ...

  3. The influence of the age of acquisition of a foreign language on the activation patterns of language areas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bryll, A.; Urbanik, A.; Herman-Sucharska, I.; Podsiadlo, L.; Binder, M.

    2009-01-01

    Background: The of aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of the acquisition age of the second language on activation patterns of language areas. Material/Methods: Forty volunteers participated in the study (20 females and 20 males). Their age ranged from 18 to 40 years. A mean age was 28 years. All participants had possessed a high proficiency of the acquired foreign language. They were divided into two groups, according to the age of the foreign language acquisition. The participants who acquired the second language before puberty, were qualified to the early acquisition group. The remaining participants were qualified to the late acquisition group. The second criterion was the level of the acquired, foreign language. Proficiency in using the language was assessed by a teacher. Block design method was used in the performed experiment. The experimental task was speech production in the form of voiceless sentences, the control task was silence. Each experimental session consisted of five 30-second alternating blocks. Every volunteer participated in two sessions, where she/he described his house without the use of voice. One session applied the native language, L1, and the other one the foreign language, L2. The experiment was performed using MR Signa Horizon system (GE Medical Systems, USA) with 1.5 T magnetic field strength. Functional images were obtained using the echoplanar sequence (EPI) that applies spin echo and is sensitive to the changes of the BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent signal) signal having the following parameters: TR = 3000 ms, TE = 60 ms, flip angle 90 0 , FOV = 28 x 21 cm, matrix 96 x 96 pixels, 1 NEX. Functional data analysis was performed using SPM2 software (Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Great Britain). Results: In EA and LA groups, the cortex activation was not more intense in patients speaking their native language, as compared to the foreign language. In the LA group, left inferior frontal gyrus (pars

  4. Does the teaching of thinking promote language acquisition?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Puhl, Carol A.

    1991-12-01

    Full Text Available Combining the teaching of thinking skills and a second language seems a plausible way to promote language acquisition. The teaching of thinking is explained, with an example from the curriculum of de Bono. Arguments supporting the thinking-L2 combination come from theory, practice, its benefits to teaching skills, national needs, and successful implementation. Research literature is reviewed, and a major study in South Africa is summarized. Die kombinasie van die onderrig van denkvaardighede en tweede taal blyk 'n aanneemlike metode om taalverwerwing te bevorder. Die onderrig van denke word aangedui, met 'n voorbeeld uit die kurrikulum van De Bono. Argumente wat die kombinasie van denke en tweede taal ondersteun, word gebaseer op teorie, praktyk, voordele vir onderwysvaardighede, nasionale behoeftes, en suksesvolle toepassing. Navorsingsartikels word in oi!nskou geneem, en 'n belangrike navorsingstudie word opgesom.

  5. The Road to Language Learning Is Not Entirely Iconic: Iconicity, Neighborhood Density, and Frequency Facilitate Acquisition of Sign Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caselli, Naomi K; Pyers, Jennie E

    2017-07-01

    Iconic mappings between words and their meanings are far more prevalent than once estimated and seem to support children's acquisition of new words, spoken or signed. We asked whether iconicity's prevalence in sign language overshadows two other factors known to support the acquisition of spoken vocabulary: neighborhood density (the number of lexical items phonologically similar to the target) and lexical frequency. Using mixed-effects logistic regressions, we reanalyzed 58 parental reports of native-signing deaf children's productive acquisition of 332 signs in American Sign Language (ASL; Anderson & Reilly, 2002) and found that iconicity, neighborhood density, and lexical frequency independently facilitated vocabulary acquisition. Despite differences in iconicity and phonological structure between signed and spoken language, signing children, like children learning a spoken language, track statistical information about lexical items and their phonological properties and leverage this information to expand their vocabulary.

  6. Endogenous sources of variation in language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Chung-Hye; Musolino, Julien; Lidz, Jeffrey

    2016-01-26

    A fundamental question in the study of human language acquisition centers around apportioning explanatory force between the experience of the learner and the core knowledge that allows learners to represent that experience. We provide a previously unidentified kind of data identifying children's contribution to language acquisition. We identify one aspect of grammar that varies unpredictably across a population of speakers of what is ostensibly a single language. We further demonstrate that the grammatical knowledge of parents and their children is independent. The combination of unpredictable variation and parent-child independence suggests that the relevant structural feature is supplied by each learner independent of experience with the language. This structural feature is abstract because it controls variation in more than one construction. The particular case we examine is the position of the verb in the clause structure of Korean. Because Korean is a head-final language, evidence for the syntactic position of the verb is both rare and indirect. We show that (i) Korean speakers exhibit substantial variability regarding this aspect of the grammar, (ii) this variability is attested between speakers but not within a speaker, (iii) this variability controls interpretation in two surface constructions, and (iv) it is independent in parents and children. According to our findings, when the exposure language is compatible with multiple grammars, learners acquire a single systematic grammar. Our observation that children and their parents vary independently suggests that the choice of grammar is driven in part by a process operating internal to individual learners.

  7. Bilingual Language Acquisition in a Minority Context: Using the Irish-English Communicative Development Inventory to Track Acquisition of an Endangered Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Toole, Ciara; Hickey, Tina M.

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the role of language exposure in vocabulary acquisition in Irish, a threatened minority language in Ireland which is usually acquired with English in a bilingual context. Using a bilingual Irish-English adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories) [Fenson, L., V. A. Marchman, D. J. Thal, P. S.…

  8. Acquisition of French as a second language new developmental perspectives

    CERN Document Server

    Lindqvist, Christina

    2014-01-01

    It has been argued that the study of child L2 development can inform different maturational accounts of language acquisition. One such specific proposal was put forward by Meisel (2008), arguing for a cut-off point for monolingual or bilingual first language acquisition - (2)L1 - type of development at 3-4 years. The paper analyses the longitudinal development of object clitics in child L2 French (L1 Swedish) and compares the developmental sequence in child L2 learners (n = 7) with different Ages of onset of Acquisition (AoA) (from 3;0 to 6;5) to the adult L2 sequence that was found in previou

  9. What Drives Students of Vocational Training Program? An Investigation on the Significance of Foreign Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina M. Solodkova

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper dwells on the distinguishing the motives that drive students of vocational training program in terms of foreign language acquisition being the main component of future employment success. In fast-changing world which is teemed with new challenges and career patterns foreign language acquisition is viewed as a foremost aspects of promotion. The aim of the current study was to identify the main motives that drive students of vocational training program for foreign language acquisition and later equip higher education authorities and teaching staff with the data to improve language education complying with the students’ requirements. To find out internal and external motives of the students enrolled to the program at The Educational Center for Professional Communicative Training of Kazan Federal University a questionnaire survey was organized. The results of the research identify that there are differences in students’ priorities of external and internal motives and there is a prevalence of the internal ones. It is accounted for by the fact that students of the program realize the significance of foreign language acquisition for their personal needs and future professional activity. But practically all of them emphasized the same personal and interpersonal factors of internal motivation. The obtained findings will be exploited as recommendations in designing the syllabus and will be of great help in choosing the appropriate forms and techniques in carrying out the course.

  10. Frequency Effects in Second Language Acquisition: An Annotated Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kartal, Galip; Sarigul, Ece

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between frequency and language acquisition from many perspectives including implicit and explicit instruction, frequency effects on morpheme acquisition in L2, the relationship between frequency and multi-word constructions, frequency effects on phonetics, vocabulary, gerund and infinitive…

  11. 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.

  12. [Environmental and genetic variables related with alterations in language acquisition in early childhood].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moriano-Gutierrez, A; Colomer-Revuelta, J; Sanjuan, J; Carot-Sierra, J M

    2017-01-01

    A great deal of research has addressed problems in the correct acquisition of language, but with few overall conclusions. The reasons for this lie in the individual variability, the existence of different measures for assessing language and the fact that a complex network of genetic and environmental factors are involved in its development. To review the environmental and genetic variables that have been studied to date, in order to gain a better under-standing of the causes of specific language impairment and create new evidence that can help in the development of screening systems for the early detection of these disorders. The environmental variables related with poorer early child language development include male gender, low level of education of the mother, familial history of problems with language or psychiatric problems, perinatal problems and health problems in early childhood. Bilingualism seems to be a protective factor. Temperament and language are related. Within the genetic factors there are several specific genes associated with language, two of which have a greater influence on its physiological acquisition: FOXP2 and CNTNAP2. The other genes that are most related with specific language disorders are ATP2C2, CMIP, ROBO2, ZNF277 and NOP9. The key to comprehending the development of specific language disorders lies in reaching an understanding of the true role played by genes in the ontogenesis, in the regulation of the different developmental processes, and how this role is modulated by the environment.

  13. Interactive natural language acquisition in a multi-modal recurrent neural architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heinrich, Stefan; Wermter, Stefan

    2018-01-01

    For the complex human brain that enables us to communicate in natural language, we gathered good understandings of principles underlying language acquisition and processing, knowledge about sociocultural conditions, and insights into activity patterns in the brain. However, we were not yet able to understand the behavioural and mechanistic characteristics for natural language and how mechanisms in the brain allow to acquire and process language. In bridging the insights from behavioural psychology and neuroscience, the goal of this paper is to contribute a computational understanding of appropriate characteristics that favour language acquisition. Accordingly, we provide concepts and refinements in cognitive modelling regarding principles and mechanisms in the brain and propose a neurocognitively plausible model for embodied language acquisition from real-world interaction of a humanoid robot with its environment. In particular, the architecture consists of a continuous time recurrent neural network, where parts have different leakage characteristics and thus operate on multiple timescales for every modality and the association of the higher level nodes of all modalities into cell assemblies. The model is capable of learning language production grounded in both, temporal dynamic somatosensation and vision, and features hierarchical concept abstraction, concept decomposition, multi-modal integration, and self-organisation of latent representations.

  14. Reading in Japanese as a Second Language : A Review of Empirical Research

    OpenAIRE

    堀場, 裕紀江; ホリバ, ユキエ; YUKIE, HORIBA

    2003-01-01

    During the past few decades the Japanese language has grown to be a popular second or foreign language (L2), and research on reading and learning of Japanese as L2 has started to appear in major academic journals and books in the fields of applied linguistics, second language acquisition, second/foreign language education, along with the more commonly researched languages such as English, Spanish and French. In this article. I will first describe theoretical assumptions used in L2 reading res...

  15. Deliberate Learning and Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elgort, Irina

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates outcomes of deliberate learning on vocabulary acquisition in a second language (L2). Acquisition of 48 pseudowords was measured using the lexical decision task with visually presented stimuli. The experiments drew on form priming, masked repetition priming, and automatic semantic priming procedures. Data analyses revealed a…

  16. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Technology in Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Cheng-Chieh; Kritsonis, William Allan

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of computer technology and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs for current second language learning. According to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs' report (2002), more than nine million…

  17. SADE: system of acquisition of experimental data. Definition and analysis of an experiment description language

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gagniere, Jean-Michel

    1983-01-01

    This research thesis presents a computer system for the acquisition of experimental data. It is aimed at acquiring, at processing and at storing information from particle detectors. The acquisition configuration is described by an experiment description language. The system comprises a lexical analyser, a syntactic analyser, a translator, and a data processing module. It also comprises a control language and a statistics management and plotting module. The translator builds up series of tables which allow, during an experiment, different sequences to be executed: experiment running, calculations to be performed on this data, building up of statistics. Short execution time and ease of use are always looked for [fr

  18. Self-organizing map models of language acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ping; Zhao, Xiaowei

    2013-01-01

    Connectionist models have had a profound impact on theories of language. While most early models were inspired by the classic parallel distributed processing architecture, recent models of language have explored various other types of models, including self-organizing models for language acquisition. In this paper, we aim at providing a review of the latter type of models, and highlight a number of simulation experiments that we have conducted based on these models. We show that self-organizing connectionist models can provide significant insights into long-standing debates in both monolingual and bilingual language development. We suggest future directions in which these models can be extended, to better connect with behavioral and neural data, and to make clear predictions in testing relevant psycholinguistic theories. PMID:24312061

  19. Second Language Acquisition at the Phonetic-Phonological Interface: A proposal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashima Aggarwal

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the acquisition of novel second language phonological contrasts by speakers of different languages. It explores the possibility of building a framework to test the adult acquisition of voicing and aspiration features of Hindi by speakers of Dimasa, Rabha, Tamil and English. It is noteworthy that Hindi has a four-way voicing contrast while Dimasa, Rabha and Tamil have two-way, three-way and one-way respectively. The paper presents an experiment designed to test the acquisition of non-native acquisition by these L1 speakers. The task designed to train these L1 speakers to perceive the new contrasts is an AX same or different task. Training will be followed by retention and generalizability test also. Evidence of significantly better perception post-training will suggest access to Universal Grammar beyond the Critical period.

  20. Saying What We Mean: Making a Case for "Language Acquisition" to Become "Language Development"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen-Freeman, Diane

    2015-01-01

    As applied linguists know very well, how we use language both constructs and reflects our understanding. It is therefore important that we use terms that do justice to our concerns. In this presentation, I suggest that a more apt designation than "multilingual" or "second language acquisition" (SLA) is "multilingual"…

  1. "If We Lose Their Language We Lose Our History": Knowledge and Disposition in Maori Language Acquisition Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albury, Nathan John

    2018-01-01

    Localising knowledge and dispositions helps to predict the likely success of top-down language policies. In so far as language acquisition is a pillar of language revitalisation policy, then community perspectives on learning a minority language deserve attention. This article presents the knowledge, dispositions, and ideas of around 1,300…

  2. Assessment of Language Learners' Strategies: Do They Prefer Learning or Acquisition Strategies?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altmisdort, Gonca

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study is to evaluate learning and acquisition strategies used by second/foreign language learners. This study is a comparative investigation of learning and acquisition strategies of successful and less successful language learners. The main question of the study is to investigate if there is a relationship between the learners'…

  3. Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Falcon Dario Restrepo Ramos

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This literature review aims to analyze previous studies that address the incidental learning of vocabulary in second language acquisition. The articles included in this literature review look into the understanding of vocabulary learning through incidental means, the relationship of reading and incidental vocabulary learning, and the strategies and tasks that promote the incidental learning of vocabulary. The findings show that L2 learners develop much of their vocabulary by incidental means through exposure to words in informative contexts. Moreover, this exposure is promoted by reading, and enhanced through multimodal glosses. Further research may focus on listening for higher lexical retention rates, the circumstances that allow incidental learning of multi-word phrases and collocations, and the use of technology-based methods for incidental vocabulary acquisition.

  4. A spatial economic perspective on language acquisition: Segregation, networking, and assimilation of immigrants

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Florax, R.J.G.M.; de Graaff, T.; Waldorf, B.S.

    2005-01-01

    Immigration and multiculturalism are at the heart of modern Western societies. The issue of language acquisition of immigrants is intrinsically linked to immigration. We formally link language acquisition of immigrants to the relative size of the immigrant stock, employing a microeconomic trading

  5. The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence from Word Segmentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

    2015-01-01

    The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's "cognitive plausibility." We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition…

  6. The irreversibility of sensitive period effects in language development: evidence from second language acquisition in international adoptees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norrman, Gunnar; Bylund, Emanuel

    2016-05-01

    The question of a sensitive period in language acquisition has been subject to extensive research and debate for more than half a century. While it has been well established that the ability to learn new languages declines in early years, the extent to which this outcome depends on biological maturation in contrast to previously acquired knowledge remains disputed. In the present study, we addressed this question by examining phonetic discriminatory abilities in early second language (L2) speakers of Swedish, who had either maintained their first language (L1) (immigrants) or had lost it (international adoptees), using native speaker controls. Through this design, we sought to disentangle the effects of the maturational state of the learner on L2 development from the effects of L1 interference: if additional language development is indeed constrained by an interfering L1, then adoptees should outperform immigrant speakers. The results of an auditory lexical decision task, in which fine vowel distinctions in Swedish had been modified, showed, however, no difference between the L2 groups. Instead, both L2 groups scored significantly lower than the native speaker group. The three groups did not differ in their ability to discriminate non-modified words. These findings demonstrate that L1 loss is not a crucial condition for successfully acquiring an L2, which in turn is taken as support for a maturational constraints view on L2 acquisition. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/1J9X50aePeU. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Second Language Acquisition of Syntactic Movement in English by Turkish Adult Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reyhan Agcam

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available There has been much discussion on the involvement of Universal Grammar (UG in Second Language Acquisition (SLA process. Despite growing research in the field, few precise answers to the problem have been suggested so far. Hence, recent L2 studies within the generative framework have shifted from investigating this issue to determining whether or not interlanguage grammars exhibit natural language characteristics (Can, Kilimci & Altunkol, 2007. The present study aimed to investigate L2 acquisition of syntactic movement in English noun clauses by Turkish adult learners. Accordingly, L1 involvement in SLA was sought through examining the upper intermediate Turkish learners’ knowledge about the movement in question. The study addressed the questions of whether or not Turkish adult ESL learners have problems, stemming from L1 interference, with the construction of the syntactic movement in English noun clauses, and whether or not there is any order of acquisition between the noun clauses in subject position and object position along with various wh-words. The study reported related findings, and concluded with a few pedagogical implications for practice, and a couple of suggestions for further directions.

  8. Extended, Embodied Cognition and Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkinson, Dwight

    2010-01-01

    A "cognitivist" approach to cognition has traditionally dominated second language acquisition (SLA) studies. In this article, I examine two alternative approaches--"extended cognition" and "embodied cognition"--for how they might help us conceptualize SLA. More specifically, I present: (i) summaries of extended and embodied cognition, followed by…

  9. Variability in the Second Language Acquisition of Verb Morphology ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This article seeks to make a developmental study of variability in the acquisition of verb morphology by second language (L2) pupils who learn at an English input impoverished school where variability in learner language is often presumed to be quite extensive. By studying variability in such settings, it is hoped that we can ...

  10. The effects of sign language on spoken language acquisition in children with hearing loss: a systematic review protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth M; Stevens, Adrienne; Garritty, Chantelle; Moher, David

    2013-12-06

    Permanent childhood hearing loss affects 1 to 3 per 1000 children and frequently disrupts typical spoken language acquisition. Early identification of hearing loss through universal newborn hearing screening and the use of new hearing technologies including cochlear implants make spoken language an option for most children. However, there is no consensus on what constitutes optimal interventions for children when spoken language is the desired outcome. Intervention and educational approaches ranging from oral language only to oral language combined with various forms of sign language have evolved. Parents are therefore faced with important decisions in the first months of their child's life. This article presents the protocol for a systematic review of the effects of using sign language in combination with oral language intervention on spoken language acquisition. Studies addressing early intervention will be selected in which therapy involving oral language intervention and any form of sign language or sign support is used. Comparison groups will include children in early oral language intervention programs without sign support. The primary outcomes of interest to be examined include all measures of auditory, vocabulary, language, speech production, and speech intelligibility skills. We will include randomized controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, and other quasi-experimental designs that include comparator groups as well as prospective and retrospective cohort studies. Case-control, cross-sectional, case series, and case studies will be excluded. Several electronic databases will be searched (for example, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO) as well as grey literature and key websites. We anticipate that a narrative synthesis of the evidence will be required. We will carry out meta-analysis for outcomes if clinical similarity, quantity and quality permit quantitative pooling of data. We will conduct subgroup analyses if possible according to severity

  11. Can language acquisition be facilitated in cochlear implanted children? Comparison of cognitive and behavioral psychologists' viewpoints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monshizadeh, Leila; Vameghi, Roshanak; Yadegari, Fariba; Sajedi, Firoozeh; Hashemi, Seyed Basir

    2016-11-08

    To study how language acquisition can be facilitated for cochlear implanted children based on cognitive and behavioral psychology viewpoints? To accomplish this objective, literature related to behaviorist and cognitive psychology prospects about language acquisition were studied and some relevant books as well as Medline, Cochrane Library, Google scholar, ISI web of knowledge and Scopus databases were searched. Among 25 articles that were selected, only 11 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the study. Based on the inclusion criteria, review articles, expert opinion studies, non-experimental and experimental studies that clearly focused on behavioral and cognitive factors affecting language acquisition in children were selected. Finally, the selected articles were appraised according to guidelines of appraisal of medical studies. Due to the importance of the cochlear implanted child's language performance, the comparison of behaviorist and cognitive psychology points of view in child language acquisition was done. Since each theoretical basis, has its own positive effects on language, and since the two are not in opposition to one another, it can be said that a set of behavioral and cognitive factors might facilitate the process of language acquisition in children. Behavioral psychologists believe that repetition, as well as immediate reinforcement of child's language behavior help him easily acquire the language during a language intervention program, while cognitive psychologists emphasize on the relationship between information processing, memory improvement through repetitively using words along with "associated" pictures and objects, motor development and language acquisition. It is recommended to use a combined approach based on both theoretical frameworks while planning a language intervention program.

  12. Auditory Processing Disorder and Foreign Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veselovska, Ganna

    2015-01-01

    This article aims at exploring various strategies for coping with the auditory processing disorder in the light of foreign language acquisition. The techniques relevant to dealing with the auditory processing disorder can be attributed to environmental and compensatory approaches. The environmental one involves actions directed at creating a…

  13. Complexity and Conflicting Grammars in Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westergaard, Marit

    2014-01-01

    The article by Amaral and Roeper (this issue; henceforth A&R) presents many interesting ideas about first and second language acquisition as well as some experimental data convincingly illustrating the difference between production and comprehension. The article extends the concept of Universal Bilingualism proposed in Roeper (1999) to second…

  14. Language and Literacy Acquisition through Parental Mediation in American Sign Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bailes, Cynthia Neese; Erting, Lynne C.; Thumann-Prezioso, Carlene; Erting, Carol J.

    2009-01-01

    This longitudinal case study examined the language and literacy acquisition of a Deaf child as mediated by her signing Deaf parents during her first three years of life. Results indicate that the parents' interactions with their child were guided by linguistic and cultural knowledge that produced an intuitive use of child-directed signing (CDSi)…

  15. The acquisition of French in multilingual contexts

    CERN Document Server

    Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro; Müller, Natascha

    2015-01-01

    This volume brings together new research from different theoretical paradigms addressing the acquisition of French as a second language. It focuses on the acquisition of French in combination with different languages and enriches our understanding of the particularities of French and the role of language combinations in the acquisition process.

  16. A random matrix approach to language acquisition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nicolaidis, A; Kosmidis, Kosmas; Argyrakis, Panos

    2009-01-01

    Since language is tied to cognition, we expect the linguistic structures to reflect patterns that we encounter in nature and are analyzed by physics. Within this realm we investigate the process of lexicon acquisition, using analytical and tractable methods developed within physics. A lexicon is a mapping between sounds and referents of the perceived world. This mapping is represented by a matrix and the linguistic interaction among individuals is described by a random matrix model. There are two essential parameters in our approach. The strength of the linguistic interaction β, which is considered as a genetically determined ability, and the number N of sounds employed (the lexicon size). Our model of linguistic interaction is analytically studied using methods of statistical physics and simulated by Monte Carlo techniques. The analysis reveals an intricate relationship between the innate propensity for language acquisition β and the lexicon size N, N∼exp(β). Thus a small increase of the genetically determined β may lead to an incredible lexical explosion. Our approximate scheme offers an explanation for the biological affinity of different species and their simultaneous linguistic disparity

  17. A random matrix approach to language acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicolaidis, A.; Kosmidis, Kosmas; Argyrakis, Panos

    2009-12-01

    Since language is tied to cognition, we expect the linguistic structures to reflect patterns that we encounter in nature and are analyzed by physics. Within this realm we investigate the process of lexicon acquisition, using analytical and tractable methods developed within physics. A lexicon is a mapping between sounds and referents of the perceived world. This mapping is represented by a matrix and the linguistic interaction among individuals is described by a random matrix model. There are two essential parameters in our approach. The strength of the linguistic interaction β, which is considered as a genetically determined ability, and the number N of sounds employed (the lexicon size). Our model of linguistic interaction is analytically studied using methods of statistical physics and simulated by Monte Carlo techniques. The analysis reveals an intricate relationship between the innate propensity for language acquisition β and the lexicon size N, N~exp(β). Thus a small increase of the genetically determined β may lead to an incredible lexical explosion. Our approximate scheme offers an explanation for the biological affinity of different species and their simultaneous linguistic disparity.

  18. Second Language Acquisition in Applied Linguistics: 1925-2015 and Beyond

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarone, Elaine

    2015-01-01

    Taking 1925, the founding year of "Language", the journal of the Linguistics Society of America, as a benchmark for "the past", and 2015 as benchmark for "the present", the author considers what was known then and what is known now about second language acquisition in applied linguistics. The field has grown more…

  19. Cognitive assessment of refugee children: Effects of trauma and new language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, Ida; Stolk, Yvonne; Valibhoy, Madeleine; Tucker, Alan; Baker, Judy

    2016-02-01

    Each year, approximately 60,000 children of refugee background are resettled in Western countries. This paper reviews the effects of the refugee experience on cognitive functioning. The distinctive influences for these children include exposure to traumatic events and the need to acquire a new language, factors that need to be considered to avoid overdiagnosis of learning disorders and inappropriate educational placements. Prearrival trauma, psychological sequelae of traumatic events, developmental impact of trauma, and the quality of family functioning have been found to influence cognitive functioning, learning, and academic performance. In addition, the refugee child may be semiproficient in several languages, but proficient in none, whilst also trying to learn a new language. The influence that the child's limited English proficiency, literacy, and school experience may have on academic and test performance is demonstrated by drawing on the research on refugees' English language acquisition, as well as the more extensive literature on bilingual English language learners. Implications for interventions are drawn at the level of government policy, schools, and the individual. The paper concludes with the observation that there is a major need for longitudinal research on refugee children's learning and academic performance and on interventions that will close the academic gap, thereby enabling refugee children to reach their educational potential. © The Author(s) 2015.

  20. Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I.

    2015-01-01

    Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon but also what people are intending to convey with their utterances: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this article we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of…

  1. Age of acquisition effects on the functional organization of language in the adult brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayberry, Rachel I; Chen, Jen-Kai; Witcher, Pamela; Klein, Denise

    2011-10-01

    Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we neuroimaged deaf adults as they performed two linguistic tasks with sentences in American Sign Language, grammatical judgment and phonemic-hand judgment. Participants' age-onset of sign language acquisition ranged from birth to 14 years; length of sign language experience was substantial and did not vary in relation to age of acquisition. For both tasks, a more left lateralized pattern of activation was observed, with activity for grammatical judgment being more anterior than that observed for phonemic-hand judgment, which was more posterior by comparison. Age of acquisition was linearly and negatively related to activation levels in anterior language regions and positively related to activation levels in posterior visual regions for both tasks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Monosyllabic Place Holders in Child Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Estrella Nicolás

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Monosyllabic place holders (MPHs have been studied extensively in first-language (L1 acquisition of Spanish and other Romance languages. However, the study of MPHs in second-language (L2 acquisition, both by children and adults, has received much less attention. This study provides evidence for the presence of MPHs in the L2 Spanish of two L1 Moroccan Arabic children living in Spain. The age difference between the children (10;9 for Rachida and 6;10 for Khalid allows us to address the issue of whether the younger child would use MPHs, as is the case in L1 acquisition. However, what the data show is that both children used MPHs, although Khalid’s MPH rate was slightly higher than Rachida’s. Therefore, based on these findings we argue that MPHs can constitute a strategy available for all child learners of Spanish.

  3. Infant Language Development Is Related to the Acquisition of Walking

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walle, Eric A.; Campos, Joseph J.

    2014-01-01

    The present investigation explored the question of whether walking onset is related to infant language development. Study 1 used a longitudinal design (N = 44) to assess infant locomotor and language development every 2 weeks from 10 to 13.5 months of age. The acquisition of walking was associated with a significant increase in both receptive and…

  4. Recovery from First-Language Transfer: The Second Language Acquisition of English Double Objects by Korean Speakers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, Eunjeong

    2010-01-01

    Previous studies on second language (L2) acquisition of English dative alternation by Korean speakers (Oh and Zubizarreta, 2003, 2006a, 2006b) have shown that the acquisition of English benefactive double object (DO) (e.g. "John baked Mary a cake") lags behind that of its counterpart goal double object (e.g. "John sent Mary the letter"). This…

  5. Age and Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singleton, David

    2001-01-01

    Reviews the age factor in second language learning. Sketches some of the relevant research findings that have emerged in the last three decades and hones in on the results recently published on age-related research. Concludes with a discussion of whether there is an age factor in second language learning. (Author/VWL)

  6. Caregivers' suffix frequencies and suffix acquisition by language impaired, late talking, and typically developing children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warlaumont, Anne S; Jarmulowicz, Linda

    2012-11-01

    Acquisition of regular inflectional suffixes is an integral part of grammatical development in English and delayed acquisition of certain inflectional suffixes is a hallmark of language impairment. We investigate the relationship between input frequency and grammatical suffix acquisition, analyzing 217 transcripts of mother-child (ages 1 ; 11-6 ; 9) conversations from the CHILDES database. Maternal suffix frequency correlates with previously reported rank orders of acquisition and with child suffix frequency. Percentages of children using a suffix are consistent with frequencies in caregiver speech. Although late talkers acquire suffixes later than typically developing children, order of acquisition is similar across populations. Furthermore, the third person singular and past tense verb suffixes, weaknesses for children with language impairment, are less frequent in caregiver speech than the plural noun suffix, a relative strength in language impairment. Similar findings hold across typical, SLI and late talker populations, suggesting that frequency plays a role in suffix acquisition.

  7. Prospective Foreign Language Teachers' Preference of Teaching Methods for the Language Acquisition Course in Turkish Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    GüvendIr, Emre

    2013-01-01

    Considering the significance of taking student preferences into account while organizing teaching practices, the current study explores which teaching method prospective foreign language teachers mostly prefer their teacher to use in the language acquisition course. A teaching methods evaluation form that includes six commonly used teaching…

  8. PSYCHOLINGUISTIC SIMILARITIES IN THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN AS NATIVE LANGUAGES.

    Science.gov (United States)

    SLOBIN, DAN I.

    ONE APPROACH TO CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IS THAT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL, GENERATIVE GRAMMAR WHICH EMPHASIZES MAN'S ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND PRODUCE AN UNLIMITED VARIETY OF SENTENCES THROUGH CONTROL OF A LIMITED NUMBER OF LANGUAGE RULES. THUS, A CHILD LEARNS TO SPEAK BY DEVELOPING HIS OWN THEORIES OF THE STRUCTURE OF HIS LANGUAGE. STUDIES OF…

  9. Words, rules, and mechanisms of language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endress, Ansgar D; Bonatti, Luca L

    2016-01-01

    We review recent artificial language learning studies, especially those following Endress and Bonatti (Endress AD, Bonatti LL. Rapid learning of syllable classes from a perceptually continuous speech stream. Cognition 2007, 105:247-299), suggesting that humans can deploy a variety of learning mechanisms to acquire artificial languages. Several experiments provide evidence for multiple learning mechanisms that can be deployed in fluent speech: one mechanism encodes the positions of syllables within words and can be used to extract generalization, while the other registers co-occurrence statistics of syllables and can be used to break a continuum into its components. We review dissociations between these mechanisms and their potential role in language acquisition. We then turn to recent criticisms of the multiple mechanisms hypothesis and show that they are inconsistent with the available data. Our results suggest that artificial and natural language learning is best understood by dissecting the underlying specialized learning abilities, and that these data provide a rare opportunity to link important language phenomena to basic psychological mechanisms. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. A higher level language data acquisition system (III) - the user data acquisition program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Finn, J.M.; Gulbranson, R.L.; Huang, T.L.

    1983-01-01

    The nuclear physics group at the University of Illinois has implemented a data acquisition system using modified versions of the Concurrent Pascal and Sequential Pascal languages. The user, a physicist, develops a data acquisition ''operating system'', written in these higher level languages, which is tailored to the planned experiment. The user must include only those system functions which are essential to the task, thus improving efficiency. The user program is constructed from simple modules, mainly consisting of Concurrent Pascal PROCESSes, MONITORs, and CLASSes together with appropriate data type definitions. Entire programs can be put together using ''cut and paste'' techniques. Planned enhancements include the automating of this process. Systems written for the Perkin-Elmer 3220 using this approach can easily exceed 2 kHz data rates for event by event handling; 20 kHz data rates have been achieved by the addition of buffers in the interrupt handling software. These rates have been achieved without the use of special-purpose hardware such as micro-programmed branch drivers. With the addition of such devices even higher data rates should be possible

  11. The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence From Word Segmentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

    2015-11-01

    The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's cognitive plausibility. We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition model can aim to be cognitively plausible in multiple ways. We discuss these cognitive plausibility checkpoints generally and then apply them to a case study in word segmentation, investigating a promising Bayesian segmentation strategy. We incorporate cognitive plausibility by using an age-appropriate unit of perceptual representation, evaluating the model output in terms of its utility, and incorporating cognitive constraints into the inference process. Our more cognitively plausible model shows a beneficial effect of cognitive constraints on segmentation performance. One interpretation of this effect is as a synergy between the naive theories of language structure that infants may have and the cognitive constraints that limit the fidelity of their inference processes, where less accurate inference approximations are better when the underlying assumptions about how words are generated are less accurate. More generally, these results highlight the utility of incorporating cognitive plausibility more fully into computational models of language acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  12. The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imai, Mutsumi; Kita, Sotaro

    2014-09-19

    Sound symbolism is a non-arbitrary relationship between speech sounds and meaning. We review evidence that, contrary to the traditional view in linguistics, sound symbolism is an important design feature of language, which affects online processing of language, and most importantly, language acquisition. We propose the sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis, claiming that (i) pre-verbal infants are sensitive to sound symbolism, due to a biologically endowed ability to map and integrate multi-modal input, (ii) sound symbolism helps infants gain referential insight for speech sounds, (iii) sound symbolism helps infants and toddlers associate speech sounds with their referents to establish a lexical representation and (iv) sound symbolism helps toddlers learn words by allowing them to focus on referents embedded in a complex scene, alleviating Quine's problem. We further explore the possibility that sound symbolism is deeply related to language evolution, drawing the parallel between historical development of language across generations and ontogenetic development within individuals. Finally, we suggest that sound symbolism bootstrapping is a part of a more general phenomenon of bootstrapping by means of iconic representations, drawing on similarities and close behavioural links between sound symbolism and speech-accompanying iconic gesture. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  13. Multilingualism and fMRI: Longitudinal Study of Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrews, Edna; Frigau, Luca; Voyvodic-Casabo, Clara; Voyvodic, James; Wright, John

    2013-01-01

    BOLD fMRI is often used for the study of human language. However, there are still very few attempts to conduct longitudinal fMRI studies in the study of language acquisition by measuring auditory comprehension and reading. The following paper is the first in a series concerning a unique longitudinal study devoted to the analysis of bi- and multilingual subjects who are: (1) already proficient in at least two languages; or (2) are acquiring Russian as a second/third language. The focus of the current analysis is to present data from the auditory sections of a set of three scans acquired from April, 2011 through April, 2012 on a five-person subject pool who are learning Russian during the study. All subjects were scanned using the same protocol for auditory comprehension on the same General Electric LX 3T Signa scanner in Duke University Hospital. Using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for statistical analysis, proficiency measurements are shown to correlate significantly with scan results in the Russian conditions over time. The importance of both the left and right hemispheres in language processing is discussed. Special attention is devoted to the importance of contextualizing imaging data with corresponding behavioral and empirical testing data using a multivariate analysis of variance. This is the only study to date that includes: (1) longitudinal fMRI data with subject-based proficiency and behavioral data acquired in the same time frame; and (2) statistical modeling that demonstrates the importance of covariate language proficiency data for understanding imaging results of language acquisition. PMID:24961428

  14. Multilingualism and fMRI: Longitudinal Study of Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Wright

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available BOLD fMRI is often used for the study of human language. However, there are still very few attempts to conduct longitudinal fMRI studies in the study of language acquisition by measuring auditory comprehension and reading. The following paper is the first in a series concerning a unique longitudinal study devoted to the analysis of bi- and multilingual subjects who are: (1 already proficient in at least two languages; or (2 are acquiring Russian as a second/third language. The focus of the current analysis is to present data from the auditory sections of a set of three scans acquired from April, 2011 through April, 2012 on a five-person subject pool who are learning Russian during the study. All subjects were scanned using the same protocol for auditory comprehension on the same General Electric LX 3T Signa scanner in Duke University Hospital. Using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA for statistical analysis, proficiency measurements are shown to correlate significantly with scan results in the Russian conditions over time. The importance of both the left and right hemispheres in language processing is discussed. Special attention is devoted to the importance of contextualizing imaging data with corresponding behavioral and empirical testing data using a multivariate analysis of variance. This is the only study to date that includes: (1 longitudinal fMRI data with subject-based proficiency and behavioral data acquired in the same time frame; and (2 statistical modeling that demonstrates the importance of covariate language proficiency data for understanding imaging results of language acquisition.

  15. Multilingualism and fMRI: Longitudinal Study of Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrews, Edna; Frigau, Luca; Voyvodic-Casabo, Clara; Voyvodic, James; Wright, John

    2013-05-28

    BOLD fMRI is often used for the study of human language. However, there are still very few attempts to conduct longitudinal fMRI studies in the study of language acquisition by measuring auditory comprehension and reading. The following paper is the first in a series concerning a unique longitudinal study devoted to the analysis of bi- and multilingual subjects who are: (1) already proficient in at least two languages; or (2) are acquiring Russian as a second/third language. The focus of the current analysis is to present data from the auditory sections of a set of three scans acquired from April, 2011 through April, 2012 on a five-person subject pool who are learning Russian during the study. All subjects were scanned using the same protocol for auditory comprehension on the same General Electric LX 3T Signa scanner in Duke University Hospital. Using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for statistical analysis, proficiency measurements are shown to correlate significantly with scan results in the Russian conditions over time. The importance of both the left and right hemispheres in language processing is discussed. Special attention is devoted to the importance of contextualizing imaging data with corresponding behavioral and empirical testing data using a multivariate analysis of variance. This is the only study to date that includes: (1) longitudinal fMRI data with subject-based proficiency and behavioral data acquired in the same time frame; and (2) statistical modeling that demonstrates the importance of covariate language proficiency data for understanding imaging results of language acquisition.

  16. Beauty is in the eye of the gamer:to what extent do commercial games reinforce English as a second language acquisition?

    OpenAIRE

    Bolaños Alfonso, D. (Daniel)

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Research has shown the potential of employing video game platforms for second language acquisition. Nevertheless, few studies have addressed the impact of non-educational commercial video games on second language learning as reported by the players themselves. Likewise, little research has studied in detail which are the aspects that players consider to be the most engaging when playing a commercial video game, rel...

  17. 76 FR 46206 - NASA Implementation of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-08-02

    ... of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision AGENCY: National Aeronautics and... Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46. DATES: Effective Date: August 2, 2011. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT... on February 8, 2011 (76 FR 6696) implementing Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46 which...

  18. Germanic heritage languages in North America: Acquisition, attrition and change

    OpenAIRE

    Johannessen, Janne Bondi; Salmons, Joseph C.; Westergaard, Marit; Anderssen, Merete; Arnbjörnsdóttir, Birna; Allen, Brent; Pierce, Marc; Boas, Hans C.; Roesch, Karen; Brown, Joshua R.; Putnam, Michael; Åfarli, Tor A.; Newman, Zelda Kahan; Annear, Lucas; Speth, Kristin

    2015-01-01

    This book presents new empirical findings about Germanic heritage varieties spoken in North America: Dutch, German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, West Frisian and Yiddish, and varieties of English spoken both by heritage speakers and in communities after language shift. The volume focuses on three critical issues underlying the notion of ‘heritage language’: acquisition, attrition and change. The book offers theoretically-informed discussions of heritage language processe...

  19. Research on Foreign Language Teaching in North America : The University of Toronto and Michigan State University

    OpenAIRE

    Lauer, Joe; Yamada, Jun

    1998-01-01

    Both the Modern Language Centre at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT), and the English Language Center at Michigan State University, are acknowledged as being among the best centers for applied linguistics research and education in the world. The Modern Language Centre has published important findings in the areas of second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and language curricula. Meanwhile, the English Language Center has ...

  20. Sociolinguistic Variation and Acquisition in Two-Way Language Immersion: Negotiating the Standard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Starr, Rebecca Lurie

    2016-01-01

    This book investigates the acquisition of sociolinguistic knowledge in the early elementary school years of a Mandarin-English two-way immersion program in the United States. Using ethnographic observation and quantitative analysis of data, the author explores how input from teachers and classmates shapes students' language acquisition. The book…

  1. The Impact of Multilingualism on Spanish Language Acquisition among Immigrants in Spain

    OpenAIRE

    Budría, Santiago; Swedberg, Pablo

    2014-01-01

    This article uses micro-data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey to analyze the acquisition of Spanish language skills for immigrants in Spain. The motivation of the paper is threefold. Language skills are important for an individual's labour market performance, Spain offers an important non-English speaking country instance and the main novelty of our paper is to explore the impact of speaking multiple foreign languages on host language learning for immigrants. The results reveal a st...

  2. 76 FR 6696 - NASA Implementation of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-08

    ... of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision AGENCY: National Aeronautics and... (NFS) to implement the FAR Award Fee revision issued in Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46.... Background Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46 significantly revised FAR Parts 16.305, 16.401, and 16...

  3. Cross-linguistic influence in multilingual language acquisition: The role of L1 and non-native languages in English and Catalan oral production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mireia Ortega

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Most research in third language acquisition has focused on the effects that factors such as language distance, second language (L2 status, proficiency or recency have on the choice of the source language (L1 in cross-linguistic influence (CLI. This paper presents a study of these factors, and of the influence that the L1 (Spanish has on L2 (English and L3 (Catalan oral production. Lexical and syntactic transfer are analysed in the production of Catalan and English of two multilingual speakers with similar knowledge of non-native languages. They were interviewed twice in an informal environment. The results show that the L1 is the main source of transfer, both in L2 and L3 production, but its influence decreases as proficiency in the target language increases. Language distance also plays an important role in CLI, especially if proficiency in the source language is high and if there has been recent exposure to it. The findings also suggest that while syntactic transfer is exclusively L1-based, lexical transfer can occur from a non-native language.

  4. Rhythm in language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langus, Alan; Mehler, Jacques; Nespor, Marina

    2017-10-01

    Spoken language is governed by rhythm. Linguistic rhythm is hierarchical and the rhythmic hierarchy partially mimics the prosodic as well as the morpho-syntactic hierarchy of spoken language. It can thus provide learners with cues about the structure of the language they are acquiring. We identify three universal levels of linguistic rhythm - the segmental level, the level of the metrical feet and the phonological phrase level - and discuss why primary lexical stress is not rhythmic. We survey experimental evidence on rhythm perception in young infants and native speakers of various languages to determine the properties of linguistic rhythm that are present at birth, those that mature during the first year of life and those that are shaped by the linguistic environment of language learners. We conclude with a discussion of the major gaps in current knowledge on linguistic rhythm and highlight areas of interest for future research that are most likely to yield significant insights into the nature, the perception, and the usefulness of linguistic rhythm. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Exact Repetition as Input Enhancement in Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Eva Dam; Vinther, Thora

    2003-01-01

    Reports on two studies on input enhancement used to support learners' selection of focus of attention in Spanish second language listening material. Input consisted of video recordings of dialogues between native speakers. Exact repetition and speech rate reduction were examined for effect on comprehension, acquisition of decoding strategies, and…

  6. Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I

    Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon, but also what someone is intending to convey with their utterance: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this paper we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of language by comparing deaf adults who had either early or late first exposure to their first language (ASL). We focus on the particular type of meaning at the semantic/pragmatic interface called scalar implicature , for which preschool-age children typically differ from adults. Children's behavior has been attributed to either their not knowing appropriate linguistic alternatives to consider or to cognitive developmental differences between children and adults. Unlike children, deaf adults with late language exposure are cognitively mature, although they never fully acquire some complex linguistic structures, and thus serve as a test for the role of language in such interpretations. Our results indicate an overall high performance by late learners, especially when implicatures are not based on conventionalized items. However, compared to early language learners, late language learners compute fewer implicatures when conventionalized linguistic alternatives are involved (e.g. ). We conclude that (i) in general, Gricean pragmatic reasoning does not seem to be impacted by delayed first language acquisition and can account for multiple quantity implicatures, but (ii) the creation of a scale based on lexical items can lead to ease in alternative creation that may be advantageously learned early in life, and that this may be one of several factors contributing to differences between adults and children on scalar implicature tasks.

  7. How mother tongue and the second language interact with acquisition of a foreign language for year six students

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Slåttvik, Anja; Nielsen, Henrik Balle

    This is a presentation of a current study of how teaching of fiction is carried out in the subjectEnglish as a foreign language in year six in two Danish Schools. There is a particular focus on 6multilingual students and their third language acquisition perspective. The aim is to establishknowledge...... on multilingual students’ understanding of material and content in the EFLclassroom and on a long-term basis to focus foreign language teachers’ attention tocircumstances that challenge students learning a foreign language in a multilingualenvironment....

  8. Does the Freedom of Reader Choice Affect Second Language Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, Barry Lee; Bai, Yi Ling

    2013-01-01

    In this study, the effect of freedom of reader choice on the incidental acquisition of vocabulary was investigated in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading classes. Despite advocating free extensive reading as a means of obtaining a native-like L2 vocabulary,existing studies investigating the incidental acquisition of vocabulary have not…

  9. The second language acquisition of French tense, aspect, mood and modality

    CERN Document Server

    Ayoun, Dalila

    2013-01-01

    Temporal-aspectual systems have a great potential of informing our understanding of the developing competence of second language learners. So far, the vast majority of empirical studies investigating L2 acquisition have largely focused on past temporality, neglecting the acquisition of the expression of the present and future temporalities with rare exceptions (aside from ESL learners), leaving unanswered the question of how the investigation of different types of temporality may inform our understanding of the acquisition of temporal, aspectual and mood systems as a whole. This monograph addr

  10. Listening to accented speech in a second language: First language and age of acquisition effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larraza, Saioa; Samuel, Arthur G; Oñederra, Miren Lourdes

    2016-11-01

    Bilingual speakers must acquire the phonemic inventory of 2 languages and need to recognize spoken words cross-linguistically; a demanding job potentially made even more difficult due to dialectal variation, an intrinsic property of speech. The present work examines how bilinguals perceive second language (L2) accented speech and where accommodation to dialectal variation takes place. Dialectal effects were analyzed at different levels: An AXB discrimination task tapped phonetic-phonological representations, an auditory lexical-decision task tested for effects in accessing the lexicon, and an auditory priming task looked for semantic processing effects. Within that central focus, the goal was to see whether perceptual adjustment at a given level is affected by 2 main linguistic factors: bilinguals' first language and age of acquisition of the L2. Taking advantage of the cross-linguistic situation of the Basque language, bilinguals with different first languages (Spanish or French) and ages of acquisition of Basque (simultaneous, early, or late) were tested. Our use of multiple tasks with multiple types of bilinguals demonstrates that in spite of very similar discrimination capacity, French-Basque versus Spanish-Basque simultaneous bilinguals' performance on lexical access significantly differed. Similarly, results of the early and late groups show that the mapping of phonetic-phonological information onto lexical representations is a more demanding process that accentuates non-native processing difficulties. L1 and AoA effects were more readily overcome in semantic processing; accented variants regularly created priming effects in the different groups of bilinguals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  11. The effect of aided language stimulation on vocabulary acquisition in children with little or no functional speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dada, Shakila; Alant, Erna

    2009-02-01

    To describe the nature and frequency of the aided language stimulation program and determine the effects of a 3-week-long aided language stimulation program on the vocabulary acquisition skills of children with little or no functional speech (LNFS). Four children participated in this single-subject, multiple-probe study across activities. The aided language stimulation program comprised 3 activities: arts and crafts, food preparation, and story time activity. Each activity was repeated over the duration of 5 subsequent sessions. Eight target vocabulary items were taught within each activity. The acquisition of all 24 target items was probed throughout the duration of the 3-week intervention period. The frequency and nature of the aided language stimulation provided met the criterion of being used 70% of the time and providing aided language stimulation with an 80:20 ratio of statements to questions. The results indicated that all 4 participants acquired the target vocabulary items. There were, however, variations in the rate of acquisition. This study explores the impact of aided language stimulation on vocabulary acquisition in children. The most important clinical implication of this study is that a 3-week intervention program in aided language stimulation was sufficient to facilitate the comprehension of at least 24 vocabulary items in 4 children with LNFS.

  12. Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Magdalena, Luniewska,; Haman, Ewa; Armon Lotem, Sharon

    2016-01-01

    We present a new set of subjective age-of acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro- Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages......; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings...... across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations and (2) to assess differences caused by the exact form of the target question (when did you learn vs. when do children learn this word); (3) to compare...

  13. The Impact of Utilising Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL on Vocabulary Acquisition among Migrant Women English Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kham Sila Ahmad

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Aim/Purpose: To develop a framework for utilizing Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL to assist non-native English migrant women to acquire English vocabulary in a non-formal learning setting. Background: The women in this study migrated to Australia with varied backgrounds including voluntary or forced migration, very low to high levels of their first language (L1, low proficiency in English, and isolated fulltime stay-at-home mothers. Methodology: A case study method using semi-structured interviews and observations was used. Six migrant women learners attended a minimum of five non-MALL sessions and three participants continued on and attended a minimum of five MALL sessions. Participants were interviewed pre- and post-sessions. Data were analysed thematically. Contribution: The MALL framework is capable of enriching migrant women’s learning experience and vocabulary acquisition. Findings: Vocabulary acquisition occurred in women from both non-MALL and MALL environment; however, the MALL environment provided significantly enriched vocabulary learning experience. Future Research: A standardised approach to measure the effectiveness of MALL for vocabulary acquisition among migrant women in non-formal setting

  14. A study of the effects of English language proficiency and scientific reasoning skills on the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners and native English language-speaking students participating in grade 10 science classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Hector Neftali, Sr.

    2000-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of English language proficiency and levels of scientific reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. The researcher studied a group of high school Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students participating in Grade 10 science classes. The language proficiency of the students was to be measured through the use of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) instrument. A Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning developed by Lawson (1978) was administered in either English or Spanish to the group of Hispanic English language learners and in English to the group of native English language-speaking students in order to determine their levels of scientific reasoning skills. The students' acquisition of science content knowledge was measured through the use of statewide-standardized science test developed by the State's Department of Education. This study suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners in the study. The results of the study also suggest that with regards to scientific reasoning skills, students that showed high levels or reflective reasoning skills for the most part performed better on the statewide-standardized science test than students with intuitive or transitional reasoning skills. This assertion was supported by the studies conducted by Lawson and his colleagues, which showed that high levels of reasoning or reflective reasoning skills are prerequisite for most high school science courses. The findings in this study imply that high order English language proficiency combined with high levels of reasoning skills enhances students' abilities to learn science content subject matter. This

  15. Language Acquisition and Assessment in Normal and Handicapped Preschool Children: A Review of the Literature. Final Report. Volume II.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longhurst, Thomas M.

    The second of four documents provides a summary of the scientific literature pertaining to spontaneous language acquisition in handicapped preschool children, and reviews and evaluates procedures for assessing language acquisition in these children. Chapter l focuses on language development in nonhandicapped children after they have acquired their…

  16. Learning difficulties or learning English difficulties? Additional language acquisition: an update for paediatricians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clifford, Vanessa; Rhodes, Anthea; Paxton, Georgia

    2014-03-01

    Australia is a diverse society: 26% of the population were born overseas, a further 20% have at least one parent born overseas and 19% speak a language other than English at home. Paediatricians are frequently involved in the assessment and management of non-English-speaking-background children with developmental delay, disability or learning issues. Despite the diversity of our patient population, information on how children learn additional or later languages is remarkably absent in paediatric training. An understanding of second language acquisition is essential to provide appropriate advice to this patient group. It takes a long time (5 years or more) for any student to develop academic competency in a second language, even a student who has received adequate prior schooling in their first language. Refugee students are doubly disadvantaged as they frequently have limited or interrupted prior schooling, and many are unable to read and write in their first language. We review the evidence on second language acquisition during childhood, describe support for English language learners within the Australian education system, consider refugee-background students as a special risk group and address common misconceptions about how children learn English as an additional language. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2013 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

  17. Consonants and Vowels: Different Roles in Early Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hochmann, Jean-Remy; Benavides-Varela, Silvia; Nespor, Marina; Mehler, Jacques

    2011-01-01

    Language acquisition involves both acquiring a set of words (i.e. the lexicon) and learning the rules that combine them to form sentences (i.e. syntax). Here, we show that consonants are mainly involved in word processing, whereas vowels are favored for extracting and generalizing structural relations. We demonstrate that such a division of labor…

  18. Modality-specific processing precedes amodal linguistic processing during L2 sign language acquisition: A longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Joshua T; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene D

    2016-02-01

    The present study tracked activation pattern differences in response to sign language processing by late hearing second language learners of American Sign Language. Learners were scanned before the start of their language courses. They were scanned again after their first semester of instruction and their second, for a total of 10 months of instruction. The study aimed to characterize modality-specific to modality-general processing throughout the acquisition of sign language. Results indicated that before the acquisition of sign language, neural substrates related to modality-specific processing were present. After approximately 45 h of instruction, the learners transitioned into processing signs on a phonological basis (e.g., supramarginal gyrus, putamen). After one more semester of input, learners transitioned once more to a lexico-semantic processing stage (e.g., left inferior frontal gyrus) at which language control mechanisms (e.g., left caudate, cingulate gyrus) were activated. During these transitional steps right hemispheric recruitment was observed, with increasing left-lateralization, which is similar to other native signers and L2 learners of spoken language; however, specialization for sign language processing with activation in the inferior parietal lobule (i.e., angular gyrus), even for late learners, was observed. As such, the present study is the first to track L2 acquisition of sign language learners in order to characterize modality-independent and modality-specific mechanisms for bilingual language processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Input Skewedness, Consistency, and Order of Frequent Verbs in Frequency-Driven Second Language Construction Learning: A Replication and Extension of Casenhiser and Goldberg (2005) to Adult Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakamura, Daisuke

    2012-01-01

    Recent usage-based models of language acquisition research has found that three frequency manipulations; (1) skewed input (Casenhiser & Goldberg 2005), (2) input consistency (Childers & Tomasello 2001), and (3) order of frequent verbs (Goldberg, Casenhiser, & White 2007) facilitated construction learning in children. The present paper addresses…

  20. The Effects of Bilingualism on Infant Language Development : The Acquisition of Sounds and Words

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Liu, Liquan

    2014-01-01

    This dissertation reports on the influence of bilingualism on infants’ sound and word acquisition in the first two years of life. It targets the question of whether mono- and bilingual infants follow the same developmental trajectory of language acquisition, it displays similarities and differences

  1. Testing hypotheses on frequency effects in first language acquisition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærbæk, Laila; Basbøll, Hans

    2015-01-01

    On the basis of extensive literature studies, Ambridge, Kidd, Rowland and Theakston (2015) present five theses on frequency effects on language acquisition: i) the Levels and Kinds Thesis argues that frequency effects exist at all levels and are of many different kinds (e.g., type and token...... frequency effects as well as absolute and relative frequency effects); ii) the Age of Acquisition Thesis argues that all other things being equal, frequent forms will be acquired before less frequent forms. Since all other things are not equal, this claim does not entail a one-to-one relationship between...... frequency and age of acquisition; iii) the Prevent Error Thesis argues that high-frequency forms prevent (or reduce) errors in contexts in which they are the target; iv) the Cause Error Thesis argues that high-frequency forms also cause errors in contexts in which a competing, related lower-frequency form...

  2. CONVERGING LINES: TOWARDS THE INTEGRATION OF SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH AND TEACHING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bambang Yudi Cahyono

    1999-01-01

    Full Text Available Despite the increasing research in second language acquisition, a gap seems to exist between researchers' technical knowledge and teachers' practical knowledge. This is evident from a review of research studies in form-focused instruction summarized in this article. Additional review of articles in the teaching of writing also leads to a similar conclusion. The theoretical development of the writing process does not seem to provide many insights for teachers to apply the process approach to the teaching of writing. The results of the two reviews then indicate that an attempt is required to relate second language research to teaching. Theoretical-pedagogical research, action research, and participatory research are referred to as models of research that can bridge the gap. A review of sample studies recently conducted demonstrates how the integration between technical and practical knowledge can be achieved through the three types of research.

  3. The relation between language and arithmetic in bilinguals: insights from different stages of language acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amandine eVan Rinsveld

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Solving arithmetic problems is a cognitive task that heavily relies on language processing. One might thus wonder whether this language-reliance leads to qualitative differences (e.g. greater difficulties, error types, etc. in arithmetic for bilingual individuals who frequently have to solve arithmetic problems in more than one language. The present study investigated how proficiency in two languages interacts with arithmetic problem solving throughout language acquisition in adolescents and young adults. Additionally, we examined whether the number word structure that is specific to a given language plays a role in number processing over and above bilingual proficiency. We addressed these issues in a German-French educational bilingual setting, where there is a progressive transition from German to French as teaching language. Importantly, German and French number naming structures differ clearly, as two-digit number names follow a unit-ten order in German, but a ten-unit order in French. We implemented a transversal developmental design in which bilingual pupils from grades 7, 8, 10, 11, and young adults were asked to solve simple and complex additions in both languages. The results confirmed that language proficiency is crucial especially for complex addition computation. Simple additions in contrast can be retrieved equally well in both languages after extended language practice. Additional analyses revealed that over and above language proficiency, language-specific number word structures (e.g. unit-ten vs. ten-unit also induced significant modulations of bilinguals’ arithmetic performances. Taken together, these findings support the view of a strong relation between language and arithmetic in bilinguals.

  4. An Empirical Generative Framework for Computational Modeling of Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waterfall, Heidi R.; Sandbank, Ben; Onnis, Luca; Edelman, Shimon

    2010-01-01

    This paper reports progress in developing a computer model of language acquisition in the form of (1) a generative grammar that is (2) algorithmically learnable from realistic corpus data, (3) viable in its large-scale quantitative performance and (4) psychologically real. First, we describe new algorithmic methods for unsupervised learning of…

  5. A Cross-linguistic Perspective on Questions in German and French Adult Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthias Bonnesen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Several studies have been conducted to try and understand and explain the morphological and syntactic aspects of adult second language acquisition (SLA. Two prominent hypotheses that have been put forward concerning late L2 speakers' knowledge of inflectional morphology and of related functional categories and their feature values are the Impaired Representation Hypothesis (IRH and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH.The cross-linguistic comparison of the acquisition of questions in German and French provided in this study offers a new perspective to differences and similarities between first language acquisition (FLA and adult SLA. Comparing a Germanic and a Romance L2, differing not only in their overall linguistic properties (such as i. e. OV/VO, V2, clitics, but explicitly in the formation and regularities of questions, we present striking similarities in adult SLA, and irrespective of the first and the second languages and of instructed versus non-instructed learning. The investigation of the adult SLA of morphological and structural aspects of questions in French and German strengthens the assumption that the acquisition of morphology and syntax is connected in French and German FLA but is disentangled in adult SLA. Our data reveal variability of question syntax, and with the syntactic position of the verb in particular. Instead of discovering the correct position of the verb at a certain stage of acquisition which can be accounted for by parameter setting in FLA, the adult learners gradually approach the target word order but still exhibit a great deal of variation after several years of exposure to the L2.The findings provided here contradict the predictions of the MSIH (Prévost/White 2000; Ionin/Wexler 2002; among others, for not only morphological features, but syntactic finiteness of finiteness are problematic in adult SLA, and that the Impairment Representation Hypothesis (IRH (Beck 1998; Eubank 1993/1994; among others

  6. The Representation and Execution of Articulatory Timing in First and Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redford, Melissa A; Oh, Grace E

    2017-07-01

    The early acquisition of language-specific temporal patterns relative to the late development of speech motor control suggests a dissociation between the representation and execution of articulatory timing. The current study tested for such a dissociation in first and second language acquisition. American English-speaking children (5- and 8-year-olds) and Korean-speaking adult learners of English repeatedly produced real English words in a simple carrier sentence. The words were designed to elicit different language-specific vowel length contrasts. Measures of absolute duration and variability in single vowel productions were extracted to evaluate the realization of contrasts (representation) and to index speech motor abilities (execution). Results were mostly consistent with a dissociation. Native English-speaking children produced the same language-specific temporal patterns as native English-speaking adults, but their productions were more variable than the adults'. In contrast, Korean-speaking adult learners of English typically produced different temporal patterns than native English-speaking adults, but their productions were as stable as the native speakers'. Implications of the results are discussed with reference to different models of speech production.

  7. FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN AND BILINGUALISM IN LIGHT OF LINGUISTICS, NEUROLINGUISTICS AND FINDINGS FROM BRAIN RESEARCH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunus PINAR

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The present review shows that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first coo according to the current guidelines and it presents a descriptive approach to bilingualism and multilingualism. This article is the outcome of a thorough survey of literature and primarily it aims to present the similarities and differences between the L1 and L2 acquisition in light of linguistics, neurolinguistics and findings from brain research. This Review will illustrate various thought and new hypotheses on first and second language development, bilingualism and multilingualism derived from studies in linguistics, neurolinguistics and brain research. In the context of our paper we shall try to describe aspects and stages of first language acquisition from even before birth especially the 20th week of the fetal development of the baby to 60th week of life, as well as the second language acquisition process, which is divided into three types: simultaneous, consecutive and adult. In particular, we will present and discuss some of the main results of the brain researchers like Franceschini and De Bleser and we shall interpret them.

  8. The impact of the home learning environment in native- vs. second-language acquisition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bleses, Dorthe; Højen, Anders; Dale, Philip S.

    ., 2007). However, little is known about the relative importance of the HLE for native- vs. second-language acquisition. This question was examined in 1,200 second-language and 8,000 native-language learners of Danish. The parents of the 3-5-year-old children completed a HLE questionnaire......The home literacy environment (HLE) has been shown to impact language and literacy skills in preschool-aged children via factors such as availability of books, frequency of reading and child age when parents began reading to the child (Burgess, Hecht, & Lonigan, 2002; Payne, Whitehurst, & Angell......, 1994). Many dual language learners (DLL) rely on interactions in the second language outside the home to acquire second-language proficiency, but the HLE also influences second-language development in DLL, whether the native language or the second language is the primary home language (Duursma et al...

  9. Re-Assembling Formal Features in Second Language Acquisition: Beyond Minimalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Susanne E.

    2009-01-01

    In this commentary, Lardiere's discussion of features is compared with the use of features in constraint-based theories, and it is argued that constraint-based theories might offer a more elegant account of second language acquisition (SLA). Further evidence is reported to question the accuracy of Chierchia's (1998) Nominal Mapping Parameter.…

  10. Effects of prematurity on language acquisition and auditory maturation: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rechia, Inaê Costa; Oliveira, Luciéle Dias; Crestani, Anelise Henrich; Biaggio, Eliara Pinto Vieira; Souza, Ana Paula Ramos de

    2016-01-01

    To verify which damages prematurity causes to hearing and language. We used the decriptors language/linguagem, hearing/audição, prematurity/prematuridade in databases LILACS, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and Scielo. randomized controlled trials, non-randomized intervention studies and descriptive studies (cross-sectional, cohort, case-control projects). The articles were assessed independently by two authors according to the selection criteria. Twenty-six studies were selected, of which seven were published in Brazil and 19 in international literature. Nineteen studies comparing full-term and preterm infants. Two of the studies made comparisons between premature infants small for gestational age and appropriate for gestational age. In four studies, the sample consisted of children with extreme prematurity, while other studies have been conducted in children with severe and moderate prematurity. To assess hearing, these studies used otoacoustic emissions, brainstem evoked potentials, tympanometry, auditory steady-state response and visual reinforcement audiometry. For language assessment, most of the articles used the Bayley Scale of Infant and Toddler Development. Most studies reviewed observed that prematurity is directly or indirectly related to the acquisition of auditory and language abilities early in life. Thus, it could be seen that prematurity, as well as aspects related to it (gestational age, low weight at birth and complications at birth), affect maturation of the central auditory pathway and may cause negative effects on language acquisition.

  11. First Language Proficiency as a Facilitator in Foreign/ Second Language Acquisition: A Case Study in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Marajan Awad Adam

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available English is taught as a foreign language in the Arab world even though practical concerns call for greater emphasis on the language. In all personal interactions too Arabic is the preferred language. Thus the environment for English is really very limited as by the time the learners are exposed to the language they are well entrenched in Arabic. While this may be a handicap in some EFL situations (for example where adults are concerned, in the Arab context this can prove a big boon. This is because young language learners who are proficient in their first language can apply the learning techniques while acquiring the second language. This paper targets the teaching fraternity in the Arab world to help them understand how first language proficiency can aid second/foreign language acquisition.

  12. Knowledge, Skills, and Training in Second Language Acquisition: A Comparative Study of Preservice Teachers' Perceptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Christine

    2017-01-01

    Preservice teachers must have opportunities in their university teaching programs to apply theories of second language learning. Courses in second language acquisition and English as a second language methodology are essential to prepare mainstream teachers for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Additionally, creating a…

  13. Application Features of Language Acquisition Assessment System in Kazakhstan: KAZTEST

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinayeva, Bekzat B.; Sapina, Sabira M.; Utanova, Aizada K.; Aitova, Nurlykhan N.

    2016-01-01

    The article deals with the analysis of peculiarities of language acquisition assessment system in Kazakhstan--KAZTEST. The author pays attention to the role of control as a way of assessment students' skills, habits and knowledge. In addition, author determined the place and functions of tests as a form of control. The author explores the…

  14. Basic Skills Resource Center. A Review of the Literature on the Acquisition of English as a Second Language: The Potential for Research Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    1985-05-01

    This limited focus has left the more pervasive concerns in language acquisition such as syntax and sociolinguistic competence largely uninvestigated...used to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence include mnemonics (Levin, 1981), transfer (Corder, 1981; Ventriglia, 1982), and self

  15. Acquisition Research Program Homepage

    OpenAIRE

    2015-01-01

    Includes an image of the main page on this date and compressed file containing additional web pages. Established in 2003, Naval Postgraduate School’s (NPS) Acquisition Research Program provides leadership in innovation, creative problem solving and an ongoing dialogue, contributing to the evolution of Department of Defense acquisition strategies.

  16. Language and Recursion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowenthal, Francis

    2010-11-01

    This paper examines whether the recursive structure imbedded in some exercises used in the Non Verbal Communication Device (NVCD) approach is actually the factor that enables this approach to favor language acquisition and reacquisition in the case of children with cerebral lesions. For that a definition of the principle of recursion as it is used by logicians is presented. The two opposing approaches to the problem of language development are explained. For many authors such as Chomsky [1] the faculty of language is innate. This is known as the Standard Theory; the other researchers in this field, e.g. Bates and Elman [2], claim that language is entirely constructed by the young child: they thus speak of Language Acquisition. It is also shown that in both cases, a version of the principle of recursion is relevant for human language. The NVCD approach is defined and the results obtained in the domain of language while using this approach are presented: young subjects using this approach acquire a richer language structure or re-acquire such a structure in the case of cerebral lesions. Finally it is shown that exercises used in this framework imply the manipulation of recursive structures leading to regular grammars. It is thus hypothesized that language development could be favored using recursive structures with the young child. It could also be the case that the NVCD like exercises used with children lead to the elaboration of a regular language, as defined by Chomsky [3], which could be sufficient for language development but would not require full recursion. This double claim could reconcile Chomsky's approach with psychological observations made by adherents of the Language Acquisition approach, if it is confirmed by researches combining the use of NVCDs, psychometric methods and the use of Neural Networks. This paper thus suggests that a research group oriented towards this problematic should be organized.

  17. Real-Time Processing of ASL Signs: Delayed First Language Acquisition Affects Organization of the Mental Lexicon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lieberman, Amy M.; Borovsky, Arielle; Hatrak, Marla; Mayberry, Rachel I.

    2015-01-01

    Sign language comprehension requires visual attention to the linguistic signal and visual attention to referents in the surrounding world, whereas these processes are divided between the auditory and visual modalities for spoken language comprehension. Additionally, the age-onset of first language acquisition and the quality and quantity of…

  18. A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartshorne, Joshua K; Tenenbaum, Joshua B; Pinker, Steven

    2018-08-01

    Children learn language more easily than adults, though when and why this ability declines have been obscure for both empirical reasons (underpowered studies) and conceptual reasons (measuring the ultimate attainment of learners who started at different ages cannot by itself reveal changes in underlying learning ability). We address both limitations with a dataset of unprecedented size (669,498 native and non-native English speakers) and a computational model that estimates the trajectory of underlying learning ability by disentangling current age, age at first exposure, and years of experience. This allows us to provide the first direct estimate of how grammar-learning ability changes with age, finding that it is preserved almost to the crux of adulthood (17.4 years old) and then declines steadily. This finding held not only for "difficult" syntactic phenomena but also for "easy" syntactic phenomena that are normally mastered early in acquisition. The results support the existence of a sharply-defined critical period for language acquisition, but the age of offset is much later than previously speculated. The size of the dataset also provides novel insight into several other outstanding questions in language acquisition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Speeding up Vocabulary Acquisition through Action Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ameerchund (Ashraf Maharaj

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Gaining a wider vocabulary is fundamental to language learning. It follows then that the faster students engage and learn new words, the faster will be their proficiency with the target language. Multi-Dimensional Vocabulary Acquisition (or MDVA means approaching new terms / concepts from a variety of perspectives so that the target word is thoroughly analysed, giving students access to all dimensions of the word. There are many dimensions or elements that will help elucidate and unlock meaning, but for the purposes of this chapter new words will be looked at in terms of their antonyms, synonyms and associated words, rhyming counterparts, idiomatic usage, gender considerations, diminutive implications, proverbial usage and likely confusion with other words. In this study the author employs an Action Research methodology where practical classroom exercises involving students’ writing efforts pre- and post MDVA are closely examined. Using the familiar “spiral of cycles” approach, it becomes clear that “unpacking” the target word means that the meaning of many other words associated with the target word becomes explicit. A workshop with faculty is included as part of the practical application of MDVA.

  20. Using the FORTH Language to Develop an ICU Data Acquisition System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldberg, Arthur; SooHoo, Spencer L.; Koerner, Spencer K.; Chang, Robert S. Y.

    1980-01-01

    This paper describes a powerful programming tool that should be considered as an alternative to the more conventional programming languages now in use for developing medical computer systems. Forth provides instantaneous response to user commands, rapid program execution and tremendous programming versatility. An operating system and a language in one carefully designed unit, Forth is well suited for developing data acquisition systems and for interfacing computers to other instruments. We present some of the general features of Forth and describe its use in implementing a data collection system for a Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU).

  1. [Language acquisition in preterm infants during the first year of life].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nazzi, T; Nishibayashi, L L; Berdasco-Muñoz, E; Baud, O; Biran, V; Gonzalez-Gomez, N

    2015-10-01

    Previous studies have shown that preterm children are at a higher risk for cognitive and language delays than full-term children. Most of these studies have concentrated on the effects of prematurity during the preschool or school years, while the effect of preterm birth on the early development of language, much of which occurs during the first year of life, remains very little explored. This article focuses on this crucial period and reviews the studies that have explored early phonological and lexical development in preterm infants. The results of these studies show uneven proficiency in different language subdomains in preterm infants. This raises the possibility that different constraints apply to the acquisition of different linguistic subcomponents in this population, in part as a result of a complex interaction between maturation, experience, and language subdomains. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  2. Consonant acquisition in the Malay language: a cross-sectional study of preschool aged Malay children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phoon, Hooi San; Abdullah, Anna Christina; Lee, Lay Wah; Murugaiah, Puvaneswary

    2014-05-01

    To date, there has been little research done on phonological acquisition in the Malay language of typically developing Malay-speaking children. This study serves to fill this gap by providing a systematic description of Malay consonant acquisition in a large cohort of preschool-aged children between 4- and 6-years-old. In the study, 326 Malay-dominant speaking children were assessed using a picture naming task that elicited 53 single words containing all the primary consonants in Malay. Two main analyses were conducted to study their consonant acquisition: (1) age of customary and mastery production of consonants; and (2) consonant accuracy. Results revealed that Malay children acquired all the syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants before 4;06-years-old, with the exception of syllable-final /s/, /h/ and /l/ which were acquired after 5;06-years-old. The development of Malay consonants increased gradually from 4- to 6 years old, with female children performing better than male children. The accuracy of consonants based on manner of articulation showed that glides, affricates, nasals, and stops were higher than fricatives and liquids. In general, syllable-initial consonants were more accurate than syllable-final consonants while consonants in monosyllabic and disyllabic words were more accurate than polysyllabic words. These findings will provide significant information for speech-language pathologists for assessing Malay-speaking children and designing treatment objectives that reflect the course of phonological development in Malay.

  3. The role of mirror neurons in language acquisition and evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behme, Christina

    2014-04-01

    I argue that Cook et al.'s attack of the genetic hypothesis of mirror neurons misses its target because the authors miss the point that genetics may specify how neurons may learn, not what they learn. Paying more attention to recent work linking mirror neurons to language acquisition and evolution would strengthen Cook et al.'s arguments against a rigid genetic hypothesis.

  4. Utility of Krashen's Five Hypotheses in the Saudi Context of Foreign Language Acquisition/Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gulzar, Malik Ajmal; Gulnaz, Fahmeeda; Ijaz, Attiya

    2014-01-01

    In the last twenty years, the paradigm that has dominated the discipline of language teaching is the SLA theory and Krashen's five hypotheses which are still proving flexible to accommodate earlier reforms. This paper reviews second language acquisition (SLA) theory to establish an understanding of its role in the EFL/ESL classrooms. Other areas…

  5. The Acquisition of Relative Clauses: How Do Second Language Learners of Arabic Do It?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Algady, Dola

    2013-01-01

    The new developments in syntactic theory under Minimalism reconsiders the relation between the language faculty and general cognitive systems whereby language acquisition is accomplished by the interaction of Chomsky (2005)'s three factors: (F1) a minimally specified UG (Genetic endowment); (F2) Primary Linguistic Data (PLD), i.e., input; and (F3)…

  6. The acquisition of the Latvian language as the Second language at preschool age in theory and practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ingēra Tomme-Jukēvica

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available In Latvia there are no substantial studies on bilingual preschool children’s Latvian language as the second language. The article provides an overview of the 20th–21st century linguistic theories in the context of child second language acquisition as well as raises awareness about their influence on and use in the learning of preschoolers whose second language is Latvian, carrying out content analysis of the Minority Preschool Education Program (with instruction in Russian, the Latvian Language Program of X preschool education establishment, teaching resources (teaching aid kits, didactic handouts as well as the Latvian language as the second language study content. The conclusion is drawn that the theory of communicative competence and the systemic functional grammar theory prevail as well as the basic principles of the behavioral theory can be discerned. In the teaching resources and learning process it is advisable to more often incorporate the same language material repetition in different situations and new combinations. Consideration must be given to more positive and negative transfer (interference emphasis. To prevent children’s errors it is advisable to provide and incorporate special exercises in the teaching resources as well as methodological recommendations for the Latvian language teachers.

  7. MATHEMATICS LANGUAGE IN-CLASS INSTRUCTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jasmina KARIKJ

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available The goal of the research was to compare the level of mathematic language acquisition between students of lower grades in special elementary schools for children who are hearing impaired and students of a mainstream elementary school. A total of 239 children attending mainstream and special schools in the territory of Serbia were included in the research. Instruction of mathematics in schools for students who are hearing impaired has a different character as it contains elements of native language instruction. Obtained results show a significant difference in some fields. A conclusion stating that the level of language acquisition is in direct correlation with the level of acquisition of mathematics language imposes itself. What that means is that hearing impaired children have not only to comprehend mathematics relations, but also to learn mathematics terms in a completely different way as compared to children who are hearing.

  8. Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English with Implications for Vietnamese Language Acquisition and Maintenance in the United States

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giang Tang

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Two overall goals of this paper are a to provide a linguistic basis for promoting first language maintenance of Vietnamese in a larger United States context and b to stimulate future research in language acquisition of Vietnamese-English speakers. This paper is divided into three sections. Section 1 discusses previous studies on first language (L1 maintenance among Vietnamese Americans. Section 2 presents a cross-linguistic comparison of Vietnamese and English across speech-sound, word, and grammatical language levels. A cross-linguistic analysis may help educators better understand speaking patterns of Vietnamese American students. Based on this cross-linguistic comparison, Section 3 presents potential bi-directional interactions between Vietnamese and English within an individual speaker. These predictions are intended to provide a framework for future empirical studies related to bilingual development.

  9. Naming a Lego world. The role of language in the acquisition of abstract concepts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granito, Carmen; Scorolli, Claudia; Borghi, Anna Maria

    2015-01-01

    While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concepts and words, they have more difficulties in accounting for abstract concepts and words, and several proposals have been put forward. This work aims to test the Words As Tools proposal, according to which both abstract and concrete concepts are grounded in perception, action and emotional systems, but linguistic information is more important for abstract than for concrete concept representation, due to the different ways they are acquired: while for the acquisition of the latter linguistic information might play a role, for the acquisition of the former it is instead crucial. We investigated the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts and words, and verified its impact on conceptual representation. In Experiment 1, participants explored and categorized novel concrete and abstract entities, and were taught a novel label for each category. Later they performed a categorical recognition task and an image-word matching task to verify a) whether and how the introduction of language changed the previously formed categories, b) whether language had a major weight for abstract than for concrete words representation, and c) whether this difference had consequences on bodily responses. The results confirm that, even though both concrete and abstract concepts are grounded, language facilitates the acquisition of the latter and plays a major role in their representation, resulting in faster responses with the mouth, typically associated with language production. Experiment 2 was a rating test aiming to verify whether the findings of Experiment 1 were simply due to heterogeneity, i.e. to the fact that the members of abstract categories were more heterogeneous than those of concrete categories. The results confirmed the effectiveness of our operationalization, showing that abstract concepts are more associated with the mouth and concrete ones with the hand, independently from

  10. Naming a Lego world. The role of language in the acquisition of abstract concepts.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Granito

    Full Text Available While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concepts and words, they have more difficulties in accounting for abstract concepts and words, and several proposals have been put forward. This work aims to test the Words As Tools proposal, according to which both abstract and concrete concepts are grounded in perception, action and emotional systems, but linguistic information is more important for abstract than for concrete concept representation, due to the different ways they are acquired: while for the acquisition of the latter linguistic information might play a role, for the acquisition of the former it is instead crucial. We investigated the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts and words, and verified its impact on conceptual representation. In Experiment 1, participants explored and categorized novel concrete and abstract entities, and were taught a novel label for each category. Later they performed a categorical recognition task and an image-word matching task to verify a whether and how the introduction of language changed the previously formed categories, b whether language had a major weight for abstract than for concrete words representation, and c whether this difference had consequences on bodily responses. The results confirm that, even though both concrete and abstract concepts are grounded, language facilitates the acquisition of the latter and plays a major role in their representation, resulting in faster responses with the mouth, typically associated with language production. Experiment 2 was a rating test aiming to verify whether the findings of Experiment 1 were simply due to heterogeneity, i.e. to the fact that the members of abstract categories were more heterogeneous than those of concrete categories. The results confirmed the effectiveness of our operationalization, showing that abstract concepts are more associated with the mouth and concrete ones with the hand

  11. An adaptive structure data acquisition system using a graphical-based programming language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baroth, Edmund C.; Clark, Douglas J.; Losey, Robert W.

    1992-01-01

    An example of the implementation of data fusion using a PC and a graphical programming language is discussed. A schematic of the data acquisition system and user interface panel for an adaptive structure test are presented. The computer programs (a series of icons 'wired' together) are also discussed. The way in which using graphical-based programming software to control a data acquisition system can simplify analysis of data, promote multidisciplinary interaction, and provide users a more visual key to understanding their data are shown.

  12. The Priority of Listening Comprehension over Speaking in the Language Acquisition Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Fang

    2011-01-01

    By elaborating the definition of listening comprehension, the characteristic of spoken discourse, the relationship between STM and LTM and Krashen's comprehensible input, the paper puts forward the point that the priority of listening comprehension over speaking in the language acquisition process is very necessary.

  13. Chinese Learners' Acquisition of English Verbs: A Corpus-Driven Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Linxiao; Jo, Hie-myung

    2012-01-01

    Limited research has investigated advanced language learners' acquisition of English verbs. The current study examines and compares the acquisition pattern of English verbs among Chinese second language (L2) learners at both intermediate and advanced levels to answer the following questions: (1) Do L2 learners acquire regular verbs and irregular…

  14. Language Learning Strategies of Multilingual Adults Learning Additional Languages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dmitrenko, Violetta

    2017-01-01

    The main goal consisted in identifying and bringing together strategies of multilinguals as a particular learner group. Therefore, research was placed in the intersection of the three fields: language learning strategies (LLS), third language acquisition (TLA), and the didactics of plurilingualism. First, the paper synthesises the major findings…

  15. Implications of modern syntactic style on the ''QAL'' data-acquisition language

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nartker, T.A.; Orr, P.K.; Stavely, A.M.; Perry, D.G.

    1979-01-01

    The ''Q'' data-acquisition software system has, for the last several years, provided most of the abilities required by experimenters in nuclear physics at LAMPF. The system allows its user to select and record the required data at very high speed using a simple notation. It is not necessary to become familiar with machine level programming considerations to use the system. Partial results are reported of a study of the ''QAL'' language with special emphasis on improvements suggested by recent progress in the field of programming language design. The results indicate that some features of new programming languages would solve some of the problems users have with the current system. It is also possible to capture the abilities of the current system within a PASCAL-like syntax without sacrificing efficiency

  16. Captioned Instructional Video: Effects on Content Comprehension, Vocabulary Acquisition and Language Proficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    BavaHarji, Madhubala; Alavi, Zhinoos Kamal; Letchumanan, Krishnaveni

    2014-01-01

    This experimental design study examined the effects of viewing captioned instructional videos on EFL learners' content comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and language proficiency. It also examined the participants' perception of viewing the captioned instructional videos. The 92 EFL students in two classes, who were undertaking the "Tape…

  17. No childhood advantage in the acquisition of skill in using an artificial language rule.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferman, Sara; Karni, Avi

    2010-10-27

    A leading notion is that language skill acquisition declines between childhood and adulthood. While several lines of evidence indicate that declarative ("what", explicit) memory undergoes maturation, it is commonly assumed that procedural ("how-to", implicit) memory, in children, is well established. The language superiority of children has been ascribed to the childhood reliance on implicit learning. Here we show that when 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds and young adults were provided with an equivalent multi-session training experience in producing and judging an artificial morphological rule (AMR), adults were superior to children of both age groups and the 8-year-olds were the poorest learners in all task parameters including in those that were clearly implicit. The AMR consisted of phonological transformations of verbs expressing a semantic distinction: whether the preceding noun was animate or inanimate. No explicit instruction of the AMR was provided. The 8-year-olds, unlike most adults and 12-year-olds, failed to explicitly uncover the semantic aspect of the AMR and subsequently to generalize it accurately to novel items. However, all participants learned to apply the AMR to repeated items and to generalize its phonological patterns to novel items, attaining accurate and fluent production, and exhibiting key characteristics of procedural memory. Nevertheless, adults showed a clear advantage in learning implicit task aspects, and in their long-term retention. Thus, our findings support the notion of age-dependent maturation in the establishment of declarative but also of procedural memory in a complex language task. In line with recent reports of no childhood advantage in non-linguistic skill learning, we propose that under some learning conditions adults can effectively express their language skill acquisition potential. Altogether, the maturational effects in the acquisition of an implicit AMR do not support a simple notion of a language skill learning advantage

  18. Content validation: clarity/relevance, reliability and internal consistency of enunciative signs of language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crestani, Anelise Henrich; Moraes, Anaelena Bragança de; Souza, Ana Paula Ramos de

    2017-08-10

    To analyze the results of the validation of building enunciative signs of language acquisition for children aged 3 to 12 months. The signs were built based on mechanisms of language acquisition in an enunciative perspective and on clinical experience with language disorders. The signs were submitted to judgment of clarity and relevance by a sample of six experts, doctors in linguistic in with knowledge of psycholinguistics and language clinic. In the validation of reliability, two judges/evaluators helped to implement the instruments in videos of 20% of the total sample of mother-infant dyads using the inter-evaluator method. The method known as internal consistency was applied to the total sample, which consisted of 94 mother-infant dyads to the contents of the Phase 1 (3-6 months) and 61 mother-infant dyads to the contents of Phase 2 (7 to 12 months). The data were collected through the analysis of mother-infant interaction based on filming of dyads and application of the parameters to be validated according to the child's age. Data were organized in a spreadsheet and then converted to computer applications for statistical analysis. The judgments of clarity/relevance indicated no modifications to be made in the instruments. The reliability test showed an almost perfect agreement between judges (0.8 ≤ Kappa ≥ 1.0); only the item 2 of Phase 1 showed substantial agreement (0.6 ≤ Kappa ≥ 0.79). The internal consistency for Phase 1 had alpha = 0.84, and Phase 2, alpha = 0.74. This demonstrates the reliability of the instruments. The results suggest adequacy as to content validity of the instruments created for both age groups, demonstrating the relevance of the content of enunciative signs of language acquisition.

  19. No childhood advantage in the acquisition of skill in using an artificial language rule.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara Ferman

    Full Text Available A leading notion is that language skill acquisition declines between childhood and adulthood. While several lines of evidence indicate that declarative ("what", explicit memory undergoes maturation, it is commonly assumed that procedural ("how-to", implicit memory, in children, is well established. The language superiority of children has been ascribed to the childhood reliance on implicit learning. Here we show that when 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds and young adults were provided with an equivalent multi-session training experience in producing and judging an artificial morphological rule (AMR, adults were superior to children of both age groups and the 8-year-olds were the poorest learners in all task parameters including in those that were clearly implicit. The AMR consisted of phonological transformations of verbs expressing a semantic distinction: whether the preceding noun was animate or inanimate. No explicit instruction of the AMR was provided. The 8-year-olds, unlike most adults and 12-year-olds, failed to explicitly uncover the semantic aspect of the AMR and subsequently to generalize it accurately to novel items. However, all participants learned to apply the AMR to repeated items and to generalize its phonological patterns to novel items, attaining accurate and fluent production, and exhibiting key characteristics of procedural memory. Nevertheless, adults showed a clear advantage in learning implicit task aspects, and in their long-term retention. Thus, our findings support the notion of age-dependent maturation in the establishment of declarative but also of procedural memory in a complex language task. In line with recent reports of no childhood advantage in non-linguistic skill learning, we propose that under some learning conditions adults can effectively express their language skill acquisition potential. Altogether, the maturational effects in the acquisition of an implicit AMR do not support a simple notion of a language skill

  20. L1 Frequency in Foreign Language Acquisition: Recurrent Word Combinations in French and Spanish EFL Learner Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paquot, Magali

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated French and Spanish EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' preferred use of three-word lexical bundles with discourse or stance-oriented function with a view to exploring the role of first language (L1) frequency effects in foreign language acquisition. Word combinations were extracted from learner performance data…

  1. Visual Aids and Multimedia in Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halwani, Noha

    2017-01-01

    Education involves more than simply passing the final test. Rather, it is the process of educating an entire generation. This research project focused on language learners of English as a Second Language. This action research was conducted in an ESL classroom in H. Frank Carey High School, one of five high schools in the Sewanhaka Central District…

  2. Recent Research on Language Maintenance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, MaryEllen

    2003-01-01

    Describes recent research on language maintenance to provide broad, worldwide coverage of different language contact situations. Surveys various countries in which research within ethnic and minority language communities illuminates language maintenance or shift, or revitalization, for that group. (Author/VWL)

  3. Insights from Skill Acquisition Theory for Grammar Activity Sequencing and Design in Foreign Language Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Criado, Raquel

    2016-01-01

    This article presents a framework for the elaboration of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) grammar materials for adults based on the application to SLA of Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT). This theory is argued to compensate for the major drawbacks of FLT settings in comparison with second language contexts (lack of classroom learning time and limited…

  4. Symbiotic Gesture and the Sociocognitive Visibility of Grammar in Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Churchill, Eton; Okada, Hanako; Nishino, Takako; Atkinson, Dwight

    2010-01-01

    This article argues for the embodied and environmentally embedded nature of second language acquisition (SLA). Through fine-grained analysis of interaction using Goodwin's (2003a) concept of "symbiotic gesture"--gesture coupled with its rich environmental context to produce complex social action--we illustrate how a tutor, learner, and grammar…

  5. A Cross-linguistic Perspective on Questions in German and French Adult Second Language Acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Matthias Bonnesen; Solveig Chilla

    2012-01-01

    Several studies have been conducted to try and understand and explain the morphological and syntactic aspects of adult second language acquisition (SLA). Two prominent hypotheses that have been put forward concerning late L2 speakers' knowledge of inflectional morphology and of related functional categories and their feature values are the Impaired Representation Hypothesis (IRH) and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH).The cross-linguistic comparison of the acquisition of questio...

  6. The Age of Second Language Acquisition Determines the Variability in Activation Elicited by Narration in Three Languages in Broca's and Wernicke's Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloch, Constantine; Kaiser, Anelis; Kuenzli, Esther; Zappatore, Daniela; Haller, Sven; Franceschini, Rita; Luedi, Georges; Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm; Nitsch, Cordula

    2009-01-01

    It is generally accepted that the presence of a second language (L2) has an impact on the neuronal substrates build up and used for language processing; the influence of the age of L2 exposure, however, is not established. We tested the hypothesis that the age of L2 acquisition has an effect on the cortical representation of a multilingual…

  7. Age of second language acquisition in multilinguals has an impact on gray matter volume in language-associated brain areas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaiser, Anelis; Eppenberger, Leila S; Smieskova, Renata; Borgwardt, Stefan; Kuenzli, Esther; Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm; Nitsch, Cordula; Bendfeldt, Kerstin

    2015-01-01

    Numerous structural studies have established that experience shapes and reshapes the brain throughout a lifetime. The impact of early development, however, is still a matter of debate. Further clues may come from studying multilinguals who acquired their second language at different ages. We investigated adult multilinguals who spoke three languages fluently, where the third language was learned in classroom settings, not before the age of 9 years. Multilinguals exposed to two languages simultaneously from birth (SiM) were contrasted with multinguals who acquired their first two languages successively (SuM). Whole brain voxel based morphometry revealed that, relative to SuM, SiM have significantly lower gray matter volume in several language-associated cortical areas in both hemispheres: bilaterally in medial and inferior frontal gyrus, in the right medial temporal gyrus and inferior posterior parietal gyrus, as well as in the left inferior temporal gyrus. Thus, as shown by others, successive language learning increases the volume of language-associated cortical areas. In brains exposed early on and simultaneously to more than one language, however, learning of additional languages seems to have less impact. We conclude that - at least with respect to language acquisition - early developmental influences are maintained and have an effect on experience-dependent plasticity well into adulthood.

  8. Age of second language acquisition in multilinguals has an impact on grey matter volume in language-associated brain areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anelis eKaiser

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Numerous structural studies have established that experience shapes and reshapes the brain throughout a lifetime. The impact of early development, however, is still a matter of debate. Further clues may come from studying multilinguals who acquired their second language at different ages. We investigated adult multilinguals who spoke three languages fluently, where the third language was learned in classroom settings, not before the age of 9 years. Multilinguals exposed to 2 languages simultaneously from birth (SiM were contrasted with multinguals who acquired their first two languages successively (SuM. Whole brain voxel based morphometry revealed that, relative to SuM, SiM have significantly lower grey matter volume in several language-associated cortical areas in both hemispheres: bilaterally in medial and inferior frontal gyrus, in the right medial temporal gyrus and inferior posterior parietal gyrus, as well as in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Thus, as shown by others, successive language learning increases the volume of language-associated cortical areas. In brains exposed early on and simultaneously to more than one language, however, learning of additional languages seems to have less impact. We conclude that - at least with respect to language acquisition - early developmental influences are maintained and influence experience-dependent plasticity well into adulthood.

  9. Cognitive abilities underlying second-language vocabulary acquisition in an early second-language immersion education context: a longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicolay, Anne-Catherine; Poncelet, Martine

    2013-08-01

    First-language (L1) and second-language (L2) lexical development has been found to be strongly associated with phonological processing abilities such as phonological short-term memory (STM), phonological awareness, and speech perception. Lexical development also seems to be linked to attentional and executive skills such as auditory attention, flexibility, and response inhibition. The aim of this four-wave longitudinal study was to determine to what extent L2 vocabulary acquired through the particular school context of early L2 immersion education is linked to the same cognitive abilities. A total of 61 French-speaking 5-year-old kindergartners who had just been enrolled in English immersion classes were administered a battery of tasks assessing these three phonological processing abilities and three attentional/executive skills. Their English vocabulary knowledge was measured 1, 2, and 3 school years later. Multiple regression analyses showed that, among the assessed phonological processing abilities, phonological STM and speech perception, but not phonological awareness, appeared to underlie L2 vocabulary acquisition in this context of an early L2 immersion school program, at least during the first steps of acquisition. Similarly, among the assessed attentional/executive skills, auditory attention and flexibility, but not response inhibition, appeared to be involved during the first steps of L2 vocabulary acquisition in such an immersion school context. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Sign Language and Language Acquisition in Man and Ape. New Dimensions in Comparative Pedolinguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Fred C. C., Ed.

    A collection of research materials on sign language and primatology is presented here. The essays attempt to show that: sign language is a legitimate language that can be learned not only by humans but by nonhuman primates as well, and nonhuman primates have the capability to acquire a human language using a different mode. The following…

  11. Multiple Grammars and the Logic of Learnability in Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roeper, Tom W

    2016-01-01

    The core notion of modern Universal Grammar is that language ability requires abstract representation in terms of hierarchy, movement operations, abstract features on words, and fixed mapping to meaning. These mental structures are a step toward integrating representational knowledge of all kinds into a larger model of cognitive psychology. Examining first and second language at once provides clues as to how abstractly we should represent this knowledge. The abstract nature of grammar allows both the formulation of many grammars and the possibility that a rule of one grammar could apply to another grammar. We argue that every language contains Multiple Grammars which may reflect different language families. We develop numerous examples of how the same abstract rules can apply in various languages and develop a theory of how language modules (case-marking, topicalization, and quantification) interact to predict L2 acquisition paths. In particular we show in depth how Germanic Verb-second operations, based on Verb-final structure, can apply in English. The argument is built around how and where V2 from German can apply in English, seeking to explain the crucial contrast: "nothing" yelled out Bill/(*)"nothing" yelled Bill out in terms of the necessary abstractness of the V2 rule.

  12. Acquisition of noun derivation in Estonian and Russian L1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reili Argus

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Acquisition of derivation is not a well-studied area in first language research and a comparative approach to the acquisition of derivation in different languages doesn’t exist. There is no information on how a child acquires derivation in a language with a rich and regular system of derivational patterns, or in a language where derivation is productive, but the system of derivational patterns is opaque. According to general ideas of complexity in a language, the child should start to use simplex stems first and, only after that, complex ones, that is, complexity should increase in the course of acquisition. Our paper is intended to address these issues, based on longitudinal child data from typologically different languages, Estonian and Russian. The results revealed significant differences in the acquisition of noun derivation in the two languages under observation. The system of noun derivation is acquired at a faster pace in Russian, while Estonian children have far fewer noun derivatives in their speech and they use different derivation suffixes with less regularity. Even so, the so-called building block model may be applied for both languages only partially.

  13. Nonword repetition in children with cochlear implants: a potential clinical marker of poor language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nittrouer, Susan; Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda; Sansom, Emily; Twersky, Jill; Lowenstein, Joanna H

    2014-11-01

    Cochlear implants (CIs) can facilitate the acquisition of spoken language for deaf children, but challenges remain. Language skills dependent on phonological sensitivity are most at risk for these children, so having an effective way to diagnose problems at this level would be of value for school speech-language pathologists. The goal of this study was to assess whether a nonword repetition (NWR) task could serve that purpose. Participants were 104 second graders: 49 with normal hearing (NH) and 55 with CIs. In addition to NWR, children were tested on 10 measures involving phonological awareness and processing, serial recall of words, vocabulary, reading, and grammar. Children with CIs performed more poorly than children with NH on NWR, and sensitivity to phonological structure alone explained that performance for children in both groups. For children with CIs, 2 audiological factors positively influenced outcomes on NWR: being identified with hearing loss at a younger age and having experience with wearing a hearing aid on the unimplanted ear at the time of receiving a 1st CI. NWR scores were better able to rule out than to rule in such language deficits. Well-designed NWR tasks could have clinical utility in assessments of language acquisition for school-age children with CIs.

  14. Cognitive Control in Bilingual Children Disentangling the Effects of Second-Language Proficiency and Onset Age of Acquisition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Struys, E.; Mohades, G.; Bosch, M.P.C.; Noort, M.W.M.L. van den

    2015-01-01

    Studies comparing the cognitive control of bilingual and monolingual speakers are inconclusive about the nature and underlying mechanisms of differences in language-related processing. In the present study, in order to disentangle the impact of second-language onset age of acquisition and

  15. Research into Practice: The Task-Based Approach to Instructed Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    East, Martin

    2017-01-01

    This article discusses the phenomenon of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in instructed additional language settings. It begins from the premise that, despite considerable theoretical and empirical support, TBLT remains a contested endeavour. Critics of TBLT argue that, particularly with regard to time-limited foreign language instructional…

  16. Deletion of /T, D/ and the Acquisition of Linguistic Variation by Second Language Learners of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Jette G. Hansen

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated second language (L2) learners' acquisition of English /t, d/ deletion patterns in word-final consonant clusters, (a) focusing on how constraints such as grammatical conditioning and phonological environment affect deletion of /t, d/ in L2 acquisition and (b) determining the extent to which these L2 learners had acquired…

  17. Self-Assessment of Japanese as a Second Language: The Role of Experiences in the Naturalistic Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suzuki, Yuichi

    2015-01-01

    Self-assessment has been used to assess second language proficiency; however, as sources of measurement errors vary, they may threaten the validity and reliability of the tools. The present paper investigated the role of experiences in using Japanese as a second language in the naturalistic acquisition context on the accuracy of the…

  18. The Role of Repeated Exposure to Multimodal Input in Incidental Acquisition of Foreign Language Vocabulary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J

    2014-12-01

    Prior research has reported incidental vocabulary acquisition with complete beginners in a foreign language (FL), within 8 exposures to auditory and written FL word forms presented with a picture depicting their meaning. However, important questions remain about whether acquisition occurs with fewer exposures to FL words in a multimodal situation and whether there is a repeated exposure effect. Here we report a study where the number of exposures to FL words in an incidental learning phase varied between 2, 4, 6, and 8 exposures. Following the incidental learning phase, participants completed an explicit learning task where they learned to recognize written translation equivalents of auditory FL word forms, half of which had occurred in the incidental learning phase. The results showed that participants performed better on the words they had previously been exposed to, and that this incidental learning effect occurred from as little as 2 exposures to the multimodal stimuli. In addition, repeated exposure to the stimuli was found to have a larger impact on learning during the first few exposures and decrease thereafter, suggesting that the effects of repeated exposure on vocabulary acquisition are not necessarily constant.

  19. Typological constraints in foreign language acquisition: the expression of motion by advanced Russian learners of English

    OpenAIRE

    Iakovleva, Tatiana

    2012-01-01

    International audience; This study examines the impact of typological constraints on second language acquisition. It explores the hypothesis of a conceptual transfer from first to foreign language (L1 to L2). Based on Talmy’s (2000) distinction between Verb- and Satellite-framed languages, corpus-based analyses compare descriptions of voluntary motion events along three paths (up, down, across), elicited in a controlled situation from native speakers (Russian, English) and Russian learners at...

  20. Anniversary Article--Interactional Feedback in Second Language Teaching and Learning: A Synthesis and Analysis of Current Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nassaji, Hossein

    2016-01-01

    The role of interactional feedback has long been of interest to both second language acquisition researchers and teachers and has continued to be the object of intensive empirical and theoretical inquiry. In this article, I provide a synthesis and analysis of recent research and developments in this area and their contributions to second language…

  1. A review of teaching second/ foreign language listening comprehension research(Part 5 Text production and comprehension)

    OpenAIRE

    尹, 松

    2002-01-01

    Among the four skills of the language acquisition, it has been pointed out that listening comprehension is the most difficult skill. The research on effective methods of teaching listening comprehension has been carried out from various viewpoints. After introducing the theory of listening comprehension, this review will describe recent trends in the teach-ing of listening as a second/foreign language. This will be done by focusing primarily on schema activator and strategy-instruction in tea...

  2. Language Nests and Language Acquisition: An Empirical Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okura, Eve K.

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation presents the findings from interviews conducted with language nest workers, teachers, language nest coordinators, administrators of language revitalization programs, principals and directors of language immersion schools that work in close proximity with language nests, and linguists involved in language revitalization efforts.…

  3. Isolating second language learning factors in a computational study of bilingual construction acquisition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Matusevych, Y.; Alishahi, A.; Backus, A.M.; Bello, P.; Guarini, M.; McShane, M.; Scassellati, B.

    2014-01-01

    The study of second language acquisition (SLA) is often hindered by substantial variability in the background of learners, their learning process and the input they receive. This diversity often makes it difficult to isolate specific learning factors and study their impact on L2 development. We

  4. Don't Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater: The Indispensable Role of Memorization in Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blodget, Tom

    This paper asserts that memorization is an under-valued language acquisition strategy, noting that by including memorization in communication classrooms through oral question-and-answer prompts, songs, and memorized dialogues/skits, second language teachers can enhance student learning. The paper explains how oral questions offer a cooperative…

  5. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Second Language Acquisition in Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soderman, Anne K.; Oshio, Toko

    2008-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to examine the social behaviour and competence of children, ages 3-6 as they progressed through the stages of second language acquisition in a dual-immersion program in English and Mandarin. Over 100 2-3 hour classroom observations were made during the school year. Teachers' evaluations of children's social…

  6. The Interaction of Language-Specific and Universal Factors During the Acquisition of Morphophonemic Alternations With Exceptions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baer-Henney, Dinah; Kügler, Frank; van de Vijver, Ruben

    2015-09-01

    Using the artificial language paradigm, we studied the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations with exceptions by 160 German adult learners. We tested the acquisition of two types of alternations in two regularity conditions while additionally varying length of training. In the first alternation, a vowel harmony, backness of the stem vowel determines backness of the suffix. This process is grounded in substance (phonetic motivation), and this universal phonetic factor bolsters learning a generalization. In the second alternation, tenseness of the stem vowel determines backness of the suffix vowel. This process is not based in substance, but it reflects a phonotactic property of German and our participants benefit from this language-specific factor. We found that learners use both cues, while substantive bias surfaces mainly in the most unstable situation. We show that language-specific and universal factors interact in learning. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  7. SADE: system of acquisition of experimental data. Definition and analysis of an experiment description language; SADE: systeme d'acquisition de donnees experimentales. Definition et analyse d'un langage descripteur d'experience

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gagniere, Jean-Michel

    1983-06-10

    This research thesis presents a computer system for the acquisition of experimental data. It is aimed at acquiring, at processing and at storing information from particle detectors. The acquisition configuration is described by an experiment description language. The system comprises a lexical analyser, a syntactic analyser, a translator, and a data processing module. It also comprises a control language and a statistics management and plotting module. The translator builds up series of tables which allow, during an experiment, different sequences to be executed: experiment running, calculations to be performed on this data, building up of statistics. Short execution time and ease of use are always looked for [French] Cette these presente un systeme informatique d'acquisition de donnees experimentales, dit S.A.D.E. Ce systeme est destine a acquerir, a traiter et a stocker les informations en provenance de detecteurs de particules. La configuration d'acquisition est decrite par un langage descripteur d'experiences. Le systeme comporte un analyseur lexical, un analyseur syntaxique, un traducteur et un module de traitement des donnees. Le systeme comporte egalement un langage de commande et un module de gestion et trace de statistiques. Le traducteur construit des series de tables, qui permettent, lors du deroulement d'une experience, l'execution des differentes sequences: lecture des donnees, calculs a effectuer sur ces donnees, construction des statistiques. Tout au long de la realisation, deux objectifs fondamentaux sont consideres: recherche de la rapidite d'execution et facilite d'utilisation. (auteur)

  8. The history of imitation in learning theory: the language acquisition process.

    OpenAIRE

    Kymissis, E; Poulson, C L

    1990-01-01

    The concept of imitation has undergone different analyses in the hands of different learning theorists throughout the history of psychology. From Thorndike's connectionism to Pavlov's classical conditioning, Hull's monistic theory, Mowrer's two-factor theory, and Skinner's operant theory, there have been several divergent accounts of the conditions that produce imitation and the conditions under which imitation itself may facilitate language acquisition. In tracing the roots of the concept of...

  9. Exploring Learner Factors in Second Language (L2) Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Aiping; Guo, Ying; Biales, Carrie; Olszewski, Arnold

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the predictive role of several learner factors in second language (L2) incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading: L2 proficiency, motivation, anxiety, and mastery of strategies. Participants were 129 English learners in a comprehensive university in China. Participants read two English texts and were given an…

  10. Today was yesterday tomorrow. The perception of time and the acquisition of language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soraya Cortiñas Ansoar

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Temporal expressions present many problems regarding their conceptualization. Temporal deixis grammaticalises the relationship between the time of the situation described and the time of the deictic context, and its acquisition is essential in order to achieve a good command of the language. From a descriptive, linguistic and pragmatic perspective, and adopting a mixed methodology that integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods, the present paper provides a comprehensive study of the time markers that children use in the early years of their lives. More specifically, verbal forms (morphemes of time, subordinators, temporal adverbs and lexical expressions have been examined. Data for the present paper have been drawn from the Koiné corpus of child language, a corpus created at the University of Santiago de Compostela, and coordinated by Milagros Fernández Pérez. In particular, the interventions of two informants have been selected for analysis (1 boy and 1 girl between 2 and 4 years. The objectives pursued reflect the need to characterize expressions and temporal markers in child language. The results reveal the distinction and characterization of different acquisition stages in which we can observe how children use linguistic resources to acquire temporal discursive coordinates.

  11. Language competence in movement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Laursen, Helle Pia; Mogensen, Naja Dahlstrup

    2016-01-01

    multilingual children's language and literacy acquisition processes, we direct our focus to a single child's active exploration of what it means to know a language. Through analysis of interviews and researcher generated activities, we see how this child both describes and does language competence......This article examines how, in a multilingual perspective, language competence is experienced, talked about and practiced by language users themselves. By viewing children as active co-creators of the spaces in which language is used, this article contributes to a research tradition in which focus...... is shifted from viewing the individual's language competence as a mental linguistic or communicative property, to viewing language as a series of social and spatial practices. Looking at data from the research project Tegn på Sprog (in the following referred to as Signs of Language), which examines...

  12. A review of developmental and applied language research on African American children: from a deficit to difference perspective on dialect differences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stockman, Ida J

    2010-01-01

    The contemporary practices of delivering speech, language, and hearing services in schools reflect palpable gains in professional sensitivity to linguistic and cultural diversity. This article reviews the dominant research themes on the oral language of African American preschoolers who contribute to such diversity in the United States. Specifically, it contrasts the historical and current frameworks that have guided studies of (a) such children's acquisition and use of English and (b) the strategies used to assess and modify their language. Research initiatives that can expand knowledge about this group are proposed.

  13. The 'biliterate' ballot controversy: language acquisition and cultural shift among immigrants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loo, C M

    1985-01-01

    This US study tested the validity of assumptions made regarding multilingual electoral ballot provisions. Rationale for language assistance was found to exist on the basis of number and proportion of recent immigrants, proportion of foreign born, lag of biliterate skill behind bilingual ability, linguistic differences between the Chinese language and English, and the discriminatory structure of the labor market. In California, where close to 1/2 the population is an ethnic minority, the issue is particularly relevant. Bilingual advocates view English-only advocates as "un-American" on legal and ideological grounds, while English-only advocates consider it "un-American" to be non-English speaking. In addition to census data and the existing literature, this study relies on the structured interview survey data of a representative sample of the Chinese adult population of San Francisco's Chinatown. 2/3 of the immigrants believed an immigrant should make some cultural changes, and 1/2 of the immigrants had done so. Data failed to support the claim that immigrants are uninformed that English is necessary for sociopolitical participation. Their more recent pattern of immigration, the linguistic differences between Asian languages and the English language, and structural constraints of US society make successive language acquisition difficult for Chinese migrant adults. Policy recommendations include: 1) changing language assistance criteria in the electoral process, 2) adding Vietnamese as a single language minority, 3) not considering Asian language minorities as 1 generic category, 4) justifying electoral assistance on several grounds, 5) disseminating data bearing directly on misguided assumptions related to language and cultural shift factors, and 6) renaming the "bilingual ballots" to "biliterate ballots."

  14. Structural Packaging in the Input to Language Learning: Contributions of Prosodic and Morphological Marking of Phrases to the Acquisition of Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morgan, James L.; And Others

    1987-01-01

    The role of cues in language acquisition was examined in three experiments. When the cue marked the phrase structure of sentences, adult subjects successfully learned syntax. When input was identical but lacked that cue, subjects failed to learn significant portions of syntax. (Author/GDC)

  15. Trauma and Second Language Learning among Laotian Refugees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daryl Gordon

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Unprecedented numbers of adult refugee learners are entering ESL classes, many of whom escaped war-torn countries and endured long stays in refugee camps. Research in public health and psychology has documented high levels of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder in refugee populations. Drawing on ethnographic research with Laotian refugee women who experienced pre-settlement trauma during the Vietnam War and interviews with bilingual mental health professionals, this article examines current second language acquisition theories to consider how they elucidate the effect of trauma on second language learning. The article offers cross-cultural perspectives about the impact of trauma and recommendations for working with adult refugee learners who have experienced trauma. Research findings have implications for ESL instructors and second language researchers concerned with the impact of pre-resettlement experiences on second language acquisition and implications for classroom instruction.

  16. The Etiology of Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition in Australian School Students: A Behavior-Genetic Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coventry, William; Anton-Mendez, Ines; Ellis, Elizabeth M.; Levisen, Christina; Byrne, Brian; van Daal, Victor H. P.; Ellis, Nick C.

    2012-01-01

    We present one of the first behavior-genetic studies of individual differences in school students' levels of achievement in instructed second language acquisition (ISLA). We assessed these language abilities in Australian twin pairs (maximum N pairs = 251) by means of teacher ratings, class rankings, and self-ratings of proficiency, and used the…

  17. What sign language creation teaches us about language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brentari, Diane; Coppola, Marie

    2013-03-01

    How do languages emerge? What are the necessary ingredients and circumstances that permit new languages to form? Various researchers within the disciplines of primatology, anthropology, psychology, and linguistics have offered different answers to this question depending on their perspective. Language acquisition, language evolution, primate communication, and the study of spoken varieties of pidgin and creoles address these issues, but in this article we describe a relatively new and important area that contributes to our understanding of language creation and emergence. Three types of communication systems that use the hands and body to communicate will be the focus of this article: gesture, homesign systems, and sign languages. The focus of this article is to explain why mapping the path from gesture to homesign to sign language has become an important research topic for understanding language emergence, not only for the field of sign languages, but also for language in general. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:201-211. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1212 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  18. Speaking two languages with different number naming systems: What implications for magnitude judgments in bilinguals at different stages of language acquisition?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Rinsveld, Amandine; Schiltz, Christine; Landerl, Karin; Brunner, Martin; Ugen, Sonja

    2016-08-01

    Differences between languages in terms of number naming systems may lead to performance differences in number processing. The current study focused on differences concerning the order of decades and units in two-digit number words (i.e., unit-decade order in German but decade-unit order in French) and how they affect number magnitude judgments. Participants performed basic numerical tasks, namely two-digit number magnitude judgments, and we used the compatibility effect (Nuerk et al. in Cognition 82(1):B25-B33, 2001) as a hallmark of language influence on numbers. In the first part we aimed to understand the influence of language on compatibility effects in adults coming from German or French monolingual and German-French bilingual groups (Experiment 1). The second part examined how this language influence develops at different stages of language acquisition in individuals with increasing bilingual proficiency (Experiment 2). Language systematically influenced magnitude judgments such that: (a) The spoken language(s) modulated magnitude judgments presented as Arabic digits, and (b) bilinguals' progressive language mastery impacted magnitude judgments presented as number words. Taken together, the current results suggest that the order of decades and units in verbal numbers may qualitatively influence magnitude judgments in bilinguals and monolinguals, providing new insights into how number processing can be influenced by language(s).

  19. Words and possible words in early language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marchetto, Erika; Bonatti, Luca L

    2013-11-01

    In order to acquire language, infants must extract its building blocks-words-and master the rules governing their legal combinations from speech. These two problems are not independent, however: words also have internal structure. Thus, infants must extract two kinds of information from the same speech input. They must find the actual words of their language. Furthermore, they must identify its possible words, that is, the sequences of sounds that, being morphologically well formed, could be words. Here, we show that infants' sensitivity to possible words appears to be more primitive and fundamental than their ability to find actual words. We expose 12- and 18-month-old infants to an artificial language containing a conflict between statistically coherent and structurally coherent items. We show that 18-month-olds can extract possible words when the familiarization stream contains marks of segmentation, but cannot do so when the stream is continuous. Yet, they can find actual words from a continuous stream by computing statistical relationships among syllables. By contrast, 12-month-olds can find possible words when familiarized with a segmented stream, but seem unable to extract statistically coherent items from a continuous stream that contains minimal conflicts between statistical and structural information. These results suggest that sensitivity to word structure is in place earlier than the ability to analyze distributional information. The ability to compute nontrivial statistical relationships becomes fully effective relatively late in development, when infants have already acquired a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge. Thus, mechanisms for structure extraction that do not rely on extensive sampling of the input are likely to have a much larger role in language acquisition than general-purpose statistical abilities. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  20. The role of verbal and pictorial information in multimodal incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary

    OpenAIRE

    Bisson, Marie-Josée; Van Heuven, Walter J.B.; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J.

    2014-01-01

    This study used eye tracking to investigate the allocation of attention to multimodal stimuli during an incidental learning situation, as well as its impact on subsequent explicit learning. Participants were exposed to foreign language (FL) auditory words on their own, in conjunction with written native language (NL) translations, or with both written NL translations and pictures. Incidental acquisition of FL words was assessed the following day through an explicit learning task where partici...

  1. Acquisition of Opposites and Cognitive Explanation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xudong Sun

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an analysis of the acquisition sequence of two pairs of contrasting terms in English. The research is based on questionnaires completed by Chinese learners of English of various levels. The analysis concludes that easily-recognisable, unmarked, high-frequency terms, from which are derived concepts and terms that express an earlier stage of an action, tend to be easier to learn and enjoy a higher retention level during the first phase of acquisition while those terms which do not share these characteristics have a much lower retention level during the same stage. Given these conclusions, this study suggests that learners and teachers of a language should pay more attention to those terms which are in an unfavourable position in the vocabulary acquisition sequence of a language. (English text.

  2. Acquisition of English as a Second Language at College Level--An Empirical Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anil, Beena

    2015-01-01

    English has a universal appeal and in India, English is associated with modernity and progress sometimes with the ideology of its cultural values. The economic value of English is very high in India as even a layman uses English words in his/her "native" communication. The second language acquisition happens for learners at various…

  3. WebQuests as Language-Learning Tools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydin, Selami

    2016-01-01

    This study presents a review of the literature that examines WebQuests as tools for second-language acquisition and foreign language-learning processes to guide teachers in their teaching activities and researchers in further research on the issue. The study first introduces the theoretical background behind WebQuest use in the mentioned…

  4. Sociolinguistics and Language Learning in a Study Abroad Context

    OpenAIRE

    Regan, Vera

    1998-01-01

    This article will focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by second language learners during a period of study abroad. Various aspects of sociolinguistic competence will be discussed and some of the principal factors which affect it will be described. Factors which affect sociolinguistic competence emerging from research in the area of study abroad include some which are central to the acquisition of second languages in general: context of acquisition, level o...

  5. School Libraries Addressing the Needs of ELL Students: Enhancing Language Acquisition, Confidence, and Cultural Fluency in ELL Students by Developing a Targeted Collection and Enriching Your Makerspace

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Peggy Henderson

    2018-01-01

    English Language Learner (ELL) students are sometimes a small constituency. Many resources already in the library can be used to enhance their language acquisition, confidence, and cultural fluency--resources such as graphic novels, hi-lo books, and makerspace materials. This article discusses enhancing language acquisition, confidence, and…

  6. Embodied Language Learning and Cognitive Bootstrapping

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lyon, C.E.; Nehaniv, C. L.; Saunders, Joe

    2016-01-01

    Co-development of action, conceptualization and social interaction mutually scaffold and support each other within a virtuous feedback cycle in the development of human language in children. Within this framework, the purpose of this article is to bring together diverse but complementary accounts...... of research methods that jointly contribute to our understanding of cognitive development and in particular, language acquisition in robots. Thus, we include research pertaining to developmental robotics, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience, as well as practical computer science...... the humanoid robot iCub are reported, while human learning relevant to developmental robotics has also contributed useful results. Disparate approaches are brought together via common underlying design principles. Without claiming to model human language acquisition directly, we are nonetheless inspired...

  7. A Response to Jordan's (2004) "Explanatory Adequacy and Theories of Second Language Acquisition"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregg, Kevin R.

    2005-01-01

    In a recent paper (Jordan, Geoff Jordan takes issue with some of my claims about second language acquisition (SLA) theory. Specifically, he queries the necessity of a property theory, and he finds my discussion of explanation unsatisfactory. In this brief reply, I try to answer his criticisms. In a brief but interesting paper, Geoff Jordan (2004:…

  8. The Use of the Bilingual Aphasia Test for Assessment and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Modulate Language Acquisition in Minimally Verbal Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneider, Harry D.; Hopp, Jenna P.

    2011-01-01

    Minimally verbal children with autism commonly demonstrate language dysfunction, including immature syntax acquisition. We hypothesised that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) should facilitate language acquisition in a cohort (n = 10) of children with immature syntax. We modified the English version of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT)…

  9. Grotoco@SLAM: Second Language Acquisition Modeling with Simple Features, Learners and Task-wise Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klerke, Sigrid; Martínez Alonso, Héctor; Plank, Barbara

    2018-01-01

    We present our submission to the 2018 Duolingo Shared Task on Second Language Acquisition Modeling (SLAM). We focus on evaluating a range of features for the task, including user-derived measures, while examining how far we can get with a simple linear classifier. Our analysis reveals that errors...

  10. Spacing Techniques in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: Short-Term Gains vs. Long-Term Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuetze, Ulf

    2015-01-01

    This article reports the results of two experiments using the spacing technique (Leitner, 1972; Landauer & Bjork, 1978) in second language vocabulary acquisition. In the past, studies in this area have produced mixed results attempting to differentiate between massed, uniform and expanded intervals of spacing (Balota, Duchek, & Logan,…

  11. Squeezing through the Now-or-Never bottleneck: Reconnecting language processing, acquisition, change, and structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chater, Nick; Christiansen, Morten H

    2016-01-01

    If human language must be squeezed through a narrow cognitive bottleneck, what are the implications for language processing, acquisition, change, and structure? In our target article, we suggested that the implications are far-reaching and form the basis of an integrated account of many apparently unconnected aspects of language and language processing, as well as suggesting revision of many existing theoretical accounts. With some exceptions, commentators were generally supportive both of the existence of the bottleneck and its potential implications. Many commentators suggested additional theoretical and linguistic nuances and extensions, links with prior work, and relevant computational and neuroscientific considerations; some argued for related but distinct viewpoints; a few, though, felt traditional perspectives were being abandoned too readily. Our response attempts to build on the many suggestions raised by the commentators and to engage constructively with challenges to our approach.

  12. Conversation Analysis in Computer-Assisted Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-Lloret, Marta

    2015-01-01

    The use of Conversation Analysis (CA) in the study of technology-mediated interactions is a recent methodological addition to qualitative research in the field of Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL). The expansion of CA in Second Language Acquisition research, coupled with the need for qualitative techniques to explore how people interact…

  13. Early Bimodal Stimulation Benefits Language Acquisition for Children With Cochlear Implants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moberly, Aaron C; Lowenstein, Joanna H; Nittrouer, Susan

    2016-01-01

    Adding a low-frequency acoustic signal to the cochlear implant (CI) signal (i.e., bimodal stimulation) for a period of time early in life improves language acquisition. Children must acquire sensitivity to the phonemic units of language to develop most language-related skills, including expressive vocabulary, working memory, and reading. Acquiring sensitivity to phonemic structure depends largely on having refined spectral (frequency) representations available in the signal, which does not happen with CIs alone. Combining the low-frequency acoustic signal available through hearing aids with the CI signal can enhance signal quality. A period with this bimodal stimulation has been shown to improve language skills in very young children. This study examined whether these benefits persist into childhood. Data were examined for 48 children with CIs implanted under age 3 years, participating in a longitudinal study. All children wore hearing aids before receiving a CI, but upon receiving a first CI, 24 children had at least 1 year of bimodal stimulation (Bimodal group), and 24 children had only electric stimulation subsequent to implantation (CI-only group). Measures of phonemic awareness were obtained at second and fourth grades, along with measures of expressive vocabulary, working memory, and reading. Children in the Bimodal group generally performed better on measures of phonemic awareness, and that advantage was reflected in other language measures. Having even a brief period of time early in life with combined electric-acoustic input provides benefits to language learning into childhood, likely because of the enhancement in spectral representations provided.

  14. Foreign-grammar acquisition while watching subtitled television programmes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Lommel, Sven; Laenen, Annouschka; d'Ydewalle, Géry

    2006-06-01

    Past research has shown that watching a subtitled foreign movie (i.e. foreign language in the soundtrack and native language in the subtitles) leads to considerable foreign-language vocabulary acquisition; however, acquisition of the grammatical rules has failed to emerge. The aim of this study was to obtain evidence for the acquisition of grammatical rules in watching subtitled foreign movies. Given an informal context, younger children were predicted to outperform older children in acquiring a foreign language; however, older children will take more advantage of explicit instruction compared with younger children. In Experiment 1, 62 sixth-graders from a primary school and 47 sixth-graders from a secondary school volunteered to participate. The participants in Experiment 2 were 94 sixth-graders from primary schools and 84 sixth-graders from secondary schools. The two experiments manipulated the instructions (incidental- vs. intentional-language learning). Moreover, before the experiments began, some participants explicitly received some of the foreign grammatical rules (presented rules), while the movie contained cases of presented rules as well as cases of rules which had to be inferred (not-presented rules). Rule acquisition through the movie only was not obtained; there was a strong effect of advance rule presentation but only on the items of presented rules, particularly among the older participants. Contrary to vocabulary, grammar may be too complicated to acquire from a rather short movie presentation.

  15. A tentative framework for the acquisition of language and modern human cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tattersall, Ian

    2016-06-20

    Modern human beings process information symbolically, rearranging mental symbols to envision multiple potential realities. They also express the ideas they form using structured articulate language. No other living creature does either of these things. Yet it is evident that we are descended from a non-symbolic and non-linguistic ancestor. How did this astonishing transformation occur? Scrutiny of the fossil and archaeological records reveals that the transition to symbolic reasoning happened very late in hominid history - indeed, within the tenure of anatomically recognizable Homo sapiens. It was evidently not simply a passive result of the increase in brain size that typified multiple lineages of the genus Homo over the Pleistocene. Instead, a brain exaptively capable of complex symbolic manipulation and language acquisition was acquired in the major developmental reorganization that gave rise to the anatomically distinctive species Homo sapiens. The new capacity it conferred was later recruited through the action of a cultural stimulus, most plausibly the spontaneous invention of language.

  16. Acquisition of spanish as a second language in first year of Secondary Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mª José Fernández Torralba

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Every day it is more frequent to find in educative centers pupils from other countries with different cultures and languages. Our investigation is focussed in a 3 year student whose mother tongue is Quechua. She presents poor lexicon, and not active participation in class activities. She understands more than she can expres reason why we found a degree of slow down different from other class mates in respect to the manner of communicating in our language. Therefore the restlessness arises to us to foster vocabulary acquisition and the necessary expressions for its normal development and equal her with her class mates.

  17. Audiovisual News, Cartoons, and Films as Sources of Authentic Language Input and Language Proficiency Enhancement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahrani, Taher; Sim, Tam Shu

    2012-01-01

    In today's audiovisually driven world, various audiovisual programs can be incorporated as authentic sources of potential language input for second language acquisition. In line with this view, the present research aimed at discovering the effectiveness of exposure to news, cartoons, and films as three different types of authentic audiovisual…

  18. Gesture as Input in Language Acquisition: Learning "Who She Is" from "Where She Is"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodrich, Whitney Sarah-Iverson

    2009-01-01

    This dissertation explores the role co-speech gesture plays as input in language learning, specifically with respect to the acquisition of anaphoric pronouns. Four studies investigate how both adults and children interpret ambiguous pronouns, and how the order-of-mention tendency develops in children. The results suggest that gesture is a useful…

  19. Universal and Language-Specific Patterns in the Acquisition of Verb Argument Structures in German

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leischner, Franziska N.; Weissenborn, Jürgen; Naigles, Letitia R.

    2016-01-01

    The study investigated the influence of universal and language-specific morpho-syntactic properties (i.e., flexible word order, case) on the acquisition of verb argument structures in German compared with English. To this end, 65 three- to nine-year-old German learning children and adults were asked to act out grammatical ("The sheep…

  20. Balance Toward Language Mastery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Virginia R. Heslinga

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Problems in attaining language mastery with students from diverse language backgrounds and levels of ability confront educators around the world. Experiments, research, and experience see positive effects of adding sign language in communication methods to pre-school and K-12 education. Augmentative, alternative, interactive, accommodating, and enriching strategies using sign language aid learners in balancing the skills needed to mastery of one language or multiple languages. Theories of learning that embrace play, drama, motion, repetition, socializing, and self-efficacy connect to the options for using sign language with learners in inclusive and mainstream classes. The methodical use of sign language by this researcher-educator over two and a half decades showed signing does build thinking skills, add enjoyment, stimulate communication, expand comprehension, increase vocabulary acquisition, encourage collaboration, and helps build appreciation for cultural diversity.

  1. Psych verbs, the Linking Problem, and the Acquisition of Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartshorne, Joshua K.; O'Donnell, Timothy J.; Sudo, Yasutada; Uruwashi, Miki; Lee, Miseon; Snedeker, Jesse

    2016-01-01

    In acquiring language, children must learn to appropriately place the different participants of an event (e.g., causal agent, affected entity) into the correct syntactic positions (e.g., subject, object) so that listeners will know who did what to whom. While many of these mappings can be characterized by broad generalizations, both within and across languages (e.g., semantic agents tend to be mapped onto syntactic subjects), not all verbs fit neatly into these generalizations. One particularly striking example is verbs of psychological state: The experiencer of the state can appear as either the subject (Agnes fears/hates/loves Bartholomew) or the direct object (Agnes frightens/angers/delights Bartholomew). The present studies explore whether this apparent variability in subject/object mapping may actually result from differences in these verbs’ underlying meanings. Specifically, we suggest that verbs like fear describe a habitual attitude towards some entity whereas verbs like frighten describe an externally caused emotional episode. We find that this distinction systematically characterizes verbs in English, Mandarin, and Korean. This pattern is generalized to novel verbs by adults in English, Japanese, and Russian, and even by English-speaking children who are just beginning to acquire psych verbs. This results support a broad role for systematic mappings between semantics and syntax in language acquisition. PMID:27693942

  2. Language barriers and qualitative nursing research: methodological considerations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Squires, A

    2008-09-01

    This review of the literature synthesizes methodological recommendations for the use of translators and interpreters in cross-language qualitative research. Cross-language qualitative research involves the use of interpreters and translators to mediate a language barrier between researchers and participants. Qualitative nurse researchers successfully address language barriers between themselves and their participants when they systematically plan for how they will use interpreters and translators throughout the research process. Experienced qualitative researchers recognize that translators can generate qualitative data through translation processes and by participating in data analysis. Failure to address language barriers and the methodological challenges they present threatens the credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability of cross-language qualitative nursing research. Through a synthesis of the cross-language qualitative methods literature, this article reviews the basics of language competence, translator and interpreter qualifications, and roles for each kind of qualitative research approach. Methodological and ethical considerations are also provided. By systematically addressing the methodological challenges cross-language research presents, nurse researchers can produce better evidence for nursing practice and policy making when working across different language groups. Findings from qualitative studies will also accurately represent the experiences of the participants without concern that the meaning was lost in translation.

  3. Trauma and Second Language Learning Among Laotian Refugees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daryl Gordon

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Unprecedented numbers of adult refugee learners are entering ESL classes, many of whom escaped war-torn countries and endured long stays in refugee camps. Research in public health and psychology has documented high levels of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder in refugee populations. Drawing on ethnographic research with Laotian refugee women who experienced pre-settlement trauma during the Vietnam War and interviews with bilingual mental health professionals, this article examines current second language acquisition theories to consider how they elucidate the effect of trauma on second language learning. The article offers cross-cultural perspectives about the impact of trauma on learning and recommendations for working with adult refugee learners who have experienced trauma. Findings have implications for ESL instructors and second language researchers concerned with the impact of pre- settlement experiences on second language acquisition and implications for classroom instruction.

  4. Computational Modeling for Language Acquisition: A Tutorial With Syntactic Islands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pearl, Lisa S; Sprouse, Jon

    2015-06-01

    Given the growing prominence of computational modeling in the acquisition research community, we present a tutorial on how to use computational modeling to investigate learning strategies that underlie the acquisition process. This is useful for understanding both typical and atypical linguistic development. We provide a general overview of why modeling can be a particularly informative tool and some general considerations when creating a computational acquisition model. We then review a concrete example of a computational acquisition model for complex structural knowledge referred to as syntactic islands. This includes an overview of syntactic islands knowledge, a precise definition of the acquisition task being modeled, the modeling results, and how to meaningfully interpret those results in a way that is relevant for questions about knowledge representation and the learning process. Computational modeling is a powerful tool that can be used to understand linguistic development. The general approach presented here can be used to investigate any acquisition task and any learning strategy, provided both are precisely defined.

  5. Second Language Aquisition and The Development through Nature-Nurture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Syahfitri Purnama

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available There are some factors regarding which aspect of second language acquisition is affected by individual learner factors, age, learning style. aptitude, motivation, and personality. This research is about English language acquisition of fourth-year child by nature and nurture. The child acquired her second language acquisition at home and also in one of the courses in Jakarta. She schooled by her parents in order to be able to speak English well as a target language for her future time. The purpose of this paper is to see and examine individual learner difference especially in using English as a second language. This study is a library research and retrieved data collected, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed descriptively. The results can be concluded: the child is able to communicate well and also able to construct simple sentences, complex sentences, sentence statement, phrase questions, and explain something when her teacher asks her at school. She is able to communicate by making a simple sentence or compound sentence in well-form (two clauses or three clauses, even though she still not focus to use the past tense form and sometimes she forgets to put bound morpheme -s in third person singular but she can use turn-taking in her utterances. It is a very long process since the child does the second language acquisition. The family and teacher should participate and assist the child, the proven child can learn the first and the second language at the same time.

  6. Multiunit Sequences in First Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theakston, Anna; Lieven, Elena

    2017-07-01

    Theoretical and empirical reasons suggest that children build their language not only out of individual words but also out of multiunit strings. These are the basis for the development of schemas containing slots. The slots are putative categories that build in abstraction while the schemas eventually connect to other schemas in terms of both meaning and form. Evidence comes from the nature of the input, the ways in which children construct novel utterances, the systematic errors that children make, and the computational modeling of children's grammars. However, much of this research is on English, which is unusual in its rigid word order and impoverished inflectional morphology. We summarize these results and explore their implications for languages with more flexible word order and/or much richer inflectional morphology. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  7. Preliminary thoughts on the neurobiology of innate unconscious structures and the psychodynamics of language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizen, Susan

    2017-11-01

    This paper builds upon Britton's recent writing on 'models in the mind', in which he gives an account of preverbal metaphoric structures based on object relations (Britton 2015). These correspond with Jung's theory of innate unconscious structures. These innate models are considered alongside current linguistic theory following Chomsky and post-Chomskyan views about language acquisition. Neuroscience evidence linking language and abstract thinking with structures involved in tool use are presented. The implications of these findings, and our understanding of the relational context within which language, metaphor and abstract thought are acquired, will be discussed along with the failures of symbolization and verbal communication common amongst those with severe narcissistic disorders. © 2017, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

  8. RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE AND LEARNING: IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eva Alcón

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Taking into account severa1 limitations of communicative language teaching (CLT, this paper calls for the need to consider research on language use and learning through communication as a basis for language teaching. It will be argued that a reflective approach towards language teaching and learning might be generated, which is explained in terms of the need to develop a context-sensitive pedagogy and in terms of teachers' and learners' development.

  9. TRANSLATION ACQUISITION, TRANSLATION COMPERISON AND IST USAGE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES UBERSETZUNGSFERTIGKEIT, UBERSETZUNGSVERGLEICH UND IHRE ANWENDUNG IM FREMDSPRACHENUNTERRICHT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prof. Dr. Zeki KARAKAYA

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to enlighten the definition of translation acquisition, the differentiation from language acquisition by comparing translations of two authors having translation acquisition in different levels and through using these differences how can it be used in language teaching.In the first section, translation acquisition issue has been accentuated; by giving place to the definitions of different Scientifics a general survey about translation acquisition has been elicited. Moreover, in this section, in order to see how translation acquisition will be differentiated from language acquisition and bring out the difference; an application has been conducted on Students and the results have been ascertained.As it is known, translation comparison is a appliance for bringing in language teaching, comparative linguistics, comparative graphology, translation criticism and translation acquisition. However, in this study it has been tried out representing some suggestions and examples about translation on the subject of how can be benefited only in language teaching with translation comparison which is one of the medium of methodology. In the study comparative translation method has been applied and examples and suggestions about its functions on language teaching have been presented. Bu çalışmanın amacı çeviri edincinin tanımına, dil edincinden ayrışımına, farklı düzeylerde çeviri edincine sahip iki yazarın çevirilerinin karşılaştırılmasıyla bu farklılıklardan yararlanarak nasıl dil öğretiminde kullanılabileceğine ışık tutmaktır.İlk bölümde çeviri edinci konusu üzerine durulmuş, farklı bilim adamlarının tanımlarını yer vererek, çeviri edincine yönelik genel bir bakış sağlanmıştır. Ayrıca bu bölümde çeviri edincinin dil edincinden nasıl ayırt edileceğini görmek, aradaki farkı göz önüne sermek için öğrencilerle uygulama yapılmış ve sonuçları tespit edilmi

  10. The road to language learning is iconic: evidence from British Sign Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Robin L; Vinson, David P; Woll, Bencie; Vigliocco, Gabriella

    2012-12-01

    An arbitrary link between linguistic form and meaning is generally considered a universal feature of language. However, iconic (i.e., nonarbitrary) mappings between properties of meaning and features of linguistic form are also widely present across languages, especially signed languages. Although recent research has shown a role for sign iconicity in language processing, research on the role of iconicity in sign-language development has been mixed. In this article, we present clear evidence that iconicity plays a role in sign-language acquisition for both the comprehension and production of signs. Signed languages were taken as a starting point because they tend to encode a higher degree of iconic form-meaning mappings in their lexicons than spoken languages do, but our findings are more broadly applicable: Specifically, we hypothesize that iconicity is fundamental to all languages (signed and spoken) and that it serves to bridge the gap between linguistic form and human experience.

  11. Personality factors as predictors of foreign language aptitude

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Biedroń

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The study addresses a problem which is inadequately investigated in second language acquisition research, that is, personality predictors of foreign language aptitude. Specifically, it focuses on the Five Factor model which includes Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992 as traits differentiating gifted and nongifted foreign language learners and predicting results of foreign language aptitude tests. Although contemporary researchers generally agree that affect is an important variable in second language acquisition, most empirical studies demonstrate that personality factors are weakly correlated with cognitive abilities and that their contribution to the ultimate attainment is minor (cf. Robinson & Ellis, 2008. On the other hand, these factors constitute an integral part of cognitive ability development (cf. Dörnyei, 2009; therefore, neglecting them in research on foreign language aptitude would be unjustified. The following study is an attempt to analyze the Five Factors in two groups of learners: gifted and nongifted. In order to answer the question as to which and to what extent personality factors have a predictive effect on foreign language aptitude, the results were subjected to a multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study are presented and discussed in a wider context of research on cognitive abilities.

  12. The Gender Gap in Second Language Acquisition: Gender Differences in the Acquisition of Dutch among Immigrants from 88 Countries with 49 Mother Tongues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Slik, Frans W P; van Hout, Roeland W N M; Schepens, Job J

    2015-01-01

    Gender differences were analyzed across countries of origin and continents, and across mother tongues and language families, using a large-scale database, containing information on 27,119 adult learners of Dutch as a second language. Female learners consistently outperformed male learners in speaking and writing proficiency in Dutch as a second language. This gender gap remained remarkably robust and constant when other learner characteristics were taken into account, such as education, age of arrival, length of residence and hours studying Dutch. For reading and listening skills in Dutch, no gender gap was found. In addition, we found a general gender by education effect for all four language skills in Dutch for speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Female language learners turned out to profit more from higher educational training than male learners do in adult second language acquisition. These findings do not seem to match nurture-oriented explanatory frameworks based for instance on a human capital approach or gender-specific acculturation processes. Rather, they seem to corroborate a nature-based, gene-environment correlational framework in which language proficiency being a genetically-influenced ability interacting with environmental factors such as motivation, orientation, education, and learner strategies that still mediate between endowment and acquiring language proficiency at an adult stage.

  13. On language acquisition in speech and sign:development drives combinatorial structure in both modalities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gary eMorgan

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Languages are composed of a conventionalized system of parts which allow speakers and signers to compose an infinite number of form-meaning mappings through phonological and morphological combinations. This level of linguistic organization distinguishes language from other communicative acts such as gestures. In contrast to signs, gestures are made up of meaning units that are mostly holistic. Children exposed to signed and spoken languages from early in life develop grammatical structure following similar rates and patterns. This is interesting, because signed languages are perceived and articulated in very different ways to their spoken counterparts with many signs displaying surface resemblances to gestures. The acquisition of forms and meanings in child signers and talkers might thus have been a different process. Yet in one sense both groups are faced with a similar problem: 'how do I make a language with combinatorial structure’? In this paper I argue first language development itself enables this to happen and by broadly similar mechanisms across modalities. Combinatorial structure is the outcome of phonological simplifications and productivity in using verb morphology by children in sign and speech.

  14. 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.

  15. Neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics as a basis for computer acquisition of natural language

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Powers, D.M.W.

    1983-04-01

    Research into natural language understanding systems for computers has concentrated on implementing particular grammars and grammatical models of the language concerned. This paper presents a rationale for research into natural language understanding systems based on neurological and psychological principles. Important features of the approach are that it seeks to place the onus of learning the language on the computer, and that it seeks to make use of the vast wealth of relevant psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic theory. 22 references.

  16. Neural convergence for language comprehension and grammatical class production in highly proficient bilinguals is independent of age of acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Consonni, Monica; Cafiero, Riccardo; Marin, Dario; Tettamanti, Marco; Iadanza, Antonella; Fabbro, Franco; Perani, Daniela

    2013-05-01

    In bilinguals, native (L1) and second (L2) languages are processed by the same neural resources that can be modulated by age of second language acquisition (AOA), proficiency level, and daily language exposure and usage. AOA seems to particularly affect grammar processing, where a complete neural convergence has been shown only in bilinguals with parallel language acquisition from birth. Despite the fact that proficiency-related neuroanatomical differences have been well documented in language comprehension (LC) and production, few reports have addressed the influence of language exposure. A still unanswered question pertains to the role of AOA, when proficiency is comparably high across languages, with respect to its modulator effects both on LC and production. Here, we evaluated with fMRI during sentence comprehension and verb and noun production tasks, two groups of highly proficient bilinguals only differing in AOA. One group learned Italian and Friulian in parallel from birth, whereas the second group learned Italian between 3 and 6 years. All participants were highly exposed to both languages, but more to Italian than Friulian. The results indicate a complete overlap of neural activations for the comprehension of both languages, not only in bilinguals from birth, but also in late bilinguals. A slightly extra activation in the left thalamus for the less-exposed language confirms that exposure may affect language processing. Noteworthy, we report for the first time that, when proficiency and exposure are kept high, noun and verb production recruit the same neural networks for L1 and L2, independently of AOA. These results support the neural convergence hypothesis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Bad Influence?--An Investigation into the Purported Negative Influence of Foreign Domestic Helpers on Children's Second Language English Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leung, Alex Ho-Cheong

    2012-01-01

    This paper explores the purported negative influence of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) on child second language acquisition (SLA) by studying Hong Kong Cantonese children's listening ability in second language (L2) English. 31 kindergarten third graders aged 4;6 to 6, and 29 first year secondary students aged 11-14 who have had a Filipino…

  18. A System for Natural Language Sentence Generation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levison, Michael; Lessard, Gregory

    1992-01-01

    Describes the natural language computer program, "Vinci." Explains that using an attribute grammar formalism, Vinci can simulate components of several current linguistic theories. Considers the design of the system and its applications in linguistic modelling and second language acquisition research. Notes Vinci's uses in linguistics…

  19. Oral Vocabulary and Language Acquisition Strategies to Increase Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Grace

    2017-01-01

    This study addresses low literacy achievement in students in kindergarten and first grades. The study was designed to help identify how general education teachers can use specific daily research-based oral vocabulary acquisition strategies to close the literacy gap. This quantitative research helped to determine if the implementation of an oral…

  20. Does Equal Access Mean Treat the Same? From Theory to Practice in the Classroom of English as an Additional Language Learner in Ireland--Towards a Transformative Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Niamh

    2014-01-01

    While a substantial body of research exists on First- and Second-Language Acquisition (SLA), research on the language acquisition process that a language minority student goes through when they are acquiring a second language has been largely unexplored. Pedagogical practices that espouse language learning theories facilitate both the language…

  1. Anglocentrism in reading acquisition models? A study in a language with transparent orthography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beatriz Diuk

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The present research aimed to check Share’s (2008 thesis about conventional reading acquisition models in a group of Argentinean children. This author proposes that reading models developed for English need to be reviewed when children are learning to read in a language with transparent orthography. Share questions the idea of learning proceeds in stages, the importance given to reading accuracy over speed and the relevance of phonological processing. A group of 52 children from low-income families were tested on letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid naming and reading of frequent words at the beginning and the middle of first grade. Additionally, children’s word and pseudo-word reading skills were tested at the end of first and second grade. Results showed that most children never resorted to non-phonological strategies as it is usually done by their equals in English. By the end of second grade the group had reached a high level of accuracy in reading, but important differences were found in reading speed. These results support Share’s (2008 proposal since reading acquisition did not develop in a series of stages but could be described as a continuous process in which children gradually increase their phonological recoding abilities and achieve accuracy early on. Therefore individual differences in reading speed become a critical aspect of reading.

  2. Second Language Developmental Dynamics: How Dynamic Systems Theory Accounts for Issues in Second Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosmawati

    2014-01-01

    Dynamic systems theory (DST) is presented in this article as a suitable approach to research the acquisition of second language (L2) because of its close alignment with the process of second language learning. Through a process of identifying and comparing the characteristics of a dynamic system with the process of L2 learning, this article…

  3. The Role of Perception, Language, and Preference in the Developmental Acquisition of Basic Color Terms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pitchford, N. J.; Mullen, K. T.

    2005-01-01

    When learning basic color vocabulary, young children show a selective delay in the acquisition of brown and gray relative to other basic color terms. In this study, we first establish the robustness of this finding and then investigate the extent to which perception, language, and color preference may influence color conceptualization.…

  4. Effectiveness of Music on Vocabulary Acquisition, Language Usage, and Meaning for Mainland Chinese ESL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xiangming; Brand, Manny

    2009-01-01

    Using an experimental approach, this study examined the relative effectiveness of varying the use of songs (lyrics and music) on vocabulary acquisition, language usage, and meaning for adult ESL students in the People's Republic of China. While the use of songs is generally enthusiastically endorsed by ESL teachers, few empirical studies have…

  5. Theory-based Support for Mobile Language Learning: Noticing and Recording

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper considers the issue of 'noticing' in second language acquisition, and argues for the potential of handheld devices to: (i support language learners in noticing and recording noticed features 'on the spot', to help them develop their second language system; (ii help language teachers better understand the specific difficulties of individuals or those from a particular language background; and (iii facilitate data collection by applied linguistics researchers, which can be fed back into educational applications for language learning. We consider: theoretical perspectives drawn from the second language acquisition literature, relating these to the practice of writing language learning diaries; and the potential for learner modelling to facilitate recording and prompting noticing in mobile assisted language learning contexts. We then offer guidelines for developers of mobile language learning solutions to support the development of language awareness in learners.

  6. Language learning strategy research and modern foreign language teaching and learning in England

    OpenAIRE

    Grenfell, Michael

    2005-01-01

    This paper addresses language learner strategy research. It arises from two sources: firstly, an individual background in research and writing about Language Learning Strategy research in the context of Modern Foreign Language Learning and Teaching in the UK over the past decades; secondly, a newly constituted British based interest group dedicated to this area of applied linguistics - UK Project on Language Learner Strategies (UKPOLLS). The aim of this SIG paper is to introduce and present t...

  7. Emergent Processes of Language Acquisition: Japanese Language Leaning and the Consumption of Japanese Cultural Products in Thailand

    OpenAIRE

    Toyoshima, Noboru

    2013-01-01

    Motivation for learning a second language varies among individuals: some people enjoy the process of learning languages, while others learn a second language for practical reasons. Previous fieldwork research in Thailand has shown that many consumers of Japanese cultural products are also learners of the Japanese language. This suggests that Japanese cultural products motivate consumers to start studying Japanese and to continue learning it. In this study, two hypotheses will be posed in orde...

  8. The Acquisition of Particles

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    process of language acquisition on the basis of linguistic evidence the child is exposed to. ..... particle verbs are recognized in language processing differs from the way morphologically ..... In Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 11.

  9. Pedagogy of Notation: Learning Styles Using a Constructivist, Second-Language Acquisition Approach to Dance Notation Pedagogy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heiland, Teresa L.

    2015-01-01

    Four undergraduate dance majors learned Motif Notation and Labanotation using a second-language acquisition, playful, constructivist approach to learning notation literacy in order to learn and dance the "Parsons Etude." Qualitative outcomes were gathered from student journals and pre- and post-tests that assessed for levels of improved…

  10. The Effects of Self-Regulation on Science Vocabulary Acquisition of English Language Learners with Learning Difficulties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Woori; Linan-Thompson, Sylvia

    2013-01-01

    This multiple-probe study examined the effects of self-regulation on the acquisition of science vocabulary by four third-grade English language learners (ELLs) with learning difficulties. The students were provided only direct vocabulary instruction in a baseline phase, followed by intervention and maintenance phases into which self-regulation…

  11. Negotiation of Meaning in Desktop Videoconferencing-Supported Distance Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yuping

    2006-01-01

    The aim of this research is to reveal the dynamics of focus on form in task completion via videoconferencing. This examination draws on current second language learning theories regarding effective language acquisition, research in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and empirical data from an evaluation of desktop videoconferencing-supported…

  12. Development of Pointing Gestures in Children With Typical and Delayed Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lüke, Carina; Ritterfeld, Ute; Grimminger, Angela; Liszkowski, Ulf; Rohlfing, Katharina J

    2017-11-09

    This longitudinal study compared the development of hand and index-finger pointing in children with typical language development (TD) and children with language delay (LD). First, we examined whether the number and the form of pointing gestures during the second year of life are potential indicators of later LD. Second, we analyzed the influence of caregivers' gestural and verbal input on children's communicative development. Thirty children with TD and 10 children with LD were observed together with their primary caregivers in a seminatural setting in 5 sessions between the ages of 12 and 21 months. Language skills were assessed at 24 months. Compared with children with TD, children with LD used fewer index-finger points at 12 and 14 months but more pointing gestures in total at 21 months. There were no significant differences in verbal or gestural input between caregivers of children with or without LD. Using more index-finger points at the beginning of the second year of life is associated with TD, whereas using more pointing gestures at the end of the second year of life is associated with delayed acquisition. Neither the verbal nor gestural input of caregivers accounted for differences in children's skills.

  13. Does equal access mean treat the same? From theory to practice in the classroom of the English as an Additional Language learner in Ireland - towards a transformative agenda.

    OpenAIRE

    Kelly, Niamh

    2013-01-01

    While a substantial body of research exists on First and Second Language Acquisition (SLA), research on the language acquisition process that a language minority student goes through when they are acquiring a second language in an environment where both the host language and the language of instruction is the second language has been largely unexplored. Pedagogical practices that espouse language learning theories facilitate both the language development and integration of the language minori...

  14. Social Interaction Affects Neural Outcomes of Sign Language Learning As a Foreign Language in Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yusa, Noriaki; Kim, Jungho; Koizumi, Masatoshi; Sugiura, Motoaki; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2017-01-01

    Children naturally acquire a language in social contexts where they interact with their caregivers. Indeed, research shows that social interaction facilitates lexical and phonological development at the early stages of child language acquisition. It is not clear, however, whether the relationship between social interaction and learning applies to adult second language acquisition of syntactic rules. Does learning second language syntactic rules through social interactions with a native speaker or without such interactions impact behavior and the brain? The current study aims to answer this question. Adult Japanese participants learned a new foreign language, Japanese sign language (JSL), either through a native deaf signer or via DVDs. Neural correlates of acquiring new linguistic knowledge were investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants in each group were indistinguishable in terms of their behavioral data after the instruction. The fMRI data, however, revealed significant differences in the neural activities between two groups. Significant activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were found for the participants who learned JSL through interactions with the native signer. In contrast, no cortical activation change in the left IFG was found for the group who experienced the same visual input for the same duration via the DVD presentation. Given that the left IFG is involved in the syntactic processing of language, spoken or signed, learning through social interactions resulted in an fMRI signature typical of native speakers: activation of the left IFG. Thus, broadly speaking, availability of communicative interaction is necessary for second language acquisition and this results in observed changes in the brain.

  15. Neurolinguistics and Second Language Teaching: A View from the Crossroads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rastelli, Stefano

    2018-01-01

    The topic of this article is the link between research on the neurocognition of the teaching--acquisition interface and research on second language teaching. This recent scientific enterprise investigates whether and how different aspects of second language instruction may change both the anatomy and the functioning of an adult learner's brain…

  16. High School Students' Attributions of Success in English Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouchaib, Benzehaf; Ahmadou, Bouylmani; Abdelkader, Sabil

    2018-01-01

    Research into students' attributional causes for success in language acquisition is currently receiving considerable attention. Situated within Weiner's attribution theory (1992), the present study aims to research factors contributing to success in foreign language learning with specific focus on the role of perceived causal attributions. The…

  17. 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…

  18. Developmental Stages in Receptive Grammar Acquisition: A Processability Theory Account

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buyl, Aafke; Housen, Alex

    2015-01-01

    This study takes a new look at the topic of developmental stages in the second language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax by analysing receptive learner data, a language mode that has hitherto received very little attention within this strand of research (for a recent and rare study, see Spinner, 2013). Looking at both the receptive and productive…

  19. Impacto de un programa de lectura extensiva en la adquisicion de una segunda lengua (Impact of an Extensive Reading Program on Second Language Acquisition).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coll, Ana; And Others

    This study investigates the application of Krashen's Input Hypothesis, studying the relationship between exposure to the target language and language acquisition within the context of the English-as-a-foreign-language secondary classroom in Spain. The project studied the effect of additional reading instruction with emphasis on reading for…

  20. Spoken Spanish Language Development at the High School Level: A Mixed-Methods Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moeller, Aleidine J.; Theiler, Janine

    2014-01-01

    Communicative approaches to teaching language have emphasized the centrality of oral proficiency in the language acquisition process, but research investigating oral proficiency has been surprisingly limited, yielding an incomplete understanding of spoken language development. This study investigated the development of spoken language at the high…

  1. Word-final stops in Brazilian Portuguese English: acquisition and pronunciation instruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Walcir Cardoso

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents current research on the second language acquisition of English phonology and its implication for (and applications to pronunciation instruction in the language classroom. More specifically, the paper follows the development of English word-final consonants by Brazilian Portuguese speakers learning English as a foreign language. The findings of two parallel studies reveal that the acquisition of these constituents is motivated by both extralinguistic (proficiency, style and linguistic (word size, place of articulation factors, and that the process is mediated by an intermediate stage characterized by consonant lengthening or aspiration (Onset-Nucleus sharing. Based on these results, I propose that the segments and environments that seem to delay coda production (i.e., monosyllabic words, labial and dorsal consonants should be given priority in pronunciation instruction. Along the lines of Dickerson (1975, this paper proposes (what we believe is a more effective and socially realistic pedagogy for the teaching of English pronunciation within an approach that recognizes that "variability is the norm rather than the exception" in second language acquisition.

  2. Research Ethics in Sign Language Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Raychelle; Holmes, Heidi M.; Mertens, Donna M.

    2009-01-01

    Codes of ethics exist for most professional associations whose members do research on, for, or with sign language communities. However, these ethical codes are silent regarding the need to frame research ethics from a cultural standpoint, an issue of particular salience for sign language communities. Scholars who write from the perspective of…

  3. L1 influence in the L2 acquisition of isiXhosa verb placement by ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    1. Introduction. In second language (L2) acquisition research conducted within ..... versus Afrikaans-speaking beginner learners of isiXhosa, with regard to verb ..... Language contact within one home is also illustrated by the case of the four L1 ...

  4. Research in Mathematics Education and Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Planas, Núria

    2016-01-01

    A synthesis of reasons for the production of this monograph is presented with a focus on contemporary research in the context of the Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Within the domain of mathematics and language, three lines of concern are addressed: (1) classroom discourse, (2) language diversity, and…

  5. The role of verbal and pictorial information in multimodal incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J

    2015-01-01

    This study used eye tracking to investigate the allocation of attention to multimodal stimuli during an incidental learning situation, as well as its impact on subsequent explicit learning. Participants were exposed to foreign language (FL) auditory words on their own, in conjunction with written native language (NL) translations, or with both written NL translations and pictures. Incidental acquisition of FL words was assessed the following day through an explicit learning task where participants learned to recognize translation equivalents, as well as one week later through recall and translation recognition tests. Results showed higher accuracy scores in the explicit learning task for FL words presented with meaning during incidental learning, whether written meaning or both written meaning and picture, than for FL words presented auditorily only. However, participants recalled significantly more FL words after a week delay if they had been presented with a picture during incidental learning. In addition, the time spent looking at the pictures during incidental learning significantly predicted recognition and recall scores one week later. Overall, results demonstrated the impact of exposure to multimodal stimuli on subsequent explicit learning, as well as the important role that pictorial information can play in incidental vocabulary acquisition.

  6. To what extent are Canadian second language policies evidence-based? Reflections on the intersections of research and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummins, Jim

    2014-01-01

    THE PAPER ADDRESSES THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CANADIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICIES FOCUSING ON FOUR MAJOR AREAS: (a) core and immersion programs for the teaching of French to Anglophone students, (b) policies concerning the learning of English and French by students from immigrant backgrounds, (c) heritage language teaching, and (d) the education of Deaf and hard-of hearing students. With respect to the teaching of French, policy-makers have largely ignored the fact that most core French programs produce meager results for the vast majority of students. Only a small proportion of students (languages, preferring instead to leave uncorrected the proposition that acquisition of languages such as American Sign Language by young children (with or without cochlear implants) will impede children's language and academic development. The paper reviews the kinds of policies, programs, and practices that could be implemented (at no additional cost) if policy-makers and educators pursued evidence-based educational policies.

  7. Acquisition by Processing Theory: A Theory of Everything?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Susanne E.

    2004-01-01

    Truscott and Sharwood Smith (henceforth T&SS) propose a novel theory of language acquisition, "Acquisition by Processing Theory" (APT), designed to account for both first and second language acquisition, monolingual and bilingual speech perception and parsing, and speech production. This is a tall order. Like any theoretically ambitious…

  8. Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

    2017-03-01

    Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants' memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model.

  9. Automatically Generating Questions to Support the Acquisition of Particle Verbs: Evaluating via Crowdsourcing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chinkina, Maria; Ruiz, Simón; Meurers, Detmar

    2017-01-01

    We integrate insights from research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Computational Linguistics (CL) to generate text-based questions. We discuss the generation of wh- questions as functionally-driven input enhancement facilitating the acquisition of particle verbs and report the results of two crowdsourcing studies. The first study shows…

  10. Evaluating Attributions of Delay and Confusion in Young Bilinguals: Special Insights from Infants Acquiring a Signed and a Spoken Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petitto, Laura Ann; Holowka, Siobhan

    2002-01-01

    Examines whether early simultaneous bilingual language exposure causes children to be language delayed or confused. Cites research suggesting normal and parallel linguistic development occurs in each language in young children and young children's dual language developments are similar to monolingual language acquisition. Research on simultaneous…

  11. An analysis of the armys formal bureaucracy and the impact on acquisition cycles

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-01

    defense acquisition . This research coincides with “oversight” and bureaucracy language in the FY17 NDAA legislation and by the 114th Congress. While...IMPACT ON ACQUISITION CYCLES September 2017 By: William T. Montgomery Shannon L. Laegeler Advisors: Charles Pickar Robert Mortlock...BUREAUCRACY AND THE IMPACT ON ACQUISITION CYCLES 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) William T. Montgomery and Shannon L. Laegeler 7. PERFORMING

  12. Ella-V and technology usage technology usage in an english language and literacy acquisition validation randomized controlled trial study

    OpenAIRE

    Roisin P. Corcoran; Steven M. Ross; Beverly J. Irby; Fuhui Tong; Rafael Lara-Alecio; Cindy Guerrero

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the use of technology to provide virtual professional development (VPD) for teachers and to conduct classroom observations in a study of English Language Learner (ELL) instruction in grades K–3. The technology applications were part of a cluster randomized control trial (RCT) design for a federally funded longitudinal validation study of a particular program, English Language and Literacy Acquisition-Validation, ELLA- V, to determine its degree of impact on English oral l...

  13. Understanding Language Change: Phonetics, Phonology and Child Language Acquisition

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Volk, Kevin

    1999-01-01

    Language change is a phenomenon that has fascinated scholars for centuries. As a science, linguistic theory has evolved considerably during the 20th century, but the overall puzzle of language change still remains unsolved...

  14. Dummy auxiliaries in child and adult second language acquisition of Dutch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blom, W.B.T.; de Korte, S.

    2011-01-01

    In previous research it has been observed that second language (L2) learners of Dutch and German use analytic verbs in contexts where the target language requires synthetic verbs. These analytic verbs consist of a semantically empty auxiliary (dummy auxiliary) that selects a lexical infinitive. In

  15. The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alroudhan, Hayat Eid

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the…

  16. Timing of translation in cross-language qualitative research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, Hudson P O; Black, Amanda M; Sandelowski, Margarete

    2015-01-01

    Although there is increased understanding of language barriers in cross-language studies, the point at which language transformation processes are applied in research is inconsistently reported, or treated as a minor issue. Differences in translation timeframes raise methodological issues related to the material to be translated, as well as for the process of data analysis and interpretation. In this article we address methodological issues related to the timing of translation from Portuguese to English in two international cross-language collaborative research studies involving researchers from Brazil, Canada, and the United States. One study entailed late-phase translation of a research report, whereas the other study involved early phase translation of interview data. The timing of translation in interaction with the object of translation should be considered, in addition to the language, cultural, subject matter, and methodological competencies of research team members. © The Author(s) 2014.

  17. Feasibility of Spanish-language acquisition for acute medical care providers: novel curriculum for emergency medicine residencies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grall, Kristi H; Panchal, Ashish R; Chuffe, Eliud; Stoneking, Lisa R

    2016-01-01

    Language and cultural barriers are detriments to quality health care. In acute medical settings, these barriers are more pronounced, which can lead to poor patient outcomes. We implemented a longitudinal Spanish-language immersion curriculum for emergency medicine (EM) resident physicians. This curriculum includes language and cultural instruction, and is integrated into the weekly EM didactic conference, longitudinal over the entire 3-year residency program. Language proficiency was assessed at baseline and annually on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, via an oral exam conducted by the same trained examiner each time. The objective of the curriculum was improvement of resident language skills to ILR level 1+ by year 3. Significance was evaluated through repeated-measures analysis of variance. The curriculum was launched in July 2010 and followed through June 2012 (n=16). After 1 year, 38% had improved over one ILR level, with 50% achieving ILR 1+ or above. After year 2, 100% had improved over one level, with 90% achieving the objective level of ILR 1+. Mean ILR improved significantly from baseline, year 1, and year 2 (F=55, df =1; Planguage skills in EM residents. The curriculum improved EM-resident language proficiency above the goal in just 2 years. Further studies will focus on the effect of language acquisition on patient care in acute settings.

  18. Group Work, Interlanguage Talk,and Second Language Acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Michael H.; Porter, Patricia A.

    1985-01-01

    Discusses both the pedagogical arguments and the psycholinguistic rationale for small-group work in the second language classroom. Claims that the negotiation work possible in group actiity makes it an attractive alternative to the teacher-led discussion. Reviews research findings on interlanguage which generally support the claims made for group…

  19. Dependency distance: A new perspective on the syntactic development in second language acquisition. Comment on "Dependency distance: A new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural language" by Haitao Liu et al.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Jingyang; Ouyang, Jinghui

    2017-07-01

    Liu et al. [1] offers a clear and informative account of the use of dependency distance in studying natural languages, with a focus on the viewpoint that dependency distance minimization (DDM) can be regarded as a linguistic universal. We would like to add the perspective of employing dependency distance in the studies of second languages acquisition (SLA), particularly the studies of syntactic development.

  20. The Social Construction of Age: Adult Foreign Language Learners. Second Language Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrew, Patricia

    2012-01-01

    This book explores the social construction of age in the context of EFL in Mexico. It is the first book to address the age factor in SLA from a social perspective. Based on research carried out at a public university in Mexico, it investigates how adults of different ages experience learning a new language and how they enact their age identities…

  1. Language cannot be reduced to biology: perspectives from neuro-developmental disorders affecting language learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vasanta, D

    2005-02-01

    The study of language knowledge guided by a purely biological perspective prioritizes the study of syntax. The essential process of syntax is recursion--the ability to generate an infinite array of expressions from a limited set of elements. Researchers working within the biological perspective argue that this ability is possible only because of an innately specified genetic makeup that is specific to human beings. Such a view of language knowledge may be fully justified in discussions on biolinguistics, and in evolutionary biology. However, it is grossly inadequate in understanding language-learning problems, particularly those experienced by children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as developmental dyslexia, Williams syndrome, specific language impairment and autism spectrum disorders. Specifically, syntax-centered definitions of language knowledge completely ignore certain crucial aspects of language learning and use, namely, that language is embedded in a social context; that the role of envrironmental triggering as a learning mechanism is grossly underestimated; that a considerable extent of visuo-spatial information accompanies speech in day-to-day communication; that the developmental process itself lies at the heart of knowledge acquisition; and that there is a tremendous variation in the orthographic systems associated with different languages. All these (socio-cultural) factors can influence the rate and quality of spoken and written language acquisition resulting in much variation in phenotypes associated with disorders known to have a genetic component. Delineation of such phenotypic variability requires inputs from varied disciplines such as neurobiology, neuropsychology, linguistics and communication disorders. In this paper, I discuss published research that questions cognitive modularity and emphasises the role of the environment for understanding linguistic capabilities of children with neuro-developmental disorders. The discussion pertains

  2. Research methods for English language teachers

    CERN Document Server

    McDonough, Jo

    2014-01-01

    This book offers a lively introduction to the research methods and techniques available to English language teachers who wish to investigate aspects of their own practice. It covers qualitative and quantitative methodology and includes sections on observation, introspection, diary studies, experiments, interviews, questionnaires, numerical techniques and case study research. Each method is illustrated with examples in language teaching contexts, and techniques of data collection and analysis are introduced. The authors focus particularly on research in the classroom, on tests, materials, the

  3. Acquisition of Mathematical Language: Suggestions and Activities for English Language Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cirillo, Michelle; Bruna, Katherine Richardson; Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth

    2010-01-01

    In this article, we describe aspects of mathematical language that could be problematic to English-language learners, provide recommendations for teaching English-language learners, and suggest activities intended to foster language development in mathematics. (Contains 1 figure.)

  4. Verb Placement in Second Language Acquisition: Experimental Evidence for the Different Behavior of Auxiliary and Lexical Verbs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verhagen, Josje

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates the acquisition of verb placement by Moroccan and Turkish second language (L2) learners of Dutch. Elicited production data corroborate earlier findings from L2 German that learners who do not produce auxiliaries do not raise lexical verbs over negation, whereas learners who produce auxiliaries do. Data from elicited…

  5. Linking English First Additional Language teaching and learning ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    English as the language of learning, the acquisition of English as second (or even third) language, as well as OBE has been researched before. This study is unique in the way that it addresses the direct influence of the OBE approach on the teaching and learning process in Grade 8 EFAL classrooms. Keywords: English ...

  6. Analysis of Language Learning Strategies Used by Students of Traffic Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Violeta Jurkovič

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available Language learning strategies play a vital role in the language acquisition process, and this includes the realm of ESP at the tertiary level of education. This contribution first defines the concept of language learning strategies and gives a historical background to language learning strategy research. The central section focuses on a comparative analysis of language learning strategies used by first year students of traffic technology at the Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport in Portorož, University of Ljubljana. The analysis, based on Rebecca Oxford’s “Strategy Inventory for Language Learning”, aims to assess the students’ existing awareness of the process of language acquisition and the learning strategies that they use. Objectives of language teachers should include helping students to raise their awareness of language learning strategies and providing them with contexts for their development. Therefore, the concluding section contains sample ESP teaching materials and student instructions focusing on cognitive language learning strategies.

  7. The benefits of sign language for deaf learners with language challenges

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Van Staden, Annalene

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This article argues the importance of allowing deaf children to acquire sign language from an early age. It demonstrates firstly that the critical/sensitive period hypothesis for language acquisition can be applied to specific language aspects of spoken language as well as sign languages (i.e. phonology, grammatical processing and syntax. This makes early diagnosis and early intervention of crucial importance. Moreover, research findings presented in this article demonstrate the advantage that sign language offers in the early years of a deaf child’s life by comparing the language development milestones of deaf learners exposed to sign language from birth to those of late-signers, orally trained deaf learners and hearing learners exposed to spoken language. The controversy over the best medium of instruction for deaf learners is briefly discussed, with emphasis placed on the possible value of bilingual-bicultural programmes to facilitate the development of deaf learners’ literacy skills. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of the implications/recommendations of sign language teaching and Deaf education in South Africa.

  8. Language input and acquisition in a Mayan village: how important is directed speech?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shneidman, Laura A; Goldin-Meadow, Susan

    2012-09-01

    Theories of language acquisition have highlighted the importance of adult speakers as active participants in children's language learning. However, in many communities children are reported to be directly engaged by their caregivers only rarely (Lieven, 1994). This observation raises the possibility that these children learn language from observing, rather than participating in, communicative exchanges. In this paper, we quantify naturally occurring language input in one community where directed interaction with children has been reported to be rare (Yucatec Mayan). We compare this input to the input heard by children growing up in large families in the United States, and we consider how directed and overheard input relate to Mayan children's later vocabulary. In Study 1, we demonstrate that 1-year-old Mayan children do indeed hear a smaller proportion of total input in directed speech than children from the US. In Study 2, we show that for Mayan (but not US) children, there are great increases in the proportion of directed input that children receive between 13 and 35 months. In Study 3, we explore the validity of using videotaped data in a Mayan village. In Study 4, we demonstrate that word types directed to Mayan children from adults at 24 months (but not word types overheard by children or word types directed from other children) predict later vocabulary. These findings suggest that adult talk directed to children is important for early word learning, even in communities where much of children's early language input comes from overheard speech. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  9. Word-final stops in Brazilian Portuguese English: acquisition and pronunciation instruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Walcir Cardoso

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2008n55p153 This paper presents current research on the second language acquisition of English phonology and its implication for (and applications to pronunciation instruction in the language classroom. More specifically, the paper follows the development of English word-final consonants by Brazilian Portuguese speakers learning English as a foreign language. The findings of two parallel studies reveal that the acquisition of these constituents is motivated by both extralinguistic (proficiency, style and linguistic (word size, place of articulation factors, and that the process is mediated by an intermediate stage characterized by consonant lengthening or aspiration (Onset-Nucleus sharing. Based on these results, I propose that the segments and environments that seem to delay coda production (i.e., monosyllabic words, labial and dorsal consonants should be given priority in pronunciation instruction. Along the lines of Dickerson (1975, this paper proposes (what we believe is a more effective and socially realistic pedagogy for the teaching of English pronunciation within an approach that recognizes that "variability is the norm rather than the exception" in second language acquisition.

  10. Laboratory Studies on Multilingual Cognition and Further Language Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanz, Cristina; Cox, Jessica G.

    2017-01-01

    Multilingualism is now seen as the norm rather than the exception in an age of migration and supranational entities, and where minority language rights and the consequent educational policies have become more common. The field of applied linguistics reflects that transition: second language acquisition (sla) research is slowly being replaced by…

  11. Learning a generative probabilistic grammar of experience: a process-level model of language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolodny, Oren; Lotem, Arnon; Edelman, Shimon

    2015-03-01

    We introduce a set of biologically and computationally motivated design choices for modeling the learning of language, or of other types of sequential, hierarchically structured experience and behavior, and describe an implemented system that conforms to these choices and is capable of unsupervised learning from raw natural-language corpora. Given a stream of linguistic input, our model incrementally learns a grammar that captures its statistical patterns, which can then be used to parse or generate new data. The grammar constructed in this manner takes the form of a directed weighted graph, whose nodes are recursively (hierarchically) defined patterns over the elements of the input stream. We evaluated the model in seventeen experiments, grouped into five studies, which examined, respectively, (a) the generative ability of grammar learned from a corpus of natural language, (b) the characteristics of the learned representation, (c) sequence segmentation and chunking, (d) artificial grammar learning, and (e) certain types of structure dependence. The model's performance largely vindicates our design choices, suggesting that progress in modeling language acquisition can be made on a broad front-ranging from issues of generativity to the replication of human experimental findings-by bringing biological and computational considerations, as well as lessons from prior efforts, to bear on the modeling approach. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  12. Monolingual versus multilingual acquisition of English morphology: what can we expect at age 3?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicholls, Ruth J; Eadie, Patricia A; Reilly, Sheena

    2011-01-01

    age. The findings have important implications for researchers and clinicians involved in the management of linguistically diverse populations by advancing knowledge of early multilingual English morpheme acquisition and building awareness of acquisition patterns among multilingual and monolingual English-speaking children at 3 years of age. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

  13. Using Architectures for Research, Development, and Acquisition

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Dickerson, C

    2004-01-01

    The goal of this book is to show how architectures can be used to enable a capabilities-based approach to the research, development, and acquisition of DoD families of systems that must interoperate...

  14. Confusing similar words: ERP correlates of lexical-semantic processing in first language attrition and late second language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasparian, Kristina; Steinhauer, Karsten

    2016-12-01

    First language (L1) attrition is a socio-linguistic circumstance where second language (L2) learning coincides with changes in exposure and use of the native-L1. Attriters often report experiencing a decline in automaticity or proficiency in their L1 after a prolonged period in the L2 environment, while their L2 proficiency continues to strengthen. Investigating the neurocognitive correlates of attrition alongside those of late L2 acquisition addresses the question of whether the brain mechanisms underlying both L1 and L2 processing are strongly determined by proficiency, irrespective of whether the language was acquired from birth or in adulthood. Using event-related-potentials (ERPs), we examined lexical-semantic processing in Italian L1 attriters, compared to adult Italian L2 learners and to Italian monolingual native speakers. We contrasted the processing of classical lexical-semantic violations (Mismatch condition) with sentences that were equally semantically implausible but arguably trickier, as the target-noun was "swapped" with an orthographic neighbor that differed only in its final vowel and gender-marking morpheme (e.g., cappello (hat) vs. cappella (chapel)). Our aim was to determine whether sentences with such "confusable nouns" (Swap condition) would be processed as semantically correct by late L2 learners and L1 attriters, especially for those individuals with lower Italian proficiency scores. We found that lower-proficiency Italian speakers did not show significant N400 effects for Swap violations relative to correct sentences, regardless of whether Italian was the L1 or the L2. Crucially, N400 response profiles followed a continuum of "nativelikeness" predicted by Italian proficiency scores - high-proficiency attriters and high-proficiency Italian learners were indistinguishable from native controls, whereas attriters and L2 learners in the lower-proficiency range showed significantly reduced N400 effects for "Swap" errors. Importantly, attriters

  15. Implementing Language Acquisition in Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrigan, Richard P.

    2009-01-01

    Ads that read, "If you can speak it, you can teach it," attracted thousands of young people to travel the world to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). English language schools of the 1960s and 1970s flourished with the influx of native speakers who were given a scripted textbook with all the "right" things to say. However, by the end of the…

  16. Uma proposta enunciativa para o tratamento da metalinguagem na aquisição da linguagem =An enunciative proposal for the treatment of metalanguage on language acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elisa Marchioro Stumpf

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Neste artigo, propomos uma concepção enunciativa de metalinguagem, baseada na teoria de Émile Benveniste, e deslocamentos teóricos para utilizar tal concepção a fim de explicar dados de aquisição da linguagem. Para tanto, traçamos um breve panorama sobre pesquisas a respeito da metalinguagem na aquisição da linguagem, que apontou para a falta de uma abordagem enunciativa para essa questão. A partir disso, formulamos o que se entende por metalinguagem no pensamento benvenistiano. Realizamos uma leitura dos Problemas de Linguística Geral I e II a fim de buscar trechos que nos permitissem inferir comoBenveniste entende a questão da metalinguagem. Também apresentamos o deslocamento feito para entender a metalinguagem na aquisição da linguagem, entendendo este último fenômeno a partir de uma perspectiva enunciativa. Por fim, explicitamos a metodologiaenunciativa empregada no estudo (coleta naturalista e longitudinal e trazemos a análise de alguns dados, que ilustram modos pelos quais a criança emprega mecanismos metalinguísticos no seu discurso.This article proposes an enunciative view of metalanguage, based on Émile Benveniste’s theory and some theoretical shifts made in order to use this notion to explain data from language acquisition. For this purpose, the article outlines a brief overview on research about metalanguage on language acquisition, which revealed the lack of an enunciative approach to this question. After that, it was possible to develop a notion of metalanguage within Benveniste’s work. A reading of Problems of General Linguistics I and II was made in order to look for clues that allowed an inference on how the author understands this issue. It is also presented the theoretical shift made so as to understand metalanguage during the language acquisition process, based on an enunciative perspective on language acquisition. Finally, the enunciative methodology used in this study (naturalistic and longitudinal

  17. Content-Based Language Teaching with Functional Grammar in the Elementary School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schleppegrell, Mary J.

    2016-01-01

    Today many second language (L2) teachers work with school-aged learners who need to be supported in their language development at the same time they learn school subjects. Applied linguists and researchers in second language acquisition (SLA) have much to contribute to those teachers, but to do so in more powerful ways calls for an orientation…

  18. Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummins, Chris; Gavarró, Anna; Kuvač Kraljević, Jelena; Hrzica, Gordana; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Skordi, Athina; Jensen de López, Kristine; Sundahl, Lone; van Hout, Angeliek; Hollebrandse, Bart; Overweg, Jessica; Faber, Myrthe; van Koert, Margreet; Smith, Nafsika; Vija, Maigi; Zupping, Sirli; Kunnari, Sari; Morisseau, Tiffany; Rusieshvili, Manana; Yatsushiro, Kazuko; Fengler, Anja; Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Konstantzou, Katerina; Farby, Shira; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Vernice, Mirta; Okabe, Reiko; Isobe, Miwa; Crosthwaite, Peter; Hong, Yoonjee; Balčiūnienė, Ingrida; Ahmad Nizar, Yanti Marina; Grech, Helen; Gatt, Daniela; Cheong, Win Nee; Asbjørnsen, Arve; Torkildsen, Janne von Koss; Haman, Ewa; Miękisz, Aneta; Gagarina, Natalia; Puzanova, Julia; Anđelković, Darinka; Savić, Maja; Jošić, Smiljana; Slančová, Daniela; Kapalková, Svetlana; Barberán, Tania; Özge, Duygu; Hassan, Saima; Chan, Cecilia Yuet Hung; Okubo, Tomoya; van der Lely, Heather; Sauerland, Uli; Noveck, Ira

    2016-01-01

    Learners of most languages are faced with the task of acquiring words to talk about number and quantity. Much is known about the order of acquisition of number words as well as the cognitive and perceptual systems and cultural practices that shape it. Substantially less is known about the acquisition of quantifiers. Here, we consider the extent to which systems and practices that support number word acquisition can be applied to quantifier acquisition and conclude that the two domains are largely distinct in this respect. Consequently, we hypothesize that the acquisition of quantifiers is constrained by a set of factors related to each quantifier’s specific meaning. We investigate competence with the expressions for “all,” “none,” “some,” “some…not,” and “most” in 31 languages, representing 11 language types, by testing 768 5-y-old children and 536 adults. We found a cross-linguistically similar order of acquisition of quantifiers, explicable in terms of four factors relating to their meaning and use. In addition, exploratory analyses reveal that language- and learner-specific factors, such as negative concord and gender, are significant predictors of variation. PMID:27482119

  19. Breen, M (Ed. (2001. Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research Breen, M (Ed. (2001. Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heliana Mello

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The advances in the field of second (L2 and foreign (FL language teaching and learning in the past two decades have been manifold, among these: acquisition theories that have emerged as a consequence of refinements in experimental and methodological tools; the shift of focus to approaches rather than methods in L2 and FL teaching; socio- interactionist studies’ emphasis on the ecology of the classroom, geared towards community building; and the questioning of teacher training paradigms by teacher development and education programs. The advances in the field of second (L2 and foreign (FL language teaching and learning in the past two decades have been manifold, among these: acquisition theories that have emerged as a consequence of refinements in experimental and methodological tools; the shift of focus to approaches rather than methods in L2 and FL teaching; socio- interactionist studies’ emphasis on the ecology of the classroom, geared towards community building; and the questioning of teacher training paradigms by teacher development and education programs.

  20. Acquisition of who-question comprehension in German children with hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wimmer, Eva; Rothweiler, Monika; Penke, Martina

    2017-05-01

    For children with sensorineural hearing loss the ability to understand wh-questions might be particularly challenging because they often have only restricted access to spoken language input during optimal periods of language acquisition. In previous research it has been suggested that this restricted input during critical stages in language acquisition might lead to syntactic deficits that persist into adolescence. In this study we want to pursue this issue by investigating the comprehension of wh-questions in German children with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. We report results of a who-question comprehension task in a group of 21 3- to 4-year-old German hard-of-hearing children compared to a group of age-matched children with normal hearing. The group data and individual performance patterns suggest that the syntactic comprehension difficulties observed in some, but not all, of the children with hearing loss reflect a delay in the acquisition of who-question comprehension rather than a persistent syntactic deficit. Follow-up data elicited from a subgroup of children confirm this supposition. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Aquisição da linguagem: considerações da perspectiva da interação social Language acquisition: explanations of the social interaction perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucivanda Cavalcante Borges

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Os estudos sobre a influência dos fatores sociais na aquisição da linguagem tiveram grande impulso com as críticas às considerações de Chomsky de que havia uma "pobreza dos estímulos" e, portanto, a criança não poderia adquirir a linguagem a partir do meio social. Autores da perspectiva da Interação Social no estudo da linguagem desafiam a posição chomskiana, e evidenciam a importância da interação social para a aquisição da linguagem, especialmente as relações da criança com a mãe. Essas relações representam um sistema dinâmico, segundo o qual ambos contribuem com suas experiências e conhecimentos para o curso da interação. A linguagem é entendida, nesta perspectiva, enquanto comunicação, e portanto é anterior ao surgimento das palavras. Neste trabalho, pretende-se apresentar as explicações desta perspectiva teórica sobre o processo de aquisição da linguagem infantil. Serão discutidos os efeitos da fala materna (motherese e sua influência na aquisição da linguagem por parte da criança, assim como os diferentes estilos de input lingüístico, considerando também a importância das características da criança na interação.The studies on the influence of social factors on language acquisition were largely influenced by the criticism made to Chomsky's ideas. Researchers following the social interaction perspective disagree with Chomsky and stress the influence of input on language acquisition. This perspective recognises the role of social interaction between adult and child, especially the mother, in the development of infant language. The relationship is characterised by a bidirectional model in which both parts contribute to the course of interaction. In this perspective, language is considered communication, and so initiate before the emission of words. The aim of this paper is to present the explanations of Social Interaction perspective regarding children's language acquisition. Maternal speech

  2. Out-of-School English and the possible effect it has on Second Language Acquisition : - a study on how students with different backgrounds acquire the English language outside of school

    OpenAIRE

    Fallkvist, Anneli

    2016-01-01

    Second language acquisition is a field that has fascinated linguists for numerous years and is a topic that is very much connected to how English teachers in Sweden try to teach the English language to the students in their classrooms. In 2009 Sundqvist examined what possible effects extramural English could have on learners' oral proficiency and their vocabulary. In her study she found out that extramural English “is an independent variable and a possible path to progress in English” (Sundqv...

  3. Digital gaming and second language development: Japanese learners interactions in a MMORPG

    OpenAIRE

    Mark Peterson

    2011-01-01

    Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are identified as valuable arenas for language learning, as they provide access to contexts and types of interaction that are held to be beneficial in second language acquisition research. This paper will describe the development and key features of these games, and explore claims made regarding their value as environments for language learning. The discussion will then examine current research. This is followed by an analysis of t...

  4. The Languages of the Multilingual: Some Conceptual and Terminological Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammarberg, Bjorn

    2010-01-01

    Research on individual multilingualism and third language acquisition has expanded greatly in recent years. A theoretical correlate of this is the recognition of the fact that humans are potentially multilingual by nature, that multilingualism is the default state of language competence, and that this in turn has implications for an adequate…

  5. A cross-language study of the speech sounds in Yorùbá and Malay: Implications for Second Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boluwaji Oshodi

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Acquiring a language begins with the knowledge of its sounds system which falls under the branch of linguistics known as phonetics. The knowledge of the sound system becomes very important to prospective learners particularly L2 learners whose L1 exhibits different sounds and features from the target L2 because this knowledge is vital in order to internalise the correct pronunciation of words. This study examined and contrasted the sound systems of Yorùbá a Niger-Congo language spoken in Nigeria to that of Malay (Peninsular variety, an Austronesian language spoken in Malaysia with emphasis on the areas of differences. The data for this study were collected from ten participants; five native female Malay speakers who are married to Yorùbá native speakers but live in Malaysia and five Yorùbá native speakers who reside in Nigeria. The findings revealed that speakers from both sides have difficulties with sounds and features in the L2 which are not attested in their L1 and they tended to substitute them for similar ones in their L1 through transfer. This confirms the fact that asymmetry between the sound systems of L1 and L2 is a major source of error in L2 acquisition.

  6. Reflections on foreign language study for students with language learning problems: research, issues and challenges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganschow, L; Sparks, R L

    2000-01-01

    The study of foreign language (FL) learning for individuals who have found learning to read and write in their first language extremely problematic has been an under-researched area throughout the world. Since the 1980s, Leonore Ganschow and Richard Sparks have conducted pioneering research into the nature of difficulties, why they are encountered and how they can be minimized. In this paper the authors trace the development of their research on foreign language difficulties for students with language learning problems. They provide a summary of their findings and suggest new questions and directions for the field.

  7. Learning Additional Languages as Hierarchical Probabilistic Inference: Insights From First Language Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pajak, Bozena; Fine, Alex B; Kleinschmidt, Dave F; Jaeger, T Florian

    2016-12-01

    We present a framework of second and additional language (L2/L n ) acquisition motivated by recent work on socio-indexical knowledge in first language (L1) processing. The distribution of linguistic categories covaries with socio-indexical variables (e.g., talker identity, gender, dialects). We summarize evidence that implicit probabilistic knowledge of this covariance is critical to L1 processing, and propose that L2/L n learning uses the same type of socio-indexical information to probabilistically infer latent hierarchical structure over previously learned and new languages. This structure guides the acquisition of new languages based on their inferred place within that hierarchy, and is itself continuously revised based on new input from any language. This proposal unifies L1 processing and L2/L n acquisition as probabilistic inference under uncertainty over socio-indexical structure. It also offers a new perspective on crosslinguistic influences during L2/L n learning, accommodating gradient and continued transfer (both negative and positive) from previously learned to novel languages, and vice versa.

  8. Language as skill

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chater, Nick; McCauley, Stewart M.; Christiansen, M. H.

    2016-01-01

    occurs on-line. These properties are difficult to reconcile with the 'abstract knowledge' viewpoint, and crucially suggest that language comprehension and production are facets of a unitary skill. This viewpoint is exemplified in the Chunk-Based Learner, a computational acquisition model that processes...... incrementally and learns on-line. The model both parses and produces language; and implements the idea that language acquisition is nothing more than learning to process. We suggest that the Now-or-Never bottleneck also provides a strong motivation for unified perception-production models in other domains......Are comprehension and production a single, integrated skill, or are they separate processes drawing on a shared abstract knowledge of language? We argue that a fundamental constraint on memory, the Now-or-Never bottleneck, implies that language processing is incremental and that language learning...

  9. Introduction : language acquisition and sociolinguistic variation

    OpenAIRE

    Chevrot, Jean-Pierre; Foulkes, Paul

    2013-01-01

    International audience; The special issue appears in a new scientific landscape of innovative attempts to link sociolinguistics and cognitive psycholinguistics. Studies on acquisition of variation have been conducted since the late 1960s, but the changing scientific landscape gives them a new impetus. On the one hand, our work draws on and contributes to sociolinguistics. As a result, it focuses on the acquisition of sociolinguistic patterns conceived of as properties shared by communities of...

  10. FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND EDUCATION IN MINORITY CIRCUMSTANCES. PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Szilvia Batyi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Some form of bi- and multilingualism means the natural lingual condition for more than the half of the population of the Earth. It is a substantial linguistic aim of the Transcarpathian Hungarian community that beside preservation of their mother tongue(the Hungarian, acquire the state language (the Ukrainian languageand the basis of at least one world language. But this aim is hindered by a lot of things in Transcarpathia. The goal of the study is to shed light on these problems and to find possible solutions based on two researches. The first research, which was carried out in the Tanscarpathian Hungarian schools, was to reveal the conditions and problems of foreign language education. The research threw light on numerous problems that approve the low level of foreign language knowledge of the Transcarpathian Hungarian youth. Attitudes and stereotypes influence the success of foreign language acquisition. For this reason in the second part of the study I would like to show, what kind of stereotypes and attitudes can be discovered in the parents (who are lay linguistically and language pedagogicallyconcerning foreign languages, and within this especially concerning the English language. It appears from the interviews,that nor the attitudes of the state towards foreign languages that was inherited from the soviet system, neither the impassiveness of the parents improves the positive attitudes in the Transcarpathian Hungarian students towards foreign languages, and nor the state,neither the parents approve the motivation of foreign language acquisition.

  11. CORRECTING ERRORS: THE RELATIVE EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF ERROR FEEDBACK IN SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chitra Jayathilake

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Error correction in ESL (English as a Second Language classes has been a focal phenomenon in SLA (Second Language Acquisition research due to some controversial research results and diverse feedback practices. This paper presents a study which explored the relative efficacy of three forms of error correction employed in ESL writing classes: focusing on the acquisition of one grammar element both for immediate and delayed language contexts, and collecting data from university undergraduates, this study employed an experimental research design with a pretest-treatment-posttests structure. The research revealed that the degree of success in acquiring L2 (Second Language grammar through error correction differs according to the form of the correction and to learning contexts. While the findings are discussed in relation to the previous literature, this paper concludes creating a cline of error correction forms to be promoted in Sri Lankan L2 writing contexts, particularly in ESL contexts in Universities.

  12. Teaching Sociolinguistic Variation in the Intermediate Language Classroom: "Voseo" in Latin America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shenk, Elaine M.

    2014-01-01

    The acquisition of sociolinguistic variation by second language learners has gained increased attention. Some research highlights the value of naturalistic exposure through study abroad while other studies point out that classroom input can facilitate the acquisition of particular features of variation. Nevertheless, said attention to the…

  13. The interactional significance of formulas in autistic language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobbinson, Sushie; Perkins, Mick; Boucher, Jill

    2003-01-01

    The phenomenon of echolalia in autistic language is well documented. Whilst much early research dismissed echolalia as merely an indicator of cognitive limitation, later work identified particular discourse functions of echolalic utterances. The work reported here extends the study of the interactional significance of echolalia to formulaic utterances. Audio and video recordings of conversations between the first author and two research participants were transcribed and analysed according to a Conversation Analysis framework and a multi-layered linguistic framework. Formulaic language was found to have predictable interactional significance within the language of an individual with autism, and the generic phenomenon of formulaicity in company with predictable discourse function was seen to hold across the research participants, regardless of cognitive ability. The implications of formulaicity in autistic language for acquisition and processing mechanisms are discussed.

  14. Intravelar veloplasty in cleft lip, alveolus and palate and outcome of speech and language acquisition: a prospective study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bitter, Klaus; Wegener, Carla; Gomille, Nadine

    2003-12-01

    Speech and language acquisition are major, important criteria in the treatment outcomes of cleft lip and palate patients. A generally accepted and definitive treatment protocol regarding surgical techniques and the time schedule does not yet exist. In the world literature, there are reports of velo-pharyngeal insufficiency rates between 7 and 30%. In a prospective study, all children aged 312 months with cleft lip, alveolus and palate, or cleft palate only, underwent an intravelar veloplasty. Follow-up monitoring consisted of frequent clinical linguistic checks and supervision of language development without a planned intention of articulation therapy before the age of about 5 years. Three hundred and ninety-seven children with non-syndromic clefts were included in this study, the youngest being 8-year old. Sixty children (15%) showed deviations in language and speech acquisition. From these, 56 (14%) had received articulation therapy after the 5th birthday. From these 56 children, 45 had overcome their problems with speech therapy alone whereas 11 (3%) needed a velo-pharyngeoplasty. Although these results are much better than those reported in other cohorts, some children still have velo-pharyngeal incompetence for no apparent reason. One possible explanation might be surgical, since on occasions, the intravelar muscle bundle is divided into two parts and the palato-pharyngeal part runs isolated more laterally and can be missed during reconstruction and retropositioning.

  15. Socio-Emotional Skills, Behavior Problems, and Spanish Competence Predict the Acquisition of English among English Language Learners in Poverty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winsler, Adam; Kim, Yoon Kyong; Richard, Erin R.

    2014-01-01

    This article analyzes the role that individual differences in children's cognitive, Spanish competence, and socio-emotional and behavioral skills play in predicting the concurrent and longitudinal acquisition of English among a large sample of ethnically diverse, low-income, Hispanic preschool children. Participants assessed at age 4 for language,…

  16. The role of text in teaching foreign languages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatyana A. Baranovskaya

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The research is devoted to a multi-level study of the essence and role of text creation comprehension in teaching a foreign language. Capturing motivational and logical mental structures along with recognising communicative and cognitive aspects of a person's identity in a text are key linguopsychological elements of studying text activities. The scientific value of the research is in specifying the operational approach to describing a concrete level of a person's consciousness, on which cognitive structures acquire language realisation in the process on communication. Existence of a person's concsiousness is considered on three levels of abstracrion within the conscious: sensory field, associative field, motivational field. The contents of a person's language consciousness can be described through its thesaurus and presented as a filter that sifts through incoming meaningful information expressed in the sign form. The process of first language acquisition by a child is closely related to the apprearance of the correlation between dynamic and static systems of sound production (syllable production and articulation. Tranfer to foreign language acquisition will then be connected only with changing the characted of the correlation in each specific case. Foreign language teaching is connected with the learners' using the language skills they already possess. Peculiarity of language consciousness is revealed both when comparing lexical and grammatical categories in several languages, in which the forms of the same category have different meanings, and when comparing a limited set of such linguistic meanings with an unlimited number of linguistic features and relations between the objects.

  17. Developmental trends in auditory processing can provide early predictions of language acquisition in young infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chonchaiya, Weerasak; Tardif, Twila; Mai, Xiaoqin; Xu, Lin; Li, Mingyan; Kaciroti, Niko; Kileny, Paul R; Shao, Jie; Lozoff, Betsy

    2013-03-01

    Auditory processing capabilities at the subcortical level have been hypothesized to impact an individual's development of both language and reading abilities. The present study examined whether auditory processing capabilities relate to language development in healthy 9-month-old infants. Participants were 71 infants (31 boys and 40 girls) with both Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) and language assessments. At 6 weeks and/or 9 months of age, the infants underwent ABR testing using both a standard hearing screening protocol with 30 dB clicks and a second protocol using click pairs separated by 8, 16, and 64-ms intervals presented at 80 dB. We evaluated the effects of interval duration on ABR latency and amplitude elicited by the second click. At 9 months, language development was assessed via parent report on the Chinese Communicative Development Inventory - Putonghua version (CCDI-P). Wave V latency z-scores of the 64-ms condition at 6 weeks showed strong direct relationships with Wave V latency in the same condition at 9 months. More importantly, shorter Wave V latencies at 9 months showed strong relationships with the CCDI-P composite consisting of phrases understood, gestures, and words produced. Likewise, infants who had greater decreases in Wave V latencies from 6 weeks to 9 months had higher CCDI-P composite scores. Females had higher language development scores and shorter Wave V latencies at both ages than males. Interestingly, when the ABR Wave V latencies at both ages were taken into account, the direct effects of gender on language disappeared. In conclusion, these results support the importance of low-level auditory processing capabilities for early language acquisition in a population of typically developing young infants. Moreover, the auditory brainstem response in this paradigm shows promise as an electrophysiological marker to predict individual differences in language development in young children. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  18. Language development of internationally adopted children: Adverse early experiences outweigh the age of acquisition effect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rakhlin, Natalia; Hein, Sascha; Doyle, Niamh; Hart, Lesley; Macomber, Donna; Ruchkin, Vladislav; Tan, Mei; Grigorenko, Elena L

    2015-01-01

    We compared English language and cognitive skills between internationally adopted children (IA; mean age at adoption=2.24, SD=1.8) and their non-adopted peers from the US reared in biological families (BF) at two time points. We also examined the relationships between outcome measures and age at initial institutionalization, length of institutionalization, and age at adoption. On measures of general language, early literacy, and non-verbal IQ, the IA group performed significantly below their age-peers reared in biological families at both time points, but the group differences disappeared on receptive vocabulary and kindergarten concept knowledge at the second time point. Furthermore, the majority of children reached normative age expectations between 1 and 2 years post-adoption on all standardized measures. Although the age at adoption, age of institutionalization, length of institutionalization, and time in the adoptive family all demonstrated significant correlations with one or more outcome measures, the negative relationship between length of institutionalization and child outcomes remained most robust after controlling for the other variables. Results point to much flexibility and resilience in children's capacity for language acquisition as well as the potential primacy of length of institutionalization in explaining individual variation in IA children's outcomes. (1) Readers will be able to understand the importance of pre-adoption environment on language and early literacy development in internationally adopted children. (2) Readers will be able to compare the strength of the association between the length of institutionalization and language outcomes with the strength of the association between the latter and the age at adoption. (3) Readers will be able to understand that internationally adopted children are able to reach age expectations on expressive and receptive language measures despite adverse early experiences and a replacement of their first

  19. Neural changes underlying early stages of L2 vocabulary acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pu, He; Holcomb, Phillip J; Midgley, Katherine J

    2016-11-01

    Research has shown neural changes following second language (L2) acquisition after weeks or months of instruction. But are such changes detectable even earlier than previously shown? The present study examines the electrophysiological changes underlying the earliest stages of second language vocabulary acquisition by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) within the first week of learning. Adult native English speakers with no previous Spanish experience completed less than four hours of Spanish vocabulary training, with pre- and post-training ERPs recorded to a backward translation task. Results indicate that beginning L2 learners show rapid neural changes following learning, manifested in changes to the N400 - an ERP component sensitive to lexicosemantic processing and degree of L2 proficiency. Specifically, learners in early stages of L2 acquisition show growth in N400 amplitude to L2 words following learning as well as a backward translation N400 priming effect that was absent pre-training. These results were shown within days of minimal L2 training, suggesting that the neural changes captured during adult second language acquisition are more rapid than previously shown. Such findings are consistent with models of early stages of bilingualism in adult learners of L2 ( e.g. Kroll and Stewart's RHM) and reinforce the use of ERP measures to assess L2 learning.

  20. Laying the Foundations for Video-Game Based Language Instruction for the Teaching of EFL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Héctor Alejandro Galvis

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces video-game based language instruction as a teaching approach catering to the different socio-economic and learning needs of English as a Foreign Language students. First, this paper reviews statistical data revealing the low participation of Colombian students in English as a second language programs abroad (U.S. context especially. This paper also provides solid reasons why the use of video games in education and foreign language education is justified. Additionally, this paper reviews second language acquisition theoretical foundations that provide the rationale for adapting video-game based language instruction in light of important second language acquisition constructs such as culture and identity, among others. Finally, this document provides options for further research to construct and test the efficacy of video-game based language instruction while simultaneously leaving it open for collaborative contributions.

  1. Running Records and First Grade English Learners: An Analysis of Language Related Errors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Briceño, Allison; Klein, Adria F.

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine if first-grade English Learners made patterns of language related errors when reading, and if so, to identify those patterns and how teachers coded language related errors when analyzing English Learners' running records. Using research from the fields of both literacy and Second Language Acquisition, we…

  2. Academic Language in Preschool: Research and Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michael Luna, Sara

    2017-01-01

    Developing and scaffolding academic language is an important job of preschool teachers. This Teaching Tip provides five strategies that extend the topic of academic language by integrating previous research and field-based data into classroom practice.

  3. Two functions of early language experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arshavsky, Yuri I

    2009-05-01

    The unique human ability of linguistic communication, defined as the ability to produce a practically infinite number of meaningful messages using a finite number of lexical items, is determined by an array of "linguistic" genes, which are expressed in neurons forming domain-specific linguistic centers in the brain. In this review, I discuss the idea that infants' early language experience performs two complementary functions. In addition to allowing infants to assimilate the words and grammar rules of their mother language, early language experience initiates genetic programs underlying language production and comprehension. This hypothesis explains many puzzling characteristics of language acquisition, such as the existence of a critical period for acquiring the first language and the absence of a critical period for the acquisition of additional language(s), a similar timetable for language acquisition in children belonging to families of different social and cultural status, the strikingly similar timetables in the acquisition of oral and sign languages, and the surprisingly small correlation between individuals' final linguistic competence and the intensity of their training. Based on the studies of microcephalic individuals, I argue that genetic factors determine not only the number of neurons and organization of interneural connections within linguistic centers, but also the putative internal properties of neurons that are not limited to their electrophysiological and synaptic properties.

  4. "Real Language": Combining Intermediate Spanish Language Learners and ESOL/Native Speakers for Vernacular Language Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joe LaValle

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses the possibilities of combining Spanish language learners and English language learners in high school and post-secondary institutions for mutual benefit to learn authentic language. Academic or "classroom" Spanish is insufficient to empower students for today's workplace. The concept behind "Real Language" is illustrated by an example of an interdisciplinary activity to facilitate communicative interaction in genuine language and promote cultural understanding between intermediate Spanish students and ESOL/native speakers at the high school and post-secondary level. Students are asked to utilize their life skills in interactive, freestyle conversation without the intervention of an instructor. The learning space for language exchange is an out-of-class venue for a non-intimidating, more authentic setting. This simple qualitative study investigates the potential value of this sort of interdisciplinary activity. The intent is to evaluate attitudes of the participants in relation to confidence in their ability to use the target language, and their willingness to use it in social and professional environments and, in addition, to facilitate cultural understanding. The positive result of the project is validated by the voice of the student participants as they reflect on their experience in "Real Language". Could this concept facilitate evolving strategies for interdisciplinary contemporary foreign language learning?

  5. The influence of language deprivation in early childhood on L2 processing: An ERP comparison of deaf native signers and deaf signers with a delayed language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skotara, Nils; Salden, Uta; Kügow, Monique; Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Röder, Brigitte

    2012-05-03

    To examine which language function depends on early experience, the present study compared deaf native signers, deaf non-native signers and hearing German native speakers while processing German sentences. The participants watched simple written sentences while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. At the end of each sentence they were asked to judge whether the sentence was correct or not. Two types of violations were introduced in the middle of the sentence: a semantically implausible noun or a violation of subject-verb number agreement. The results showed a similar ERP pattern after semantic violations (an N400 followed by a positivity) in all three groups. After syntactic violations, native German speakers and native signers of German sign language (DGS) with German as second language (L2) showed a left anterior negativity (LAN) followed by a P600, whereas no LAN but a negativity over the right hemisphere instead was found in deaf participants with a delayed onset of first language (L1) acquisition. The P600 of this group had a smaller amplitude and a different scalp distribution as compared to German native speakers. The results of the present study suggest that language deprivation in early childhood alters the cerebral organization of syntactic language processing mechanisms for L2. Semantic language processing instead was unaffected.

  6. Data-acquisition software for the Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atkins, W.H.

    1983-01-01

    A new computer system to perform data acquisition and analysis for the Holifield Heavey Ion Research Facility's Oak Ridge Isochronous Cyclotron (ORIC) and the newer 25-MV tandem accelerator has been under development. This paper presents the current implementation and discusses the design of the data-acquisition/analysis software

  7. Current Research in Southeast Asia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beh, Yolanda

    1991-01-01

    Summaries of seven language-related research projects are presented from Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Topics include a lexicon of Kelabit, cognitive theory for second-language acquisition, academic writing in Filipino, cultural politics of English instruction, use of conjunctions, and communicative grammar. (LB)

  8. Understanding Language: A Primer for the Language Arts Teacher.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malmstrom, Jean

    This volume aims to bridge the gap between language arts teaching and linguistic theory. Part one discusses selected aspects of linguistics that are relevant to language arts teaching: the acquisition and development of language during childhood; the English sound system and its relation to spellings and meanings; traditional, structural, and…

  9. An overview of the age factor and its pedagogical implications for vocabulary acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Exp??sito Morillas, Mar??a del Pilar

    2011-01-01

    This?? research?? deals with??the??age??effects??on??the??acquisition??of??vocabulary??as??a??second??language??in??an??instructed??setting.??The??literature??review??on??the??age??factor??in??reference?? to?? vocabulary?? acquisition??shows?? an?? advantage?? of?? the??late starters?? over the?? early??starters?? in?? instructed?? settings.?? However,?? early??starters?? surpass?? late starters?? in??naturalistic?? settings?? in?? the?? long??run?? when?? the?? basic?? conditions??are??fulfi...

  10. The Use of Music for Learning Languages

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    和梅

    2012-01-01

      Throughout time, healers, philosophers, scientists, and teachers have recognized the place of music for therapeutic and developmental functions (Bancroft,1985:3-7). Researchers over the last twenty years have made astounding advances in the the⁃ory of language acquisition. Many find the pedagogical conjoining of language and music compelling. The first part of this review focuses on the historical and developmental proofs of music’ s relationship with language learning. In part two, neurological the⁃ory on music and the mind are covered. Part three summarizes scholarly inquiry on the use of music for learning languages, espe⁃cially those studies that could prove most instructive both for language teachers and for music therapists in the development of curricula.

  11. The "Visions of Hildegard" and the "Silent Period": A Case Study of Language Acquisition through Aural and Visual Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atherton, Mark

    1993-01-01

    The medieval writer, the nun Hildegard von Bingen, learned Latin without any formal instruction in it. Her case is described as an example of language acquisition by hearing it read, sung, and expounded and by visualizing it as though it were written down in a kind of phonetic script. (21 references) (Author/LB)

  12. FORMAÇÕES DISCURSIVAS E PROCESSOS IDENTIFICATÓRIOS NA AQUISIÇÃO DE LÍNGUAS Discursive Formations and Identifications Process in languages Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvana SERRANI-INFANTE

    1997-02-01

    Identification: A Study of Functions of Second Language in Enunciating Subject Constitution". Non-cognitive factors that have a crucial incidence in the degree of success and ways of accomplishment of second language acquisition process are focused. A transdisciplinary perspective is adopted, mobilising categories from Discourse Analysis and Psychoanalysis. The most relevant ones are: discursive formation, intradiscourse, interdiscourse, forgetting n° 1, forgetting n° 2 (Pêcheux, 1982, identity, identification (Freud, 1966; Lacan, 1977; Nasio, 1995. Revuz’s views (1991 are discussed. Her main claim is that during the process of learning a foreign language, the foundations of psychical structure, and consequently first language, are required. After examining how nomination and predication processes work in first and second languages, components of identity and identification processes are focused on, in an attempt to show how second language acquisition strategies depend on them. It is stated that methodological affairs of language teaching, learner’s explicit motivation and the like are subordinated to the comprehension of deeper non-cognitive factors that determine the accomplishment of the second language acquisition process. It is also pointed out that those factors are to be approached, questioning the bipolar biological-social conception of subjectivity in the study of language acquisition and use and including in the analysis symbolic and significant dimensions of the discourse constitution process.

  13. Memory, learning and language in autism spectrum disorder

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jill Boucher

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and aims The ‘dual-systems’ model of language acquisition has been used by Ullman et al. to explain patterns of strength and weakness in the language of higher-functioning people with autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, intact declarative/explicit learning is argued to compensate for a deficit in non-declarative/implicit procedural learning, constituting an example of the so-called see-saw effect. Ullman and Pullman extended their argument concerning a see-saw effect on language in autism spectrum disorder to cover other perceived anomalies of behaviour, including impaired acquisition of social skills. The aim of this paper is to present a critique of Ullman et al.’s claims and to propose an alternative model of links between memory systems and language in autism spectrum disorder. Main contribution We argue that a four-system model of learning, in which intact semantic and procedural memory are used to compensate for weaknesses in episodic memory and perceptual learning, can better explain patterns of language ability across the autistic spectrum. We also argue that attempts to generalise the ‘impaired implicit learning/spared declarative learning’ theory to other behaviours in autism spectrum disorder are unsustainable. Conclusions Clinically significant language impairments in autism spectrum disorder are under-researched, despite their impact on everyday functioning and quality of life. The relative paucity of research findings in this area lays it open to speculative interpretation which may be misleading. Implications More research is needed into links between memory/learning systems and language impairments across the spectrum. Improved understanding should inform therapeutic intervention and contribute to investigation of the causes of language impairment in autism spectrum disorder with potential implications for prevention.

  14. Flipping Every Student? A Case Study of Content-Based Flipped Language Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Yu-Chih

    2017-01-01

    The study aims to explore university-level foreign language learners' perceptions of the content-based flipped classroom approach and factors influencing their perceptions. The research questions guiding the study are three-fold. (a) What attitudes and perceptions do students have about language and knowledge acquisition in the content-based…

  15. L3 English acquisition in Denmark and Greenland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Spellerberg, Stine Marie

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents findings of gender-related tendencies found in a study of factors influential in third language acquisition of English in Denmark and Greenland. A survey consisting of a questionnaire and an English test was carried out amongst pupils in their last year of compulsory schooling...... in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Nuuk, Greenland. In total, responses from 187 pupils were included, some of which were responses from pupils learning English as a second language; these respondents were included for comparisons (Copenhagen: L2 learners N =59, L3 learners N=32; Nuuk: L3 learners N=96; age: 14......' degree of English classroom anxiety. The results differentiate the view that L3 learners as a group do less well in English than L2 learner peers, warranting further research into gender-related tendencies and extra focus on the English acquisition of L3 learner boys in particular in the Danish context....

  16. All together now: concurrent learning of multiple structures in an artificial language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romberg, Alexa R; Saffran, Jenny R

    2013-01-01

    Natural languages contain many layers of sequential structure, from the distribution of phonemes within words to the distribution of phrases within utterances. However, most research modeling language acquisition using artificial languages has focused on only one type of distributional structure at a time. In two experiments, we investigated adult learning of an artificial language that contains dependencies between both adjacent and non-adjacent words. We found that learners rapidly acquired both types of regularities and that the strength of the adjacent statistics influenced learning of both adjacent and non-adjacent dependencies. Additionally, though accuracy was similar for both types of structure, participants' knowledge of the deterministic non-adjacent dependencies was more explicit than their knowledge of the probabilistic adjacent dependencies. The results are discussed in the context of current theories of statistical learning and language acquisition. © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  17. A Brief Review of Motivation for Second Language Learning

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    SONG Dan-gui

    2014-01-01

    It is an increasingly popular trend in the language field that people become bilingual or even multilingual, which expos-es the fact that people are strongly motivated to learn another language in addition to their mother tongue. A large-scale of re-search has confirmed that motivation, serving as the internal impulse and initiative taste for second language learning, is among on of the key factors in second language acquisition and learning. The paper reviews the recent available literature on motivation of second language learning from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, with the purpose of neatening the important theories and relevant empirical studies in the field of second language motivation.

  18. Knowledge acquisition and representation for the Systems Test and Operations Language (STOL) Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seamster, Thomas L.; Eike, David R.; Ames, Troy J.

    1990-01-01

    This presentation concentrates on knowledge acquisition and its application to the development of an expert module and a user interface for an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The Systems Test and Operations Language (STOL) ITS is being developed to assist NASA control center personnel in learning a command and control language as it is used in mission operations rooms. The objective of the tutor is to impart knowledge and skills that will permit the trainee to solve command and control problems in the same way that the STOL expert solves those problems. The STOL ITS will achieve this object by representing the solution space in such a way that the trainee can visualize the intermediate steps, and by having the expert module production rules parallel the STOL expert's knowledge structures.

  19. Website Analysis as a Tool for Task-Based Language Learning and Higher Order Thinking in an EFL Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roy, Debopriyo

    2014-01-01

    Besides focusing on grammar, writing skills, and web-based language learning, researchers in "CALL" and second language acquisition have also argued for the importance of promoting higher-order thinking skills in ESL (English as Second Language) and EFL (English as Foreign Language) classrooms. There is solid evidence supporting the…

  20. QUESTIONING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING IN ISLAMIC PRE-SCHOOL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rohmani Nur Indah

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper questions the urgency of foreign language learning at early age by covering some arguments on the acquisition and bilingualism. Nowadays in Indonesia, under the interest of education, bilingual learning is undertaken by adopting the theory of bilingual acquisition referring to Chomsky’s ideas. In fact, the foreign language learning is not always in line with the principle of language acquisition especially for the early age children. The globalization era requires foreign language mastery so that for many institutions of children education have got the bilingual learning. As the example, some of Islamic educational institutions at the level of playgroup have applied the instruction in English and teaching Arabic words, by considering that the earlier foreign language learning is the better, and the fact that the golden age of brain development occurs at the first five years. This needs to be analyzed further, because there is also important task to have mother tongue language acquisition. For the community of multilingual such as in Indonesia, the acquisition of many languages is unavoidable. Therefore, parents are faced with two choices: To prior the mother tongue and bahasa Indonesia as second language or encourage the bilingual learning of Arabic and English.

  1. Linguistics in Language Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Rajesh; Yunus, Reva

    2014-01-01

    This article looks at the contribution of insights from theoretical linguistics to an understanding of language acquisition and the nature of language in terms of their potential benefit to language education. We examine the ideas of innateness and universal language faculty, as well as multilingualism and the language-society relationship. Modern…

  2. Skill-specificity of language practice and transferability of language skills: The case of listening and speaking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Majid Farshid

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The study of skill acquisition is of great importance in cognitive psychology. One aspect of skill acquisition research is whether practice in SLA is skill-specific or not. To date, research done has not led to either unanimous rejection or acceptance of the theory. This article is an attempt to examine this question in an EFL context where L2 learners have limited or no access to target language data outside the classroom. More specifically, it tries to see whether listening and speaking in an EFL context necessitate their own specific practice or not. Based on a post-test only design, 16 male, beginner Iranian EFL learners received input-based instruction for three months. When the instruction was over, both listening and speaking performances of the subjects were assessed. The result showed that the subjects had significantly improved their listening ability while their speaking ability had little or no improvement, indicating that different language skills in EFL contexts need specific practice. The findings not only confirm the skill-specificity of language practice, but also rejects VanPatten’s seminal claim that comprehension practice is enough to bring about development, not only in comprehension but also in production.

  3. Extensive Reading of Children’s Literature in First, Second, and Foreign Language Vocabulary Acquisition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominic Cheetham

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Extensive reading of children’s literature can be seen as one of the most powerful means to acquiring a large working vocabulary for both first language learners and second language learners. However, for foreign language learners, children’s literature has a less positive image. For foreign language learners the most commonly recommended reading is of graded readers. Corpus research has shown that work for children has a wide range of rare words, comparable to adult literature, and this leads to the argument that children’s literature puts too great a comprehension and memory strain on foreign language learners, and is an inefficient learning tool compared to graded readers. This paper reviews existing research and examines the arguments for children’s literature in language learning in terms of some features of naturalistic child reading behaviour, and the stylistic choices of writers for children. Replication of child reading behaviours in conjunction with the aid to comprehension and memory inherent in stylistic choices, combined with motivational and practical considerations, are argued to make children’s literature an equal, if not superior choice as extended reading material for foreign language learners.

  4. Incidental Lexicon Acquisition through Playful Interaction

    OpenAIRE

    Lukas Wilhelm Ansteeg

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents an educational game which aids learners with foreign lexicon acquisition while entertaining them at the same time. An overview over existing language learning tools is given, and a general platform for educational games for second language acquisition (SLA) is described. It introduces a specific prototype video game which teaches Italian vocabulary to the user. The application puts learning at the core of its game mechanics and combines it with a narrative and role-playing...

  5. Nutrition factors predict earlier acquisition of motor and language milestones among young children in Haiti.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iannotti, Lora; Jean Louis Dulience, Sherlie; Wolff, Patricia; Cox, Katherine; Lesorogol, Carolyn; Kohl, Patricia

    2016-09-01

    To examine the nutrition-related factors associated with motor and language development among young children living in a poor urban area of Haiti. Children aged 6-11 months (n = 583) were enrolled and followed monthly for one year. World Health Organization motor developmental milestones and vowel and consonant counts were assessed. Longitudinal regression models were applied to assess the association of anthropometric, dietary intake, infectious disease morbidity and socio-economic and demographic factors on developmental outcomes. At baseline, 9.4% were stunted or length-for-age Z score < -2, and 30.2% were mild-to-moderately stunted or length-for-age Z score < -1. Stunting status was significantly associated with motor and phonetic language acquisition at each time point during infancy. Several nutrition factors significantly predicted earlier achievement of motor and language development outcomes in longitudinal models: child anthropometry; breastfeeding and complementary feeding frequencies; dietary diversity; egg and oil intake; and reduced infectious disease morbidities. Increases in the length-for-age Z score significantly predicted all motor and language outcomes and yielded the best fit models compared to other anthropometric indicators (p < 0.001). Child development interventions may be enhanced by incorporating nutrition strategies such as improved diet quality, breastfeeding promotion and diarrhoeal disease mitigation. ©2016 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. How Do 5-Year-Olds Understand Questions? Differences in Languages across Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sauerland, Uli; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Andelkovic, Darinka; Argus, Reili; Armon-Lotem, Sharon; Arosio, Fabrizio; Avram, Larisa; Costa, João; Dabašinskiene, Ineta; de López, Kristine; Gatt, Daniela; Grech, Helen; Haman, Ewa; van Hout, Angeliek; Hrzica, Gordana; Kainhofer, Judith; Kamandulyte-Merfeldiene, Laura; Kunnari, Sari; Kovacevic, Melita; Kuvac Kraljevic, Jelena; Lipowska, Katarzyna; Mejias, Sandrine; Popovic, Maša; Ruzaite, Jurate; Savic, Maja; Sevcenco, Anca; Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Varnava, Marina; Yatsushiro, Kazuko

    2016-01-01

    The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18…

  7. New Themes and Approaches in Second Language Motivation Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dornyei, Zoltan

    2001-01-01

    Provides an overview of the current themes and research directions in second language motivation research. Argues that the initial research inspiration and standard-setting empirical work on second language motivation originating from Canada has borne fruit by educating a new generation of international scholars who have created a colorful mixture…

  8. Abstract concepts, language and sociality: from acquisition to inner speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borghi, Anna M; Barca, Laura; Binkofski, Ferdinand; Tummolini, Luca

    2018-08-05

    The problem of representation of abstract concepts, such as 'freedom' and 'justice', has become particularly crucial in recent years, owing to the increased success of embodied and grounded views of cognition. We will present a novel view on abstract concepts and abstract words. Since abstract concepts do not have single objects as referents, children and adults might rely more on input from others to learn them; we, therefore, suggest that linguistic and social experience play an important role for abstract concepts. We will discuss evidence obtained in our and other laboratories showing that processing of abstract concepts evokes linguistic interaction and social experiences, leading to the activation of the mouth motor system. We will discuss the possible mechanisms that underlie this activation. Mouth motor system activation can be due to re-enactment of the experience of conceptual acquisition, which occurred through the mediation of language. Alternatively, it could be due to the re-explanation of the word meaning, possibly through inner speech. Finally, it can be due to a metacognitive process revealing low confidence in the meaning of our concepts. This process induces in us the need to rely on others to ask/negotiate conceptual meaning. We conclude that with abstract concepts language works as a social tool: it extends our thinking abilities and pushes us to rely on others to integrate our knowledge.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use, and representation in the brain'. © 2018 The Author(s).

  9. 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.

  10. Effectiveness of a Parent-Implemented Language and Literacy Intervention in the Home Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ijalba, Elizabeth

    2015-01-01

    Few studies explore parent-implemented literacy interventions in the home language for young children with problems in language acquisition. A shift in children's use of the home language to English has been documented when English is the only language of instruction. When parents are not proficient in English, such language shift can limit…

  11. 32 CFR 700.326 - The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Assistants § 700.326 The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition). The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) is responsible for: (a) Research... 32 National Defense 5 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research...

  12. Providing Graduated Corrective Feedback in an Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ai, Haiyang

    2017-01-01

    Corrective feedback (CF), a response to linguistic errors made by second language (L2) learners, has received extensive scholarly attention in second language acquisition. While much of the previous research in the field has focused on whether CF facilitates or impedes L2 development, few studies have examined the efficacy of gradually modifying…

  13. Conversation Analysis at the Service of Research in the Field of Second Language Acquisition (CA-for-SLA)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masats, Dolors

    2017-01-01

    Learning a language in a formal context is not the same as learning a language in a natural setting, in that the goal of one of the participants in the communicative events that occur in the classroom, the teacher, is to teach a language. For this reason, the majority of the actions undertaken by the participants are directed at achieving that…

  14. Age of acquisition predicts rate of lexical evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monaghan, Padraic

    2014-12-01

    The processes taking place during language acquisition are proposed to influence language evolution. However, evidence demonstrating the link between language learning and language evolution is, at best, indirect, constituting studies of laboratory-based artificial language learning studies or computational simulations of diachronic change. In the current study, a direct link between acquisition and evolution is established, showing that for two hundred fundamental vocabulary items, the age at which words are acquired is a predictor of the rate at which they have changed in studies of language evolution. Early-acquired words are more salient and easier to process than late-acquired words, and these early-acquired words are also more stably represented within the community's language. Analysing the properties of these early-acquired words potentially provides insight into the origins of communication, highlighting features of words that have been ultra-conserved in language. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Use of Federal Acquisition Regulation. Part 12. Contracts for Applied Research

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    2001-01-01

    ...) Part 12, "Acquisition of Commercial Items,"contracts for acquiring applied research. Applied research involves the scientific efforts to translate basic research into solutions for broadly defined military needs...

  16. Researching Language and Neoliberalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Hyunjung; Park, Joseph Sung-Yul

    2016-01-01

    This special issue aims to develop a research agenda that brings language to the centre of our inquiry and critique of neoliberalism. Based on empirical case studies from across diverse contexts in Europe, North America, and East Asia, contributors to this special issue address two issues: (1) What can be said about the nature of neoliberalism…

  17. Assessment of Dyslexia in the Urdu Language

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haidry, Sana

    2017-01-01

    Urdu is spoken by more than 500 million people around the world but still is an under-researched language. The studies presented in this thesis focus on typical and poor literacy development in Urdu-speaking children during early reading acquisition. In the first study, we developed and validated a

  18. The Effectiveness of the Comprehension Hypothesis: A Review on the Current Research on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ponniah, Joseph

    2011-01-01

    The Comprehension Hypothesis (CH) is the most powerful hypothesis in the field of Second Language Acquisition despite the presence of the rivals the skill-building hypothesis, the output hypothesis, and the interaction hypothesis. The competing hypotheses state that consciously learned linguistic knowledge is a necessary step for the development…

  19. Adult language learning after minimal exposure to an unknown natural language

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gullberg, M.; Robert, L.; Dimroth, C.; Veroude, K.; Indefrey, P.

    2010-01-01

    Despite the literature on the role of input in adult second-language (L2) acquisition and on artificial and statistical language learning, surprisingly little is known about how adults break into a new language in the wild. This article reports on a series of behavioral and neuroimaging studies that

  20. Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Sign Language Test Development: Results of an International Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haug, Tobias

    2015-01-01

    Sign language test development is a relatively new field within sign linguistics, motivated by the practical need for assessment instruments to evaluate language development in different groups of learners (L1, L2). Due to the lack of research on the structure and acquisition of many sign languages, developing an assessment instrument poses…

  1. Learning for life, a structured and motivational process of knowledge construction in the acquisition/learning of English as a foreign language in native Spanish speakers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Miño-Garcés

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available As language learning theory has shifted from a highly guided to a more open learning process, this paper presents the teaching/learning philosophy called Learning for Life (L for L as a great way to motivate native Spanish speaker students learning English as a foreign language, and to help them be the constructors of their own knowledge. The Learning for Life philosophy was created by Patricia López de Jaramillo, M.A. and Fernando Miño-Garcés, Ph.D. at the Andean Center for Latin American Studies (ACLAS in Quito – Ecuador. In the Learning for Life philosophy, the learner is the center of the process and becomes the creator of his/her own knowledge. To get to this new dimension in learning, acquisition is emphasized, and the principles of this philosophy are applied in the EFL classroom. The definition of the philosophy and its principles are presented, and explained in detail as to how they can be applied in the teaching of a foreign language. This paper also explains the difference between acquisition versus learning, and what process should be applied in the classroom to emphasize on acquisition, and not so much on learning.

  2. Psycholinguistically Oriented Second Language Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juffs, Alan

    2001-01-01

    Reviews recent research that investigates second language performance from the perspective of sentence processing (on-line comprehension studies) and word recognition. Concentrates on describing methods that employ reaction time measures as correlates of processing difficulty or knowledge representation. (Author/VWL)

  3. The Prospect and Challenge of Textbook Research in English Language Education

    OpenAIRE

    王, 林鋒

    2014-01-01

    This paper respectively illustrates the development of generic textbook research and English language textbook research. The review of generic textbook research starts with the establishment of the field, then moves to the emergence of New Sociology of Education, and finally describes its research methodology as well. The development of English language textbook research is traced back to teaching material development in English-speaking countries. Following that, a survey of English language...

  4. A Critical Appraisal of Foreign Language Research in Content and Language Integrated Learning, Young Language Learners, and Technology-Enhanced Language Learning Published in Spain (2003-2012)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dooly, Melinda; Masats, Dolors

    2015-01-01

    This state-of-the-art review provides a critical overview of research publications in Spain in the last ten years in three areas of teaching and learning foreign languages (especially English): context and language integrated learning (CLIL), young language learners (YLL), and technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). These three domains have…

  5. Content and Language Integrated Learning and the inclusion of immigrant minority language students: A research review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somers, Thomas

    2017-08-01

    This article addresses the inclusion of immigrant minority language students in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) bilingual education programmes. It reviews results of research on (1) the reasons, beliefs and attitudes underlying immigrant minority language parents' and students' choice for CLIL programmes; (2) these students' proficiency in the languages of instruction and their academic achievement; and (3) the effects of first language typology on their second and third language proficiency. The author explores conditions and reasons for the effectiveness of CLIL pedagogy, as well as the comparative suitability of CLIL programmes for immigrant minority language students. The review shows that CLIL programmes provide a means to acquire important linguistic, economic and symbolic capital in order to effect upward social mobility. Findings demonstrate that immigrant minority language students enrolled in CLIL programmes are able to develop equal or superior levels of proficiency in both languages of instruction compared to majority language students; with previous development of first language literacy positively impacting academic language development. CLIL programmes are found to offer immigrant minority language students educational opportunities and effective pedagogical support which existing mainstream monolingual and minority bilingual education programmes may not always be able to provide. In light of these findings, the author discusses shortcomings in current educational policy. The article concludes with recommendations for further research.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

  6. "Deja Vu"? A Decade of Research on Language Laboratories, Television and Video in Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanderplank, Robert

    2010-01-01

    The developments in the last ten years in the form of DVD, streaming video, video on demand, interactive television and digital language laboratories call for an assessment of the research into language teaching and learning making use of these technologies and the learning paradigms underpinning them. This paper surveys research on language…

  7. Language, arithmetic word problems, and deaf students: Linguistic strategies used to solve tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

    2001-12-01

    There has been limited examination of the intersection between language and arithmetic in the performance of deaf students, although some previous research has shown that deaf and hearing-impaired1 students are delayed in both their language acquisition and arithmetic performance. This paper examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in South-East Queensland, Australia, in solving arithmetic word problems. It was found that the subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for hearing students, but that their performance was delayed in comparison. The results confirm other studies where deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language acquisition and this impacts on their capacity to successfully undertake the resolution of word problems.

  8. Theorizing and Studying the Language-Teaching Mind: Mapping Research on Language Teacher Cognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burns, Anne; Freeman, Donald; Edwards, Emily

    2015-01-01

    The overarching project of the conceptual and empirical contributions in this special issue is to redraw boundaries for language teacher cognition research. Our aim in this final article is to complement the foregoing collection of articles by conceptualizing ontologically and methodologically past and current trajectories in language teacher…

  9. Musical expertise and second language learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chobert, Julie; Besson, Mireille

    2013-06-06

    Increasing evidence suggests that musical expertise influences brain organization and brain functions. Moreover, results at the behavioral and neurophysiological levels reveal that musical expertise positively influences several aspects of speech processing, from auditory perception to speech production. In this review, we focus on the main results of the literature that led to the idea that musical expertise may benefit second language acquisition. We discuss several interpretations that may account for the influence of musical expertise on speech processing in native and foreign languages, and we propose new directions for future research.

  10. ESL Learners' Online Research and Comprehension Strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sain, Noridah; Bown, Andy; Fluck, Andrew; Kebble, Paul

    2017-01-01

    In order to enhance second language (L2) acquisition, English as a Second Language (ESL) students are encouraged to exploit the abundant information and opportunities for authentic language use afforded by the Internet. This study investigated the online research and comprehension strategies employed by ESL learners in a public university in…

  11. Signed Language Working Memory Capacity of Signed Language Interpreters and Deaf Signers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jihong; Napier, Jemina

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated the effects of hearing status and age of signed language acquisition on signed language working memory capacity. Professional Auslan (Australian sign language)/English interpreters (hearing native signers and hearing nonnative signers) and deaf Auslan signers (deaf native signers and deaf nonnative signers) completed an…

  12. Figurative Language and Multicultural Education: Metaphors of Language Acquisition and Retention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erdmann, Susan

    2016-01-01

    Linguistics has long recognised that figurative language in the form of metaphorical expressions structures and communicates attitudes towards the ideas and concepts being expressed and that multilingual students also employ linguistic figures frequently in their writing. In this study, multilingual students use figurative language to both…

  13. The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

    OpenAIRE

    Hayat Eid Alroudhan

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the syntactic structure of RRCs in English and Arabic with regard to the use of resumptive pronouns and the use of overt versus covert relative markers as relat...

  14. Language acquisition for deaf children: Reducing the harms of zero tolerance to the use of alternative approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Humphries Tom

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Children acquire language without instruction as long as they are regularly and meaningfully engaged with an accessible human language. Today, 80% of children born deaf in the developed world are implanted with cochlear devices that allow some of them access to sound in their early years, which helps them to develop speech. However, because of brain plasticity changes during early childhood, children who have not acquired a first language in the early years might never be completely fluent in any language. If they miss this critical period for exposure to a natural language, their subsequent development of the cognitive activities that rely on a solid first language might be underdeveloped, such as literacy, memory organization, and number manipulation. An alternative to speech-exclusive approaches to language acquisition exists in the use of sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL, where acquiring a sign language is subject to the same time constraints of spoken language development. Unfortunately, so far, these alternatives are caught up in an "either - or" dilemma, leading to a highly polarized conflict about which system families should choose for their children, with little tolerance for alternatives by either side of the debate and widespread misinformation about the evidence and implications for or against either approach. The success rate with cochlear implants is highly variable. This issue is still debated, and as far as we know, there are no reliable predictors for success with implants. Yet families are often advised not to expose their child to sign language. Here absolute positions based on ideology create pressures for parents that might jeopardize the real developmental needs of deaf children. What we do know is that cochlear implants do not offer accessible language to many deaf children. By the time it is clear that the deaf child is not acquiring spoken language with cochlear devices, it might already be

  15. The Importance of Early Sign Language Acquisition for Deaf Readers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, M. Diane; Hauser, Peter C.; Miller, Paul; Kargin, Tevhide; Rathmann, Christian; Guldenoglu, Birkan; Kubus, Okan; Spurgeon, Erin; Israel, Erica

    2016-01-01

    Researchers have used various theories to explain deaf individuals' reading skills, including the dual route reading theory, the orthographic depth theory, and the early language access theory. This study tested 4 groups of children--hearing with dyslexia, hearing without dyslexia, deaf early signers, and deaf late signers (N = 857)--from 4…

  16. First and Second Language Acquisition in German Children Attending a Kindergarten Immersion Program: A Combined Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergström, Kirstin; Klatte, Maria; Steinbrink, Claudia; Lachmann, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition in two age-matched groups of 2- to 6-year-old kindergarten children over the course of 2.5 years. The immersion group participated in a partial English immersion program whereas the conventional instruction group received a conventional L2 course (30 minutes per week); the…

  17. Multi-Language Programs. Beginnings Workshop.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Onofrio-Papadaki, Evienia; Matsalia, Joan; Bowie, Paula; Wardle, Francis; Bruno, Holly Elissa

    2003-01-01

    Presents five articles on multi-language programs in early childhood education: "Bilingualism/Multilingualism and Language Acquisition Theories" (Evienia Papadaki-D'Onofrio); "Training and Supporting Caregivers Who Speak a Language Different from Those in Their Community" (Joan Matsalia and Paula Bowie); "Language Immersion Programs for Young…

  18. Action Control, L2 Motivational Self System, and Motivated Learning Behavior in a Foreign Language Learning Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khany, Reza; Amiri, Majid

    2018-01-01

    Theoretical developments in second or foreign language motivation research have led to a better understanding of the convoluted nature of motivation in the process of language acquisition. Among these theories, action control theory has recently shown a good deal of explanatory power in second language learning contexts and in the presence of…

  19. Implicit memory in music and language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ettlinger, Marc; Margulis, Elizabeth H; Wong, Patrick C M

    2011-01-01

    Research on music and language in recent decades has focused on their overlapping neurophysiological, perceptual, and cognitive underpinnings, ranging from the mechanism for encoding basic auditory cues to the mechanism for detecting violations in phrase structure. These overlaps have most often been identified in musicians with musical knowledge that was acquired explicitly, through formal training. In this paper, we review independent bodies of work in music and language that suggest an important role for implicitly acquired knowledge, implicit memory, and their associated neural structures in the acquisition of linguistic or musical grammar. These findings motivate potential new work that examines music and language comparatively in the context of the implicit memory system.

  20. Implicit Memory in Music and Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marc eEttlinger

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Research on music and language in recent decades has focused on their overlapping neurophysiological, perceptual, and cognitive underpinnings, ranging from the mechanism for encoding basic auditory cues to the mechanism for detecting violations in phrase structure. These overlaps have most often been identified in musicians with musical knowledge that was acquired explicitly, through formal training. In this paper, we review independent bodies of work in music and language that suggest an important role for implicitly acquired knowledge, implicit memory, and their associated neural structures in the acquisition of linguistic or musical grammar. These findings motivate potential new work that examines music and language comparatively in the context of the implicit memory system.

  1. Evidentiality and Suggestibility: A New Research Venue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydin, Cagla; Ceci, Stephen J.

    2009-01-01

    Recent research suggests that acquisition of mental-state language may influence conceptual development. We examine this possibility by investigating the conceptual links between evidentiality in language and suggestibility. Young children are disproportionately suggestible and tend to change their reports or memories when questioned. The authors…

  2. Embedded data acquisition system with MDSPlus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rajpal, Rachana; Patel, Jigneshkumar; Kumari, Praveena; Panchal, Vipul; Chattopadhyay, P.K.; Pujara, Harshad; Saxena, Y.C.

    2012-01-01

    This data acquisition system (DAS) is designed and developed to cater the increasing demand of Plasma Diagnostics for Aditya Tokamak as well as to support the basic physics research going on at Institute for Plasma Research. The main design criteria were to design a system with minimum resources and flexible to cater the needs of slow and fast diagnostic channels and can be easily integrated with the existing data acquisition system of Aditya Tokamak. The DAS is designed on embedded PC/104 platform. This is a multi channel system which supports standard features of commercially available DAS. The control and bus interface logic are implemented using Very High Speed Hardware Description Language (VHDL) on Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD). For Aditya Tokamak pulse experiment, the software application is designed such that the data is directly integrated to the MDSplus tree of Aditya DAS. The detailed hardware and software design, development and testing results will be discussed in the paper.

  3. Emergent Target Language Identities among Latino English Language Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ciriza-Lope, Maria; Shappeck, Marco; Arxer, Steven

    2016-01-01

    During 2nd language acquisition, a learner's identity is consigned, juxtaposed, coconstructed, and reified through various affective positions and mitigating linguistic behaviors. Our study of adult Latino ESL students in Dallas, Texas, shows how language socialization experiences are shaped by the learners' affective stances toward the project of…

  4. Integrating language awareness with critical language skills: a legal ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    It argues that this could be achieved through an approach that integrates the teaching of vocabulary and grammar with the teaching of critical language awareness. ... The results indicate how using the integrated approach in question can facilitate not only second-language learners' acquisition of linguistic competence in ...

  5. Research Tasks on Identity in Language Learning and Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norton, Bonny; De Costa, Peter I.

    2018-01-01

    The growing interest in identity and language education over the past two decades, coupled with increased interest in digital technology and transnationalism, has resulted in a rich body of work that has informed language learning, teaching, and research. To keep abreast of these developments in identity research, the authors propose a series of…

  6. The Use of Foreign Languages in Tourism: Research Needs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watts, Noel

    1994-01-01

    Examines the research needs relative to the use of foreign languages in tourism activities in Australia and New Zealand. Findings indicate a lack of precise information on the ways in which the tourism industry in these countries provides appropriate language assistance to non-English speaking inbound visitors. Suggestions for future research are…

  7. 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…

  8. English as a third language in Norwegian schools. A study on English teachers' multilingual competence and knowledge of third language acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Pedersen, Line

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates whether or not English teachers have the ability to teach English as an L3. The basis of this is the increase in multilingual pupils in Norwegian schools that are acquiring/will be acquiring English as their third language. The research question is as follows: ”Do English teachers have sufficient knowledge and competence in multilingualism to teach English as a third language to multilingual pupils?” As well as answering the research question, the study seeks to an...

  9. Transforming Language Ideologies through Action Research: A Case Study of Bilingual Science Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Eunah

    This qualitative case study explored a third grade bilingual teacher's transformative language ideologies through participating in a collaborative action research project. By merging language ideologies theory, Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), and action research, I was able to identify the analytic focus of this study. I analyzed how one teacher and I, the researcher, collaboratively reflected on classroom language practices during the video analysis meetings and focus groups. Further, I analyzed twelve videos that we coded together to see the changes in the teacher's language practices over time. My unit of analysis was the discourse practice mediated by additive language ideologies. Throughout the collaborative action research process, we both critically reflected on the classroom language use. We also developed a critical consciousness about the participatory shifts and learning of focal English Learner (EL) students. Finally, the teacher made changes to her classroom language practices. The results of this study will contribute to the literacy education research field for theoretical, methodological, and practical insights. The integration of language ideologies, CHAT, and action research can help educational practitioners, researchers, and policy makers understand the importance of transforming teachers' language ideologies in designing additive learning contexts for ELs. From a methodological perspective, the transformative language ideologies through researcher and teacher collaborated video analysis process provide a unique contribution to the language ideologies in education literature, with analytic triangulation. As a practical implication, this study suggests action research can be one of the teacher education tools to help the teachers transform language ideologies for EL education.

  10. Computers in Language Testing: Present Research and Some Future Directions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, James Dean

    1997-01-01

    Explores recent developments in the use of computers in language testing in four areas: (1) item banking; (2) computer-assisted language testing; (3) computerized-adaptive language testing; and (4) research on the effectiveness of computers in language testing. Examines educational measurement literature in an attempt to forecast the directions…

  11. Sociocultural Theory Applied to Second Language Learning: Collaborative Learning with Reference to the Chinese Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dongyu, Zhang; Fanyu, B.; Wanyi, Du

    2013-01-01

    This paper discusses the sociocultural theory (SCT). In particular, three significant concepts of Vyogtsky's theory: self-regulation, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and scaffolding all of which have been discussed in numerous second language acquisition (SLA) and second language learning (SLL) research papers. These concepts lay the…

  12. Learners' Perceptions of Online Elements in a Beginners' Language Blended Course--Implications for CALL Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pulker, Hélène; Vialleton, Elodie

    2015-01-01

    Much research has been done on blended learning and the design of tasks most appropriate for online environments and computer-mediated communication. Increasingly, language teachers and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) practitioners recognise the different nature of communications in online settings and in face-to-face settings; teachers do not…

  13. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. Phonological working memory and auditory processing speed in children with specific language impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatemeh Haresabadi

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Specific language impairment (SLI, one variety of developmental language disorder, has attracted much interest in recent decades. Much research has been conducted to discover why some children have a specific language impairment. So far, research has failed to identify a reason for this linguistic deficiency. Some researchers believe language disorder causes defects in phonological working memory and affects auditory processing speed. Therefore, this study reviews the results of research investigating these two factors in children with specific language impairment.Recent Findings: Studies have shown that children with specific language impairment face constraints in phonological working memory capacity. Memory deficit is one possible cause of linguistic disorder in children with specific language impairment. However, in these children, disorder in information processing speed is observed, especially regarding the auditory aspect.Conclusion: Much more research is required to adequately explain the relationship between phonological working memory and auditory processing speed with language. However, given the role of phonological working memory and auditory processing speed in language acquisition, a focus should be placed on phonological working memory capacity and auditory processing speed in the assessment and treatment of children with a specific language impairment.

  17. An intelligent data acquisition system for fluid mechanics research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cantwell, E. R.; Zilliac, G.; Fukunishi, Y.

    1989-01-01

    This paper describes a novel data acquisition system for use with wind-tunnel probe-based measurements, which incorporates a degree of specific fluid dynamics knowledge into a simple expert system-like control program. The concept was developed with a rudimentary expert system coupled to a probe positioning mechanism operating in a small-scale research wind tunnel. The software consisted of two basic elements, a general-purpose data acquisition system and the rulebased control element to take and analyze data and supplying decisions as to where to measure, how many data points to take, and when to stop. The system was validated in an experiment involving a vortical flow field, showing that it was possible to increase the resolution of the experiment or, alternatively, reduce the total number of data points required, to achieve parity with the results of most conventional data acquisition approaches.

  18. Hypermedia and Vocabulary Acquisition for Second Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meli, Rocio

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of multimedia as a delivery tool for enhancing vocabulary in second-language classrooms. The mixed method design focused on specific techniques to help students acquire Spanish vocabulary and communication skills. The theoretical framework for this study consisted of second language theories…

  19. The role of the left inferior parietal lobule in second language learning: An intensive language training fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbeau, Elise B; Chai, Xiaoqian J; Chen, Jen-Kai; Soles, Jennika; Berken, Jonathan; Baum, Shari; Watkins, Kate E; Klein, Denise

    2017-04-01

    Research to date suggests that second language acquisition results in functional and structural changes in the bilingual brain, however, in what way and how quickly these changes occur remains unclear. To address these questions, we studied fourteen English-speaking monolingual adults enrolled in a 12-week intensive French language-training program in Montreal. Using functional MRI, we investigated the neural changes associated with new language acquisition. The participants were scanned before the start of the immersion program and at the end of the 12 weeks. The fMRI scan aimed to investigate the brain regions recruited in a sentence reading task both in English, their first language (L1), and in French, their second language (L2). For the L1, fMRI patterns did not change from Time 1 to Time 2, while for the L2, the brain response changed between Time 1 and Time 2 in language-related areas. Of note, for the L2, there was higher activation at Time 2 compared to Time 1 in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) including the supramarginal gyrus. At Time 2 this higher activation in the IPL correlated with faster L2 reading speed. Moreover, higher activation in the left IPL at Time 1 predicted improvement in L2 reading speed from Time 1 to Time 2. Our results suggest that learning-induced plasticity occurred as early as 12 weeks into immersive second-language training, and that the IPL appears to play a special role in language learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hayat Eid Alroudhan

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs, as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2 research. The present study discusses the syntactic structure of RRCs in English and Arabic with regard to the use of resumptive pronouns and the use of overt versus covert relative markers as related to the definiteness of the head noun. This study is carried out using an acceptability judgment test as the tool for data collection. A sample of 100 male and female adult Arabic speakers is used with the aim of identifying potential acquisition problems. The results obtained provide further support for first language (L1 transfer. This study concludes that participants accepted the use of resumptive pronouns and preferred the overt relative markers determined by definiteness. It is further discovered that certain factors influenced the acquisition process such as participants’ age, age of learning, and age of immersion. The current study has some pedagogical implications for the teaching of relative clauses in the EFL context. Keywords: English Relative Clauses, Restrictive Relative Clauses, Relative pronoun, Arab Learners of English