Second Language Acquisition at the Early Childhood Level: A 5-Year Longitudinal Case Study of Pre-Kindergarten Through First-Grade Students

TESOL Journal ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 674-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Billak
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study

Does Bilingualism Expand the Cognitive Experience of the Students?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
María Bobadilla-Pérez ◽  
Suellen Pereira-Balado
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The World ◽  
Cognitive Experience ◽  
The One

This chapter shows the results of a study carried out in an immersion early education classroom in Galicia (Spain). The study focuses on how children in a bilingual context develop their perception of the world according to the concepts they are able to build around things in their environment, using the language as a reference. A brief theoretical framework precedes the presentation of the study. On the one hand, attention is paid to the pedagogical implications of second language acquisition in early childhood. Secondly, and most importantly, the nature of the bilingual brain is discussed through the consideration of the works of relevant authors in the field. Later, the case study is explained. For the purpose of the qualitative research, participants were presented with different images to be described in English and Spanish, and an observation table was designed in order to classify the utterances produced by the students. As will be discussed, results showed that students in immersion educational contexts increase their sense of the world when using both languages.

Does Bilingualism Expand the Cognitive Experience of the Students?

2022 ◽  
pp. 290-303
Author(s):  
María Bobadilla-Pérez ◽  
Suellen Pereira-Balado
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The World ◽  
Cognitive Experience ◽  
The One

This chapter shows the results of a study carried out in an immersion early education classroom in Galicia (Spain). The study focuses on how children in a bilingual context develop their perception of the world according to the concepts they are able to build around things in their environment, using the language as a reference. A brief theoretical framework precedes the presentation of the study. On the one hand, attention is paid to the pedagogical implications of second language acquisition in early childhood. Secondly, and most importantly, the nature of the bilingual brain is discussed through the consideration of the works of relevant authors in the field. Later, the case study is explained. For the purpose of the qualitative research, participants were presented with different images to be described in English and Spanish, and an observation table was designed in order to classify the utterances produced by the students. As will be discussed, results showed that students in immersion educational contexts increase their sense of the world when using both languages.

First-Language Acquisition After Childhood Differs From Second-Language Acquisition

1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1258-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel I. Mayberry
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Late Childhood ◽  
First Language Acquisition

This study determined whether the long-range outcome of first-language acquisition, when the learning begins after early childhood, is similar to that of second-language acquisition. Subjects were 36 deaf adults who had contrasting histories of spoken and sign language acquisition. Twenty-seven subjects were born deaf and began to acquire American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language at ages ranging from infancy to late childhood. Nine other subjects were born with normal hearing, which they lost in late childhood; they subsequently acquired ASL as a second language (because they had acquired spoken English as a first language in early childhood). ASL sentence processing was measured by recall of long and complex sentences and short-term memory for signed digits. Subjects who acquired ASL as a second language after childhood outperformed those who acquired it as a first language at exactly the same age. In addition, the performance of the subjects who acquired ASL as a first language declined in association with increasing age of acquisition. Effects were most apparent for sentence processing skills related to lexical identification, grammatical acceptability, and memory for sentence meaning. No effects were found for skills related to fine-motor production and pattern segmentation.

scholarly journals A CASE STUDY OF THE EFL LEARNER’S NEEDS ANALYSIS BASED ON KRASHEN’S MONITOR THEORY

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 265-272
Author(s):  
Yunjie Huang ◽  
Yi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Affective Filter ◽  
Main Instrument

Learners play a vital role in the process of second language acquisition (SLA). Needs analysis can realistically reflect learners’ circumstances when learning the second language. In the presented paper, one EFL learner was selected as a case to do the needs analysis, in which the interview was the main instrument for the analysis. Based on Krashen’s monitor theory, results found that, firstly, the learner’s English needs had not been met. Then, insufficient input as well as complex and an extremely high affective filter were two significant reasons for the failure of needs accomplishment. Additionally, this case study provided the suggestions responding to the specific circumstances of a high affective filter and offered the experience for the further larger-scaled studies of related needs analysis.

scholarly journals A CASE STUDY OF FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SUCCESSFUL SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Chen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Learning Success

Every case of second language learning is different, but they are often influenced by systematic factors. What causes a learner to succeed or fail? In this case study, the language learning experiences of a single nonnative English speaker who successfully acquired English sheds light on the interplay between several of these aspects. An interview with a single adult subject reveals that for this particular individual, a high aptitude, as well as identity and personality characteristics that aligned with an openness to experience and learning in general, were more effective than factors of motivation. While identifying how and why a single individual may be successful or unsuccessful might not be generalizable to all learners, it can serve as a tool in helping to understand differences in L2 learning success.  

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