Word learning by young sequential bilinguals: Fast mapping in Arabic and Hebrew

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 649-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZOHAR EVIATAR ◽  
HAITHAM TAHA ◽  
VIKKI COHEN ◽  
MILA SCHWARTZ
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Mapping Task ◽  
Better Than

ABSTRACTWe tested children attending bilingual Hebrew–Arabic kindergartens on a fast mapping task. These early sequential bilinguals included those with Hebrew as their home language and those with Arabic as their home language. They were compared to monolingual Hebrew and Arabic speakers. The children saw pictures of unfamiliar objects and were taught pseudowords as the object names that followed typical Hebrew, typical Arabic, or neutral phonotactics. Memory, phonological, and morphological abilities were also measured. The bilingual groups performed similarly to each other, and better than the monolingual groups, who also performed similarly to each other. Memory and the interaction between language experience and metalinguistic abilities (phonological and morphological awareness) significantly accounted for variance on the fast mapping tasks. We predicted that bilinguals would be more sensitive to phonotactics than monolinguals. Instead, we found that Arabic speakers (bilinguals and monolinguals) performed better with Hebrew-like stimuli than with Arabic-like stimuli, and no effect of phonotactics for Hebrew speakers. This may reflect the diglossia in Arabic language acquisition. The results suggest that the process of fast mapping is sharpened by multilingual experience, and may be sensitive to sociolinguistic factors such as diglossia.

The Role of Emergent Bilingualism in the Development of Morphological Awareness in Arabic and Hebrew

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Schwartz ◽  
Haitham Taha ◽  
Hanan Assad ◽  
Ferdos Khamaisi ◽  
Zohar Eviatar
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Initial Exposure ◽  
Word Structure ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Semitic Language ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of dual language development and cross-linguistic influence on morphological awareness in young bilinguals' first language (L1) and second language (L2). We examined whether (a) the bilingual children (L1/L2 Arabic and L1/L2 Hebrew) precede their monolingual Hebrew- or Arabic-speaking peers in L1 and L2 morphological awareness, and (b) 1 Semitic language (Arabic) has cross-linguistic influence on another Semitic language (Hebrew) in morphological awareness. Method The study sample comprised 93 six-year-old children. The bilinguals had attended bilingual Hebrew−Arabic kindergartens for 1 academic year and were divided into 2 groups: home language Hebrew (L1) and home language Arabic (L1). These groups were compared to age-matched monolingual Hebrew speakers and monolingual Arabic speakers. We used nonwords similar in structure to familiar words in both target languages, representing 6 inflectional morphological categories. Results L1 Arabic and L1 Hebrew bilinguals performed significantly better than Arabic- and Hebrew-speaking monolinguals in the respective languages. Differences were not found between the bilingual groups. We found evidence of cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from Arabic to Hebrew in 2 categories−bound possessives and dual number−probably because these categories are more salient in Palestinian Spoken Arabic than in Hebrew. Conclusions We conclude that children with even an initial exposure to L2 reveal acceleration of sensitivity to word structure in both of their languages. We suggest that this is due to the fact that two Semitic languages, Arabic and Hebrew, share a common core of linguistic features, together with favorable contextual factors and instructional factors.

The Type, but Not the Amount, of Information Available Influences Toddlers' Fast Mapping and Retention of New Words

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn W. Brady ◽  
Judith C. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
New Words ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Significant Rate ◽  
Mapping Task ◽  
Novel Words

Purpose The authors of this study examined whether the type and number of word-learning cues affect how children infer and retain word-meaning mappings and whether the use of these cues changes with age. Method Forty-eight 18- to 36-month-old children with typical language participated in a fast-mapping task in which 6 novel words were presented with 3 types of cues to the words' referents, either singly or in pairs. One day later, children were tested for retention of the novel words. Results By 24 months of age, children correctly inferred the referents of the novel words at a significant level. Children retained the meanings of words at a significant rate by 30 months of age. Children retained the first 3 of the 6 word-meaning mappings by 24 months of age. For both fast mapping and retention, the efficacy of different cue types changed with development, but children were equally successful whether the novel words were presented with 1 or 2 cues. Conclusion The type of information available to children at fast mapping affects their ability to both form and retain word-meaning associations. Providing children with more information in the form of paired cues had no effect on either fast mapping or retention.

Testing the acquisition of English productive and non-productive derivatives by native-Arabic speakers

1996 ◽  
Vol 113-114 ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Nassir Saleh Al-qadi
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Predictive Value ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Native Arabic Speakers ◽  
Learning English

Abstract Vocabulary development can be achieved by helping the foreign learner of English to acquire productivity and non-productivity in English derivation. In addition, the English productive derivatives should be given special attention in teaching to and learning by native-Arabic speakers because the Arabic language is a language of derivation and it is highly productive. This paper tests how the adult native-Arabic speakers learning English as a foreign language acquire English productive and non-productive derivatives. This will be done by comparing productivity in standard written Arabic and standard written English through contrastive analysis. The concept of contrastive analysis (CA) is initially called upon the fact that Arabic is a language of productive derivation while English is a language of more than one source of word-formation; borrowing, compounding and derivation. Moreover, productivity in English is not high. Secondly, morphology is subject to avoidance phenomenon by foreign learners. Hence, the predictive value of CA and also its testing in this paper should be very helpful for English teachers to native-Arabic speakers learning English and other foreign learners, language acquisition researchers, applied linguists, methodologists and textbook-writers.

scholarly journals Il terzo stadio dell’imparare

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Facchin
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Essential Work ◽  
Figures Of Speech ◽  
The Third ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
Shed Light

In 1983 the eminent Egyptian linguist Tammām Ḥassān (1918-2011) wrote al-Tamhīd fī iktisāb al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya li-ġayr al-nāṭiqīn bi-hā (Introduction to the Acquisition of Arabic Language by Non Arabic Speakers), an essential work in the field of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language, where he theorised his three-level approach for the acquisition of Arabic language by non Arabs consisting of the first level of knowledge, the second of comprehension and the third, the ‘enjoyment level’ (marḥalat al-istimtāʿ). The aim of the study is to shed light on the third level of language acquisition, which allows learners to detect the beauty of a text and results particularly interesting since it considers certain aspects that characterise Arabic language specificity and legacy such as literary taste (taḏawwuq adabī), stylistic embellishments, figures of speech, etc.

Effects of Speech Practice on Fast Mapping in Monolingual and Bilingual Speakers

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 929-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pui Fong Kan ◽  
Neeraja Sadagopan ◽  
Lauren Janich ◽  
Marixa Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Mapping Experiment ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Mapping Task ◽  
Novel Words

Purpose This study examines the effects of the levels of speech practice on fast mapping in monolingual and bilingual speakers. Method Participants were 30 English-speaking monolingual and 30 Spanish–English bilingual young adults. Each participant was randomly assigned to 1 of 3 practice conditions prior to the fast-mapping task: (a) intensive speech practice, (b) moderate speech practice, or (c) no practice. In a fast-mapping experiment, each participant was briefly exposed to novel objects and their corresponding novel words. Participants' knowledge of the target novel words was assessed immediately after the exposures. Results There were significant effects of speech practice on fast mapping for both monolingual and bilingual adults. It is important to note that participants' language experience also played a role in their fast-mapping performance. Conclusion The findings suggest that speech practice, interacting with language experience, facilitates the processes for fast mapping.

Word learning in a special population: do individuals with Williams syndrome obey lexical constraints?

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
TASSOS STEVENS ◽  
ANNETTE KARMILOFF-SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
New Words ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Lexical Constraints

Williams syndrome (WS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, is of special interest to developmental psycholinguists because of its uneven linguistico-cognitive profile of abilities and deficits. One proficiency manifest in WS adolescents and adults is an unusually large vocabulary despite serious deficits in other domains. In this paper, rather than focus on vocabulary size, we explore the processes underlying vocabulary acquisition, i.e. how new words are learned. A WS group was compared to groups of normal MA-matched controls in the range 3–9 years in four different experiments testing for constraints on word learning. We show that in construing the meaning of new words, normal children at all ages display fast mapping and abide by the constraints tested: mutual exclusivity, whole object and taxonomic. By contrast, while the WS group showed fast mapping and the mutual exclusivity constraint, they did not abide by the whole object or taxonomic constraints. This suggests that measuring only the size of WS vocabulary can distort conclusions about the normalcy of WS language. Our study shows that despite equivalent behaviour (i.e. vocabulary test age), the processes underlying how vocabulary is acquired in WS follow a somewhat different path from that of normal children and that the atypically developing brain is not necessarily a window on normal development.

scholarly journals Effects of Language Variety and Word Availability in Commercial Advertisements on Listener’s Lexical Recall

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-177
Author(s):  
Munerah Algernas ◽  
Yahya Aldholmi
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Key Word ◽  
Dialectal Arabic ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Modern Standard

Commercial advertisements in Arabic-speaking regions tend to alternate between dialectal Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, but it is not yet clear whether language variety has any impact on listener’s lexical recall. Insight into this issue should help enterprises design their commercial advertisements in a linguistically intelligent manner. This study addresses two questions: 1) How does language variety (dialectal vs. standard) affect listener’s lexical recall in commercial advertisements? 2) Do listeners recall words that have appeared in dialectal advertisements better than those that did not appear in advertisements using the same variety? Fifteen Saudi participants responded to a forced-choice memory test with 24 yes-no questions (3 per advertisement) asking participants to report whether they heard a specific key word in eight advertisements that utilized different language varieties. The findings show that Arabic speakers tend to perceive both Modern Standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic in commercial advertisements similarly, but tend to recall the presence of a key word in an advertisement better than its absence. Future research may increase the sample size and examine more Arabic varieties.

scholarly journals THE USE OF PHONEMES IN SYNTAX IN TEACHING ARABIC AS A SECOND LANGUAGE/ توظيف الفونيمات فوق التركيبيّة في تعليم العربيّة لغة ثانية

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulhakeem Abdul Kaleg Al-Hassan Seedah
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Optimal Level ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Definition Of

<p>The study deals with the phonemes on syntax and their employment in the teaching of Arabic to non-Arabic speakers. The study aims at explaining how these phonemes are used in the teaching of Arabic as a second language. The study also aims to explain the role played by these secondary phonemes in communicating the Arabic language to an optimal level of sound; Acoustic sounds are not isolated but need to be viewed at the level of composition as well. Moreover, to reach the desired goals, the researcher divided the research into two sections and contained each of these sections on the axes.</p>The first topic came in terms of theoretical framework, where the researcher talked about the importance of the audio lesson for the Arabic learner a second language, and the second axis of the definition of the phonemes above the structure of the lesson and attention, the practical side of the study was divided into axes, namely:  The use of algebra in the teaching of Arabic as second language, the use of toning in teaching

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