scholarly journals Bilingual language experience as a multidimensional spectrum: Associations with objective and subjective language proficiency

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Jason W. Gullifer ◽  
Shanna Kousaie ◽  
Annie C. Gilbert ◽  
Angela Grant ◽  
Nathalie Giroud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Homogeneous Groups ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Native Language Proficiency

Abstract Despite the multifactorial space of language experience in which people continuously vary, bilinguals are often dichotomized into ostensibly homogeneous groups. The timing of language exposure (age of acquisition) to a second language (L2) is one well-studied construct that is known to impact language processing, cognitive processing, and brain organization, but recent work shows that current language exposure is also a crucial determinant in these domains. Critically, many indices of bilingual experience are inherently subjective and based on self-report questionnaires. Such measures have been criticized in favor of objective measures of language ability (e.g., naming ability or verbal fluency). Here, we estimate the bilingual experience jointly as a function of multiple continuous aspects of experience, including the timing of language exposure, the amount of L2 exposure across communicative contexts, and language entropy (a flexible measure of language balance) across communicative contexts. The results suggest that current language exposure exhibits distinct but interrelated patterns depending on the socio-experiential context of language usage. They also suggest that, counterintuitively, our sample more accurately self-assesses L2 proficiency than native language proficiency. A precise quantification of the multidimensional nature of bilingualism will enhance the ability of future research to assess language processing, acquisition, and control.

scholarly journals Bilingual language experience as a multidimensional spectrum: Associations with objective and subjective language proficiency

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason William Gullifer ◽  
Shanna Kousaie ◽  
Annie C. Gilbert ◽  
Angela Marie Grant ◽  
Nathalie Giroud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Homogeneous Groups ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Native Language Proficiency

Despite the multifactorial space of language experience in which people continuously vary, bilinguals are often dichotomized into ostensibly homogeneous groups. The timing of language exposure (age of acquisition; AoA) to a second language (L2) is one well-studied construct that is known to impact language processing, cognitive processing, and brain organization, but recent work shows that current language exposure is also a crucial determinant in these domains. Critically, many indices of bilingual experience are inherently subjective and based on self-report questionnaires. Such measures have been criticized in favor of objective measures of language ability (e.g., naming ability or verbal fluency). Here, we estimate the bilingual experience jointly as a function of multiple continuous aspects of experience, including the timing of language exposure, the amount of L2 exposure across communicative contexts, and language entropy (a flexible measure of language balance) across communicative contexts. The results suggest that current language exposure exhibits distinct but interrelated patterns depending on the socio-experiential context of language usage. They also suggest that, counterintuitively, our sample more accurately self-assesses L2 proficiency than native language proficiency. A precise quantification of the multidimensional nature of bilingualism will enhance the ability of future research to assess language processing, acquisition, and control.

scholarly journals Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W. Gullifer ◽  
Debra Titone
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Diversity ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language History ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Control

AbstractBilingual and multilingual individuals exhibit variation in everyday language experience. Studies on bilingualism account for individual differences with measures such as L2 age of acquisition, exposure, or language proficiency, but recent theoretical perspectives posit that the relative balance between the two or more languages throughout daily life (i.e., interactional context) is a crucial determinant for language representation, access, and control. We propose an innovative measure to characterize this construct by using entropy to estimate the social diversity of language use. Language entropy is computed from commonly-collected language history data and generalizes to multilingual communicative contexts. We show how language entropy relates to other indices of bilingual experience and that it predicts self-report L2 outcome measures over and above classic measures of language experience. Thus, we proffer language entropy as a means to characterize individual differences in bilingual (and multilingual) language experience related to the social diversity of language use.

scholarly journals Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Gullifer ◽  
Debra Titone
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Social Diversity ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language History ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Control

Bilingual and multilingual individuals exhibit variation in everyday language experience. Studies on bilingualism account for individual differences with measures such as L2 age of acquisition, exposure, or language proficiency, but recent theoretical perspectives posit that the relative balance between the two or more languages throughout daily life (i.e., INTERACTIONAL CONTEXT) is a crucial determinant for language representation, access, and control. We propose an innovative measure to characterize this construct by using ENTROPY to estimate the social diversity of language use. Language entropy is computed from commonly-collected language history data and generalizes to multilingual communicative contexts. We show how language entropy relates to other indices of bilingual experience and that it predicts self-report L2 outcome measures over and above classic measures of language experience. Thus, we proffer language entropy as a means to characterize individual differences in bilingual (and multilingual) language experience related to the social diversity of language use.

scholarly journals PREDICTING LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile De Cat
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Flexibility Measures

AbstractUsing advanced quantitative methods, this article demonstrates that cumulative exposure to the school language is the best language experience predictor of proficiency in that language (as indexed by sentence repetition, lexical semantic, and discourse semantic tasks) in a highly diverse group of 5- to 7-year-old bilingual children in monolingual education. An objective method is proposed to identify the amount of school language experience beyond which bilingual children are likely to perform within the monolingual range, and show that relative passivity in the home language does not translate into better school language proficiency. Socioeconomic status is shown to interact in complex ways with language exposure, such that it is only above a certain level of exposure to the school language that the benefits of a more privileged background have a tangible impact on school language proficiency. To tease apart the effect of environmental predictors from the effect of cognitive factors, memory and cognitive flexibility measures are included as covariates in all analyses.

scholarly journals The Quest for Signals in Noise: Leveraging Experiential Variation to Identify Bilingual Phenotypes

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Anne L. Beatty-Martínez ◽  
Debra A. Titone
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Systematic Variation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Multidimensional Construct ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Performance Patterns

Increasing evidence suggests that bilingualism does not, in itself, result in a particular pattern of response, revealing instead a complex and multidimensional construct that is shaped by evolutionary and ecological sources of variability. Despite growing recognition of the need for a richer characterization of bilingual speakers and of the different contexts of language use, we understand relatively little about the boundary conditions of putative “bilingualism” effects. Here, we review recent findings that demonstrate how variability in the language experiences of bilingual speakers, and also in the ability of bilingual speakers to adapt to the distinct demands of different interactional contexts, impact interactions between language use, language processing, and cognitive control processes generally. Given these findings, our position is that systematic variation in bilingual language experience gives rise to a variety of phenotypes that have different patterns of associations across language processing and cognitive outcomes. The goal of this paper is thus to illustrate how focusing on systematic variation through the identification of bilingual phenotypes can provide crucial insights into a variety of performance patterns, in a manner that has implications for previous and future research.

scholarly journals Dual language experience enhances neural activation variability during an fMRI reading and language task

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey G. Malins ◽  
Hailey D'Silva ◽  
Gigi Luk ◽  
Arturo E. Hernandez ◽  
Stephen J. Frost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Dual Language Learners ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
The Right ◽  
Neural Variability ◽  
The Impact

Previous work has shown that experience speaking more than one language in childhood is associated with decreased intra-individual neural variability in electrophysiological responses during a low-level speech perception task. However, no study has yet evaluated the impact of dual language experience on variability in fMRI responses during a higher-level spoken and written language processing task. In the current study, we calculated trial-by-trial variability in neural activation during an fMRI task that involved deciding whether spoken or printed English words matched pictures of items. We compared trial-by-trial neural activation variability between two groups of 8-15 year-old children: a group of dual language learners (N = 24; 11 female) who were Spanish-dominant and acquiring English, and a group of monolingual learners who were English-dominant (N = 17; 9 female). We found that when controlling for a variety of language, general cognitive, and demographic measures, neural activation variability for printed words was greater in the dual language learners compared to the monolingual learners in the right middle frontal gyrus, a brain region previously associated with attentional control. This finding highlights how neural variability offers a window of opportunity to examine experience-dependent mechanisms during human development, and motivates future research on bilingual language processing.

scholarly journals Bilingual Language Experience Shapes Resting-State Brain Rhythms

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-318
Author(s):  
Kinsey Bice ◽  
Brianna L. Yamasaki ◽  
Chantel S. Prat
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Native Language Proficiency

An increasing body of research has investigated how bilingual language experience changes brain structure and function, including changes to task-free, or “resting-state” brain connectivity. Such findings provide important evidence about how the brain continues to be shaped by different language experiences throughout the lifespan. The neural effects of bilingual language experience can provide evidence about the additional processing demands placed on the linguistic and/or executive systems by dual-language use. While considerable research has used MRI to examine where these changes occur, such methods cannot reveal the temporal dynamics of functioning brain networks at rest. The current study used data from task-free EEGS to disentangle how the linguistic and cognitive demands of bilingual language use impact brain functioning. Data analyzed from 106 bilinguals and 91 monolinguals revealed that bilinguals had greater alpha power, and significantly greater and broader coherence in the alpha and beta frequency ranges than monolinguals. Follow-up analyses showed that higher alpha was related to language control: more second-language use, higher native-language proficiency, and earlier age of second-language acquisition. Bilateral beta power was related to native-language proficiency, whereas theta was related to native-language proficiency only in left-hemisphere electrodes. The results contribute to our understanding of how the linguistic and cognitive requirements of dual-language use shape intrinsic brain activity, and what the broader implications for information processing may be.

scholarly journals Beyond the 30-Million-Word Gap: Children’s Conversational Exposure Is Associated With Language-Related Brain Function

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 700-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel R. Romeo ◽  
Julia A. Leonard ◽  
Sydney T. Robinson ◽  
Martin R. West ◽  
Allyson P. Mackey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Family Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Story Listening ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Word Gap ◽  
Conversational Turns

Children’s early language exposure impacts their later linguistic skills, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement, and large disparities in language exposure are associated with family socioeconomic status (SES). However, there is little evidence about the neural mechanisms underlying the relation between language experience and linguistic and cognitive development. Here, language experience was measured from home audio recordings of 36 SES-diverse 4- to 6-year-old children. During a story-listening functional MRI task, children who had experienced more conversational turns with adults—independently of SES, IQ, and adult-child utterances alone—exhibited greater left inferior frontal (Broca’s area) activation, which significantly explained the relation between children’s language exposure and verbal skill. This is the first evidence directly relating children’s language environments with neural language processing, specifying both an environmental and a neural mechanism underlying SES disparities in children’s language skills. Furthermore, results suggest that conversational experience impacts neural language processing over and above SES or the sheer quantity of words heard.

scholarly journals Predicting language proficiency in bilingual children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecile De Cat
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Flexibility Measures

Using advanced quantitative methods, this paper demonstrates that cumulative exposure to the school language is the best language experience predictor of proficiency in that language (as indexed by sentence repetition, lexical semantic and discourse semantic tasks) in a highly diverse group of 5- to 7-year-old bilingual children in monolingual education. An objective method is proposed to identify the amount of school language experience beyond which bilingual children are likely to perform within the monolingual range, and show that relative passivity in the home language does not translate into better school language proficiency. Socio-economic status is shown to interact in complex ways with language exposure, such that it is only above a certain level of exposure to the school language that the benefits of a more privileged background have a tangible impact on school language proficiency. To tease apart the effect of environmental predictors from the effect of cognitive factors, memory andcognitive flexibility measures are included as covariates in all analyses.

Within-language attention control in second language processing

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARLENE TAUBE-SCHIFFNORMAN ◽  
NORMAN SEGALOWITZ
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Second Language Proficiency ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
Word Classification ◽  
And Performance ◽  
L1 English

This study investigated attention control in tasks involving the processing of relational terms (more highly grammaticized linguistic stimuli: spatial prepositions) and non-relational terms (less highly grammaticized lexical stimuli: nouns) in a first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants were adult bilinguals with greater proficiency in their L1 (English) than in their L2 (French) as determined by self-report and performance on a speeded word classification task. Attention control was operationalized in terms of shift costs obtained in an alternating runs experimental design (Rogers and Monsell, 1995). As hypothesized from consideration of the attention-directing functions of language, participants displayed significantly greater shift costs (lower attention control) for relational terms when performing in the L2 as compared to the L1, but no difference in shift costs for non-relational terms between the two languages. The results are discussed from a cognitive linguistic perspective and in relation to second language proficiency development.

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