Phonological awareness in young second language learners

ABSTRACTEnglish-speaking children (N = 91) who were attending French schools (bilingual group) were given a battery of phonological awareness tests in kindergarten and in grade 1. At the time of kindergarten testing the mean age of the children was 5:9. Their performance was compared to age-matched English-speaking children (N = 72) attending English schools (monolingual group). The bilingual children showed heightened levels of phonological awareness skills in kindergarten in the area of onset-rime awareness. By grade 1, the pattern of group differences was more complex. The monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly on onset-rime segmentation tasks. The monolingual children had higher phoneme awareness scores than their French-schooled peers; this result is interpreted to reflect the role of literacy instruction on phoneme awareness development. In comparison, the bilingual children had higher syllable segmentation scores than their monolingual peers. This result is interpreted to reflect the role of second language input on phonological awareness.

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Transfer from implicit to explicit phonological abilities in first and second language learners

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728916000523 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 795-812 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

CARESSA JANSSEN ◽

ELIANE SEGERS ◽

JAMES M. MCQUEEN ◽

LUDO VERHOEVEN

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Phonological Awareness ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

First Language ◽

Phoneme Awareness ◽

Phonological Structure ◽

Rhyme Awareness ◽

Phonological Abilities ◽

Sem Analyses

Children's abilities to process the phonological structure of words are important predictors of their literacy development. In the current study, we examined the interrelatedness between implicit (i.e., speech decoding) and explicit (i.e., phonological awareness) phonological abilities, and especially the role therein of lexical specificity (i.e., the ability to learn to recognize spoken words based on only minimal acoustic-phonetic differences). We tested 75 Dutch monolingual and 64 Turkish–Dutch bilingual kindergartners. SEM analyses showed that speech decoding predicted lexical specificity, which in turn predicted rhyme awareness in the first language learners but phoneme awareness in the second language learners. Moreover, in the latter group there was an impact of the second language: Dutch speech decoding and lexical specificity predicted Turkish phonological awareness, which in turn predicted Dutch phonological awareness. We conclude that language-specific phonological characteristics underlie different patterns of transfer from implicit to explicit phonological abilities in first and second language learners.

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When late second language learners access the meaning of L2 words: Using ERPs to investigate the role of the L1 translation equivalent

Journal of Neurolinguistics ◽

10.1016/j.jneuroling.2016.09.006 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 50-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Fengyang Ma ◽

Peiyao Chen ◽

Taomei Guo ◽

Judith F. Kroll

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Translation Equivalent

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Word awareness in second language learners and bilingual children

Language Awareness ◽

10.1080/09658416.1996.9959894 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 80-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Elena Nicoladis ◽

Fred Genesee

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Bilingual Children

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Gestures by advanced Spanish-English second-language learners

Gesture ◽

10.1075/gest.4.2.03she ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 143-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Jody Sherman ◽

Elena Nicoladis

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

English Second Language ◽

Symbolic Gestures ◽

L1 English

We examined the role of deictic (i.e., point) and symbolic (i.e., imagistic) gestures in advanced Spanish-English second-language learners to determine whether the role of gestures is consistent with that of intermediate second-language learners (i.e., Gullberg, 1998). Participants (10 L1 Spanish and 10 L1 English) watched two short cartoons and re-told the stories in both of their languages to native-speaking listeners who had never seen the film. Gestures were coded and analyzed in relation to word types from the verbal narratives. We found that participants used more deictic gestures in their second language, similar to the trend noted in previous research. Contrary to research with low or intermediate proficiency participants, however, symbolic gestures did not appear related to proficiency. Possible reasons for the differences in gesture use by proficiency are discussed.

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Litteraturarbete i ett svenska som andraspråksklassrum

Acta Didactica Norge ◽

10.5617/adno.1704 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 9

Author(s):

Catarina Economou

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Field Studies ◽

Language Instruction ◽

Second Language Instruction ◽

Literature Teaching ◽

Upper Secondary ◽

Literature Pedagogy

AbstractThis article considers the role of reading fiction in Swedish as a second language instruction. The study examines how a group of advanced second language learners in a Swedish upper secondary school read, interpret and discuss a contemporary Swedish novel, how they interact with the text and with each other in relation to the text. Furthermore, it analyses which forms of reading the students use. It is a qualitative, empirical study based on field studies, transcriptions of tape recorded interaction and of written texts. The results indicate that second language learners in this context have a positive attitude towards reading and discussing what they read using several forms of reading. They often compare the content of the text to their own lives. One conclusion is that literature teaching and literature can be integrated into one Swedish subject in order to create even more meaningful interactions between students from different backgrounds. Another is that literature can be a means of language development as well as personal development.Keywords: Second language learners, literature pedagogy and didactics, forms of reading, democracy. SammandragDenna artikel handlar om skönlitteraturens roll i skolämnet svenska som andraspråk. Studien undersöker hur en grupp avancerade andraspråksinlärare i en svensk gymnasieskola läser, tolkar och diskuterar en modern svensk roman och hur de interagerar med texten och med varandra i relation till texten. Dessutom analyseras vilka läsarter som eleverna använde sig av. Den är en kvalitativ, empirisk studie som baseras på fältstudier, transkriptioner av inspelade boksamtal och elevtexter. Resultaten visar att andraspråkseleverna hade en positiv attityd till boksamtal och de använde sig av flera läsarter. De jämförde ofta texten till sina egna liv och erfarenheter. En slutsats är att litteraturundervisning och litteraturarbete skulle kunna integreras i ett gemensamt ämne så att ännu mer meningsfulla samtal mellan elever från olika bakgrund. Dessutom kan litteratur bli ett medel för personlighetsutveckling liksom för språkutveckling.Nyckelord: Andraspråkselever, litteraturpedagogik och didaktik, läsarter, demokrati.

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Gender and number processing in second language Swahili

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.16042.spi ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 446-476

Author(s):

Patti Spinner ◽

Rebecca Foote ◽

Rose Acen Upor

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Noun Phrases ◽

Online Processing ◽

Word Repetition ◽

Language Groups ◽

Conflicting Evidence ◽

English Speaking

Abstract For native speakers, congruent gender marking on determiners and adjectives facilitates recognition of subsequent nouns, while incongruent marking inhibits recognition (e.g., Bates et al., 1996). However, there is conflicting evidence regarding whether second language learners demonstrate this effect. We investigated this issue in Swahili. Native speakers and English-speaking L2 learners of Swahili in their 3rd-5th semester completed two word repetition tasks, one examining gender and one number. Participants heard verb-noun phrases in Swahili with verbal marking that was congruent, incongruent or neutral with respect to gender or number. The time to repeat each noun was recorded. Both language groups appeared sensitive to number marking; however, only native speakers appeared sensitive to gender marking. The findings suggest the lack of a feature in the L1 may impede online processing in the L2, while the presence of a feature may mean that native-like processing is possible, even at early levels of proficiency.

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