What do I choose? Influence of interlocutor awareness on bilingual language choice during voluntary object naming

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1029-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEERTHANA KAPILEY ◽  
RAMESH KUMAR MISHRA
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Naming Latency ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Object Naming ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Language Needs ◽  
Control Hypothesis

In two experiments with Telugu–English bilinguals, we examined if bilingual speakers are sensitive towards an interlocutor's (cartoon) relative language proficiency when they voluntarily selected a language for object naming. After familiarization with four different cartoons with varied L2 proficiency, participants did a voluntary naming task. In Experiment 1, participants explicitly indicated their choice of language before naming objects. In Experiment 2, participants named the objects directly. In both experiments, language choices and switchrates were thoroughly modulated by the participants’ perceived linguistic ability of the cartoon. However, awareness of perceived proficiency of the cartoons did not modulate naming latency. These results provide strong support for the adaptive control hypothesis, showing that bilingual speakers are sensitive to their interlocutor's language needs and this influences how they plan their language use. The results provide evidence of speakers taking into consideration the language proficiency of interlocutors, suggesting extreme adaptability of the bilingual mind.

Mobile language choices — The use of English and isiXhosa in text messages (SMS)

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Deumert ◽  
Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Global English ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Overlapping Sets

This paper looks at language choice and use in South African SMS communication (texting) among bilingual (isiXhosa / English-speaking) users. Although English is the preferred language for most of the 22 participants (aged between 18 and 27), SMSes also create a forum for isiXhosa literacy (either in isiXhosa messages or in mixed English-isiXhosa messages). The English-language SMSes produced by these bilingual speakers share many of the features which have been reported for English SMS communication internationally (abbreviations, paralinguistic restitutions, non-standard spellings), and provide evidence for what one might call a global English SMS standard. At the same time, however, their SMSes also contain local linguistic features and, in particular, local, cultural content. The isiXhosa messages differ markedly from the writers’ English-language messages in that they contain no abbreviated material, non-standard spellings or paralinguistic restitutions and thus violate the sociolinguistic maxims of SMS / texting as postulated by Thurlow (2003). These bilingual writers thus communicate in the electronic medium using two different languages as well as two, non-overlapping sets of sociolinguistic norms.

scholarly journals A Case Study of Code-Switching among Thai Waiters in a Cambridge, UK Restaurant

MANUSYA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-125
Author(s):  
Nicola Prin
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Role Relationship ◽  
Initial Sequence

Abstract This study explores Thai bilingual speakers’ code-switching in a formal work setting. Although code-switching may appear to be random, there is an underlying choice which speakers decide upon when switching between languages: Language proficiency, the initial speaker’s language choice, the setting, and role relationships all contribute to these choices. This study investigates the factors contributing to code-switch decisions by participants within their specific work environment. The main findings show that adopting one language over the other depends on two main factors: first, the initial sequence of the interaction; second, the role relationship that the participants wish to maintain. This study has drawn upon the conversational approach and Auer’s sequential analysis to collect and interpret data from ethno-graphic observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews.

Syllable weight in monolingual and heritage Spanish

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-427
Author(s):  
Michael Shelton ◽  
Hannah Grant
Keyword(s):  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
General Effect ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Syllable Weight ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Quantity Sensitivity ◽  
Analysis Of Error

AbstractThis study presents two experiments employing a naming task that test the modulation of stress assignment by syllable structure in Spanish. The first replicates the findings of a previous study in which words containing arguably heavy penultimate diphthongs provoke higher error rates than putatively light monophthong controls when marked for antepenultimate stress. This result is interpreted as support for quantity sensitivity in the language. This experiment also replicates a subtler finding of differential patterning between rising and falling diphthong in their interaction with Spanish stress, suggesting gradient sensitivity to patterns in the lexicon. The second experiment presents the results of an identical task with Spanish-English heritage speakers in which the general effect of syllable weight is replicated, while the effect of diphthong type does not emerge. An analysis of error types suggests that varying levels of reading proficiency among heritage speakers may have led to the lack of the latter result, while still revealing sensitivity to frequencies in the lexicon. The combined results are offered as further evidence of quantity sensitivity among both monolingual and bilingual speakers of Spanish and provide further data in the understudied subfield of heritage phonotactics.

scholarly journals English as an Interactional Resource for Doing Being Academically Competent: Student Practices in Group Meetings

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Dalby Kristiansen
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Competence ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Project Group ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
Linguistic Practices ◽  
Group Meetings

An increasing number of Nordic university programmes are offered in English. Consequently, students are expected to carry out academic activities in English rather than the local language. Through ethnomethodological conversation analysis of video recordings of student project group meetings, this article explores how students orient to English in their everyday academic and linguistic practices, focusing on students’ orientations to language proficiency and language choice as resources for displaying academic competence and literacy.

Who is who: areas of the brain associated with recognizing and naming famous faces

2009 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Giussani ◽  
Franck-Emmanuel Roux ◽  
Lorenzo Bello ◽  
Valérie Lauwers-Cances ◽  
Costanza Papagno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Tumors ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Anterior Part ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Object Naming ◽  
Language Deficit ◽  
Neurosurgical Patients ◽  
The Brain

Object It has been hypothesized that specific brain regions involved in face naming may exist in the brain. To spare these areas and to gain a better understanding of their organization, the authors studied patients who underwent surgery by using direct electrical stimulation mapping for brain tumors, and they compared an object-naming task to a famous face–naming task. Methods Fifty-six patients with brain tumors (39 and 17 in the left and right hemispheres, respectively) and with no significant preoperative overall language deficit were prospectively studied over a 2-year period. Four patients who had a partially selective famous face anomia and 2 with prosopagnosia were not included in the final analysis. Results Face-naming interferences were exclusively localized in small cortical areas (< 1 cm2). Among 35 patients whose dominant left hemisphere was studied, 26 face-naming specific areas (that is, sites of interference in face naming only and not in object naming) were found. These face naming–specific sites were significantly detected in 2 regions: in the left frontal areas of the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri (p < 0.001) and in the anterior part of the superior and middle temporal gyri (p < 0.01). Variable patterns of interference were observed (speech arrest, anomia, phonemic, or semantic paraphasia) probably related to the different stages in famous face processing. Only 4 famous face–naming interferences were found in the right hemisphere. Conclusions Relative anatomical segregation of naming categories within language areas was detected. This study showed that famous face naming was preferentially processed in the left frontal and anterior temporal gyri. The authors think it is necessary to adapt naming tasks in neurosurgical patients to the brain region studied.

scholarly journals Language control abilities of late bilinguals

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIA FESTMAN
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Language Control ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Late Bilinguals

Although all bilinguals encounter cross-language interference (CLI), some bilinguals are more susceptible to interference than others. Here, we report on language performance of late bilinguals (Russian/German) on two bilingual tasks (interview, verbal fluency), their language use and switching habits. The only between-group difference was CLI: one group consistently produced significantly more errors of CLI on both tasks than the other (thereby replicating our findings from a bilingual picture naming task). This striking group difference in language control ability can only be explained by differences in cognitive control, not in language proficiency or language mode.

Predictors of lexical retrieval in Hindi–English bilingual speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-273
Author(s):  
Keerthi Ramanujan ◽  
Brendan S. Weekes
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
First Time

AbstractWhen bilinguals name pictures while in ‘monolingual mode’, we expect that under conditions of language-constraint and no cognate facilitation, factors influencing lexical retrieval in monolinguals ought to exert similar effects on bilinguals. To this end, we carried out a L1-only naming task on early Hindi–English bilinguals. Results of linear mixed effects analysis reveal AoA, Familiarity, Image Agreement and Codability (availability of alternate names) to be the most significant predictors of lexical retrieval speed for early bilinguals, confirming our expectations. However, we report, for the first time, a by-subject variation in Codability for bilinguals. Implications of the results are discussed in the context of current theories of bilingual lexical access and competition. In preparation for this study, Hindi norms from bilinguals for items in the Snodgrass and Vanderwart set have been established, which will be of use for stimuli selection in experimental studies involving bilinguals.

When activity shapes the repertoire of second language learners

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 121-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolors Masats ◽  
Luci Nussbaum ◽  
Virginia Unamuno
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Pair Work

Interactionists interested in second language acquisition postulate that learners’ competences are sensitive to the context in which they are put into play. Here we explore the language practices displayed, in a bilingual socio-educational milieu, by three dyads of English learners while carrying out oral communicative pair-work. In particular, we examine the role language choice plays in each task.  A first analysis of our data indicates that the learners’ language choices seem to reveal the linguistic norms operating in the community of practice they belong to. A second analysis reveals that they exploited their linguistic repertoires according to their interpretation of the task and to their willingness to complete it in English. Thus, in the first two tasks students relied on code-switching as a mechanism to solve communication failures, whereas the third task generated the use of a mixed repertoire as a means to complete the task in the target language.

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