Lexicality effect and stress assignment in bilingual children reading Italian as a second language

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Bellocchi ◽  
S. Contento ◽  
I. Ceccarelli ◽  
C. Burani
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Stress Assignment

Lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in bilingual children reading Italian as a second language

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
STÉPHANIE BELLOCCHI ◽  
PAOLA BONIFACCI ◽  
CRISTINA BURANI
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Word Frequency Effect ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Distributional Properties ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

In Italian, developing readers exhibit lexicality and frequency effects, and are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. But how do bilingual children with different ages of first L2 (Italian) exposure and L2 vocabulary sizes read L2 words and pseudowords? Two reading aloud experiments investigated lexicality, frequency and stress assignment effects in fourth- and fifth-grade bilinguals and monolinguals. Naming latencies and pronunciation accuracy were analyzed. In Experiment 1, effects of lexicality and frequency and between-group differences emerged. In Experiment 2, the word frequency effect was confirmed. Late bilinguals, characterized by a smaller L2 vocabulary size, were less accurate than early bilinguals and monolinguals in assigning non-dominant stress. As with monolinguals, lexical information seems to be employed when reading Italian as a second language. Furthermore, bilingual readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language. Stress assignment is affected by the L2 lexicon size of second-language learners.

Stress assignment in bilingual adults reading Italian as a second language: The effect of vocabulary size

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Burani ◽  
S. Primativo ◽  
L. S. Arduino ◽  
S. O'Brien ◽  
D. Paizi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Stress Assignment

Phonological awareness in young second language learners

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Bruck ◽  
Fred Genesee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Phoneme Awareness ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Bilingual Group ◽  
English Speaking

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.

Some cases of linguistic interference in Bulgarian in English-Bulgarian bilingual children and english native speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language

Proglas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliyana Dimitrova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
Children's Speech

he study examines some linguistic errors in the process of learning Bulgarian by Bulgarian-English bilingual children and by native English speakers who study Bulgarian as a second language. The emphasis is on some typical interference errors which are common (identical) for both the bilingual children’s speech and the speech of native English speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language. Based on the analyzed aberration corpus, the opinion we give is that many of the processes taking place during the acquisition of the Bulgarian language are the same for both bilingual children with English and native English speakers.

Bilingual effects on cognitive shifting and prefrontal activations in young children

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 729-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Moriguchi ◽  
Kanda Lertladaluck
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Nursery School ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Cognitive Shifting

Aims and objectives: Bilingual children constantly experience spontaneous switching between languages in everyday settings, and some researchers suggest that this experience leads to an advantage in task performance during executive function tasks. Neural processing during executive function tasks remains largely unknown, especially in young bilingual children. Methodology: Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, this study examined whether young children who attended an immersion second-language program demonstrated enhanced cognitive shifting and lateral prefrontal activation. Data and analysis: We recruited children ( N = 24) who attended an international nursery school, and examined whether their performance on cognitive shifting, and whether the oxygenated hemoglobin changes in the prefrontal regions during the task, were correlated with the children’s second-language verbal age and the length of time the children had been speaking the second language. Findings: Results revealed that the verbal age of the second language and the length of time speaking it were significantly correlated with behavioral performances of cognitive shifting tasks. However, they were not correlated with the activations in the lateral prefrontal regions. Originality: We examined the neural correlates of bilingual effects on cognitive shifting and prefrontal activations in young children. Implications: The results suggest that second-language experience may not be directly related to neural processing in the lateral prefrontal cortex, at least in young children.

Macrostructure, microstructure, and mental state terms in the narratives of English–Hebrew bilingual preschool children with and without specific language impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARMIT ALTMAN ◽  
SHARON ARMON-LOTEM ◽  
SVETA FICHMAN ◽  
JOEL WALTERS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
The Road ◽  
Mental State Terms ◽  
Narrative Performance

ABSTRACTChildren's bilingual status is important because the interest here is in narrative performance in both languages of bilingual children, in particular the within-subject, cross language comparisons. As Paradis (2010) has argued, there are some structures where performance differences will point to a temporary lack of opportunity for mastery, whereas other structures will be markers of underlying difficulties. We expect the discriminators to be language specific, depending on attested vulnerabilities for each of the languages involved. Narratives were examined for macrostructure (goals, attempts, and outcomes), microstructure (e.g., length, lexis, and morphosyntax), and mental state terms (MSTs). Thirty-one preschool children (TLD = 19, SLI = 12) retold stories accompanied by six pictures that were matched across content (Baby Birds/Baby Goats) and to the extent possible across languages (first language/second language) for macrostructure, microstructure, and MSTs in the framework of the Working Group on Narrative and Discourse Abilities in COST Action 0804 Language Impairment in a Multilingual Society: Linguistic Patterns and the Road to Assessment. The macrostructure results confirmed previous findings showing similar performance in both languages for children with TLD and those diagnosed with SLI. Consistent with previous findings on narrative abilities among bilingual children, microstructure analysis of verbal productivity, length of communication units, and lexical diversity distinguished children with TLD from those with SLI. An analysis of MSTs yielded more MSTs in children's second language, in particular more mental verbs. The most prevalent MSTs used in all narratives were early acquired perceptual and motivational verbs (“see” and “want”). Overall, distinctions between narratives of children with TLD and SLI were found primarily for microstructure features, where error analysis was particularly important in uncovering possible markers, especially in second languages.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of Teaching Bilingual Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-345
Author(s):  
Marina A. Pastushkova ◽  
Oxana V. Savateeva
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Practical Recommendations

The article is focused on the problem of teaching bilingual children. To solve this issue, the authors use the vast experience in addressing it in the Russian and British pedagogical thought in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The authors believe that the comparison of diverse approaches makes it possible to use the ideas of various researchers for resolving the current issues of teaching bilinguals. Besides, the authors of the article try to present the key recommendations and learning approaches for teaching a second language to preschool children. The article stresses the importance of foreign language learning. The authors consider that it is very important to pay attention to the peculiarities of mastering foreign languages and the influence of the bilingual environment on the mental, speech, and personal development of the child. The article further analyses the main approaches to language learning and gives practical recommendations to bilingual children’s parents for teaching a second language. Finally, the article touches upon the problem of learning content. In the authors’ opinion, the latter should be as close as possible to children's understanding. It should be noted that early learning of a foreign language has many advantages in the modern multicultural world. More and more parents want to raise their children as bilinguals, to allow them to communicate in several languages. The authors hope that the recommendations given in the article will help parents of bilingual children and teachers find their approach to teaching a child a second language.

How do bilingual dyslexic and typically developing children perform in nonword repetition? Evidence from a study on Italian L2 children

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 884-896
Author(s):  
Maria Vender ◽  
Denis Delfitto ◽  
Chiara Melloni
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Repetition Task

AbstractNonword repetition is typically impaired in dyslexia. Conversely, native-like performance is early achieved by bilingual children whose second language has a simple phonotactic system, like Italian. Our study aimed at comparing the performance of monolingual and bilingual children with and without dyslexia in a nonword repetition task modeled after Italian. We assessed nonword repetition in 111 school-aged children: 24 Italian L2 bilingual dyslexics, 24 Italian monolingual dyslexics, 30 Italian L2 bilingual controls and 33 Italian monolingual controls. We administered an original task composed of 40 nonwords ranging from two to five syllables; the complexity of the syllables was also manipulated. Results showed that both groups of dyslexics underperformed controls at each syllable length. No differences were found between monolingual and bilingual controls. Conversely, bilingual dyslexics underperformed monolingual dyslexics only with four-syllable nonwords. The possible use of nonword repetition tasks to assist in the identification of dyslexia in bilingual children is also discussed.

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