Transcultural and familial factors in bilingualism and language transmission: A qualitative study of maternal representations of French-Maghrebi Arabic bilingual children

2021 ◽  
pp. 136346152110118
Author(s):  
Sélim Benjamin Guessoum ◽  
Dalila Rezzoug ◽  
Fatima Touhami ◽  
Malika Bennabi-Bensekhar ◽  
Olivier Taieb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Child Transmission ◽  
Familial Factors ◽  
Indirect Transmission ◽  
Bilingual Development ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Language Profiles ◽  
Parent Child ◽  
Language Transmission

This qualitative exploratory study examined transcultural and familial factors involved in bilingualism and minority language transmission among French and Arabic-speaking children. Participants included 30 children aged 4 to 6 years, born in France, and their bilingual French-Maghrebi Arabic-speaking parents. Children’s bilingual language profiles were assessed with the ELAL Scale for Maghrebi Arabic (minority language) and the Neel Scale for French (majority language). Mothers participated in qualitative interviews about cultural and language practices and representations. Interview contents were compared with the children’s language profiles. Results indicated that parents closely associated the transmission of the Arabic language with their cultural heritage transmission. The parents of fluent bilinguals had a strong desire to transmit the minority language. Mothers of minority language dominant bilingual children reported little perception of change in their lives since migration. Half of the mothers of majority language dominant bilingual children reported relationship or emotional difficulties with their children. Four minority language transmission types were identified: direct parent-child transmission; indirect transmission through private classes; indirect transmission through visits to family in the parents' native countries; and alternative transmission by another family member. Direct parent-child transmission was most frequent among the fluent bilinguals. Families' processes of hybridity were related to language transmission and bilingual development of children. Parental cultural affiliations to native country were related to minority language transmission. Perception of change since migration and affiliation to host country may also play a role in harmonious bilingual development. Moreover, the quality of family relationships can affect minority language transmission.

scholarly journals Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children: a meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Chantal VAN DIJK ◽  
Elise VAN WONDEREN ◽  
Elly KOUTAMANIS ◽  
Gerrit Jan KOOTSTRA ◽  
Ton DIJKSTRA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Effect Size ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Uniform Method ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Average Effect Size ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Bilingual Development

Abstract Although cross-linguistic influence at the level of morphosyntax is one of the most intensively studied topics in child bilingualism, the circumstances under which it occurs remain unclear. In this meta-analysis, we measured the effect size of cross-linguistic influence and systematically assessed its predictors in 750 simultaneous and early sequential bilingual children in 17 unique language combinations across 26 experimental studies. We found a significant small to moderate average effect size of cross-linguistic influence, indicating that cross-linguistic influence is part and parcel of bilingual development. Language dominance, operationalized as societal language, was a significant predictor of cross-linguistic influence, whereas surface overlap, language domain and age were not. Perhaps an even more important finding was that definitions and operationalisations of cross-linguistic influence and its predictors varied considerably between studies. This could explain the absence of a comprehensive theory in the field. To solve this issue, we argue for a more uniform method of studying cross-linguistic influence.

GRANNY, LOOK HERE: ENGLISH INITIATING MOVES IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN’S DIALOGICAL INTERACTION

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (99) ◽  
pp. 153-164
Author(s):  
GALINA N. CHIRSHEVA ◽  
PYOTR V. KOROVUSHKIN
Keyword(s):  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
Bilingual Development ◽  
And Performance

The authors deal with English initiating moves in the dialogical interaction of two monoethnic bilingual children with their parents and grandparents. The objective of the paper is to describe structural and pragmatic features of initiating moves in the dialogues of the children for six years - at the age period between one and six years old. The authors argue that the quantity of English dialogical initiating moves as well as their structural and pragmatic characteristics can show the ways of childhood bilingual development and the attitude of the children to their weak language. The results of the research demonstrate that the children maintain a positive attitude to English in their interaction with adults; however, the lack of lexical and grammatical diversity of their initiating English moves is the evidence of slow development in the weak language competence and performance. Moreover, all these results clearly show that the children’s bilingualism has been gradually developing as highly unbalanced, accompanied by the traits of L2 attrition.

Bilingual children as “laboratories” for studying contact outcomes: Development of perfective aspect

Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 693-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pui Yiu Szeto ◽  
Stephen Matthews ◽  
Virginia Yip
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Aspect Markers ◽  
Conceptual Link ◽  
Language Transmission

Abstract This paper examines the close parallels between the contact phenomena in Cantonese-English bilingual children and Southeast Asian creoles, especially in the domain of perfective aspect marking. ‘Already’ is a cross-linguistically common lexical source of perfective aspect markers given its conceptual link with the sense of perfectivity. In contact scenarios involving a European lexifier and Southeast Asian substrates, the development of ‘already’ into a perfective marker is further triggered by the incompatibility between the verbal morphology of the former and the isolating typology of the latter. Adopting an ecological approach to language transmission and creole genesis we discuss how the transient grammaticalization phenomena in the bilingual children can be compared to decreolization, and how the study of bilingual acquisition can contribute to contact linguistics. Despite the prevalence of unpredictable factors in contact scenarios, we argue that bilingual children can still serve as powerful “laboratories” for studying contact outcomes at the communal level.

The 3p21.1-p21.3 Hereditary Vascular Retinopathy Locus Increases the Risk for Raynaud's Phenomenon and Migraine

Cephalalgia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 1168-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
JJ Hottenga ◽  
KRJ Vanmolkot ◽  
EE Kors ◽  
S Kheradmand Kia ◽  
PTVM de Jong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transmission Disequilibrium Test ◽  
Raynaud’S Phenomenon ◽  
Raynaud's Phenomenon ◽  
Child Transmission ◽  
Transmission Disequilibrium ◽  
Susceptibility Factor ◽  
Dutch Family ◽  
Parent Child

Previously, we described a large Dutch family with hereditary vascular retinopathy (HVR), Raynaud's phenomenon and migraine. A locus for HVR was mapped on chromosome 3p21.1-p21.3, but the gene has not yet been identified. The fact that all three disorders share a vascular aetiology prompted us to study whether the HVR haplotype also contributed to Raynaud's phenomenon and migraine in this family. Whereas the parent-child transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) did not reach significance, the sibling TDT revealed that the HVR haplotype harbours a susceptibility factor for Raynaud's phenomenon and migraine. Identification of the HVR gene will improve the understanding of the pathophysiology of HVR, Raynaud's phenomenon and migraine.

scholarly journals Socioeconomic level and bilinguals’ performance on language and cognitive measures

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1057-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIRGINIA C. MUELLER GATHERCOLE ◽  
IVAN KENNEDY ◽  
ENLLI MÔN THOMAS
Keyword(s):  
Parental Education ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Socioeconomic Level ◽  
Cognitive Measures ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
At Home

The performance of bilingual children and adults in Wales on Welsh and English vocabulary and grammar and on cognitive measures is re-analysed in relation to SES indicators of parental education and parental professions. Results are reported for 732 participants ranging across seven age groups from age 3 to over 60 and from four home language types, monolingual English, and bilinguals with only English at home, Welsh and English at home, or only Welsh at home. Results reveal extensive evidence of SES influence on performance, and of a complex relation of exposure in the home and SES level on performance, modulated by the age of the participant and whether one is considering the majority or minority language.

Genetic and Environmental Parent-Child Transmission of Value Orientations: An Extended Twin Family Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 270-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kandler ◽  
Juliana Gottschling ◽  
Frank M. Spinath
Keyword(s):  
Family Study ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Child Transmission ◽  
Parent Child

Bilingualism as a kind of therapy?

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aafke Hulk ◽  
Sharon Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Bilingual Development ◽  
Challenging Question

In her very interesting Keynote Article, Johanne Paradis gives a clear overview of recent research at the interface of bilingual development and child language disorders, and highlights its theoretical and clinical implications. She raises the challenging question of “whether bilingualism can be viewed as a kind of ‘therapy’ for SLI.” At first sight, this is perhaps a surprising question, because one of the predominant views in the literature is that bilingual children with specific language impairment (SLI) will exhibit difficulties and perhaps a “double delay.” It is this challenging question that we consider in more detail here.

Bilingualism matters

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole
Keyword(s):  
Birth Order ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Family ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Future Work

The articles in this special issue provide a complex picture of acquisition in bilinguals in which the factors that contribute to patterns of performance in bilingual children’s two languages are myriad and diverse. The processes and contours of development in bilingual children are influenced, not only by the quantity, quality, and contexts of input, but by whether the child hears monolingual or bilingual speech, who is the source of that speech, the proportion of speakers of the heritage language in the community, the child’s birth order in the family, the family’s SES, the timing and the child’s stage of development, profile effects in performance, and characteristics of the languages being learned. One constant across the research is the finding that the majority language fairs well in development, while the minority language is threatened. The insights gained are relevant to future work on bilingual children, whether of a theoretical or applied focus.

scholarly journals Interlingual duplicating in the speech of bilingual children

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 01011
Author(s):  
Galina Chirsheva ◽  
Marina Houston
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Competence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Bilingual Development ◽  
Developmental Characteristics ◽  
The One ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects ◽  
Children's Speech ◽  
Double Units

Bilinguals of every age sometimes double units of one language with those of the other, especially in the situations where they have to interact with speakers of different languages. Bilingual communication stimulates code-switches, various in their structure and pragmatics. Among them, researchers observe the following phenomena in bilingual children’s speech: a) double morphology, b) translation/interpreting equivalents combinations, and c) self-interpreting. However, the interrelation between structural and semantic/pragmatic aspects, on the one hand, and the developmental characteristics of childhood bilingualism, on the other hand, have been underresearched. The authors of the paper argue that various cases of interlingual duplicating can indicate the balance between the competences of children in their two languages at different stages of their bilingual development. The purpose of the study is to describe structural, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of interlingual duplicating combinations in the speech of two children who acquire Russian and English simultaneously, as well as to find the correlation between their duplications and the development of their bilingualism. The results of the study can be used for the description of childhood bilingualism and the evaluation of bilingual children’s communicative competence in each of their languages and their interpreting abilities at various age stages.

scholarly journals Language activities in a minority–majority language context: book-reading at home is more important for Frisian than for Dutch

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn BOSMA ◽  
Elma BLOM
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Book Reading ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Watching Tv ◽  
Reading Activities ◽  
Reading At Home ◽  
At Home

AbstractPrevious research has shown that in a minority–majority language context, the quantity of language input at home is more important for the development of the minority language than for the development of the majority language. In the current study, we examined whether the same holds true for the frequency of specific language activities at home. In a group of five- and six-year-old Frisian–Dutch bilingual children (n = 120), we investigated to what extent vocabulary and morphology knowledge were predicted by reading activities, watching TV, and story-telling activities in both languages. The results showed that reading in Frisian predicted both Frisian vocabulary and morphology, while reading in Dutch only predicted Dutch vocabulary. This shows that reading at home is most important for the development of the minority language. This especially holds true for the acquisition of Frisian morphology, a domain that is known to be vulnerable in language acquisition.

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