scholarly journals Bilingual language development in infancy: What can we do to support bilingual families?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Fibla ◽  
Jessica Elizabeth Kosie ◽  
Ruth Kircher ◽  
Casey Lew-Williams ◽  
Krista Byers-Heinlein
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Infants And Children ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Bilingual Language Development ◽  
Bilingual Development ◽  
Frequent Exposure

Many infants and children around the world grow up exposed to two or more languages. Their success in learning each of their languages is a direct consequence of the quantity and quality of their everyday language experience, including at home, in daycare and preschools, and in the broader community context. Here, we discuss how research on early language learning can inform policies that promote successful bilingual development across the varied contexts in which infants and children live and learn. Throughout our discussions, we highlight that each individual child’s experience is unique. In fact, it seems that there are as many ways to grow up bilingual as there are bilingual children. To promote successful bilingual development, we need policies that acknowledge this variability and support frequent exposure to high-quality experience in each of a child’s languages.

Interpreting phonological memory performance in bilinguals

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1333-1336
Author(s):  
Margarita Kaushanskaya
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Phonological Memory ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
The Relationship

The central hypothesis in the Pierce, Genesee, Delcenserie, and Morgan article is that phonological memory is key to explaining the relationship between early language experience (more specifically, less and more optimal ends of the language-experience continuum) and language learning outcomes. One piece of evidence offered is that phonological memory skills are enhanced by bilingualism, with bilingualism representing enriched experience. Here, I propose that data from bilingual children may contradict Pierce et al.’s central hypothesis, rather than support it.

Early language experience and underspecified phonological representations

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1325-1329
Author(s):  
Cynthia R. Hunter ◽  
David B. Pisoni
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Clinical Importance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Language Input ◽  
First Year Of Life

Taking as a premise that phonological working memory (PWM) influences later language development, in their keynote article, Pierce, Genesee, Delcenserie, and Morgan aim to specify the relations between early language input and the development of PWM in terms of separable influences of timing, quantity, and quality of early language input. We concur that prior work has established that PWM and language development have reciprocal influences on one another during development (e.g., Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998; Gathercole, 2006; Gathercole, Hitch, Service, & Martin, 1997; Metsala & Chisolm, 2010). The goal of the keynote article was to describe how early language experience may influence the development of PWM. Pierce et al. argue that this can be done by comparing the development of PWM across groups of children with differing language experiences during early childhood, specifically (a) delayed exposure to language, (b) impoverished language input, or (c) enriched language input. The authors suggest that this comparison may contribute to establishing that individual differences in PWM are due, in part, to early language experience. Sensitive periods for phonological development that are open roughly in the first year of life are discussed, and it is suggested that the quantity and quality of early language input shapes the quality of phonological representations. Efforts to specify mechanisms by which early language input may influence the development of PWM have both theoretical and, potentially, clinical importance. Considering this, Pierce et al.’s article, which aims to create a platform for future research in terms of the timing, quantity, and quality of early language input, is a valuable contribution.

scholarly journals Questionário sociolinguístico parental para famílias emigrantes bilingues (QuesFEB) uma ferramenta de recolha de dados sociolinguísticos de crianças falantes de herança

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 75-102
Author(s):  
Liliana Correia ◽  
Cristina Flores
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Input Quantity ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Bilingual Development

Empirical research in the field of bi-/multilingualism has shown that the acquisition of two (or more) languages during childhood is significantly influenced by the sociolinguistic experience of each individual, namely by the quantity and the quality of language exposure to the target languages (Unsworth 2016a). In fact, the heterogeneity of sociolinguistic contexts in which bilingual acquisition takes place leads to variation in the quantity and quality of the input to which bilingual children are exposed on a daily basis, which, in turn, originates individual variation in the levels of language development in the languages under acquisition, mainly, in the minority language (also known as heritage language/HL; cf. Montrul 2016). In order to assess the effect of language experience on bilingual development, studies usually resort to sociolinguistic questionnaires, which allow the researcher to outline the sociolinguistic profile of the subjects under analysis, as well as to obtain crucial information about predictive variables of bilingual development (see Unsworth 2019). In this paper, we present a sociolinguistic questionnaire, in Portuguese, developed for the collection of data on the sociolinguistic experience of bilingual children, between the ages of six and ten, with a migration background – the Questionário Sociolinguístico Parental para Famílias Emigrantes Bilingues (QuesFEB). This parental questionnaire, intended for researchers who conduct studies in the field of heritage bilingualism, has as its main objective the collection of biographical and sociolinguistic information not only for the detailed characterisation of the context in which bilingual children acquire the heritage language, but also, and mainly, for the quantification of their language experience in the target language, enabling the assessment of the effect that variables related to input quantity and quality have on that language. Besides providing a detailed description of the content of the sections that compose the QuesFEB, we will present, in detail, the method of codification and calculation of four key variables that have been found to be predictive of HL development, namely: (i) current quantity of HL use (i.e., input and output) in the household; (ii) quantity of cumulative exposure to the HL in the household; (iii) quantity of HL use (i.e., input and output) with migrant grandparents who are native speakers of the language of origin; and (iv) richness of the language exposure to the HL.

App-titude: Top Apps for Tots

ASHA Leader ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-32
Author(s):  
Heidi Hanks
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Early Language ◽  
At Home

Leave your flashcards at home and try these five apps for early language learning.

THE ROLE OF URBAN AESTHETICS ON ENHANCING VITALITY OF URBAN SPACES

2021 ◽  
pp. xx-xx
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Aesthetic Design ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
The Aesthetic

Several scholars have focused on the different approaches in designing convivial urban spaces, but literary evidence shows that the essence of aesthetic design in public urban spaces, by referring to the main dimensions involved in the shaping of urban vitality, has not been adequately researched. In this regard, this study, by hypothesizing that the quality of urban design leads to a vital urban environment, focuses on urban vitality from the aesthetic point of view. Thus, in using qualitative grounded theory as a main methodological tool and using a systematic review of the related literature as the main induction approach for collecting qualitative data, five main dimensions of urban vitality, which are necessary to attain a correlation with the aesthetic quality of urban design, were conceptualized. The study concludes that the aesthetic design of an urban setting has a direct effect on the active involvement of its users and that this, therefore, has a direct consequence on the level of public urban vitality, manifested. Integrating the complexity theory with the five main dimensions used for assessing urban vitality was suggested as a viable area for further research.

From Ear to Cortex

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Nittrouer
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Young Child ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Learning Problems ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Acoustic Speech Signal ◽  
Perceptual Changes

Phoneme-sized phonetic segments are often defined as the most basic unit of language organization. Two common inferences made from this description are that there are clear correlates to phonetic segments in the acoustic speech stream, and that humans have access to these segments from birth. In fact, well-replicated studies have shown that the acoustic signal of speech lacks invariant physical correlates to phonetic segments, and that the ability to recognize segmental structure is not present from the start of language learning. Instead, the young child must learn how to process the complex, generally continuous acoustic speech signal so that phonetic structure can be derived. This paper describes and reviews experiments that have revealed developmental changes in speech perception that accompany improvements in access to phonetic structure. In addition, this paper explains how these perceptual changes appear to be related to other aspects of language development, such as syntactic abilities and reading. Finally, evidence is provided that these critical developmental changes result from adequate language experience in naturalistic contexts, and accordingly suggests that intervention strategies for children with language learning problems should focus on enhancing language experience in natural contexts.

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