scholarly journals The role of language exposure in mediated receptive multilingualism

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 60-89
Author(s):  
Anna Branets ◽  
Daria Bahtina
Keyword(s):  
Language Exposure

Analysis of Item-Level Bias in the Bayley-III Language Subscales: The Validity and Utility of Standardized Language Assessment in a Multilingual Setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 2663-2671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun K. Y. Goh ◽  
Elaine K. H. Tham ◽  
Iliana Magiati ◽  
Litwee Sim ◽  
Shamini Sanmugam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Bias ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Language Bias ◽  
Language System ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Distributed Language

Purpose The purpose of this study was to improve standardized language assessments among bilingual toddlers by investigating and removing the effects of bias due to unfamiliarity with cultural norms or a distributed language system. Method The Expressive and Receptive Bayley-III language scales were adapted for use in a multilingual country (Singapore). Differential item functioning (DIF) was applied to data from 459 two-year-olds without atypical language development. This involved investigating if the probability of success on each item varied according to language exposure while holding latent language ability, gender, and socioeconomic status constant. Associations with language, behavioral, and emotional problems were also examined. Results Five of 16 items showed DIF, 1 of which may be attributed to cultural bias and another to a distributed language system. The remaining 3 items favored toddlers with higher bilingual exposure. Removal of DIF items reduced associations between language scales and emotional and language problems, but improved the validity of the expressive scale from poor to good. Conclusions Our findings indicate the importance of considering cultural and distributed language bias in standardized language assessments. We discuss possible mechanisms influencing performance on items favoring bilingual exposure, including the potential role of inhibitory processing.

Absolute pitch learning in adults speaking non-tonal languages

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 1908-1920
Author(s):  
Yetta Kwailing Wong ◽  
Vince SH Ngan ◽  
Leo YT Cheung ◽  
Alan C-N Wong
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Tonal Language ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
External Reference ◽  
Small Pitch ◽  
Early Childhood Experience ◽  
Language Exposure

Absolute pitch (AP) refers to labelling individual pitches in the absence of external reference. A widely endorsed theory regards AP as a privileged ability enjoyed by selected few with rare genetic makeup and musical training starting in early childhood. However, recent evidence showed that even adults can learn AP, and some can attain a performance level comparable to natural AP possessors. These training studies involved native tonal language speakers, whose acquisition of AP might be facilitated by tonal language exposure during early childhood. In this study, adults speaking non-tonal languages went through AP training that was 20-hr long, computerised and personalised. Performance on average improved, which was accompanied by enhanced working memory for tones, whereas relative pitch judgement and sensitivity to small pitch differences remained unchanged. Notably, two out of 13 learned to label all 12 pitches within an octave, with accuracy and response time comparable to natural AP possessors. Overall, the findings suggest that tonal language exposure is not a prerequisite for AP learning in adulthood. The understanding of the origin of AP would benefit from considering the role of lifelong learning instead of focusing only on early childhood experience.

scholarly journals The Frequency Effect on the Acquisition of –ING Form Structure by Indonesia L2 Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 229
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fahruddin Aziz ◽  
Pratomo Widodo
Keyword(s):  
Natural Order ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Language Exposure

<p>Even though <em>–ing</em> form is acquired earlier based on the natural order hypotheses of L2 morpheme acquisition, it remains difficult for L2 learners to acquire mainly for those who are not frequently exposed to the targeted linguistic feature inputs. A number of investigations were already carried out to find out the frequency effect on the acquisition of verbs as a complement (gerund and infinitive), yet this paper was designed to identify the role of frequency on the acquisition of English <em>–ing</em> form structure by Indonesia L2 learners. Participants consisted of four groups from different semester (1,3,5, and 7). Each semester also indicated various language exposure experienced by L2 learners. Each group comprised 10 participants. Data were collected by employing the writing test to elicit <em>–ing</em> form production including interview and observation. The coding of students’ composition was carried out to determine the correct productions—which were scored to interpret frequency effect on students’ acquisition and their misconceptions in composing a sentence containing –<em>ing</em> forms. The findings revealed that the rate of frequency inputs of –<em>ing</em> form structure accessed by learners fairly contributed to students’ constructional schemas in accordance with the high score. Each word possessed various frequency inputs of distribution which then led them to any deviant production.  In addition, intra-lingual errors were responsible for any misconception perceived by learners (overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, and false concepts hypothesized). </p>

scholarly journals AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE TEXTS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION VERSION OF HOLY QURAN: A GENRE-BASED APPROACH

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Puji Sumarsono
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Narrative Text ◽  
Teaching Material ◽  
Teaching Reading ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
Language Exposure

Language exposure is crucial for beginners or students who learn English as their second or foreign language. Students are difficult to directly speak and write English if they never hear English conversation or monologue and never see the product of English in term of result of writing. Text as a product of writing is available and easily accessed around us. This circumstance, consequently, insists the ease use of reliable teaching material and effective teaching reading. As it was found in Australia and also the author experience, when teacher had students to freely write, 90% of the students wrote recount and narrative texts. Narrative texts have important role of narrative that every word in narrative is potentially memorable and possible to contribute to understanding text easily. In fact, it was found that there are many narrative texts in English translation of Holy Qur�an. However, they have their own typical.Keywords: authentic, English translation of Holy Qur�an, genre-based approach, narrative text

A sociolinguistic approach to implicit language attitudes towards historically white English accents among young L1 South African indigenous language speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (260) ◽  
pp. 131-153
Author(s):  
Pedro Álvarez-Mosquera ◽  
Alejandro Marín-Gutiérrez
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Historically White ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Accented English ◽  
Type Of School

Abstract This study investigates the potential role of context-relevant sociolinguistic factors in explaining young L1 indigenous South African language speakers’ IAT (Implicit Association Test) scores towards two varieties largely associated with the white group: Standard South African English and Afrikaans accented English. To this end, a post-IAT sociolinguistic survey on participants’ linguistic background, language exposure and intergroup social distance levels (among other social factors) was used. Separate ANOVAS were performed using the IAT reaction times as a dependent variable and sociolinguistic variables as factors. Notably, the sociolinguistic approach revealed that more positive attitudes towards Afrikaans accented English are correlated with the language range of participants, the dominant languages spoken in their places of origin, and the type of school they have attended.

scholarly journals Differences in Language Exposure and its Effects on Memory Flexibility in Monolingual, Bilingual, and Trilingual Infants

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 670-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
NATALIE H. BRITO ◽  
NÚRIA SEBASTIÁN-GALLÉS ◽  
RACHEL BARR
Keyword(s):  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Development ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Memory Flexibility ◽  
Environmental Variations ◽  
Language Exposure

Bilingual advantages in memory flexibility, indexed using a memory generalization task, have been reported (Brito & Barr, 2012; 2014), and the present study examines what factors may influence memory performance. The first experiment examines the role of language similarity; bilingual 18-month-old infants exposed to two similar languages (Spanish–Catalan) or two more different (English–Spanish) languages were tested on a memory generalization task and compared to monolingual 18-month-olds. The second experiment compares performance by trilingual 18-month-olds to monolingual and bilingual infants’ performance from the first experiment. The bilingual advantage in memory flexibility was robust; both bilingual groups outperformed the monolingual groups, with no significant differences between bilingual groups. Interestingly, an advantage was not found for infants exposed to three languages. These findings demonstrate early emerging differences in memory flexibility, and have important implications for our understanding of how early environmental variations shape the trajectory of memory development.

scholarly journals Dislocations in French–English bilingual children: An elicitation study

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 987-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
CORALIE HERVÉ ◽  
LUDOVICA SERRATRICE ◽  
MARTIN CORLEY
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Production ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Input Quantity ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
French And English ◽  
Language Exposure

This paper presents the results of two sentence production studies addressing the role of language exposure, prior linguistic modelling and discourse-pragmatic appropriateness on the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in bilingual 5-year-olds. We investigated whether French–English bilingual children would be as likely as monolingual children to use a left-dislocation structure in the description of a target scene. We also examined whether input quantity played a role in the degree of accessibility of these syntactic constructions across languages. While the results indicate a significant effect of elicitation condition only in French, the relative amount of language exposure in each language predicted the likelihood of producing a left-dislocation in both French and English. These findings make a new contribution to the role of language exposure as a predictor of CLI. The data also support the recent proposal that CLI arises out of processing mechanisms.

scholarly journals The development of determiners in the context of French–English bilingualism: a study of cross-linguistic influence

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coralie HERVÉ ◽  
Ludovica SERRATRICE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Longitudinal Development ◽  
Rate Of Development ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
A Minor

AbstractThis paper reports the preliminary results of a study examining the role of structural overlap, language exposure, and language use on cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in bilingual first language acquisition. We focus on the longitudinal development of determiners in a corpus of two French–English children between the ages of 2;4 and 3;7. The results display bi-directional CLI in the rate of development, i.e., accelerated development in English and a minor delay in French. Unidirectional CLI from English to French was instead observed in the significantly higher rate of ungrammatical determiner omissions in plural and generic contexts than in singular specific contexts in French. These findings suggest that other language-internal mechanisms may be at play. They also lend support to the role of expressive abilities on the magnitude of this phenomenon.

Assessing storytelling as a tool for improving reading comprehension in the EFL primary classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-196
Author(s):  
Tú Anh Hà ◽  
Andrea Roxana Bellot
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effect of storytelling in helping children read and comprehend English in primary schools. Design/methodology/approach The study includes 44 eight-year-old students, being divided into two equal groups. They are Catalan/Spanish native speakers, and their English level is pre-A1 (CEFR). The two groups studied the same topic with similar vocabulary and grammatical structures; however, only the experimental group learnt with storytelling. A pre-test, a post-test and exercises were implemented and analyzed by using the Mann–Whitney test, the Wilcoxon signed rank test and the general linear model to verify the effect of storytelling, the impact of time and the interaction between time and storytelling. Findings The findings show that storytelling helps children remember, understand and use the vocabulary of a certain topic and a specific grammatical structure, which are compatible with the vocabulary and the structure in a given story. It also supports students in forming the habit of using particular pairs of words correctly, such as “snake-hiss,” “zebra-bray.” Storytelling proved to be as effective as other teaching methods, such as games and exercises to make a contribution in helping students improve their reading-comprehending of separate sentences. However, time and continued language exposure played a pivotal role in students’ progress of decoding a gapped paragraph and filling in the gaps with appropriate words, no matter what teaching methods were used (storytelling or others). Research limitations/implications The findings of the effect of storytelling on fostering students’ reading comprehension have implications for storytelling investigators in the field of teaching ESL. Investigators such as Wright (1995), Ellis and Brewster (1991, 2002, 2014), Cameron (2001), etc., strongly recommend the use of storytelling when teaching a foreign language. Then the findings of this paper contribute to confirm storytelling’s benefits in improving children’s reading abilities, especially in reading-comprehending separate sentences. Practical implications Regarding the practical implications of this case study, the findings of the role of storytelling and the role of time in improving students’ reading-comprehension have important implications for L2 English teachers, especially for the ones teaching English for young learners. Due to the fact that learners need time to become successful language users, who not only understand but also analyze and use language fluently without thinking much about the forms or the rules, teachers should not overanalyze language forms. Instead, they should provide learners with an inductive process of language exposure, including the use of storytelling. Storytelling provides young learners with language exposure and context-the natural environment to acquire language. Therefore, it can create a greater impact on learners for remembering vocabulary and understanding the meaning of a given text, as well as form some habits for foreign language learners, such as the use of some specific pairs of words, which has been shown in the findings of this project. This nurtures learner’s graduation to automaticity in using language and develops their reading-comprehension. Originality/value This paper is all originated from a study researching the effect of storytelling in helping students read and comprehend English by carrying out an experiment with two groups, namely, the control and the experimental in a semi private primary school in Tarragona, Spain. This study carries an important value, as it proves the effect of storytelling in improving students' ability of remembering vocabulary and understanding separate sentences, as well as points out the role of time in students' progress of mastering a foreign language.

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