The Effects of Proficiency on Sub-Lexical Processing in Bilingual Visual Word Recognition

<p>Systematic psycholinguistic research has considered the nature of the coexistence of two (or more) languages in the cognitive system of a fluent bilingual speaker. There is increasing consensus that when a bilingual is presented with a visual stimulus in one language, both of their languages are initially activated (non-selective access; e.g. Dijkstra & van Heuven 2002a). However, more recent research shows that certain factors may constrain (or eliminate) the activation of a task-irrelevant language (Duyck, van Assche, Drieghe, & Hartsuiker 2007; Elston-Güttler, Gunter, & Kotz 2005). The objective of the research in this thesis was to investigate how cross-linguistic activation is modulated by specific characteristics of a bilingual’s languages. This exploration was mainly limited to an under-investigated area, namely early sub-lexical word processing. The first of two studies focussed on word processing in the presence or absence of critical sub-lexical information. Specifically, I investigated whether onset capitals – a prominent marker indicating nouns in German – acted as a language-specific cue, and the extent to which this cue constrains competitive, lexical interaction between the bilingual’s languages (e.g. Hose-hose, the first being a German word meaning ‘trousers’ in English). This study also considered the extent to which the use of such information is affected by priming for a specific language from a preceding context sentence. The second study arose from a claim that readers employ distinct sub-lexical reading strategies, depending on the extent of spelling-to-sound (in)consistency in their language (e.g. Ziegler, Perry, Jacobs, & Braun 2001). Employing a bilingual population whose two languages were clearly distinguished in terms of such consistency, I explored the reading strategy used by bilingual participants reading in each language. A key issue is competitive activation between sub-lexical orthographic and phonological representations across languages. Each study was conducted with two groups of bilingual speakers, English-German and German-English. Individuals varied in their L2 proficiency, allowing a test of whether sub-lexical processing changed as a consequence of increasing proficiency. The main results from study one demonstrate that bilingual speakers are dependent upon sub-lexical, language-specific information. However, this is influenced by L2 proficiency, with a stronger effect for lower proficiency bilinguals. In addition, lower proficiency bilinguals were more dependent on sub-lexical cues when primed by a sentence in L2. In contrast, bilingual speakers performing in their L1 used these cues largely under very specific circumstances, i.e. when they did not know an item. The central finding of study two is that competition between sub-lexical orthographic and phonological representations across languages largely depends on the amount of spelling-to-sound (in)consistency in the bilinguals’ more dominant language. This is reflected in (1) slower identification of orthographically similar cognates which map onto different phonological representations across two languages, and (2) slower identification of cognates which do not share the same orthographic form across languages but have a common phonological representation. In addition, increasing L2 proficiency is reflected in attenuation of certain effects as processing becomes more automatic, and the development of a common reading strategy accommodating reading in either language. A major contribution of the research conducted is what findings from both studies reveal about how the bilingual lexicon develops as proficiency increases. Furthermore, the findings contribute to our understanding of the organisation of the bilingual mental lexicon and the processes of word identification, and impose constraints on possible cognitive architectures.</p>

The Effects of Proficiency on Sub-Lexical Processing in Bilingual Visual Word Recognition

<p>Systematic psycholinguistic research has considered the nature of the coexistence of two (or more) languages in the cognitive system of a fluent bilingual speaker. There is increasing consensus that when a bilingual is presented with a visual stimulus in one language, both of their languages are initially activated (non-selective access; e.g. Dijkstra & van Heuven 2002a). However, more recent research shows that certain factors may constrain (or eliminate) the activation of a task-irrelevant language (Duyck, van Assche, Drieghe, & Hartsuiker 2007; Elston-Güttler, Gunter, & Kotz 2005). The objective of the research in this thesis was to investigate how cross-linguistic activation is modulated by specific characteristics of a bilingual’s languages. This exploration was mainly limited to an under-investigated area, namely early sub-lexical word processing. The first of two studies focussed on word processing in the presence or absence of critical sub-lexical information. Specifically, I investigated whether onset capitals – a prominent marker indicating nouns in German – acted as a language-specific cue, and the extent to which this cue constrains competitive, lexical interaction between the bilingual’s languages (e.g. Hose-hose, the first being a German word meaning ‘trousers’ in English). This study also considered the extent to which the use of such information is affected by priming for a specific language from a preceding context sentence. The second study arose from a claim that readers employ distinct sub-lexical reading strategies, depending on the extent of spelling-to-sound (in)consistency in their language (e.g. Ziegler, Perry, Jacobs, & Braun 2001). Employing a bilingual population whose two languages were clearly distinguished in terms of such consistency, I explored the reading strategy used by bilingual participants reading in each language. A key issue is competitive activation between sub-lexical orthographic and phonological representations across languages. Each study was conducted with two groups of bilingual speakers, English-German and German-English. Individuals varied in their L2 proficiency, allowing a test of whether sub-lexical processing changed as a consequence of increasing proficiency. The main results from study one demonstrate that bilingual speakers are dependent upon sub-lexical, language-specific information. However, this is influenced by L2 proficiency, with a stronger effect for lower proficiency bilinguals. In addition, lower proficiency bilinguals were more dependent on sub-lexical cues when primed by a sentence in L2. In contrast, bilingual speakers performing in their L1 used these cues largely under very specific circumstances, i.e. when they did not know an item. The central finding of study two is that competition between sub-lexical orthographic and phonological representations across languages largely depends on the amount of spelling-to-sound (in)consistency in the bilinguals’ more dominant language. This is reflected in (1) slower identification of orthographically similar cognates which map onto different phonological representations across two languages, and (2) slower identification of cognates which do not share the same orthographic form across languages but have a common phonological representation. In addition, increasing L2 proficiency is reflected in attenuation of certain effects as processing becomes more automatic, and the development of a common reading strategy accommodating reading in either language. A major contribution of the research conducted is what findings from both studies reveal about how the bilingual lexicon develops as proficiency increases. Furthermore, the findings contribute to our understanding of the organisation of the bilingual mental lexicon and the processes of word identification, and impose constraints on possible cognitive architectures.</p>

A STUDY ON PATTERN OF CODE MIXING IN A SEQUENTIAL BILINGUAL YOUNG ADULTS

The present study aimed to investigate and compares the pattern of Code Mixing in Sequential bilingual young adult. Thirty Sequential bilingual (Tamil-English) adults between the age range of 18-25 years were participated in this study. The bilingual participants were asked to describe the cookie-theft picture in Tamil. The patterns of Code Mixing (Intra Sentential Mixing and Intra Lexical Mixing) were analysed from the collected data. The results showed sequential bilingual adult uses 4.8% of Intra Sentential Mixing and 5.3% of Intra Lexical Mixing. In pattern of Code Mixing, Intra Sentential Mixing found to more in women. The present study concluded that Sequential bilingual speaker uses slightly higher percentage of Intra Lexical Mixing when compared to Intra Sentential Mixing in the picture description task. This finding will help Speech Language Pathologist to plan assessment, intervention and to development appropriate material for Sequential bilingual speakers in making clinical decision.

A unified approach to the study of language contact: Cross-language priming and change in adjective/noun order

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The connection between language contact and the bilingual speaker goes back to foundational authors in the field of contact linguistics. Yet there is very little work that combines these two levels in a single study. In this paper, we propose a unified approach to language contact by testing the role of cross-language priming (CLP) on contact-induced change at the level of complex noun phrases (NPs). Design/methodology/approach: We conducted three studies with different types of data. In Study 1, we analyse the Romani Morpho-Syntax database to identify word order preferences in Romani dialects from different countries. In Study 2, we examine a corpus of interviews in Romani from Romania. In Study 3, we conduct an experiment to test short-term priming in adjective (ADJ)/noun (N) order from Romanian to Romani and within Romani. Data and analysis: In Study 1, we examine the word order in approximately 3000 NPs from 119 Romani speakers. In Study 2, we analyse a speech corpus of 9400 words from four elderly Romani–Romanian bilinguals. In Study 3, 90 Romani–Romanian bilinguals participated in a priming experiment. We used multinomial mixed-effects logistic regression, Bayesian models and Random Forests to analyse the experimental results. Findings/conclusions: Study 1 shows that Romani speakers from Romania stand out for their frequent use of postnominal ADJs. Study 2 confirms these uses in free speech. Study 3 reveals significant CLP effects, whereby speakers favour the use of determiner (DET)–N–ADJ order in Romani immediately following a noun with a suffixed determiner (NDET)–ADJ sentence read in Romanian. Originality: Our study is the first to demonstrate CLP effects in ADJ/N order. Significance/implications: We illustrate a unified approach to language contact by introducing theoretical and methodological advances from the field of bilingualism into the study of contact-induced change.

Evaluating the Russian Language Proficiency of Bilingual and Second Language Learners of Russian

The starting point of most experimental and clinical examinations of bilingual language development is the choice of the measure of participants’ proficiency, which affects the interpretation of experimental findings and has pedagogical and clinical implications. Recent work on heritage and L2 acquisition of Russian used varying proficiency assessment tools, including elicited production, vocabulary recognition, and in-house measures. Using such different approaches to proficiency assessment is problematic if one seeks a coherent vision of bilingual speaker competence at different acquisition stages. The aim of the present study is to provide a suite of validated bilingual assessment materials designed to evaluate the language proficiency speakers of Russian as a second or heritage language. The materials include an adaptation of a normed language background questionnaire (Leap-Q), a battery of participant-reported proficiency measures, and a normed cloze deletion test. We offer two response formats in combination with two distinct scoring methods in order to make the testing materials suited for bilingual Russian speakers who self-assess as (semi-) proficient as well as for those whose bilingualism is incipient, or declining due to language attrition. Data from 52 baseline speakers and 503 speakers of Russian who reported dominant proficiency in a different language are analyzed for test validation purposes. Obtained measures of internal and external validity provide evidence that the cloze deletion test reported in this study reliably discriminates between dissimilar target language attainment levels in diverse populations of bilingual and multilingual Russian speakers.

Code-Switching Among Kuwaitis in the Social Context: Attitudes and Practices

This paper investigates the Kuwaiti attitudes and code-switching practices between the two most common languages used: Arabic and English. Additionally, it discusses which factors may affect how Kuwaitis code-switch, as well as their attitudes toward this phenomenon. In this study, a qualitative approach was used to collect data by conducting one-on-one interviews with seven participants. The study results showed that four of the seven participants had positive attitudes toward code-switching, whereas the remaining few had either neutral or negative attitudes. The thematic analysis of the qualitative narratives revealed that all of the participants habitually employed code-switching in their social interactions, despite their different attitudes. Being a bilingual speaker is an advantage&mdash;it can widen users&rsquo; horizons and open new socioeconomic opportunities thanks to globalization and English as a lingua franca. Therefore, parents, teachers, and policymakers are encouraged to work and help create bilingual speakers who are competent users of their mother tongue and their second language, English.

Indonesian-English Code-Switching of Sacha Stevenson as a Canadian Bilingual Speaker on YouTube

Code-switching or language alternation is one of the linguistic strategies that is widely used in bilingual community, including Indonesia. This study attempts to find out the types and reasons of code-switching on YouTube as employed by a Canadian bilingual speaker, Sacha Stevenson. The data used for this study were transcripts of five videos about Indonesian culture taken from Sacha’s YouTube channel. Based on the analysis, there are a total of 313 occurrences of code-switching from Indonesian to English. Poplack’s theory (1980) was applied for the classification of code-switching. The findings showed that the most frequent type is inter-sentential code-switching (42%), followed by intra-sentential code-switching (34%), and the least is tag-switching (24%). This study also explored the reasons for code-switching by applying the theory proposed by Grosjean (1984). It was found that all code-switching occurrences fit into the 11 categorizations of code-switching reasons. This shows a variety of different factors that influence the use of code-switching. The most frequent reason which triggered code-switching is to fill a linguistic need for lexical item, set phrase, discourse marker, or sentence filler (31%). In addition to the 11 reasons proposed by Grojean (1984), another reason for code-switching was found, i.e., to gain popularity.

Poetry Translation from a Tonal Language (Vietnamese) to a Non-Tonal Language (English)

In this essay, as a bilingual speaker as well as a poet and linguist, I will share some issues involved in the translation of a bilingual collection of poems by Andrea Hoa Pham and Lola Haskins, published by Danang Publishing House. The collection includes twenty Vietnamese poems originally written in Vietnamese by Pham, and twenty written in English by Haskins; each original poem is accompanied by a translated version. In the process, I translated Haskins’s poems into Vietnamese. For my original Vietnamese poems, I translated them into English, and Haskins adapted the English versions as an American poet and native speaker of English. Over several meetings, we discussed the deep meanings behind the text, line by line, written by the other, although without discussing the sound of the languages or reading them aloud to each other.

Pronunciation Teaching Issues: Answering Teachers’ Questions

This article reviews questions that non-native (NNEST) and native speaker (NEST) teachers, working in different contexts, have about pronunciation teaching. It draws on theory, research, and practice to answer those questions as far as possible. The data was collected across two projects that investigated teachers’ cognitions: their knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and practices. The first project involved semi-structured interviews with 28 NNESTs in Uruguay while the second was set in New Zealand and involved questionnaires (N=83), semistructured interviews (N=19) and classroom observations (N=6). The 19 New Zealand interviews involved 11 with New Zealand English native (L1) speakers, six with Inner Circle variety of English L1 speakers, one Outer Circle bilingual and one Expanding Circle bilingual speaker. While a number of results from these studies have already been reported (Couper, 2016a, 2016b, 2017, 2019), this article revisits the data in order to isolate questions and issues, and compare them across the two contexts. The data from Uruguay reveal insights into NNESTs’ perspectives while the data from New Zealand provide perspectives from those teaching Asian L1 students. Questions relate to: 1. the learner; 2. what to teach; 3. how to teach; 4. dealing with curriculum, textbook, and time issues; 5. teacher’s pronunciation ability and knowledge of phonetics and phonology There are some differences between the groups, such as NNESTs lacking confidence in their own pronunciation and NESTs lacking knowledge of phonetics and phonology. However, there are more similarities, with many questions not being specific to either context. These involve pedagogic knowledge and issues around priorities, setting goals, and space for pronunciation teaching. The questions and issues are addressed in terms of theories and what is known from the increasing body of research into pronunciation teaching. Practical examples of how this knowledge can be applied in the classroom are also suggested.

Role of Regional Language Background and Speech Styles on the Production of Voice Onset Time (VOT) in English among Indonesian Multilinguals

This paper seeks to contribute to the nature of cross-linguistic transfer in the production of English Voice Onset Time (VOT) by adult multilingual speakers in Indonesia in view of how different regional home languages and speech settings shape the phonetic realizations. Three adult multilinguals participated in this pilot project. They are all learners of English as the third language (L3) at the Department of English of a state university in Malang, Indonesia who acquire different regional home languages – Javanese, Sundanese, and Madurese – as the first language (L1) and speak Indonesian as the second language (L2). The participants’ production of bilabial stop consonants of English /p/ and /b/ were elicited from two different speech settings; a careful speech via text readings (monologue and dialogue) and wordlist reading, and a spontaneous speech through natural conversation among participants. 21 tokens from each participant were then analyzed acoustically in Praat. The findings show that the bilingual speaker with L1 Sundanese consistently produced the shortest VOT values of both /p/ and /b/. The Javanese speaker produced the intermediate lag, whereas the Madurese speaker produced the longest aspiration interval. It is shown that the Sundanese language provides the strongest transfer effect, while Madurese gives the least effect. In light of cross-linguistic transfer, however, the overall VOT productions clearly put forth evidence of L1 phonological transfer. The production of non-native bilabial stop VOTs of English is largely due to the absence of this phonetic property in Javanese and Sundanese while Madurese shows marginal similarities. The findings also demonstrate that speech styles play only a marginal role in determining the production of VOTs that the VOTs of /p/ and /b/ in careful speech is found to be slightly longer than in the spontaneous settings. This study makes an original contribution to the area of phonological acquisition in adult speakers by giving attention to the understudied languages of Indonesia in order to more fully understand the interaction of different language systems in multilingual language acquisition and development.