The Problem of Language Switching in Early Simultaneous Bilingual and Monolingual Students in Foreign Language Learning

ABSTRACTForeign language anxiety is common among adult learners, especially those who lack exposure to the language that they are learning. In this study, we compared the foreign language anxiety experienced by monolingual and bilingual tertiary students in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) who were learning English as a Foreign Language. The monolingual students were learning English as their L2, while the bilingual students were learning it as their L3. In general, both groups of EFL learners reported moderate to high levels of foreign language anxiety in relation to EFL learning. In comparison to the monolingual students, the bilingual students were reportedly feeling more comfortable to be with the native speakers of English and had increased self-confidence in using English. This finding was noteworthy since the bilingual students actually received less encouragement from their English teachers in the learning process and they also used less English in their everyday communication. Together, the findings highlighted positive multilingual effects in linguistic self-confidence, which could be useful in reducing foreign language anxiety among multilingual individuals.

This study was conducted to determine the writing skills of bilingual students whose mother tongue is Kurdish and monoligual students whose mother tongue is Turkish in the fifth grade of secondary school. More specifically, the story and essay writing skills of bilingual students are compared with the writing skills of monolingual students based on their reading habits and their parents’ educational backgrounds. The research is a descriptive study based on scanning model and aims to reveal the current situation as it is. The study group of the research consists of a total of 104 fifth grade secondary school students, 52 bilingual and 52 monolingual, studying in 4 different secondary schools in the central district of İpekyolu in Van, Turkey. In order to determine students’ writing skills, stories and essays were written to them at different times in one lesson hour (average forty minutes). The stories were evaluated according to the Story Writing Evaluation Form (İzdeş, 2011). The essays were evaluated according to the Written Expression Rating Scale (Deniz, 2003). According to the results of Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal - Wallis-H tests, monolingual students outperformed bilingual students in both story and essay writing. While a significant difference was found between bilingual and monolingual students’ essay and story writing skills, no significant difference was found in terms of parents› education status or the number of books their parents read. The findings have interesting implications for the researchers and teachers in the area.

There is a growing demand for bilingual services in speech-language pathology and audiology. To meet this growing demand, and given their critical role in the recruitment of more bilingual professionals, higher education institutions need to know more about bilingual students' impression of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) as a major. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate bilingual and monolingual undergraduate students' perceptions of the CSD major. One hundred and twenty-two students from a large university located in a highly multicultural metropolitan area responded to four open-ended questions aimed at discovering students' major areas of interest (and disinterest) as well as their motivations for pursuing a degree in CSD. Consistent with similar reports conducted outside the United States, students from this culturally diverse environment indicated choosing the major for altruistic reasons. A large percentage of participants were motivated by a desire to work with children, but not in a school setting. Although 42% of the participants were bilingual, few indicated an interest in taking an additional course in bilingual studies. Implications of these findings as well as practical suggestions for the recruitment of bilingual students are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to expand the current literature on word definitions, to empirically investigate (a) the definitional skills, (b) the effect of grammatical category of the word and (c) the preferred definition types produced by Greek monolingual students and Turkish-Greek bilingual students of different levels of education. Previous research has shown that bilinguals produce better definitions than their monolingual peers due to their enhanced metalinguistic abilities. To date, no studies have compared the definitional skills considering word grammatical categories in bilingual students of different levels of education. To this end, 158 students –79 monolingual speakers of Greek and 79 bilingual speakers (L1 Turkish, L2 Greek) – were tested and were asked to define 16 words (8 nouns, 4 verbs, and 4 adjectives), orally. Definitions were scored on a five-point scale along a continuum that reflects the developmental path of the definitions. The findings indicated that monolinguals outperformed bilinguals in respect to the content of definitions in all grammatical categories, regardless of their level of education. Nevertheless, in form, the differences between the groups disappeared in senior high school. Bilingual students catch up their monolingual peers, conceivably, due to their enhanced metalinguistic abilities. The finding further supports that content of definitions is a more sensitive indicator. Within group comparisons have shown that the production of formal definitions exhibits in junior high school, while it takes more time for this pattern to emerge in bilinguals (i.e. in senior high school). Nouns were better defined than verbs and adjectives. Verbs and adjectives did not differ in upper elementary school students; however, a difference arose in junior high school, i.e. more formal definitions were used in adjectives compared to verbs, proving that verbs are more abstract and, thus, difficult to be defined. All in all, the present study offers useful insights about the development of word definitional skills considering word grammatical categories in bilingual and monolingual students of different levels of education and discusses the outcomes in the light of educational practices. Keywords: definitional skills, monolingual students, bilingual students, grammatical categories DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-8-01 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

The present study aimed at comparing the working memory of Greek monolingual students to bilingual ones from migrant backgrounds who all attend primary school. Secondly, an effort was made to investigate the correlation of the working memory with the academic performance in both groups. Moreover, the correlation of the vocabulary strategies, employed by monolingual and bilingual students in an integrated memory-based text framework (Rachanioti, Griva & Alevriadou, 2017), with their working memory was explored. The sample consisted of 20 monolingual and 20 bilingual students of Albanian origin, who attended the 5th and 6th grade of three primary schools in Eastern Thessaloniki, Greece. The monolingual and bilingual students were matched according to their mark reports on academic performance. The Automated Working Memory Assessment (Alloway, 2007) was used to assess the students’ working memory. The data revealed that monolingual and bilingual students did not differ either in the verbal working memory or the visuospatial working memory performance. A statistically significant positive correlation between working memory and academic performance was found in both monolingual and bilingual students. The correlation of the Process strategies with the verbal working memory was statistically significant in monolingual students, as well as in the bilingual ones. The Memory strategies were positively correlated with the verbal and visuospatial working memory in both groups. The Confirmation/consolidation strategies were positively correlated with the verbal working memory only in the bilingual students. Results are discussed in terms of memory strategy instruction that may compensate for a poor working memory of both monolingual and bilingual students in a classroom’s setting, thus aiding to improve their academic performance. This study is the first trial of the AWMA in Greek students as well as bilingual immigrant ones. Article visualizations:

Reading literacy is regarded as one of the most crucial prerequisites for academic success in all fields. PISA surveys reading literacy with extensive demographic data in several countries to provide detailed feedback for detecting problems in their education systems. In many countries, bilingual students are facing several problems in schools, especially language-related problems. In this context, this study is causal-comparative research aiming to compare bilingual and monolingual students’ Turkish reading literacies based on PISA 2018 data while controlling their economic, social and cultural status. In Turkey, 6890 students from 186 schools, who were selected through stratified random sampling, participated in PISA 2018 implementation. Bilingual and monolingual students’ reading literacies were compared through ANCOVA where their economic social and cultural status is the covariate. Findings showed that monolingual students have greater reading literacy scores than bilingual students when their economic, social and cultural status were controlled. This finding indicates that there may be some problems in Turkish language teaching/learning strategies for bilingual students, which do not originate from their economic, social and cultural status. In this paper, the possible reasons for bilingual students’ low reading literacy, are discussed, and some possible solutions for these problems are suggested.

The research is devoted to distance methods of foreign language teaching in the Russian Federation. The study aims to survey both theoretical and practical aspects of the problem, to demonstrate their advantages and disadvantages. Research has shown that distance methods of foreign language teaching in Russia occupy the position between full-time and correspondence training. However, they have their peculiar features, such as flexibility, asynchrony, coverage, profitability, parallelism, modularity, etc. Special attention is paid to the role of the teacher in the distance teaching process. The components of the course of studies during distance foreign language teaching are studied. Requirements to be taken into consideration before creating a course of studies are highlighted in the paper. The evolution of teaching foreign languages at a distant mode in Russia is surveyed. The pros and cons of different methods are analyzed, including a communicative, direct and combined ones. Various psychological approaches lying at the basis of methods of distance foreign language teaching are highlighted. They are cognitive, behavior psychology and inductive-conscious ones. New systems of distant education that are used on the regular basis within Russian educational establishments, such as Mass Open Online Courses, Universarium, Open Education are surveyed in the paper. The opportunities of technological platforms for automation of educational process and assessment of students̕ works are discussed. The results of the study can be implemented in further development and improvement of methods of distance foreign language teaching.

Nowadays foreign language is not just a part of nation's culture, it is also the guarantee of student’s successful career in the future. The achievement of high level proficiency of foreign language is not possible without fundamental language training in higher education institution. Most of them in our country provide students with at least two or even three foreign languages. In the context of higher school reforming, important changes in the educational technologies of foreign language teaching are envisaged. Modern language education is also gradually being modernized, introducing a modular rating system for teaching foreign languages. Interdisciplinary integration, democratization and economization of education determine the manifestation of innovative components in the teaching of the foreign languages. All this requires the formulation of the new claims for teaching and a foreign language teacher in the Free Economic Zone. At the current stage of society development, the purpose of foreign language teaching in higher education institutions is students' mastering of communicative competencies that will allow them to implement their knowledge, skills and abilities to solve specific communicative tasks in real life situations. The introduction of the new effective methods of foreign language teaching in the process of preparing students of humanities and technical specialties has become not only desirable but also necessary. Innovative orientation requires teachers to master and apply the pedagogical innovations, as well as stimulate the search for new forms and methods of educational process organization. High-quality language training of students is impossible without the use of modern educational technologies. The most effective are the professionally-oriented foreign language learning, the project work in teaching, the application of information and telecommunication technologies, the work with educational computer programs in foreign languages (multimedia system), the distance technologies in foreign language learning, the use of Internet resources, the foreign language teaching in the computer environment (forums, blogs, e-mail, etc.). Nowadays, the methodology of the use of computer programs is being developed actively getting more used. Computer programs offer ample opportunities to improve the process of foreign language learning, increasing its efficiency. The computer program provides the perception of information through auditory and visual channels, so it also allows you to organize teaching and control the foreign language acquisition in different modes of independent search and at different levels of complexity. Foreign language teaching means are important to ensure the full and effective organization of students' learning in the classroom to master foreign language activities.

Recently, the effect of individual difference on language switching and switching cost has become a focus of many studies. Among the factors involved in the effect, L2 proficiency and age of acquisition are shown to be two important factors. Whilst the switching cost in proficient bilinguals is symmetrical, it is not in non-proficient bilinguals. Similar findings are obtained from bilinguals who acquire L2 early and those who acquire late. Moreover, some studies indicate that the switching cost may result from a system that is outside the word-recognition system in the mental lexicon. That is, inhibitive control also plays an important role in language switching as in general task switching. Previous EEG evidence shows that N2 (about 320 ms) that isusually found in the central frontal areas can be used as an indicator reflecting the top-to-down inhibitive control. In this study, the effect of cognitive flexibility (CF) on language switching was examined in non-proficient bilinguals using EEG method. Thirty non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals were selected from 119 non-English major undergraduates by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST). Among them, 15 participants were scored as high cognitive flexibility (CF), and another 15 were scored as low CF. A 2 (high-CF and low-CF) × 2 (L1 and L2) × 2 (repetition and switch) mixed design was employed. A picture naming task and a semantic-decision task were performed by the participants in order to examine the mechanism of language switching during language production and comprehension, respectively. In experiment 1, an immediate naming paradigm was used, and behavioral data were recorded. In experiment 2, a delayed naming paradigm was used, and only ERPs data were collected. In experiment 3, the participants were required to decide whether the presented word indicated a living meaning by pressing buttons. Both behavioral and ERPs data were obtained. The results showed that: (1) The switching cost in high-CF participants was symmetrical, whereas that in low-CF was not. Meanwhile, the mean amplitude and peak value of N2 was larger significantly in high-CF than in low-CF. (2) For high-CF participants, the peak value of N2 in repetitive language production task was larger in L2 repetitive condition than in L1 repetitive condition. (3) In contrast, the peak value of N2 in repetitive language comprehension task was larger in L1 repetitive condition than in L2 repetitive condition. These results suggest that CF affects language switching and its cost. The capability of inhibitive control have a key role in bilingual’s language switching of language production and comprehension. Language switching and its cost in non-proficient bilinguals result from a system that is outside the word-recognition system in the mental lexicon.

Learning a language through another language is trivialto any type of language learning, whether it is the learning of a local or a foreign language. South Africa’s language policy for higher education recommends the study of foreign languages (FLs) and indigenous languages.A decade after its adoption, the learning of a foreign or indigenous language in that foreign or that indigenous language, respectively, at universities has been overlooked. In essence, the learning of foreign languages at the country’s universities dates back to the 19th century, when the first higher education institution,the South African College was established. At that College a Department of General Literature that offered Dutch, English, Latin and Ancient languages was established. English and Dutch teachers provided instruction in the English and Dutch language, respectively. The instructions involved theory, history and practice of English grammar and literature or Dutch grammar and literature. The learning of indigenous languages at the country’s universities began in the 20th century under the departments of Bantu Studies. They were learnt through English, and then later through English andAfrikaans. The instructions involved theory, history and practice of English grammar and literature. The aim of this study is to gain knowledge on the different approaches that may be used to learn a foreign language and an indigenous language. The study focuses on the complex challenges facing the country’s universities to adopt new, different and best models for the teaching of foreign and indigenous languages after many decades of using English and Afrikaans mediums. A case study method is used for this study. The emphasis is on the learning of foreign versus indigenous languages in South African universities (SAUs). The paper consists of an introduction, the theory of Grammar Translation Method (GTM), a case study on the learning of foreign versus South African indigenous languages (SAILs) at the SAUs, and a conclusion. Keywords: foreign language, indigenous language, learning, English, Afrikaans

Theoretically Communicative Language Teaching Method (CLT) claims to be one of the best available foreign language teaching methods in teaching and learning foreign language in communication because it improves effectively not only communicative competence of students but also their language acquisition and its use in Albanian schools is an innovation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the results that the use of a contemporary interactive student-centered method has when it is used in learning a foreign language compared with traditional methods. This is an empirical study which includes control groups where traditional methods are used and experimental groups where CLT method is used based on a comparison between these methods for a period of 6 months. It is mainly focused on the implementation of CLT in Albanian 9-year elementary schools in learning English as a foreign language through communication and interaction compared with other traditional methods used. The study analyzes the impact, results and advantages of the use in practice of CLT method in Albanian 9-year elementary schools on sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grades, its efficacy in learning, in foreign language acquisition and students performance in four language skills. It contains an analysis of theory versus practice use of CLT as a foreign language teaching method. The data about the implementation of CLT method in practice are collected from teachers and students in Albanian 9-year elementary schools through classroom observation and tests. Classroom observations are focused on finding how the teacher develops the lessons and if it is based on CLT principles on experimental groups and how students react during the lesson in comparison with control groups. Tests are used to compare students’ results on learning based on their grades in both groups. All results are converted into percentages. Findings are analyzed based on theoretical issues. The results show that using CLT is a successful method in both learning and teaching compared with other traditional methods.

Foreign language learning is generally not required in the United States, despite its link to various cognitive and social benefits later in life. Students who speak a home language different from the instructional language of school may experience unique benefits when learning additional languages in school. The present study examined whether students' early language status (monolingual, dual language learner [DLL], or bilingual) in Kindergarten predicts later foreign language course enrollment and performance in middle and high school. A total of 33,247 students (48% female, 59% Latino, 34% Black, 7% White/Asian/other, 82% receiving free/reduced-price lunch) were assessed for school readiness at age 4 and prospectively followed through high school. Regression analyses predicted foreign language course enrollment and performance in middle or high school, with students' demographic, school readiness, and prior academic performance as covariates. Results show early language status significantly predicts later enrollment and performance in foreign language courses, even after controlling for student demographics, school readiness skills, and early academic achievement. Early bilinguals were more likely to take foreign language courses than DLLs, who enrolled in such courses more than monolingual students. The same pattern favoring bilinguals, then DLLs, then monolinguals was found for performance in foreign language courses. Early bilingualism is an important resource for young children that continues to offer benefits throughout schooling. Implications for heritage language maintenance, language learning, and bilingual education are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The development of modern society requires highly qualified specialists in different fields of industry, who can communicate effectively and interact productively with foreign colleagues. Proficiency in a foreign language has become crucial for a specialist’s personal and professional growth. This paper aimes to study the impact of communicative foreign language teaching methods on developing undergraduate students' communicative competence at Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University. This research employs general scientific approaches and methods: theoretical for analysis, generalisation of the main provisions of the research and clarifying the essence and features of the process of developing communicative competence; and empirical: a questionnaire, observations, testing and conversations for examining the level of undergraduate students' communicative competence. This paper starts with the analysis of theoretical fundamentals of communicative competence in foreign language learning, its general components. It briefly describes some foreign language teaching methods focused on communication activities in foreign language classes. Due to the data of the survey conducted at Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, the impact of implementing communicative foreign language teaching methods on developing undergraduate students' communicative competence was examined. According to the study's findings, communicative foreign language teaching methods promote students' interest and foster their engagement in the learning process, raise their motivation and improve their communication proficiency in English. The combination of innovative and traditional technologies, such as writing essays or reports, constructing scenarios, modelling communicative situations, role-playing, case-studying, etc., plays a critical role in the foreign language classroom learning. Undergraduate students felt more confident in speaking and writing in English due to the learner-centered approach and numerous interactions and communication activities undertaken in a foreign language class. Key words: communicative competence, foreign language learning, undergraduate students, proficiency, communication.

Importance.The rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and the use of AI tools in education have stimulated the emergence of a large body of scientific and methodological works devoted to methods of foreign language teaching based on AI. At the same time, most of the publications are not distinguished by obvious scientific novelty or practical value. The purpose of the research is to analyze and classify scientific articles on methods of foreign languages teaching, published in Russian highly rated scientific publications in 2023, to highlight the main subjects of the works of scientists and to identify methodological gaps and prospects for further methodological research.Materials and Methods.The research is conducted on the basis of scientific articles on methods of foreign languages teaching, published in scientific journals listed by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (K1, K2) for 2023. The research is based on an expert approach, which allows, through analysis of the corpus of scientific publications, to summarize the data obtained, highlight existing patterns, put forward hypotheses regarding the prospects for further research in the chosen area, and also identify a range of issues that have not been resolved. Within the framework of this approach, the following theoretical research methods are used: analysis of scientific publications, classification and summarization of data.Results and Discussion.In the course of the research, the main subjects of scientific and methodological work on methods of foreign language teaching based on AI are determined: a) vectors of using artificial intelligence in education; b) chatbots and voice assistants in teaching foreign language verbal communication; c) corpus technologies of artificial intelligence in the formation of students’ lexical and grammatical skills and research work; d) automation of the process of monitoring the development of foreign language speech skills and the formation of students’ language skills; e) the use of neural networks in foreign language teaching; f) the use of neural networks in research work; g) requirements for the competence of a foreign language teacher in the field of artificial intelligence; h) requirements for the competence of students in the context of the integration of artificial intelligence into education.Conclusion.The author included the following issues of foreign language teaching based on artificial intelligence technologies as research prospects: a) methodology for foreign language teaching based on AI; b) linguodidactic potential of existing and emerging AI tools; c) types of feedback from generative artificial intelligence; d) types of intelligent learning systems and their capabilities; e) teaching according to an individual trajectory; f) risks and threats arising in the process of integrating artificial intelligence into education; g) competence of a foreign language teacher in the field of artificial intelligence.

Recent studies claim that having an analytical cognitive style is correlated with reduced religiosity in western populations. However, in cultural contexts where social norms constrain behavior, such cognitive characteristics may have reduced influence on behaviors and beliefs. We labeled this the ‘constraining environments hypothesis.’ In a sample of 246 Muslims in Turkey, the hypothesis was supported for gender. Females face social pressure to be religious. Unlike their male counterparts, they were more religious, less analytical, and their analytical scores were uncorrelated with religiosity. We had predicted an analogous effect for the comparison between monolingual and bilingual students, since English-proficient students are exposed to a wider social environment. The bilingual students were less religious than the monolingual students, yet they were also less analytical. Thus, being analytical was not the path to lower religiosity for the bilingual students. Cognitive styles need to be studied along with social norms in a variety of cultures, to understand religion-cognition relationships.