Bilingual Input Research Articles

Constructing bilingual input safe spaces at home: rethinking exposure to language from a multilingual and multisite perspective on literacy practices

Constructing bilingual input safe spaces at home: rethinking exposure to language from a multilingual and multisite perspective on literacy practices

Lexical tone as a cue in statistical word learning from bilingual input

Abstract Learners can track word-referent co-occurrences across individually-ambiguous naming events to form correct word-referent mappings, termed statistical word learning (SWL). Prior research largely focuses on learning from a single language input, where a referent co-occurs with a single word (1:1 mapping). Here, we tested adults’ SWL from a simulated bilingual environment, where one referent co-occurred with two words (2:1 mapping) and the two words were either differentiated by a linguistic cue (Mandarin lexical tones, Cued condition) or not (Uncued condition). Results showed that in the Cued condition, Chinese–English bilinguals (N = 38) outperformed Spanish–English bilinguals (N = 56) and English monolinguals (N = 55), while Spanish–English bilinguals and English monolinguals performed similarly. The three groups did not differ in the Uncued condition. Self-reported learning confidence and strategies showed limited conscious awareness of learning. Results demonstrate that familiarity with a linguistic cue boosts overall statistical word learning from bilingual input.

Comparing Different Measures of Bilingual Input Derived From Naturalistic Daylong Recordings.

Measuring language input, especially for infants growing up in bilingual environments, is challenging. Although the ways to measure input have expanded rapidly in recent years, there are many unresolved issues. In this study, we compared different measurement units and sampling methods used to estimate bilingual input in naturalistic daylong recordings. We used the Language Environment Analysis system to obtain and process naturalistic daylong recordings from 21 French-English bilingual families with an infant at 10 and 18 months of age. We examined global and context-specific input estimates and their relation with infant vocal activeness (i.e., volubility) when input was indexed by different units (adult word counts, speech duration, 30-s segment counts) and using different sampling methods (every-other-segment, top-segment). Input measures indexed by different units were strongly and positively correlated with each other and yielded similar results regarding their relation with infant volubility. As for sampling methods, sampling every other 30-s segment was representative of the entire corpus. However, sampling the top segments with the densest input was less representative and yielded different results regarding their relation with infant volubility. How well the input that a child receives throughout a day is portrayed by a selected sample and correlates with the child's vocal activeness depends on the choice of input units and sampling methods. Different input units appear to generate consistent results, while caution should be taken when choosing sampling methods. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22335688.

Latino toddlers’ bilingual output and their caregivers’ bilingual input and acculturation

The current study’s aim was to investigate how Latino toddlers’ bilingual language development relates to their caregivers’ bilingual language use (i.e., input) and cultural orientation (to the US and their heritage country). Video recordings of caregiver-child interactions, collected when toddlers were approximately 1.5 (Mage = 18.73 months; SDage = 1.11) and 2 years old (Mage = 25.13 months; SDage = 1.29), were used to measure caregivers’ (Mage = 33.29 years; SDage = 4.95) and toddlers’ language use (i.e., output), respectively. Specifically, the total number of words used (i.e., tokens) in Spanish and English were derived from the video-recordings. In addition, caregivers’ cultural orientation (i.e., acculturation; Mexican/heritage culture-oriented to US-oriented) was assessed using a multidimensional measure of acculturation. Descriptive analyses of tokens showed that caregivers and toddlers used both Spanish and English during interactions with each other, though caregivers used a higher ratio of Spanish-to-English (i.e., more Spanish than English) than did toddlers. Mediational analyses further revealed that caregivers’ acculturation level was indirectly related to toddlers’ bilingual language use, specifically as a function of caregivers’ bilingual language use. These findings suggest that caregivers’ bilingual input acts as a mediator between caregivers’ acculturation and their toddlers’ bilingual output.

Patterns and predictors of code-switching in Singapore preschoolers: a corpus-based study

ABSTRACT This study explored the patterns and predictors of code-switching (CS) in Singapore preschoolers by analyzing the data elicited from an existing early childhood corpus. Altogether 943 cases of CS produced by 111 children aged 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6, respectively, were analyzed. The results indicated that: (1) ‘insertion’, ‘intersentential’, and ‘backflagging’ were identified as the most common types of CS, whereas‘alternation’ was rarely found; (2) there was a significant age-related increase in the production repertoire, the occurrence rate, the number of children producing CS, the frequency, and the type of CS, and age was confirmed the significant predictor; (3) children from the families with at least one bilingual parent produced the most CS, whereas those from the families without any bilingual parents produced the least; (4) parental bilingualism attitude, storytelling, and singing activities negatively predicted the CS frequency and type, whereas parental language input patterns positively predicted the frequency; and (5) children from the families with parents believing that bilingual education should start from kindergarten years (Ages 3-6) had the highest frequency of CS. These findings have added empirical evidence about CS in a multilingual Asian society and highlighted the impact of parent bilingual input patterns on CS in early childhood.

Bilingual daycares in the Netherlands: an analysis of the implementation of bilingual input and underlying ideologies

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the motivations behind the implementation of bilingual education in the Dutch preschool system and relates this to the status of Dutch in the Dutch educational system. Based on the analysis of policy documents and questionnaires filled in by parents and teachers, this study reveals two different underlying ideologies that the government, daycares and parents have adopted. The ideology of the Dutch government and daycare organizations visited by a Dutch-speaking audience is centered around Dutch-speaking children acquiring English as a foreign language. On the other hand, non-Dutch speaking parents and daycare organizations visited by an international audience rather want to expose non-Dutch speaking children to Dutch, to facilitate better integration into the Dutch community. The data thus suggest that not only English but also Dutch is important for many parents. Still, the introduction of bilingual daycares is part of an ongoing ‘Englishization’ of the Dutch educational system that has been taking place for decades. Future research should determine what a larger scale introduction means for the status of the Dutch language in the Dutch preschool system in the long run.

Bilingual socialization and the development of interactional resources

Developing interactional competencies is crucial in order to become a proficient speaker. Adopting a qualitative approach, we analyze how exposure to bilingual practices contributes to the acquisition of interactional and pragmatic skills. The analyses draw from data in two corpora collected from two families living in Veneto (Italy) where Venetan (the regional and minoritized language) and Italian are spoken in the community. In the first family, the target child is a boy toddler (17 – 30 months) and in the second family, the target children are two sisters (aged 5 and 9 years). Our analyses focus on the specific functions bilingual productions cover. Experiencing a bilingual input could provide important socialization cues enhancing children’s social interactional and pragmatic skills, possibly preempting ideological forces that shape the statuses of the languages involved. We discuss the implications of these results in a context where the languages spoken do not benefit from the same social status.

Reliability of the Language Environment Analysis Recording System in Analyzing French-English Bilingual Speech.

Purpose This study examined the utility of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recording system for investigating the language input to bilingual infants. Method Twenty-one French-English bilingual families with a 10-month-old infant participated in this study. Using the LENA recording system, each family contributed 3 full days of recordings within a 1-month period. A portion of these recordings (945 minutes) were manually transcribed, and the word counts from these transcriptions were compared against the LENA-generated adult word counts. Results Data analyses reveal that the LENA algorithms were reliable in counting words in both Canadian English and Canadian French, even when both languages are present in the same recording. While the LENA system tended to underestimate the amount of speech in the recordings, there was a strong correlation between the LENA-generated and human-transcribed adult word counts for each language. Importantly, this relationship holds when accounting for different-gendered and different-accented speech. Conclusions The LENA recording system is a reliable tool for estimating word counts, even for bilingual input. Special considerations and limitations for using the LENA recording system in a bilingual population are discussed. These results open up possibilities for investigating caregiver talk to bilingual infants in more detail.

Preschoolers’ lexical skills in two majority languages: Is there evidence for the onset of sequential bilingualism?

Aims and objectives: This study measured bilingual lexical skills in children just starting preschool and in others who had been attending preschool for one year. It aimed to investigate how children’s lexical abilities were influenced by length of contact with structured bilingual input at school, in a context where two majority languages are taught through the educational system. Methodology: The participants were 72 children starting their first and second year in preschool, aged 2;11–3;4 ( N = 35) and 3;11–4;4 years ( N = 37), respectively. The children came from Maltese-dominant homes and attended the same state preschool where, in line with established bilingual educational policy, they were expected to receive systematic oral exposure to English. Receptive picture name judgement and picture naming tasks in Maltese and English were employed to measure receptive and expressive lexical abilities. Data and analysis: Correct receptive judgement and naming responses were analysed as a function of age group and language of testing. Findings: Comparison of 3- and 4-year-old performance revealed marked growth in Maltese but limited improvement in English for the older group. This profile was inconsistent with lexical outcomes expected for children receiving significant exposure to a second language (L2) in preschool. The findings call for reconsideration of the assumption that preschool entry for Maltese-dominant children and the sequential bilingual exposure associated with it bring about an improvement in L2 lexical abilities. School and home bilingual input, children’s learning demands and Malta’s sociolinguistic context were considered as possible contributing factors. Originality: To our knowledge, a focus on preschoolers’ lexical skills in two typologically distant, majority languages against a backdrop of stable bilingualism is novel. Significance: Given the bilingual stability and socio-cultural uniformity of the broader context for this study, the findings are proposed as a point of reference for evaluating preschoolers’ bilingual lexical skills.

Quantifying cross-linguistic influence with a computational model

Abstract Cross-linguistic influence (CLI) is one of the key phenomena in bilingual and second language learning. We propose a method for quantifying CLI in the use of linguistic constructions with the help of a computational model, which acquires constructions in two languages from bilingual input. We focus on the acquisition of case-marking cues in Russian and German and simulate two experiments that employ a picture-choice task tapping into the mechanisms of sentence interpretation. Our model yields behavioral patterns similar to human, and these patterns can be explained by the amount of CLI: the negative CLI in high amounts leads to the misinterpretation of participant roles in Russian and German object-verb-subject sentences. Finally, we make two novel predictions about the acquisition of case-marking cues in Russian and German. Most importantly, our simulations suggest that the high degree of positive CLI may facilitate the interpretation of object-verb-subject sentences.

Developing Russian Phd Students’ Academic Culture in EAP Courses for International Communication and Co-Operation

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Developing Russian Phd Students’ Academic Culture in EAP Courses for International Communication and Co-Operation

The paper gives a didactic insight into the concept of “intercultural academic communication” /IAC/ analyzing its types, forms, structure and bilingual input for the purposes of improving Russian advanced students’ communication skills as intercultural speakers and writers in English-speaking academic settings. On the basis of the 2015-2017 cross-cultural analysis of Russian Master’s Degree - PhD Students’ experiences of intercultural communication it provides a didactically-oriented and competency-based classification of communicative barriers to effective cross-cultural academic communication, describing such of them as linguistic, pragmatic, sociocultural, cognitive and visual communication barriers. The paper argues that the theoretical framework for designing tasks aiming at improving PhD students’ bilingual pluricultural competence to use English as a lingua franca in intercultural academic settings is to be based on L. Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory, A.N Leontiev’s activity theory, A.A. Leontiev’s psychological theory of communication, S. Hall’s theory of cultural factors and contexts and culturally-oriented FLT approaches to developing students’ bilingual academic competences on a multidisciplinary basis. The paper concludes with some recommendations on creating a hierarchical set of multidisciplinary problem-solving tasks and activities specifically designed to help PhD students meet new 21st century challenges of intercultural communication - co-operation, avoiding culture-bound academic pitfalls in today’s extremely complicated world. Among these tasks are those that involve PhD students’ into: a) observing and generalizing the similarities and differences of communicative and/or cognitive academic schemata in Russian and in English; b) classifying communicative barriers between intercultural speakers or writers (incl. English native - non-native speakers); c) interpreting the appropriacy of academic products in a FL from a global intercultural perspective; d) making suggestions for necessary pluricultural academic self-education in order to be able to foresee and/or identify communication barriers and find effective communicative tools to bridge intercultural academic gaps; e) doing thought-provoking case-studies in IAC; f) transforming interculturally inappropriate academic products in a FL into appropriate ones; g) group role-playing of IAC schema modes involving different academic roles that are typical of English-speaking international science co-operation settings; h) doing “Study - Innovate” projects.

Bayesian Word Learning in Multiple Language Environments.

Infant language learners are faced with the difficult inductive problem of determining how new words map to novel or known objects in their environment. Bayesian inference models have been successful at using the sparse information available in natural child-directed speech to build candidate lexicons and infer speakers' referential intentions. We begin by asking how a Bayesian model optimized for monolingual input (the Intentional Model; Frank etal., 2009) generalizes to new monolingual or bilingual corpora and find that, especially in the case of the bilingual input, the model shows a significant decrease in performance. In the next experiment, we propose the ME Model, a modified Bayesian model, which approximates infants' mutual exclusivity bias to support the differential demands of monolingual and bilingual learning situations. The extended model is assessed using the same corpora of real child-directed speech, showing that its performance is more robust against varying input and less dependent than the Intentional Model on optimization of its parsimony parameter. We argue that both monolingual and bilingual demands on word learning are important considerations for a computational model, as they can yield significantly different results than when only one such context is considered.

The Application of Computer Technology in Mongolian College English Teaching

Based on the demand of modern teaching, this paper researches the application of and problems faced by Mongolian information processing and computer multimedia technology in computer-assisted instruction. It also sets the teaching software content and learning goal and further designs the teaching software according to the English learning features and characteristics of choosing the medium of information of Mongolian college students. This software is suitable for use in learning and teaching bilingualism second language to Mongolian students, and teachers and can realize the independent code of bilingual characters, Mongolian input and output, Mongolian character handling and bilingual inter-translation functions. Manufacture and development of bilingual teaching software facilitates the enthusiasm of Mongolian college students to learn English, improve the language learning environment and plays a positive facilitation role in multilanguage integration and cultural development of the Mongolian area.

Text processing strategy instruction combined with bimodal bilingual inputs

:This study examines the combined effects of text processing strategy training and bimodal (listening and reading) bilingual (English and Korean) input conditions on the reading achievement of Korean learners of English. Learner training had two facets: one provided an explicit training of text processing strategies which facilitate building and activating learners’ background knowledge, and the other gave optimal input conditions using two languages which help learners get automatic recognition of syntactic and semantic aspects of texts. Six groups of students each were assigned to one of the six input conditions combined with dual modes and bilingual processing. All of them had the same explicit strategy training, followed by text comprehension tests. The pre- and post-test measures showed that explicit strategy training enhanced the more proficient learners’ ability to comprehend English texts. One-way ANOVA indicated that the Bimodal D text (listening to L1 translations and reading L2 texts simultaneously) was the most effective bimodal aid to L2 text comprehension and L1 had a significantly facilitative effect on understanding of L2 text for any level of English learners. An interactive processing model of reading is proposed based on the results.

Bilingualism Modulates Infants’ Selective Attention to the Mouth of a Talking Face

Infants growing up in bilingual environments succeed at learning two languages. What adaptive processes enable them to master the more complex nature of bilingual input? One possibility is that bilingual infants take greater advantage of the redundancy of the audiovisual speech that they usually experience during social interactions. Thus, we investigated whether bilingual infants’ need to keep languages apart increases their attention to the mouth as a source of redundant and reliable speech cues. We measured selective attention to talking faces in 4-, 8-, and 12-month-old Catalan and Spanish monolingual and bilingual infants. Monolinguals looked more at the eyes than the mouth at 4 months and more at the mouth than the eyes at 8 months in response to both native and nonnative speech, but they looked more at the mouth than the eyes at 12 months only in response to nonnative speech. In contrast, bilinguals looked equally at the eyes and mouth at 4 months, more at the mouth than the eyes at 8 months, and more at the mouth than the eyes at 12 months, and these patterns of responses were found for both native and nonnative speech at all ages. Thus, to support their dual-language acquisition processes, bilingual infants exploit the greater perceptual salience of redundant audiovisual speech cues at an earlier age and for a longer time than monolingual infants.

The relationship between bilingual exposure and morphosyntactic development

Purpose: The study examined the effect of bilingual input on the grammatical development of bilingual children in comparison to monolingual peers.Method: Spontaneous language samples were collected in English and French from typically-developing bilingual and monolingual pre-schoolers aged 3 years (n = 56) and 5 years (n = 83). Within each age group, children varied in bilingual exposure patterns but were matched on age, non-verbal cognition, maternal education and language status, speaking two majority languages. Measures included mean length of utterance (MLU) in words and morphemes, and accuracy and diversity of morphological use.Result: Grammatical development in each language was strongly influenced by amount of same-language experience. Children with equal exposure to both languages scored comparably to monolingual children in both languages, whereas children with unequal exposure evidenced similarly unequal performance across languages and scored significantly lower than monolinguals in their weaker language. Scoring significantly lower than monolinguals in both languages may, therefore, be a sign of language impairment. Each language followed a strongly language-specific sequence of acquisition and error patterns. Five-year-old children with low exposure to English displayed an optional infinitive pattern, a strong clinical marker for Primary Language Impairment in monolingual English-speaking children.Conclusion: Descriptive normative data are presented that permit more accurate interpretation of bilingual assessment data.

Syntactic bootstrapping in children with Down syndrome: The impact of bilingualism

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to add to our knowledge of bilingual learning in children with Down syndrome (DS) using a syntactic bootstrapping task. MethodFour groups of children and youth matched on non-verbal mental age participated. There were 14 bilingual participants with DS (DS-B, mean age 12;5), 12 monolingual participants with DS (DS-M, mean age 10;10), 9 bilingual typically developing children (TD-B; mean age 4;1) and 11 monolingual typically developing children (TD-M; mean age 4;1). The participants completed a computerized syntactic bootstrapping task involving unfamiliar nouns and verbs. The syntactic cues employed were a for the nouns and ing for the verbs. ResultsPerformance was better on nouns than verbs. There was also a main effect for group. Follow-up t-tests revealed that there were no significant differences between the TD-M and TD-B or between the DS-M and DS-B groups. However, the DS-M group performed more poorly than the TD-M group with a large effect size. Analyses at the individual level revealed a similar pattern of results. ConclusionThere was evidence that Down syndrome impacted performance; there was no evidence that bilingualism negatively affected the syntactic bootstrapping skills of individuals with DS. These results from a dynamic language task are consistent with those of previous studies that used static or product measures. Thus, the results are consistent with the position that parents should be supported in their decision to provide bilingual input to their children with DS.Learning outcomes: Readers of this article will identify (1) research evidence regarding bilingual development in children with Down syndrome and (2) syntactic bootstrapping skills in monolingual and bilingual children who are typically developing or who have Down syndrome.

The Impact of Bimodal Bilingual Parental Input on the Communication and Language Development of a Young Deaf Child

This study explores the impact of bimodal bilingual parental input on the communication and language development of a young deaf child. The participants in this case study were a severe-to-profoundly deaf boy and his hearing parents, who were enrolled in a bilingual (English and Australian Sign Language) home-based early intervention programme. The parents typified the challenges faced by hearing parents of deaf children seeking to provide a bimodal language environment for their deaf child. Data were collected over 20 months when the boy was aged between 23 and 42 months. The parents' level of Auslan proficiency, bilingual practice, and sensitivity to their son's communication needs were measured. Findings indicated that although communication and language outcomes were delayed compared with hearing peers, English and Auslan vocabulary growth over time was strongly correlated with the parents' sensitivity to his communication needs. Findings also indicated that there were several child-led changes in language modality preferences throughout the study.

Bilinguals vs. monolinguals: Where is the difference?

AbstractIt has been suggested earlier that the reinforced syntactic variation in bilingual input might lead to cross‐linguistic influence and vulnerability in some areas of the child grammar. This study verifies this suggestion against new experimental data. Since direct object scrambling is optional in Ukrainian and prohibited in English, it could be a more vulnerable domain in Ukrainian‐English bilingual acquisition than in monolingual Ukrainian acquisition. It appears, however, that 2;2–6;3‐year‐old bilingual children mostly follow similar patterns in scrambling production as their monolingual peers. Several aspects of possible distinctions are discussed (i.e., direct object type and pragmatic sensitivity), but the available data do not allow us to claim that there are significant group differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in regard to the considered phenomenon at the syntax‐semantics interface.