Bilingual Reading Research Articles

Monolingual and Bilingual Reading Processes in Russian: An Exploratory Scanpath Analysis

ABSTRACTIn the present study, we used a scanpath approach to investigate reading processes and factors that can shape them in monolingual Russian‐speaking adults, 8‐year‐old children, and bilingual Russian‐speaking readers. We found that monolingual adults’ eye movement patterns exhibited a fluent scanpath reading process, representing effortless processing of the written material: They read straight from left to right at a fast pace, skipped words, and regressed rarely. Both high‐proficiency heritage‐language speakers’ and second graders’ eye movement patterns exhibited an intermediate scanpath reading process, characterized by a slower pace, longer fixations, an absence of word skipping, and short regressive saccades. Second‐language learners and low‐proficiency heritage‐language speakers exhibited a beginner reading process that involved the slowest pace, even longer fixations, no word skipping, and frequent rereading of the whole sentence and of particular words. We suggest that unlike intermediate readers who use the respective process to resolve local processing difficulties (e.g., word recognition failure), beginner readers, in addition, experience global‐level challenges in semantic and morphosyntactic information integration. Proficiency in Russian for heritage‐language speakers and comprehension scores for second‐language learners were the only individual difference factors predictive of the scanpath reading process adopted by bilingual speakers. Overall, the scanpath analysis revealed qualitative differences in scanpath reading processes among various groups of readers and thus adds a qualitative dimension to the conventional quantitative evaluation of word‐level eye‐tracking measures.

Cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading is item specific

AbstractThe grain size of orthographic representations prompted by a consistent orthography (like Spanish or Basque) increases if reading is simultaneously learned in another language with an inconsistent orthography (like French). Here, we aimed to identify item properties that trigger this grain-size accommodation in bilingual reading. Twenty-five French–Basque and 25 Spanish–Basque bilingual children attending Grade 3 read Basque words and pseudowords containing “complex” letter clusters mapping to one sound in French but several sounds in Basque or Spanish, and “simple” letter clusters mapping to the same sound structure in all three languages. Only French speaking children read “complex” Basque words faster than “simple” ones, suggesting that they accessed multi-letter “French” units to boost lexical processing. A negative complexity effect was found for pseudowords across groups. We discuss the existence of flexible cross-linguistic transfer in bilingual reading, proposing that the grain size of orthographic representations adjusts to item-specific characteristics during reading.

The Effects of Bilingual Reading Program on Chinese Children from Low Socioeconomic Status Families

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of a bilingual Chinese-English reading program on Chinese children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families. Ninety-nine children in the third year of kindergarten (K3) were recruited from five local kindergartens in two low-SES districts in Hong Kong, China. Children in the intervention group who participated in 15-weeks of language and literacy intervention were compared to a control group of 40 children who attended only regular literacy classes in their kindergartens. ANCOVA analyses revealed that after controlling for child gender and age, the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on the posttest in Chinese phonological awareness and morphological awareness, English phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and English word reading. These results point to a reading program’s utility, emphasizing multi-component interventions for early bilingual language and literacy learning. Practice or Policy: Findings support the development of locally derived, evidence-based reading programs to cater to low-SES children’s learning needs. These findings may also provide research-based evidence for formulating public policies and services, targeting the early language and literacy issues for low-SES children and their families and raising public awareness of the influence of poverty on child development in the early years.

Influence of Sequential and Simultaneous Bilingualism on Second Grade Dual Language Students’ Use of Syntax in Reading

This study integrated reading and bilingual theories to examine the reading behaviors of second grade Latinx students in a Dual Language program. It explored how the students’ differing language backgrounds (simultaneous bilinguals and sequential bilinguals who had developed Spanish as a home language) might influence their early reading behaviors. Data sources include Spanish and English informal reading inventories and student interviews. While all students struggled with the syntax of grade-level text in Spanish and English, simultaneous bilinguals’ superior ability to use syntax to self-correct in both languages evidenced a stronger syntactical base. The findings have significant implications for equity of instruction and assessment, including: the need to find new ways to analyze bilingual students’ informal reading inventories from an assets-oriented lens, prudence regarding how informal reading inventory results are used, the need for intensive language development in schools, and the use of caution when applying translanguaging theory to emergent bilingual readers.

N170 reflects visual familiarity and automatic sublexical phonological access in L2 written word processing

AbstractThe literature has mixed reports on whether the N170, an early visual ERP response to words, signifies orthographic and/or phonological processing, and whether these effects are moderated by script and language expertise. In this study, native Chinese readers, Japanese–Chinese, and Korean–Chinese bilingual readers performed a one-back repetition detection task with single Chinese characters that differed in phonological regularity status. Results using linear mixed effects models showed that Korean–Chinese readers had bilateral N170 response, while native Chinese and Japanese–Chinese groups had left-lateralized N170, with stronger left lateralization in native Chinese than Japanese–Chinese readers. Additionally, across groups, irregular characters had bilateral increase in N170 amplitudes compared to regular characters. These results suggested that visual familiarity to a script rather than orthography-phonology mapping determined the left lateralization of the N170 response, while there was automatic access to sublexical phonology in the N170 time window in native and non-native readers alike.

Suprasegmental but not segmental phonological awareness matters in understanding bilingual reading comprehension difficulties in Chinese and English: a 3-year longitudinal study.

This study examined whether, and if so how, L1 and L2 segmental and suprasegmental phonological awareness is longitudinally related to L1 and L2 reading comprehension difficulties among Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. Using a regression approach, we identified five types of comprehenders, i.e., 11 poor-Chinese/average-English comprehenders, 19 poor-English/average-Chinese comprehenders, six poor-Chinese/poor-English comprehenders, 12 average-Chinese/average-English comprehenders, and seven good-Chinese/good-English comprehenders among 223 Grade 4 Chinese-English bilingual children who were comparable in age, nonverbal IQ, and word reading, but differed in reading comprehension. These children were compared retrospectively on segmental and suprasegmental phonological awareness in both Chinese and English for three consecutive years from Grade 2 to Grade 4. The results revealed that only Cantonese lexical tone awareness distinguished poor comprehenders from typically developing comprehenders. Specifically, the poor-English/average-Chinese comprehenders performed worse than the average-Chinese/average-English and good-Chinese/good-English comprehenders in Grades 4 and 3, but not in Grade 2; and the poor-Chinese/average-English comprehenders performed worse than the good-Chinese/good-English comprehenders in Grades 4 and 3, but not in Grade 2. These findings suggest that suprasegmental phonological awareness, especially Cantonese lexical tone awareness, is critical for both Chinese and English reading comprehension development among Hong Kong bilingual children.

Reading across writing systems: A meta-analysis of the neural correlates for first and second language reading

AbstractNumerous studies have investigated the neural correlates of reading in two languages. However, reliable conclusions have not been established as to the relationship of the neural correlates underlying reading in the first (L1) and second (L2) language. Here, we conduct meta-analyses to address this issue. We found that compared to L1, the left inferior parietal lobule showed greater activation during L2 processing across all bilingual studies. We then divided the literature into two categories: bilingual participants who learned two languages with different writing systems and bilinguals who learned two languages with similar writing systems. We found that language differences in the neural correlates of reading were generally modulated by writing system similarity, except the region of the left inferior parietal lobule, which showed preferences for L2 reading in both types of bilinguals. These findings provide new insights into the brain mechanisms underlying reading in bilinguals.

Cross-linguistic semantic preview benefit in Basque-Spanish bilingual readers: Evidence from fixation-related potentials

During reading, we can process and integrate information from words allocated in the parafoveal region. However, whether we extract and process the meaning of parafoveal words is still under debate. Here, we obtained Fixation-Related Potentials in a Basque-Spanish bilingual sample during a Spanish reading task. By using the boundary paradigm, we presented different parafoveal previews that could be either Basque non-cognate translations or unrelated Basque words. We prove for the first time cross-linguistic semantic preview benefit effects in alphabetic languages, providing novel evidence of modulations in the N400 component. Our findings suggest that the meaning of parafoveal words is processed and integrated during reading and that such meaning is activated and shared across languages in bilingual readers.

Спроба паразумецца: перакладчыцкая канцэпцыя i чытацкая рэцэпцыя ў практычным узаемадзеяннi

The article reveals the actual problem of understanding and reception of the translation of a literary work in the context of Belarusian-Russian bilingualism with the dominant use of the Russian language. Although the translation in a bilingual context often helps readers to understand better, it can also hinder the reception when bilingual readers comparing both texts are not satisfied with translation. It is not possible to establish general limitations on account of the variability of both understanding and subsequent creation of the work which is by nature subjective and ambiguous. Not only should translators have a thorough knowledge of the language of the original work but they also are expected to know social-cultural conditions of the society for whom they translate.

Stories Blossom: Boundaries Can Blur between Literature and English Teaching and Learning in English as a Foreign Language

Stories Blossom:Boundaries Can Blur between Literature and English Teaching and Learning in English as a Foreign Language Eun Young Yeom (bio) The Potential of Children's and Young Adult Literature in English as a Foreign Language During my twelve years of teaching as an in-service teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) at middle schools and high schools in South Korea, I witnessed that children's and young adult literature written in English was rarely incorporated into South Korean secondary EFL classrooms, mainly because of the college-bound, grammar-focused English teaching curriculum. Also, secondary EFL emergent bilingual students' full linguistic (i.e., both their home languages and English), cultural, and semiotic repertoires are often dismissed in South Korean curriculum; the most common home language, Korean, is regarded as a deficit to acquire higher English proficiency (Turnbull). Secondary EFL emergent bilingual students are often deemed as English learners with limited English proficiency, hence implying that they might not be proficient enough to decode the meanings of literary texts written in English (Harfitt and Chu). In an environment where their home language(s) and other semiotic repertoires are dismissed as deficits to make meaning of children's and young adult literature written in English (CYAL hereafter), secondary EFL emergent bilinguals' active meaning-making through CYAL cannot take place as often as it is supposed to. It must be noted here that EFL emergent bilinguals are making meanings with their full linguistic, cultural, and semiotic repertoires, which is called translanguaging (García and Li Wei). Their home linguistic, cultural, and semiotic resources can be an asset to make meanings of literary texts written in English. While mixing their home language(s), different modes for meaning, and even their feelings and histories (Li Wei and Lin), EFL emergent bilinguals are indeed able to decode meanings written in English and encode new meanings out of literary texts. That is, CYAL is not mere English tutorials to teach grammar, but "literature" that invites EFL emergent bilinguals to add their interpretations onto the text. To decode and encode the meanings inherent in CYAL, EFL emergent bilinguals fuse themselves into the text written in English; incorporate their full linguistic, cultural, and semiotic resources; and create new meanings of their own based on the text (Rosenblatt). In addition to [End Page 84] reading and learning authentic English through CYAL, EFL emergent bilinguals can become active readers whose inner worlds are not governed by teacher-centered lectures and explanations. The Potential of Multicultural Picturebooks Written in English in EFL Among children's and young adult literature, picturebooks can reap benefits in EFL contexts thanks to their comprehensible texts and visual appeal. Between EFL emergent bilingual readers and picturebooks, the boundary between the readers' "inner and outer world breaks down, and the literary work of art, so often remarked, leads us into a new world" (Rosenblatt 21). The new world might include experiencing alternative possibilities of lives, which the reader might have not been exposed to. For example, growing up in a racially and linguistically homogenous country such as South Korea, EFL emergent bilingual middle school students could not have a chance to live through the experience of being newly arrived immigrants with racial and linguistic minority backgrounds. The intersectionality of migration, race, and language could be lived through literature such as multicultural picturebooks regarding Korean immigrants in the United States. Korean EFL emergent bilingual readers might attend to certain elements of a multicultural picturebook and their past experiences, while incorporating their linguistic, cultural, and semiotic repertoires to make meanings, along with the feelings and thoughts evoked by the stories of newly arrived immigrants. New meanings, including insights concerning multiculturalism, could also be generated through book club discussions where active meaning-making through EFL emergent bilinguals' home languages and English uses are simultaneously integrated. If book club discussions are applied in EFL classrooms, EFL emergent bilinguals can imagine, vicariously experience, and critically think about multiculturalism thanks to teachers' and peers' facilitations during meaning-making processes. With the help of translanguaging, EFL emergent bilinguals do not stop at decoding English sentences but can reach into their "social imagination" (Wissman 18) regarding diversity through transacting with multicultural picturebooks. Stories...

Poems by V. Bryusov “Native Language” and G. Tukai “Tugan Tel”


 In literary criticism, structural and semantic correspondences are established between the author and the reader as elements of aesthetic reality. As a result, another text appears before us, different from the original one. With each new reading, a new edition of the text will appear. In this regard, the question of determining the subjective and objective factors of the reception process becomes important. The tasks set determined the need to refer to a comparative analysis of the poems of Russian and Tatar poets, during which the regularities of the functioning of new meanings emerging in interliterary dialogues are considered. Comparative, hermeneutic and receptive methods of analysis were used in solving the set tasks. As a result of the study, the similarities and differences between the works of V. Bryusov and G. Tukai, dedicated to the topic of the native language, were established, and the peculiarities of perception of the additions of foreign literature by bilingual readers were also identified. The results obtained are significant in the study of the role of the reader as a subject of interliterary dialogues.

Poems by V. Bryusov “Native Language” and G. Tukai “Tugan Tel”

In literary criticism, structural and semantic correspondences are established between the author and the reader as elements of aesthetic reality. As a result, another text appears before us, different from the original one. With each new reading, a new edition of the text will appear. In this regard, the question of determining the subjective and objective factors of the reception process becomes important. The tasks set determined the need to refer to a comparative analysis of the poems of Russian and Tatar poets, during which the regularities of the functioning of new meanings emerging in interliterary dialogues are considered. Comparative, hermeneutic and receptive methods of analysis were used in solving the set tasks. As a result of the study, the similarities and differences between the works of V. Bryusov and G. Tukai, dedicated to the topic of the native language, were established, and the peculiarities of perception of the additions of foreign literature by bilingual readers were also identified. The results obtained are significant in the study of the role of the reader as a subject of interliterary dialogues.

Vocabulary Alignment in the Continuation Task of Translation

Abstract Alignment effect in language research refers to the social cognition process in which people cooperate, adjust, and adapt to each other in interaction. Through empirical study, this paper explores alignment effect in the continuation task of translation (CTOT) and its possible influence on learning of English as foreign languge (EFL). The study was carried out by means of a CTOT. Participants were chosen from non-English major freshmen of similar capacity from a university in Guangzhou. They were divided into two groups, the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG), with 13 students each. The students in EG were asked to carefully read some English-Chinese bilingual material. Then, the 26 participants were tasked with translating the paragraphs, which followed from Chinese into English. After that, they were asked to write down the words and expressions which they found difficult. Some of the participants were interviewed one month later for a deeper understanding of their memories of the vocabulary and their opinions on the CTOT. The data were analyzed by direct comparison and non-parametric test. The results showed that vocabulary alignment does occur in CTOT. The EG members tended to take advantage of words that appeared in the bilingual reading text. If multiple words from the reading appeared, with the same contextual meaning, they tended to choose the repeated words. As for influence of vocabulary alignment on EFL learning, it seemed that CTOT could not improve the quality of the translation itself, but could assist short-term vocabulary learning though no significant help to long-term vocabulary learning was revealed. The findings of this study provide support and explanation for some features and effects of CTOT, an important form of CT. However, the nature of CTOT itself, and its role in EFL learning deserve further research.

Syntactic co-activation in natural reading

ABSTRACT The extent to which syntactic co-activation occurs during natural reading is currently unknown. Here, we measured the eye movements of Welsh-English bilinguals and English monolinguals as they read English sentences. Target words were manipulated to create nonwords that were consistent or inconsistent with the rules of Welsh soft mutation (a morphosyntactic process that alters the initial consonant of words). Nonwords were only visible in parafoveal preview, and a direct fixation triggered the presentation of the normal English word. Linear mixed effects analyses revealed a robust parafoveal preview benefit for identity (television) compared with mutated (delevision) and aberrant previews (belevision), and a parafoveal-on-foveal effect in our bilingual sample. Bilingual readers' sentence reanalysis was affected by the implicit Welsh mutation, but only in contexts that would elicit a mutation in Welsh. Our findings suggest that morphosyntactic rules are co-activated during natural reading, however further investigations must evaluate the robustness of this effect.

Взаимодействие близкородственных языков в современной публицистике как способ повышения экспрессивности коммуникативно-речевого произведения

The article analyzes the method of including elements of closely related languages (Ukrainian and Belarusian) in the modern journalistic text in Russian based on a number of popular periodicals in Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus (Ukrainian weekly “2000” and the regional newspaper “Vitebskie Vesti”), which is one of the manifestations of language interaction in conditions of closely related bilingualism. The main types of appeal to this technique by authors-journalists are identified and systematized: introduction of individual words, expressions (including those of a stable nature), fragments of other texts of a closely related language, as well as options for their author’s presentation (design by means of the source language or Russian). The functional significance of the implemented technique is analyzed, which, as the observations show, is primarily used to Supplement the text with figurative and concretizing elements and increase its expressiveness, which contributes to a more effective implementation in a journalistic work as an influencing function (first of all), and as an informative function. In addition, this technique, which is obviously focused on the perception of the bilingual reader, actualizes the socio-cultural context common to the author of the work and its addressee, helps to establish closer contact between them, and also expands the journalist’s opportunities to express their own position by individual stylistic means.

Cross Linguistic Transfer of Literacy Skills between English and French among Grade 1 Students Attending French Immersion Programs

ABSTRACT This study explored the impact of a supplemental reading intervention delivered in English in Grade 1 on the performance of at-risk children educated in French Immersion schools. The intervention contrasted “Direct Mapping and Set-for-Variability” with a “Common and Best Practices” taught control condition in a matched quasi-experimental design. To test claims of cross-linguistic transfer, measures of English and French word reading were administered before and after intervention. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses confirmed that children in the intervention condition showed improved performance at posttest on measures of English and French regular, exception, and pseudoword reading compared to the control condition. Intervention-specific cross language effects on French word and pseudoword reading shown here provide partial support for causal models of transfer in bilingual reading development.

The case for Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Pedagogy: Bilingual Reading to learn for Spanish-Speaking immigrant mothers

Michael Halliday’s threefold language learning principle, “learning language, learning through language, and learning about language” (Halliday, 1993), is an important yet underused insight for pedagogy. Equally important are the learning principles of inclusion and social justice advanced by Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) educators such as Gloria Ladson-Billings (1992; 1995). Based on Halliday and Ladson-Billings premises, a bilingual English-Spanish adaptation of the SFL-based Reading to Learn (R2L) approach (Rose, 2018) is described through a curricular unit focusing on procedural texts in the context of an ESL family literacy program for immigrant Spanish-speaking mothers in Southeast USA. Informed by an adaptation of the preview-view-review bilingual curricular cycle to systematically use native and target language for content, genre, and language instruction, the article focuses on detailing R2L’s culturally and linguistically relevant curricular progression -Preparing to Read, Joint Construction, and Independent Construction-as well as the patterned language shifts that led these adult learners to produce rich genre-appropriate procedural texts in English. Crucially, this study proposes the adoption of Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Pedagogy (CLRP) through the use of ‘generative genres’ as a way to not only to counteract the current marginalization of CRP by standardized curriculum advanced by neoliberal imperatives (Sleeter, 2012) but as a way to better serve Emergent to Advanced Bilinguals (EABs) with an emphasis on adult English learners. The newly proposed CLRP paradigm is guided by core principles of CRP, but enhanced by linguistic principles and meaning making practices advanced by Systemic Functional Linguistics in general and genre-based pedagogy (Rose & Martin, 2012) and Halliday’s principles of learning language, learning through language, and learning about language in particular.

Adult English learners and the bilingual reading process: Retrospective miscue analysis

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study through Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA) investigated the reading process of three Chinese-Mandarin-speaking college English learners (ELs) of varied English language proficiency. In the conversations that occurred during the oral reading of selected texts, the researcher explored students’ perceptions about reading and use of reading strategies in two languages. This study contributes to understanding the reading processes of Chinese ELs as it demonstrates RMA as a powerful tool for ELs. Regardless of their language proficiency, the participants deepened their understanding of reading through RMA. In addition, the participants’ reading conception and language proficiency influenced their strategy use. Moreover, through RMA not just the struggling readers but also the proficient reader took more ownership of their reading, read with purpose, acted strategically, and valued their reading. This study provides educational implications for bilingual teachers and English language teachers.

Effects of picture-word integration on reading visual narratives in L1 and L2

Multimodal education materials are pervasive in language learning. This study investigated the causal mechanisms of multimodal reading effects in first language (L1) and second language (L2). Seventy-five adult bilingual readers in Hong Kong read Chinese and English passages with different degrees of picture-word integration in a within-subject design. Results showed that tight text-picture integration facilitated better comprehension than independent text-picture presentation in L2, but not L1. Perceived ease and interest differentially mediated multimodal reading performance for L1 and L2 passages. Importantly, separate images in L2 passages led to poorer comprehension accuracy relative to plain text, but tended to have higher ratings of ease and interest, indicating that readers may be overconfident in their multimodal reading performance. In general, results support the notion that integration of text and pictures can moderate the process of meaning making, and these may differ depending on the language presented to a bilingual reader.

Reading proficiency influences the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation: Evidence from selective modulation of dorsal and ventral pathways of reading in bilinguals

IntroductiontDCS can modulate reading which is processed by lexical (ventral) and sub-lexical (dorsal) pathways. Previous research indicates that pathway recruitment in bilinguals depends on a script's orthographic depth and a reader's proficiency with it. The effect of tDCS on each reading pathway has not been investigated in bilinguals. We stimulated the left dorsal and ventral pathways separately in Chinese-English (C-E) bilinguals to understand whether pathway-specific modulation by tDCS is possible and, if so, how it is influenced by orthographic depth and script proficiency. MethodsA double-blind, sham-controlled, within-subject experiment was designed wherein 16 balanced bilinguals received anodal tDCS in dorsal, ventral and sham sessions. Two tDCS montages of electrode sizes 5 × 5 cm2 with 1) anode at CP5 and cathode at CZ, and 2) anode at TP7 and cathode at nape of the neck, were applied for stimulating the dorsal and ventral pathways respectively. Bilinguals were asked to read word lists for each language before and after stimulation. RTs for accurate trials were analysed using linear mixed-effect modelling that included proficiency scores for reading English pseudo-words (PW) and Chinese pinyin. ResultsFor both languages, word reading RTs were faster following dorsal pathway stimulation. The dorsal stimulation effect (change in RT) was negatively correlated with pseudoword reading and pinyin proficiency. Stimulation of the ventral pathway decreased RTs only for Chinese reading. ConclusionDorsal and ventral reading pathways can be selectively modulated by tDCS in bilingual readers with dorsal (sub-lexical) pathway stimulation affecting reading in both scripts and ventral (lexical) pathway stimulation selectively affecting Chinese reading. Dorsal pathway tDCS effects are modulated by sub-lexical reading proficiency.