Bilingual Skills Research Articles

Leveraging AI Tools for Discourse Analysis in Early Childhood Bilingual Education: Enhancing Language Development

The implementation of AI tools in education has become increasingly popular and brought transformative potential, particularly in the field of language education because of its powerful functions on designing immersive and personalized activities and offering real-time feedback. This study explores the role of AI tools in discourse analysis and the impact on enhancing bilingual skills among early childhood students. It investigates two key questions: (1) How do AI tools impact young childrens bilingual skills in early childhood classrooms? (2) How can discourse analysis of AI tools assist educators with bilingual teaching? A qualitative case study, including an in-depth interview with a bilingual educator, reveals insights into the effectiveness of AI tools in promoting bilingual language acquisition and engaging young learners in meaningful and enjoyable learning environment. Furthermore, the discourse analysis of AI tools offers immediate, actionable insights on each students academic performance, helping educators better understand the language learning process and the specific challenges students face. However, considerations and challenges of AI in education, such as privacy risks and misuse, still need to be considered. The findings of this study bridge the gap and highlight the potential for discourse analysis of AI tools in early childhood bilingual education. Further study can focus on exploring other AI tools in bilingual education and conducting long-term research with a large example size.

“Not a Priority:” Studying Spanish as a First-Generation Latino University Student

ABSTRACT This essay considers the reaction of one group of first-generation Latino students to the idea of the university being a place where they could further hone their Spanish skills or formalize their already-existing knowledge and abilities with a Spanish major on their transcript. Though the majority of the 44 participants considered bilingualism to be an important resource and expressed openness to the possibility of polishing their Spanish at the university, they indicated that it was not a priority for most first-generation Latino students. Other participants, however, called into question the benefits of studying Spanish in a classroom setting and, in some cases, even the desirability of bilingual skills in the workplace. Their comments offer important insights for those who hope to promote bilingualism among this student population. It is important to recognize that their decisions about whether or not to study Spanish or to use it professionally stem from a unique and complex intersection of factors.

Bilingual Skills in Learning for Islamic Education Students in the International Special Class Program (KKI) at Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris State Islamic University Samarinda

This research departs from the importance of foreign language skills as one of the efforts to improve the competencies that must be possessed by every teacher or prospective Islamic Religious Education teacher. Therefore, in improving these competencies, a program is needed that is designed to form language skills for Islamic Education students who will become Islamic Education Teachers in the future. To support this program, the International Special Class at Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris State Islamic University Samarinda has developed a curriculum to support the advancement of students' foreign language skills in both English and Arabic. International special class management is needed in harmonizing the international special class curriculum (KKI) with concepts and activities related to language both English and Arabic in daily life in the classroom. The KKI program is expected to be able to compete with international universities as well with the provision of foreign language during their special class program. The Arabic language proficiency formation program for PAI students in the International Special Class Program (KKI) uses two programs TOAFL and Muhadharah. The English language proficiency formation program for PAI students in the International Special Class Program (KKI) has two language proficiency formation programs TOEFL and Public Speaking. This program is certainly supported by lecturers who speak English and Arabic to support this learning. It is hoped that alumni of the international special class (KKI) at Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris State Islamic University Samarinda can improve human resources and services to the community.

조선족 학교 학생들의 이중 언어 태도 조사 연구

By examining the complex aspects of language use and attitudes among Korean-Chinese students living in Heilongjiang Province in China, this study aims to analyze the bilingual patterns of Korean-Chinese students from various angles and provide an in-depth understanding of their language usage patterns, attitudes toward language, and how bilingual skills are formed and developed in socio-cultural contexts. In this paper, based on the national public language supply policy at Heilongjiang Korean-Chinese School, a field survey and survey were conducted on students from Heilongjiang Province Korean-Chinese School to accurately grasp the status and attitude of bilingualism in Chinese and Korean. For the conduct of the study, first of all, the survey method and the subject of the survey were confirmed as students of 32 Korean-Chinese schools in Heilongjiang Province. Next, the pattern of bilingualism in Korean and Chinese was analyzed through a survey on language attitude, language status cause, language and character use, and language relationship. Next, the problems of bilingualism were confronted, and a strategy for optimizing bilingualism according to the cause was devised. The results of the survey showed that Korean-Chinese school students were deeply interested in Chinese and Chinese culture. In other words, it was premised that they should be able to accurately recognize the superiority of China's bilingual policy and speak both Korean and standard Chinese, which are the native languages of the Korean people, but it showed the reality that the Korean language ability was weakening day by day compared to Chinese. Therefore, in this paper, the optimization strategies for bilingualism were divided into five categories: language dissemination and education programs, socio-cultural environment encouraging language use, the development of bilingual education programs, home and community support for language use, and policy support for language preservation. Therefore, the Heilongjiang provincial government, schools, and parents should set up an environment where Korean language education can develop soundly through policies and measures to promote full promotion and distribution by developing Korean and Chinese in a balanced manner.

Linguistic Challenges of Courtroom Interpretation in Ghana

This paper presents the results of a survey on the linguistic challenges of courtroom interpretation in Ghana. It is part of a larger study on the challenges of courtroom interpreters. Specifically, the paper discusses the everyday linguistic challenges faced by courtroom interpreters, and the coping mechanisms deployed. Additionally, the paper makes proposals on ways that these challenges encountered by courtroom interpreters can be mitigated. In terms of findings, the paper shows that the main linguistic challenges include insufficient bilingual skills, terminological issues relating to legal jargon (legal terminology), terminology in specialized areas such as medical science, finance, economics, etc., measurement and quantities terms (e.g., money, fines, land, time, etc.), descriptive terms like color, height, etc., kinship terminology as well as speakers’ uses idiomatic expressions you are not familiar with. The paper notes that interpreters often use creative strategies like codemixing, omission of details, approximating color, and kinship terms, and seeking clarification through intervention to overcome these challenges. By way of recommendation, we propose the creation of glossaries in indigenous languages, collaboration with communities to identify and develop appropriate kinship terminology, the development of context-specific terminology, simplification of language, pre-session preparation, and continuous training and professional development.

Daily and ethnic discriminatory experiences and cognitive control in Mexican-origin bilingual language brokers

ABSTRACT Few studies have considered bilingualism’s impact on cognitive development within the sociolinguistic and cultural context of the immigrant communities where bilingualism is commonly practiced. In the United States, many Mexican-origin bilingual youth practice their bilingual skills by brokering (i.e. translating/interpreting between languages) for their immigrant parents who have low English proficiency. Meanwhile, these youth may also experience discrimination in their daily life. The present study focuses on Mexican-origin bilingual youth brokers (N = 334) in order to examine how discriminatory experiences (i.e. daily and ethnic discrimination) and bilingual brokering experiences captured by profiles are related to cognitive control performance (i.e. attentional control and inhibition). We found no significant direct influence of either bilingual broker profiles or discriminatory experiences on cognitive control. However, the associations between discriminatory experiences and cognitive control performance depended upon brokering experiences. Specifically, greater discrimination was associated with lower cognitive control performance among moderate brokers (with moderate bilingual experiences), but the association was attenuated among efficacious brokers (with positive bilingual experiences). Findings highlight the need to consider the sociolinguistic heterogeneity of both discriminatory experiences and language use when investigating cognitive control performance in bilinguals.

Intergenerational autoethnography of heritage language maintenance: Focusing on emotion, identity, and power

AbstractThis collaborative autoethnography explores the intersection of heritage language (HL) maintenance, emotion, and identity from the perspectives of a mother and her 15‐year‐old daughter learning and maintaining Korean in the United States. The analysis of their narratives concerning critical emotional experiences relevant to HL maintenance reveals that their complex emotional experiences were guided by a feeling rule: Be evincive of a desire for HL maintenance. Both of them engaged in emotion labor by demonstrating their continuous desire for HL maintenance and masking other felt emotions such as anxiety, shame, guilt, and regret. The results also demonstrate that complying with the feeling rule (for immigrant families) goes beyond emotional expressions—it entails self‐fulfillment and social recognition. The mother's desire for establishing her identity as a good (Korean) mother by fulfilling her gendered responsibility of maintaining the HL bolstered her desire for her daughter's Korean language maintenance. The daughter's desire for meeting expectations of others via learning Korean increased her desire for developing bilingual skills, through which she moved away from a racialized and stereotyped Asian image to construct an image of a cool kid with bilingual skills. The article ends with implications for immigrant families’ emotional well‐being and further research on HL maintenance.

Language Access Systems Improvement initiative: impact on professional interpreter utilisation, a natural experiment

ObjectivesThis study aims to evaluate the Language Access Systems Improvement (LASI) initiative’s impact on professional interpreter utilisation in primary care and to explore patient and clinician perspectives on professional interpreter...

Content aspects of translation training programmes at chinese universities

The paper deals with the problem of training translators in higher education institutions of the People's Republic of China. Translation training programmes are offered by polytechnic, educational and language universities. It is stated that in China, translation training at the master's level is provided not only at language universities, but also at universities of applied sciences. The system of requirements for the content of bachelor's and master's programmes is considered. It is established that the training of translators at the bachelor's level consists of two stages: the basic and the professional training stage. Translation training programmes have the same structure at both stages, but differ in the content of the structural components, which are: theory, translation, interpreting, translator's tools, cultural literacy. The main competences required for obtaining a master's degree in translation are highlighted: language competence, translation competence, intercultural communication competence, competence in acquiring encyclopaedic knowledge, and teamwork competence. The basic stage focuses on fostering students' good academic style and correct teaching methods and on building basic bilingual skills. At the vocational stage, the focus is on developing students' practical interpretation and translation skills. As a result of professional translation training, a translation specialist should be able to translate texts of various genres, using translation principles and techniques professionally; be able to translate texts in various fields, such as politics, economics, automotive, business, medicine, into Chinese, and be able to translate texts in related fields into foreign languages. It has been determined that in order to better meet the current needs of society for qualified translators, universities create professional courses on a scientific basis. Such courses include, in particular, technical translation, translator's tools, and cultural studies.

A comparative study on the development of Chinese and English abilities of Chinese primary school students through two bilingual reading modes: human-AI robot interaction and paper books.

To address the challenges encountered by Chinese primary school students, particularly left-behind and migrant children, who exhibit a preference for animations, video games, and short videos over reading books and struggle with Chinese-English bilingual skills, this study introduces an educational robot AI-assisted method for simultaneous bilingual reading. To assess the effectiveness of this method, a 6-month Chinese-English bilingual extracurricular reading comparative experiment was conducted involving 85 grade 5 students from two classes in a primary school in Hangzhou, China. The AI-assisted class freely read 100 bilingual/English electronic picture books and 200 Chinese electronic classic serial picture books by employing the AI-assisted human-computer interactive electronic reading mode of the "Educational Robot+Audio Electronic Picture Book+Character-play Based Reading." In contrast, the paper book group read the same content presented in the traditional paper book format, following the "regular independent reading" mode. Post-experimental analyses were conducted employing t-tests and MANCOVA and the results revealed that: the primary factors influencing reading effectiveness are the choice of reading materials, reading tools, and reading mode, while reading time does not emerge as the principal influencing factor. Furthermore, students in the AI class demonstrated significant enhancements in bilingual reading motivation, reading amount, reading comprehension, independent learning ability, pronunciation proficiency, and test scores compared to their peers in the paper book class. The AI-assisted reading mode utilizing educational robots garnered positive feedback from teachers, parents, and students. It offers the potential to effectively substitute parental involvement in parent-child reading and English tutoring, while also enabling the simultaneous acquisition of bilingual proficiency in both Chinese and English. This approach proves to be highly effective, cost-efficient, and convenient, particularly for enhancing children's foreign language abilities. Moreover, it fosters positive reading habits and independent learning skills among primary school students, contributes to the establishment of lofty aspirations, and enhances bilingual performance. Overall, this innovative mode offers an effective means of facilitating children's acquisition of bilingualism and foreign language skills, as well as promoting reading education.

Child-initiated informings and conversational participation in a bilingual preschool

This paper explores children's interactional competence in the context of bilingual early childhood education, looking specifically at how very young children initiate conversations with teachers by informing them about something interesting and new. Video recordings collected from ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish–English preschool are investigated from the conversation analytic perspective, paying particular attention to multimodal aspects of naturally-occurring interactions. The analysis reveals that in initiating informings aimed at teachers in a multiparty institutional setting, children practice their bilingual skills in turn-taking and recipient design, and present their topic as relevant and coherent within the local material and conversational context. In so doing, children navigate institutional constraints on participation, secure teachers' recipiency, and establish themselves as knowledgeable speakers. Child-initiated participation in multiparty institutional settings provides a co-operative, transformative social process that constitutes an essential affordance for children's development of interactional competence in a bilingual educational context.

Two-Way Immersion Classrooms during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Student Learning

The present study examined parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of student learning in Spanish–English Dual Language Education (DLE) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants included 72 parents of students from kindergarten to second grade and eight teachers in two schools in the southeastern U.S. Parents retrospectively reported their perceptions of their children’s instruction and learning experiences in English and Spanish during the 2020–2021 school year. Teachers reported if their students had opportunities to practice oral bilingual skills and their perception of students’ improvement in English and Spanish skills. Parents reported that there were more opportunities to practice English than there were to practice Spanish. Teachers reported that remote instruction offered fewer opportunities than hybrid instruction did to practice oral language skills. Overall, the teachers agreed that students’ language skills in English and Spanish improved. Similarly, the parents agreed that students’ language skills improved; however, they reported that their English skills improved more than their Spanish skills did. Student and family background factors, such as language fluency and parental education, were negatively associated with barriers to remote access. Implications for future research and suggestions for supporting students attending DLE programs during remote instruction are offered.

APPLYING BILINGUAL TO ENHANCE GRAMMAR LEARNING FOR SPEAKING: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

For concepts to be communicated, sentences must be constructed properly. To achieve these goals, it is essential to keep the ability to modify grammatical rules. A review of ten credible research revealed that many students in Asia and Europe have grammar difficulties. The age range of these students is 6–24. Information was found on the Google Scholar website. All articles were published between 2019 and 2022. The writings’ themes center on improving grammar, speaking, and bilingual skills. The gathered data were analyzed using a systematic literature review method. Analyzing such data, it is found that all of the authors used bilingual instruction to teach the participants grammar in the English class. Implementing such a strategy leads to improvements in the pupils’ speaking abilities. The development of other abilities such as reading, writing, and listening is impacted. This discovery will help teachers teach related subjects. It also motivates other researchers to come up with new findings.

Korean language teachers’ vulnerability over English competency in Korean-only classrooms

The recent trend of the internationalization of higher education has increased the significance of English as a medium of instruction and communication on campus in non-English speaking countries. Within this context, this study explores emotional vulnerability of teachers of Korean as a second language (KSL) over their foreign language competency, particularly English. Analysis of interviews of twelve KSL teachers demonstrates these teachers’ divergent ways of interpreting and implementing Korean-only instruction, a prevalent norm within the language program, according to their perceived foreign language competency and relevant emotional vulnerability. KSL teachers with proficiency in other foreign language(s) tended to challenge the monolingual norm by utilizing their bilingual skills and experiences as resources for their teaching. Monolingual KSL teachers interpreted Korean-only narrowly and supported a monolingual immersion approach as a way to secure their teacher authority. Regardless of their attitudes towards the Korean-only instruction, however, most teachers experienced various levels of anxiety concerning their perceived lack of adequate English proficiency in the KSL classroom. The results suggest how second language teachers struggle to maintain legitimacy and authority against the hegemony of English in non-English second language contexts, providing implications for the language teacher education.

A Call for the Professionalization of Medical Language Education to Prevent Misuse of Limited Language Skills and Ad hoc Interpretation

In an increasingly global society, medical language courses present an opportunity to teach physicians the clinical communication skills needed to provide high quality care for patients who speak non-English languages. Yet, despite a growing number of medical language programs, most courses are missing the professional framework that typically characterizes medical education. Specifically, a lack of standardized proficiency assessment and feedback, paired with unclear institutional guidelines around interpretation and bilingual care, paves the way for communication errors and disparities in healthcare for linguistic minorities. Within the context of the hierarchy in medicine, medical trainees are potentially vulnerable to overstepping the limits of their language ability in an effort to impress their supervising physicians or to save time by attempting to communicate with patients on their own using partial language skills instead of seeking a medical interpreter. In this commentary, the authors use the case of medical Spanish in the United States to provide a framework for the professionalization of non-English language education in medical education settings, identifying three key opportunities: (1) equip learners to accurately self-assess language skills, (2) provide individualized performance feedback to learners, and (3) develop clear institutional policies regarding safe use of bilingual skills and partnership with medical interpreters.

Reclaiming the Power of Bilingualism: Spanish Heritage Learners Using Bilingual Skills in a Critical Service-Learning Project

Studies on the application of service-learning with an emphasis on heritage learners are still emerging. Using a critical service-learning approach, I describe how the integration of a service-learning project showed heritage learners of Spanish the need for people with their bilingual abilities. Specifically, I examine the impact of service-learning and critical language pedagogies on students’ perception and appreciation (or lack thereof) of their linguistic abilities. A qualitative analysis of self-reported answers to a biographical questionnaire and a final guided reflection, revealed that heritage learners not only gained confidence in their linguistic skills but also advanced their knowledge of the language and cultures while challenging and disrupting inequities that exist in a Latinx community. This study contributes to an emerging literature on the application of critical service-learning approaches to service-learning in heritage language learners’ courses by showing the benefits and challenges of incorporating a project that sought mutual benefits for all stakeholders involved. It also contributes to documenting ways to create access to service-learning during the pandemic and how service-learning projects can be incorporated in courses offered virtually only.

Editor’s Message

Editor’s Message Benjamin Fraser We begin this new year with sincere gratitude for all the collective work behind the scenes that has been contributed by our editorial board members and our peer reviewers from 2022. Behind the articles that are published in each quarterly issue of Hispania there are numerous peer reviewers who have given generously of their time and expertise. Many times, articles that reach the acceptance stage have passed through multiple rounds of peer evaluation, and we are particularly thankful that our reviewers are ready to take a second (or third!) look at a revision along the way. Our aim in all cases is to provide authors of submissions with rigorous, detailed, and meaningful feedback. It is our pleasure to include these reviewer names in our March issue as a way of saying thanks. The anonymity of the review process is essential to the work we do, and so individual reviewers are never connected with a particular submission. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, please create a reviewer profile in the Scholar One system and make sure to include your areas of expertise!! This issue’s contents are just one batch of contributions to our continuing commitment toward reaching members of the association at K-20 levels and including all research specializations pertaining to the broad categories of literature, linguistics, and pedagogy. The short-form articles section of the journal was formed to provide readers with access to shorter pieces (1,500–3,000 words) that promise to be of interest to K-12 members of the association in particular. Here we include Jerry L. Parker’s “Racial Inclusivity in the Spanish Curriculum: A Case for Afro-Hispanic Literature,” which outlines the impact of diversity equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts in an intermediate Spanish II course. The research articles run the gamut. In “Re-Conceptualizing Affricate Variation in Caracas Spanish,” Manuel Díaz-Campos, Molly Cole and Matthew Pollock tie frication duration to social and linguistic factors in the Venezuelan capital. In “Teaching Special Questions: The Role of Semantics and Pragmatics in Colloquial Interrogative Structures in Spanish,” Javier Fernández-Sánchez and Alfredo García-Pardo assert the special interpretative functions of questions in which evidentiality and irony play a crucial role. Ana Cecilia Iraheta’s article, “Reclaiming the Power of Bilingualism: Spanish Heritage Learners Using Bilingual Skills in a Critical Service-Learning Project,” finds linguistic and affective gains are strengthened through community engagement. Rob A. Martinsen and Gregory L. Thompson discuss the current state of computer-mediated communication in their “Virtual Language Exchanges in Lower-level Language Classes: Promise and Practice.” Two of this issue’s articles blend the study of literature in both Portuguese- and Spanish-language texts. In “Heterotopías decoloniales y subversiones de la sexualidad en ‘A menor mulher do mundo’ de Lispector y en ‘El informe de Brodie’ de Borges,” Gustavo Faverón Patriau revisits two canonical authors from the perspective of the colonial encounter. Jordan B. Jones casts resistance in social, economic and narrative terms in “From Próximos to Prójimos: Discursive Redlining, Autoconstruction, and Crossing in Estação terminal and Angosta.” Finally, Yoel Villahermosa Serrano’s article, “El videojuego queer en el aula: Una alternativa pedagógica española a la cisheteronormatividad,” asserts the value of including LGTBIQ-themed videogames as pedagogical tools in the classroom. [End Page 1] Benjamin Fraser Editor of Hispania Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc

Culturally sensitive translation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale into Marathi language to assess perinatal depression in rural Maharashtra, India

Tools to screen perinatal depression are developed in English and for their effective use in culturally and linguistically diverse settings it is important to translate them appropriately, contextually adapt them, and rigorously validate them in the local populations. Marathi is the third most spoken language in India, yet there is no culturally sensitive translation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) into Marathi till date. In this paper, we describe the systematic process of translation and adaptation of the EPDS into Marathi. EPDS was translated into Marathi using the following steps: forward translation, bilingual committee discussion, cognitive interviewing and pre-testing, backward translation, and comparison of the original English version with the back-translated English version (linguistic equivalence). Ten pregnant women were initially involved in cognitive interviewing and provided feedback on the Marathi version. Further, conceptual equivalence was tested with 20 non-pregnant women with bilingual skills and operational equivalence to compare self-administered and interviewer-administered version was completed with 20 pregnant women . Scatter plot, Bland-Altman plot, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were estimated to assess the relationship between the two versions: English and Marathi in case of conceptual equivalence and self-administered and interviewer-administered in case of operational equivalence. Pearson's correlation coefficient between the original English version of the EPDS and the Marathi version of the EPDS was 0.99 (p<0.001). The difference in scores between the two versions for all participants was within the limits of agreement as per the Bland-Altman approach. Similarly, for the self-administered and interviewer-administered Marathi version of the EPDS, the correlation coefficient was 0.96 (p<0.001). The difference between the two scores for nine out of ten participants was within the limits of agreement as per the Bland-Altman approach. This is only the second study to date to use a systematic process-based approach for culturally sensitive translation and adaptation of the EPDS into another language. The two Marathi versions of the EPDS (self-administered and interviewer-administered) can now be used for assessment of the psychometric validity of the tool.

The Language Diversity and Science Readiness Skills of Latino Preschoolers.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to describe how the language diversity (i.e., the within-group variability in dual-language skills) of Latino dual-language learner (DLL) preschoolers was related to their science readiness skills and (b) to describe the importance of language of science instruction for Spanish-dominant children. Latino DLL children's (N = 161; ages 3-5 years) language skills were assessed in various domains of both Spanish and English, and then their science readiness skills were assessed in their dominant language. Using a latent profile analysis, profiles were generated to describe the diversity of DLLs' bilingual skills. These profiles were used as independent variables in a series of hierarchical regressions to predict children's science readiness skills. With the Spanish-dominant subsample, an interaction term was created between profile membership and language of science instruction to determine how language of instruction contributes to the relation between language and science readiness skills. English-dominant children and children with high and balanced dual-language skills had the highest science readiness skills, and instruction in two languages was related to higher science readiness skills of certain Spanish-dominant children. Results underscore the linguistic heterogeneity of Latino DLL children and its importance for school success and bilingual instruction initiatives. Findings provide evidence for the within-group variability in the dual-language skills of Latino DLL preschool children relating to differences in their science readiness skills, as well as for how bilingual instruction is related to science readiness skill.

Attitudes and Support Strategies of Parents to Promote English-Indonesian Bilingualism in Children

The goal of this study was to look into parents' attitudes toward encouraging English-Indonesian bilingualism in their children, as well as their support strategies for doing so. This study used a mixed-method approach to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire, while the qualitative data was collected during the interviews using open-ended questions. Twenty mothers who raise bilingual (English-Indonesian) children took part in the study. The researcher collected data using a questionnaire and an interview. The majority of parents prefer English-Indonesian bilingualism for their children, according to the findings of this study. By being actively involved in their children's language development, parents always make efforts to maintain their children's bilingual skills. The support systems that parents provide for their children, as well as the degree of support provided in English language learning, appear to differ. To make the learning process effective and successful, parents focus on their children's interests while developing Indonesian-English skills for them.