First-language Learners Research Articles

Engagement in Activity Settings of First and Second Language Learners in Preschool – The Role of Qualified Preschool Teachers and Classroom Structure

ABSTRACT Research Findings: In Swedish preschools, second-language learners often display lower engagement in activity settings than first-language learners. This study used a multilevel model to examine the association between children’s language status, classroom structure, teacher qualifications, and engagement in preschool activity settings. The sample included 148 children, aged three to five, from classrooms with varying proportions of first and second-language learners. The Child Observation in Preschool (COP) instrument measured engagement levels. Our findings reveal that the presence of highly qualified teachers significantly increased the duration of high engagement for all children, regardless of language status. While second language learners initially appeared to show lower engagement, this difference was insignificant in the full model after accounting for classroom structure and teacher qualifications. Classrooms with a higher proportion of qualified teachers demonstrated improved engagement across the board. Policy and Practice: These findings underscore the importance of ensuring a high proportion of qualified teachers in early childhood education and care settings. Creating a supportive, high-quality educational environment is essential for fostering engagement among all children but may be particularly crucial in classrooms with diverse language backgrounds.

Argument ordering in simple sentences is affected by age of first language acquisition: Evidence from late first language signers of ASL

Abstract Research on the language acquisition of deaf individuals who are exposed to accessible linguistic input at a variety of ages has provided evidence for a sensitive period of first language acquisition. Recent studies have shown that deaf individuals who first learn language after early childhood, late first-language learners (LL1), do not comprehend reversible Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) sentences. The present study analyzed 478 signed productions elicited with pictures depicting simple events with one or two arguments by 28 signers. The argument order patterns of native signers converged with one another and the word order patterns of American Sign Language (ASL). By contrast, the ordering patterns of the LL1 signers did not converge with one another or with the patterns of the native signers. This indicates that early childhood is a period of heightened sensitivity to basic word order and may help explain why complex structures are difficult for LL1 signers to learn.

The Differences in Thinking between First-Language Learners and Second-Language Learners

The Differences in Thinking between First-Language Learners and Second-Language Learners

Robustness of the random language model.

The random language model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 128301 (2019)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.122.128301] is an ensemble of stochastic context-free grammars, quantifying the syntax of human and computer languages. The model suggests a simple picture of first-language learning as a type of annealing in the vast space of potential languages. In its simplest formulation, it implies a single continuous transition to grammatical syntax, at which the symmetry among potential words and categories is spontaneously broken. Here this picture is scrutinized by considering its robustness against extensions of the original model, and trajectories through parameter space different from those originally considered. It is shown here that (i) the scenario is robust to explicit symmetry breaking, an inevitable component of learning in the real world, and (ii) the transition to grammatical syntax can be encountered by fixing the deep (hidden) structure while varying the surface (observable) properties. It is also argued that the transition becomes a sharp thermodynamic transition in an idealized limit. Moreover, comparison with human data on the clustering coefficient of syntax networks suggests that the observed transition is equivalent to that normally experienced by children at age 24 months. The results are discussed in light of the theory of first-language acquisition in linguistics, and recent successes in machine learning.

Raising Bilingual Children in Home Environment of Brunei: A Study on Vocabulary Acquisition

This study aims to contribute to current research on bilingual children's vocabulary studies and the home environment. It explored how home environments affected children's L1 and L2 vocabulary acquisition. The children in this small-scale study (n=40) were exposed to Brunei Malay (L1) alongside English (L2) from a young age, classifying the children as bilingual first-language learners (BFL). This study examines the children’s L1 and L2 language development and it used vocabulary knowledge as a measuring tool for data analysis. It also considers the home environment and parental role as factors contributing to the children’s language progress. As a result, this study found positive correlations between children's L1 and L2 receptive and active vocabulary knowledge. It also found the children’s L1 and L2 interaction at home with family members. Conversely, the findings shown that there was no significant difference between the responses of 5 and 6 year old children in their L1 and L2 comprehension as well as production tests. This study also found that children who performed well in L1 and L2 vocabulary tests come from households that were open to bilingualism. In addition, parents were open to bilingualism for their children with the condition that the children prioritised their L1 more than L2. The main motive for bilingualism for their children was to enhance their communication skills and increase their chances of future employment. Hence, parents' perception of L1 and L2 is crucial because it shapes the language usages that were exposed to the children at home.

Language of Early Reading Instruction: A Correlate of Print Exposure

The Matthew effects suggest that children who struggle when learning to read are less likely to read for pleasure later in life compared to children who ease into reading quickly. One aspect of early literacy instruction that might hamper reading progress is learning to read simultaneously in two languages. Despite the long-lasting and widespread benefits of bilingualism, early setbacks in reading development might carry lasting effects for later reading habits. We investigated whether present-day print exposure of adults who learned to read in their first language were different from those who learned to read in two languages. Adults completed: Bilingual Author Recognition, Viewing Recognition, and English and French Word Recognition Tests. Participants who reported that reading instruction took place in their first language recognized more authors than those who learned to read in two languages. These first-language learners were also better at identifying real English words. Bilingual learners were superior at identifying real French words on the corresponding task. Lastly, both groups demonstrated similar viewing habits. The findings from this retrospective study align with the Matthew effects and suggest that a focus on first language reading instruction in Grades 1 and 2 remains correlated with print exposure 25 years later.

When event knowledge overrides word order in sentence comprehension: Learning a first language after childhood.

Limited language experience in childhood is common among deaf individuals, which prior research has shown to lead to low levels of language processing. Although basic structures such as word order have been found to be resilient to conditions of sparse language input in early life, whether they are robust to conditions of extreme language delay is unknown. The sentence comprehension strategies of post-childhood, first-language (L1) learners of American Sign Language (ASL) with at least 9years of language experience were investigated, in comparison to two control groups of learners with full access to language from birth (deaf native signers and hearing L2 learners who were native English speakers). The results of a sentence-to-picture matching experiment show that event knowledge overrides word order for post-childhood L1 learners, regardless of the animacy of the subject, while both deaf native signers and hearing L2 signers consistently rely on word order to comprehend sentences. Language inaccessibility throughout early childhood impedes the acquisition of even basic word order. Similar to the strategies used by very young children prior to the development of basic sentence structure, post-childhood L1 learners rely more on context and event knowledge to comprehend sentences. Language experience during childhood is critical to the development of basic sentence structure.

Effects of key-image mnemonics on Chinese instruction for first-grade students’ achievement and interest toward Chinese learning

This study examined the integration of the Key-Image method (KIM), a novel mnemonic, into a Chinese curriculum and the effect on improving learning. It is the first Chinese intervention study for this topic. We designed a development trial with 143 first-grade students. After a six-week course, the experimental group (n = 72) outperformed the comparison group (n = 71) on both a Chinese achievement test and a Chinese learning interest inventory. The cognitive and affective effectiveness of the KIM held for the tests conducted immediately after learning and the retention tests conducted one week and five months after learning. The results suggest that the KIM, an innovative design, is superior to the traditional instruction that first-language (L1) learners typically experience.

Does the Simple View of Writing Explain L2 Writing Development?: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examines how components of the Simple View of Writing contribute to writing development for English second-language (L2) learners. Previous studies examining first-language learners suggest that transcription and ideation may predict writing achievement. In order to investigate whether these components similarly contribute to L2 writing, this study examined effect sizes (correlations) reported in previous literature on the relationship between components of transcription and ideation to writing. After a systematic search and screening, 30 studies with 97 reported effect sizes were included in this study. Three separate meta-analyses were run for transcription (spelling/handwriting), oral language, and vocabulary. Results suggest that, independently, transcription accounted for 31.22%, vocabulary 24.83%, and oral language 15.76% of variation in writing. Further moderator analyses were run to better understand factors contributing to variation between studies. These results suggest that the components of the Simple View of Writing may explain writing variation in L2 writing.

The effect of linguistic comprehension instruction on generalized language and reading comprehension skills: A systematic review.

The effect of linguistic comprehension instruction on generalized language and reading comprehension skills: A systematic review.

Effects of Early Language Deprivation on Brain Connectivity: Language Pathways in Deaf Native and Late First-Language Learners of American Sign Language.

Previous research has identified ventral and dorsal white matter tracts as being crucial for language processing; their maturation correlates with increased language processing capacity. Unknown is whether the growth or maintenance of these language-relevant pathways is shaped by language experience in early life. To investigate the effects of early language deprivation and the sensory-motor modality of language on white matter tracts, we examined the white matter connectivity of language-relevant pathways in congenitally deaf people with or without early access to language. We acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from two groups of individuals who experienced language from birth, twelve deaf native signers of American Sign Language, and twelve hearing L2 signers of ASL (native English speakers), and from three, well-studied individual cases who experienced minimal language during childhood. The results indicate that the sensory-motor modality of early language experience does not affect the white matter microstructure between crucial language regions. Both groups with early language experience, deaf and hearing, show leftward laterality in the two language-related tracts. However, all three cases with early language deprivation showed altered white matter microstructure, especially in the left dorsal arcuate fasciculus (AF) pathway.

لمحة عامة عن البحث في استراتيجيات تعلم المفردات التي يستخدمها الطلاب الناطقين باللغة العربية في تعلم اللغة الانجليزية كلغة ثانية

Abstract: The past and current research on Arabic-speaking students’ second language vocabulary learning concludes that even though there is much research about the difficulties of learning English as a second language by Arab students, there is a need to increase the number of studies of the importance of teaching and learning vocabulary and the significance of understanding vocabulary learning strategies. Most second language learners encounter a great deal of challenge when learning vocabulary in the second language. Moreover, the number of experimental studies between 1980 and 2009 that focused on vocabulary outcomes for English language learners was limited and many of the instructional approaches used in these studies were built on approaches proposed for first-language learners, while others restructured the instructional tasks to meet the needs of English language learners. Also, there were limited studies on ESL vocabulary acquisition and its teaching and learning strategies by Arab students. Therefore, the current research calls for further experimental studies on the vocabulary teaching strategies used by Arab students. These studies should reassess the effectiveness of the vocabulary teaching programs for the purpose of designing better English language curricula that meets Arab students’ English vocabulary needs. Students’ attitude toward learning a foreign language may also affect their learning of new vocabulary. Keywords: Arab students, ESL, Second language acquisition, Teaching, Attitude

First and foreign language early reading abilities: The influence of musical perception

There is a growing body of literature that recognises how music perception affects first-language learning, but much less is known about its influence on foreign-language reading skills. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of music perception abilities on the acquisition of some foreign early reading skills based on their transference from first language. Data for this study were collected from 63 Spanish-speaking English-language learners studying second grade of primary school. We used a music perception test and the Early Grade Reading Assessment battery, which measures early reading skills in both languages. A mediation analysis using structural equation modelling was performed, integrating music perception and letter-sound knowledge, initial sound identification, and familiar word and pseudoword reading in Spanish and English. This research provides new insights into how music perception affects early reading skills in both languages. These findings indicate a transfer of music perception abilities to first-language alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness and word recognition skills that affect foreign language early reading abilities.

Training, Transformation and Education

AbstractInMind and World, John McDowell concludes that human beings ‘are born mere animals’ and ‘are transformed into thinkers and intentional agents’, principally by their initiation into language. Such ‘transformational views’ of human development typically represent first-language learning as a movement from a non-rationally secured conformity with correct practice, through increasing understanding, to a state of rational mastery of correct practice. Accordingly, they tend to invoke something like Wittgenstein's concept of training to explain the first stage of this process. This essay considers the cogency of this view of learning and development. I agree with Sebastian Rödl that the idea of training (as developed, say, by Meredith Williams) is inadequate to the nature of infancy and child-parent interaction, and I draw on the work of Lev Vygotsky and Michael Tomasello to offer McDowell a richer picture, which acknowledges the child's active role in fostering the second-personal relations that underlie the possibility of language learning. Such considerations force us to revise the transformational view, but do not refute it outright as Rödl believes. I conclude by considering the relevance of McDowell's view of second nature to two striking ideas: Ian Hacking's suggestion that the development of autistic children is ‘non-Vygotskian’ and Derek Parfit's claim that persons are not human beings.

Cognitive and Linguistic Predictors of Basic Arithmetic Skills: Evidence from First-language and Second-language Learners

The present study investigated the role of both cognitive and linguistic predictors in basic arithmetic skills (i.e., addition and subtraction) in 69 first-language (L1) learners and 60 second-language (L2) learners from the second grade of primary schools in the Netherlands. All children were tested on non-verbal intelligence, working memory, phonological awareness, grammatical ability as well as basic arithmetic skills. The L2 learners scored lower than L1 learners on phonological awareness, grammatical ability, and basic arithmetic skills (i.e., addition and subtraction), but not on non-verbal intelligence and working memory. For both groups, the same precursors applied to the variation in basic arithmetic skills. In addition to non-verbal intelligence and working memory, both phonological awareness and grammatical ability predicted basic arithmetic skills, indicating that assessment of arithmetic problems in L1 learners and L2 learners should take into account the cognitive and linguistic abilities that children bring to the classroom.

Reading comprehension and its underlying components in second-language learners: A meta-analysis of studies comparing first- and second-language learners.

We report a systematic meta-analytic review of studies comparing reading comprehension and its underlying components (language comprehension, decoding, and phonological awareness) in first- and second-language learners. The review included 82 studies, and 576 effect sizes were calculated for reading comprehension and underlying components. Key findings were that, compared to first-language learners, second-language learners display a medium-sized deficit in reading comprehension (pooled effect size d = -0.62), a large deficit in language comprehension (pooled effect size d = -1.12), but only small differences in phonological awareness (pooled effect size d = -0.08) and decoding (pooled effect size d = -0.12). A moderator analysis showed that characteristics related to the type of reading comprehension test reliably explained the variation in the differences in reading comprehension between first- and second-language learners. For language comprehension, studies of samples from low socioeconomic backgrounds and samples where only the first language was used at home generated the largest group differences in favor of first-language learners. Test characteristics and study origin reliably contributed to the variations between the studies of language comprehension. For decoding, Canadian studies showed group differences in favor of second-language learners, whereas the opposite was the case for U.S. studies. Regarding implications, unless specific decoding problems are detected, interventions that aim to ameliorate reading comprehension problems among second-language learners should focus on language comprehension skills.

Cuban School Dictionaries for First-Language Learners: A Shared Experience

One of the reasons why many publishing houses hesitate when allocating resources to the development of more advanced concepts of school dictionaries for first-language learners is the relatively poor sales and corresponding profits coming from this category of dictionaries. A major challenge is therefore how to change the situation, stimulate the use and sales of school dictionar­ies, and guarantee the necessary investment in product development. This contribution will take up this challenge. It will give no final answer, but it will discuss an experience with a Cuban school dictionary which has reached its target users in large numbers. The contribution will particularly look at the multi-fac­eted relation between lexicographers and users which characterises the Cuban dic­tionary project. The objective is not to copy this or any other experience but to inspire lexicogra­phers looking for alternative solutions to a problem which is affecting both school children and lexi­cographers in many countries and language communities.

School Dictionaries for First-Language Learners

Acknowledging the ambiguity of terms like school dictionary, children's dictionary, first language, mother-tongue this article motivates a specific use of school dictionary, first language and learner and focuses on various problems in these dictionaries. The typical functions of these dictionaries are discussed with reference to the lexicographic needs of first-language learners. Looking at a few existing dictionaries, suggestions are made for the inclusion and presentation of certain data types. The importance of the use of natural language in the paraphrases of meaning is discussed. It is emphasised that lexicographers should consult teachers and curriculum experts when planning school dictionaries and that the grade and age of the target user needs to be taken into account. The aim of this article is not to give final solutions to the questions raised but merely to recommend that a number of factors — or variables — are taken into account when planning future school dictionaries. In this respect, a number of questions are formulated that need to be answered when planning the compilation of school dictionaries.

Reflecting On The Modification Of A Summative Assessment Instrument To Redress Its Linguistic Complexity For Second-Language Learners In An ODL Context

This study attempted to determine whether simplifying the linguistic complexity of a written summative assessment instrument would improve the examination results of second-language learners; the academic literature suggests that linguistic complexity impacts negatively on the performance of second-language learners. The module chosen for the study was the capstone module of the marketing department at the University of South Africa, an open and distance learning institution. A 2007 examination paper was modified in an attempt to make it linguistically simpler and was used again in 2009. The results of first-language learners were compared with those of second language learners, who represent a significant component of the universitys student population, across the two periods in question. The results were analysed using an independent two-sample t-test. The findings do not support the premise that simplifying the linguistic complexity of an assessment instrument would have a positive impact on the examination performance of second-language learners. The article highlights a number of issues and questions that require further research.

The initial stages of first-language acquisition begun in adolescence: when late looks early

Children typically acquire their native language naturally and spontaneously at a very young age. The emergence of early grammar can be predicted from children's vocabulary size and composition (Bateset al., 1994; Bates, Bretherton & Snyder, 1998; Bates & Goodman, 1997). One central question in language research is understanding what causes the changes in early language acquisition. Some researchers argue that the qualitative and quantitative shifts in word learning simply reflect the changing character of the child's cognitive maturity (for example, Gentner, 1982), while others argue that the trajectory of early language acquisition is driven by the child's growing familiarity with the language (Gillette, Gleitman, Gleitman & Lederer, 1999; Snedeker & Gleitman, 2004). These hypotheses are difficult to adjudicate because language acquisition in virtually all hearing children begins from birth and occurs simultaneously with cognitive development and brain maturation. The acquisition of sign languages, in contrast, is frequently delayed until older ages. In the USA, over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who do not use sign language (Schein, 1989). As a result, deaf children are often exposed to sign language as a first language at a range of ages well beyond infancy (Mayberry, 2007). In rare cases, some deaf individuals are isolated from all linguistic input until adolescence when they start receiving special services and begin to learn sign language through immersion (Morford, 2003). Case studies of language acquisition in such extreme late first-language (L1) learners provide a unique opportunity to investigate first-language learning. The current study investigates three cases of young teens who are in the early stages of acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language, to determine what first-language acquisition in adolescence looks like.