Bilingual Groups Research Articles

Device Use Among Spanish-English Bilingual and English Monolingual Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

This report compares device use in a cohort of Spanish-English bilingual and English monolingual children who are deaf and hard of hearing, including children fitted with traditional hearing aids, cochlear implants (CIs), and/or bone-conduction hearing devices. Participants were 84 Spanish-English bilingual children and 85 English monolingual children from clinical sites across the United States. The data represent a subset obtained in a larger clinical trial. Device use obtained via data logging was modeled as a function of language group, device type, child age, sex, and parental education. Among children with traditional hearing aids, bilingual children wore their devices significantly fewer hours per day than monolingual children, but this group difference was not observed for children with CIs or bone-conduction hearing devices. In the monolingual group, older children wore their devices significantly more hours than younger children, but this effect of age was not present in the bilingual group. Parent report was consistent with data logging for bilingual and monolingual children. Spanish-English bilingual hearing aid users wore their devices less than their English monolingual peers, particularly among older children. This group effect was not observed for children with CIs or bone-conduction hearing devices. Additional studies are needed to identify factors that contribute to device use among bilingual children with hearing aids.

Neuroanatomy, episodic memory and inhibitory control of persian-kurdish simultaneous bilinguals

We assessed simultaneous bilinguals and monolinguals on inhibitory control and episodic memory, and assessed their grey matter volumes in brain regions known to be involved in language processing, executive control and memory. Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on episodic memory, and performance on the memory and inhibition tasks were correlated, only in the bilingual group. This suggests that the bilingualism-related benefits on memory are related to individual differences in executive control. We found larger grey matter volumes in bilinguals in left pars opercularis and in bilateral SFG, caudate nuclei, and parasubiculum. Episodic memory performance was correlated with volumes of bilateral posterior hippocampi, again only in the bilinguals, again suggesting that bilingualism may be driving this effect. Finally, we found positive structural covariance between the volumes of the bilateral parasubiculum and that of important components of the executive control network. We provide a novel, mechanistic explanation accounting for observed behavioural advantage and brain structural differences: bilingualism may boost the prefrontal cortex-hippocampal neural circuitry commonly underlying both executive control and memory, via cascade and reverberant effects, leading to synergistic benefits in both cognitive domains. This new framework has important implications for protective effects on cognition and brain health in relation to second language learning.

Individual language experience determinants of morphosyntactic variation in heritage and attriting speakers of Bosnian and Serbian

Abstract Using a causal inference approach, we explored the relationships among the language experience determinants of morphosyntactic sensitivity, to identify the factors that indirectly and directly cause its acquisition or maintenance in immigration contexts. We probed the sensitivity to Serbian/Bosnian clitic placement violations with a self-paced listening task, in a diverse group of bilinguals in Norway (n = 71), born to immigrant parents, or having emigrated in childhood or adulthood. The outcomes included a metalinguistic violation detection score and a listening/processing time difference between licit and illicit structures. Structural Equation Models revealed that literacy (as reading practices) was among the most influential determinants of the ability to detect violations, while Bosnian/Serbian use across contexts and age of bilingualism onset determined violation sensitivity in processing. We identified a significant threshold of societal language (SL) exposure at age 8. Rather than SL exposure before this age precluding bilinguals from developing and maintaining morphosyntactic sensitivity, this threshold seems to reflect a protective effect against attrition which intensifies the later after age 8 SL exposure starts. The length of residence in Norway did not determine attrition, suggesting that heritage and attrited speakers should be considered on a continuum rather than as distinct bilingualism profiles.

Heterogeneity in cognitive profiles of monolingual and bilingual Hispanic/Latino older adults in HABS-HD.

The present study characterized heterogeneity in the cognitive profiles of monolingual and bilingual Latino older adults enrolled in the HABS-HD. A total of 859 cognitively unimpaired older adults completed neuropsychological testing. Raw scores for cognitive tests were converted to z-scores adjusted for age, education, sex, and language of testing. A latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted for monolingual and bilingual speaker groups. A series of 2-5 class solutions were examined, and the optimal model was selected based on fit indices, posterior probabilities, proportion of sample sizes, and pattern of scores. Identified classes were compared on sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health characteristics. For the monolingual group (n = 365), a 3-class solution was optimal; this consisted of a Low Average Memory group with low average verbal memory performances on the SEVLT Total Learning and Delayed Recall trials, as well as an Average Cognition group and a High Average Cognition group. For the bilingual group (n = 494), a 3-class solution was observed to be optimal; this consisted of a Low Average Memory group, with low average verbal memory performances on the learning and delayed recall trials of Logical Memory; a Low Average Executive group, where performance on Trails A and B and Digit Substitution were the lowest; and a High Average Cognition group, where performance was generally in the high average range across most cognitive measures. Cognitive class solutions differed across monolingual and bilingual groups and illustrate the need to better understand cognitive variability in linguistically diverse samples of Latino older adults.

Can cultural distance be a factor in bilingual processing? Report from primed translation recognition task of Rongmei–Meitei bilinguals

Abstract Bilingual language processing literature has pointed out that all bilinguals are not equal and many of the differences in processing strategies can be traced to ‘the bilingual experience’. This is true for the famed bilingual advantage debate as well, as the control process associated with bilinguals can be dependent on many factors in the behavioural ecology of the bilingual groups. In this light, the current study investigates bilingual language processing in the Rongmei Naga community in Manipur, North East India. The Rongmeis speak two indigenous/heritage languages as their first and second language: Rongmei and Meitei. These two languages belong to the same language family and the communities speaking them live side by side. The paper investigates the effect of community specific cues on language processing through a primed translation recognition task. The task is carried out on two groups of bilinguals: (educated, urbane) young group and (less educated, rural) old group. The result of the study shows that the mismatch condition has an adverse effect on the response latency across groups and translation directions, thus pointing to the possibility that in spite of cultural and linguistic closeness, prevailing social dimensions may be pointers for possible impact of such cues.

Do First Language, Word Frequency and Input Matter in Bilingual’s Language Acquisition?

The acquisition of morphosyntactic features, such as third-person singular (3SG) inflection, is a critical aspect of language development. While much research has focused on monolingual children’s acquisition of 3SG inflection, less is known about how bilingual children navigate this process, particularly those from non-inflectional first language (L1) backgrounds. Furthermore, two well established characteristics found in other bilingual groups: word frequency and L1 transfer are still remain unclear in the acquisition of 3SG inflection in Chinese-English bilingual groups. Addressing these gaps are crucial for understanding the unique challenges bilingual children face and the factors influencing their acquisition of English morphosyntatic feature. In this study, we employed corpus to analyze longitudinal naturalistic data from three Chinese-English bilingual children and one English monolingual child. We investigated the children’s use of 3SG inflection across obligatory contexts, examining the frequency of verb exposure in both parental input and a large corpus (COCA). Our results indicate that bilingual children, especially those from a non-inflectional L1 background, demonstrated delayed acquisition of 3SG inflection compared to monolingual counterparts. However, both groups showed better accuracy with high-frequency verbs, underscoring the importance of input frequency. Additionally, L1 transfer effects were evident in both monolingual children and bilingual children, with the bilingual children struggling more with verbs whose L1 lacked verb agreement. These findings suggest that both input frequency and L1 transfer play significant roles in shaping bilingual children’s acquisition of 3SG inflection. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of bilingual language development, with implications for language acquisition theory and educational practices, particularly in addressing the needs of children from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

Relations among degree of bilingualism and bilateral information processing in children and adults

Aims and objectives: The primary goal of this study was to examine whether degree of bilingualism related to dichotic listening accuracy, a measure of bilateral processing, after controlling for age and income. Methodology: Participants included 59 children ages 6–11 years ( M = 7.86, SD = 1.81) and 61 adults (18–83 years) ( M = 34.02, SD = 15.70). Participants completed demographic surveys, vocabulary assessments in English and Spanish, and a dichotic listening test. Data and analysis: Multiple linear regressions examined whether the degree of bilingualism predicted bilateral processing. Findings: Degree of bilingualism predicted bilateral processing in the whole sample of children and adults. Originality: This study is one of the first to examine bilingualism and bilateral processing while including both children and adults. It also importantly controlled for a possible cognate facilitatory effect and participant income differences and measured bilingualism on a continuum. Significance: Results highlight the importance of including bilingual groups of different ages when researching bilingualism and laterality.

Early language experience and modality affect parietal cortex activation in different hemispheres: Insights from hearing bimodal bilinguals

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of the age of acquisition (AoA) on functional brain representations of sign language in two exceptional groups of hearing bimodal bilinguals: native signers (simultaneous bilinguals since early childhood) and late signers (proficient sequential bilinguals, who learnt a sign language after puberty). We asked whether effects of AoA would be present across languages – signed and audiovisual spoken – and thus observed only in late signers as they acquired each language at different life stages, and whether effects of AoA would be present during sign language processing across groups. Moreover, we aimed to carefully control participants’ level of sign language proficiency by implementing a battery of language tests developed for the purpose of the project, which confirmed that participants had high competences of sign language.Between-group analyses revealed a hypothesized modulatory effect of AoA in the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) in native signers, compared to late signers. With respect to within-group differences across languages we observed greater involvement of the left IPL in response to sign language in comparison to spoken language in both native and late signers, indicating language modality effects. Overall, our results suggest that the neural underpinnings of language are molded by the linguistic characteristics of the language as well as by when in life the language is learnt.

Subject position in Greek and Spanish monolingual and bilingual production: Exploring the influence of verb type and definiteness

ABSTRACT This research study aims to capture linguistic variation in subject distribution in monolingual and bilingual speakers of an understudied language combination of two null subject languages, following the premises of the Interface Hypothesis (IH). Greek and Chilean Spanish are examined with a focus on subject-verb (SV) inversion in neutral contexts as influenced by two factors: verb type and subject definiteness. Oral semi-structured narratives were elicited from 116 participants: Greek and Spanish monolinguals (N = 40) and Greek-Spanish bilinguals (N = 86), namely immigrants, heritage speakers (HS), and L2 speakers of Greek. The findings show crosslinguistic differences between Greek and Spanish regarding verb-subject(-object) [VS(O)] orders, which are allowed more liberally in Greek than in Spanish. The bilingual groups behaved similarly on subject placement regarding verb type. The effect of definiteness, which was statistically significant in all the other groups, was not obtained in the HS data, indicating a relaxed distinction between definite and indefinite subjects in the heritage grammar. The findings are discussed in the light of the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and provide valuable insights into bilingual language production in relation to vulnerability in heritage and bilingual grammars, involving an insufficiently researched linguistic phenomenon.

Exploring Bilingual Benefits: Verbal and Nonverbal Information Updating in Working Memory

Objectives: The present study aimed to confirm the cognitive advantages of bilingualism specifically in the domain of working memory updating. Methods: A total of sixty adults (aged 20 to 26) participated in the study, divided into three groups based on bilingual status: Bilingual-similar (n = 20), Bilingual-Mongolian weighted (n = 20), and Monolingual (n = 20). Participants completed working memory update tasks involving verbal or nonverbal stimuli. Information updated in working memory could be derived from perceptual input or long-term memory. Results: Bilingual advantages in working memory updating was found in both verbal and nonverbal task. The advantages in working memory updating depending on stimuli (verbal or nonverbal) exhibited similar patterns. However, the patterns of bilingual advantages varied depending on the source of information (perceptual input or long-term memory). While both bilingual groups showed advantages when the information source was perceptual input, only the Bilingual-similar group showed advantages when the source was long-term memory. Conclusion: The study provides further empirical support for the cognitive benefits associated with bilingualism, particularly in the realm of working memory updating. The current findings underscore the notion that bilinguals optimize domain-general cognitive control. Further research is needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of information management in bilingual individuals across different information resources.

Parallel Interactions Between Linguistic and Contextual Factors in Bilinguals

AbstractThe necessity for introducing interactionist and parallelism approaches in different branches of cognitive science emerged as a reaction to classical sequential stage‐based models. Functional psychological models that emphasized and explained how different components interact, dynamically producing cognitive and perceptual states, influenced multiple disciplines. Chiefly among them were experimental psycholinguistics and the many applied areas that dealt with humans’ ability to process different types of information in different contexts. Understanding how bilinguals represent and process verbal and visual input, how their neural and psychological states facilitate such interactions, and how linguistic and nonlinguistic processing overlap, has now emerged as an important area of multidisciplinary research. In this article, we will review available evidence from different language‐speaking groups of bilinguals in India with a focus on situational context. In the discussion, we will address models of language processing in bilinguals within a cognitive psychological approach with a focus on existent models of inhibitory control. The paper's stated goal will be to show that the parallel architecture framework can serve as a theoretical foundation for examining bilingual language processing and its interface with external factors such as social context.

Event-related Potential Measures of Visual Word Processing in Monolingual and Bilingual Children and Adults: A Focus on Word Frequency Effects.

How does language background influence the neural correlates of visual word recognition in children? To address this question, we used an ERP lexical decision task to examine first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) visual word processing in monolingual and bilingual school-aged children and young adults (n = 123). In particular, we focused on the effects of word frequency (an index of lexical accessibility) on RTs and the N400 ERP component. Behaviorally, we found larger L1 versus L2 word frequency effects among bilingual children, driven by faster and more accurate responses to higher-frequency words (no other language or age group differences were observed). Neurophysiologically, we found larger L1 word frequency effects in bilinguals versus monolinguals (across both age groups), reflected in more negative ERP amplitudes to lower-frequency words. However, the bilingual groups processed L1 and L2 words similarly, despite lower levels of subjective and objective L2 proficiency. Taken together, our findings suggest that divided L1 experience (but not L2 experience) influences the neural correlates of visual word recognition across childhood and adulthood.

Predictors of Chinese reading in Chinese monolingual and Chinese–English bilingual children in Mainland China

AbstractThere is a growing number of children learning to read in bilingual environments, yet research on the uniqueness of reading acquisition in these bilingual children, particularly L1 majority bilinguals, is limited. With a sample size of 690 4th-grade students, this study investigated predictors influencing L1 Chinese reading in Chinese–English bilingual children (n = 345) attending Chinese–English bilingual schools in mainland China and made comparisons with their monolingual counterparts (n = 345). The results of a multi-group path analysis revealed both similarities and differences between the two groups. In terms of Chinese reading comprehension, word reading and linguistic comprehension were significant predictors for both groups, but their relative importance differed. While there was no difference in the predictive power between the two predictors in the monolingual group, word reading held a greater contribution in the bilingual group. Regarding Chinese word reading, both morphological and orthographic awareness emerged as significant predictors in the monolingual group, whereas in the bilingual group, only morphological awareness was significant, and the contribution of phonological awareness was insignificant in either group. These findings underscore the distinct relationship between reading and its predictive constituents in bilingual students when compared to their monolingual counterparts.

Ukrainian–Russian bilingualism in the war-affected migrant and refugee communities in Austria and Germany: a survey-based study on language attitudes

IntroductionThis paper provides an initial exploration of Ukrainian–Russian bilingualism in the context of the war-affected migration from Ukraine to Austria and Germany. While extensive research exists on various aspects of Ukrainian– Russian bilingualism in relation to Ukraine itself, thus far no studies have been conducted on this bilingualism in the diasporic context, i.e., as a language of the first and subsequential generations with a migrant background in Austria and Germany.MethodsTo address this research gap, our paper examines the language attitudes of two respondent groups with a Ukrainian background in the two countries: migrants and refugees who left Ukraine after 2014 and those who left after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In the framework of a sociolinguistic survey, we describe their current attitudes regarding the use of Ukrainian and Russian, among others, in relation to the actual and intended use of the language(s) in the multilingual context of migration. The survey eliciting information on demographic information, language proficiency, language attitudes and language use was conducted on 406 Ukrainians in two host countries (Austria: n = 103; Germany: n = 306). First, we compared self-rated proficiency in Ukrainian and Russian as well as attitudes and use of these languages. Second, we applied a network modelling analysis to determine the nature of relationships between these variables.Results and discussionThe results indicated that proficiency in Ukrainian and in Russian were the strongest nodes in the model affecting language use and language attitudes toward the respective languages. Our data analysis focused on the pragmatic and symbolic value of Russian and Ukrainian playing a crucial role in the language vitality in multilingual settings. The paper discusses the imbalanced correlation of the symbolic and pragmatic value of Ukrainian and Russian in the diasporic Ukrainian communities. While Ukrainian has gained a higher symbolic status, Russian maintains a better pragmatic one, despite its negative symbolic status. However, we anticipate that the increasing symbolic value of Ukrainian and the diminishing value of Russian will lead to an increase in the use of Ukrainian also in Russian-dominant bilingual groups of Ukrainian migrants and refugees, even as an insider-code in hermetic minority groups.

Scope assignment in quantifier-negation sentences in early Korean-Chinese bilinguals’ grammars

Quantifier-negation sentences allow an inverse scope reading in many languages, but this phenomenon is not observed in Chinese. Building on the work of Chen and Huan (2023), this study investigates whether early Korean-Chinese bilinguals can make a distinction between Korean and Chinese in terms of the inverse scope. Employing the sentence-picture matching truth value judgment experiment from Chen and Huan (2023), we recruited a group of 23 early Korean-Chinese bilinguals and 15 monolingual Korean speakers. The experimental results aligned with those of Chen and Huan (2023), which identified three distinct groups of bilinguals. The first group permits an inverse scope reading in both Korean and Chinese, the second group prohibits it in both languages, and the third group successfully distinguishes between Korean and Chinese regarding inverse scope. These findings suggest that early bilinguals may experience long-lasting crosslinguistic influence that extends into adulthood. They may adopt either of two opposite strategies when constructing sentences, both of which can potentially minimize syntactic differences between their two languages.

How Different Bilinguals Cultural Identification Influence Their Language Proficiency

This article investigates the relationship between bilinguals cultural identification and language proficiency and tries to find out the strategy to improve bilinguals language proficiency. It was written in a literature review format, summarizing ten articles about bilinguals, and comparing them to research the topic. The study mostly researches three bilingual groups: immigrants, heritage language speakers, and transnational students. Moreover, found that immigrants would either identify with both cultures or deny one of them. Their attitude toward the culture will also reflect their language proficiency; they either have balanced language proficiency in both languages or show a preference for one. For heritage language speakers, their cultural identification can be consolidated through involvement in a kind of cultural background; then, heritage language speakers would raise their willingness to improve their language proficiency of heritage language. Finally, the transnational students, if they can identify themselves as successful students, might hold more confidence to study the language and gradually get better proficiency. This article concludes with three directions to help bilingual people improve their language proficiency based on their cultural identification. This could be concluded as producing a better bilingual community, recommending HL speakers parents use more about their heritage language before their children, and helping bilingual students build the identification as successful students.

The impact of emotional states on bilingual language control in cued and voluntary switching contexts

This study investigated bilingual language control in emotional contexts. We assessed the language switching and mixing performance of two groups of Chinese-English bilinguals in picture naming under neutral, negative, and positive emotional states. One group switched languages voluntarily while another matched group switched languages according to external cues. We found that negative state impaired proactive control, whereas positive state seemed to improve proactive control. Importantly, the detrimental effects of negative state could be proportional to the cognitive demands imposed by the naming context. However, negative states disrupted proactive control in voluntary but not cued naming, where the proactive control demands were comparable. This finding suggests that the control system selectively compensates for the emotional disruption of control in a cued-naming context requiring strict control but not in a voluntary-naming context preferring less strict control. Accordingly, we tentatively proposed a theoretical account of the adaptive control mechanism in emotional contexts. These findings would extend the Adaptive Control Hypothesis to more naturalistic settings.

Modeling lexical abilities of heritage language and L2 speakers of Hebrew and English in Israel and the United States: a network approach.

This paper examines the productive vocabulary skills of five groups of English-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel and the United States. The juxtaposition of these five groups allows us to simultaneously compare performance across dominance profiles, acquisition contexts (L2 learned in school, HL maintained at home, immigration and immersion), and countries (Israel and the USA). A total of 185 participants took part in study: Hebrew-dominant heritage English speakers, Hebrew-dominant L2-English speakers, English-dominant heritage Hebrew speakers, and English-dominant L2-Hebrew speakers in the US and in Israel. They were all administered the MINT assessment in both languages, as well as background questionnaires. We then employ network modeling based on a secondary data analysis of background questionnaires to consider how each group's lexical proficiency ties in to reported input factors. The MINT results indicate clear language dominance in all the groups except Hebrew-dominant heritage English speakers, who show balanced proficiency in both their languages. The network models indicate key distinctions between the groups as a function of linguistic context, and we assess our findings in the context of recent work on quantifying the bilingual experience.

Production benefits on encoding are modulated by language experience: Less experience may help.

Several lines of research have shown that performing movements while learning new information aids later retention of that information, compared to learning by perception alone. For instance, articulated words are more accurately remembered than words that are silently read (the production effect). A candidate mechanism for this movement-enhanced encoding, sensorimotor prediction, assumes that acquired sensorimotor associations enable movements to prime associated percepts and hence improve encoding. Yet it is still unknown how the extent of prior sensorimotor experience influences the benefits of movement on encoding. The current study addressed this question by examining whether the production effect is modified by prior language experience. Does the production effect reduce or persist in a second language (L2) compared to a first language (L1)? Two groups of unbalanced bilinguals, German (L1) - English (L2) bilinguals (Experiment 1) and English (L1) - German (L2) bilinguals (Experiment 2), learned lists of German and English words by reading the words silently or reading the words aloud, and they subsequently performed recognition tests. Both groups showed a pronounced production effect (higher recognition accuracy for spoken compared to silently read words) in the first and second languages. Surprisingly, the production effect was greater in thesecond languages compared to the first languages, across both bilingual groups. We discuss interpretations based on increased phonological encoding, increased effort or attention, or both, when reading aloud in a second language.

Phonological properties of logographic words modulate brain activation in bilinguals: a comparative study of Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji.

The brain networks for the first (L1) and second (L2) languages are dynamically formed in the bilingual brain. This study delves into the neural mechanisms associated with logographic-logographic bilingualism, where both languages employ visually complex and conceptually rich logographic scripts. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, we examined the brain activity of Chinese-Japanese bilinguals and Japanese-Chinese bilinguals as they engaged in rhyming tasks with Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji. Results showed that Japanese-Chinese bilinguals processed both languages using common brain areas, demonstrating an assimilation pattern, whereas Chinese-Japanese bilinguals recruited additional neural regions in the left lateral prefrontal cortex for processing Japanese Kanji, reflecting their accommodation to the higher phonological complexity of L2. In addition, Japanese speakers relied more on the phonological processing route, while Chinese speakers favored visual form analysis for both languages, indicating differing neural strategy preferences between the 2 bilingual groups. Moreover, multivariate pattern analysis demonstrated that, despite the considerable neural overlap, each bilingual group formed distinguishable neural representations for each language. These findings highlight the brain's capacity for neural adaptability and specificity when processing complex logographic languages, enriching our understanding of the neural underpinnings supporting bilingual language processing.