Bilingual L1 Research Articles

The relationship between language proficiency and attentional control in Cantonese-English bilingual children: evidence from Simon, Simon switching, and working memory tasks.

By administering Simon, Simon switching, and operation-span working memory tasks to Cantonese-English bilingual children who varied in their first-language (L1, Cantonese) and second-language (L2, English) proficiencies, as quantified by standardized vocabulary test performance, the current study examined the effects of L1 and L2 proficiency on attentional control performance. Apart from mean performance, we conducted ex-Gaussian analyses to capture the modal and positive-tail components of participants' reaction time distributions in the Simon and Simon switching tasks. Bilinguals' L2 proficiency was associated with higher scores in the operation span task, and a shift of reaction time distributions in incongruent trials, relative to congruent trials (Simon effect in μ), and the tail size of reaction time distributions (τ) regardless of trial types in the Simon task. Bilinguals' L1 proficiency, which was strongly associated with participants' age, showed similar results, except that it was not associated with the Simon effect in μ. In contrast, neither bilinguals' L1 nor L2 proficiency modulated the global switch cost or local switch cost in the Simon switching task. After taking into account potential cognitive maturation by partialling out the participants' age, only (a) scores in the working memory task and (b) RT in incongruent trials and (c) Simon effect in μ in the Simon task could still be predicted by bilinguals' L2 proficiency. Overall, the current findings suggest that bilingual children's L2 proficiency was associated with their conflict resolution and working memory capacity, but not goal maintenance or task-set switching, when they performed the cognitive tasks that demanded attentional control. This was not entirely consistent with the findings of college-age bilinguals reported in previous studies.

A cross-linguistic evaluation of script-specific effects on fMRI lateralization in late second language readers.

Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have provided evidence that reading is strongly left lateralized, and the degree of this pattern of functional lateralization can be indicative of reading competence. However, it remains unclear whether functional lateralization differs between the first (L1) and second (L2) languages in bilingual L2 readers. This question is particularly important when the particular script, or orthography, learned by the L2 readers is markedly different from their L1 script. In this study, we quantified functional lateralization in brain regions involved in visual word recognition for participants' L1 and L2 scripts, with a particular focus on the effects of L1–L2 script differences in the visual complexity and orthographic depth of the script. Two different groups of late L2 learners participated in an fMRI experiment using a visual one-back matching task: L1 readers of Japanese who learnt to read alphabetic English and L1 readers of English who learnt to read both Japanese syllabic Kana and logographic Kanji. The results showed weaker leftward lateralization in the posterior lateral occipital complex (pLOC) for logographic Kanji compared with syllabic and alphabetic scripts in both L1 and L2 readers of Kanji. When both L1 and L2 scripts were non-logographic, where symbols are mapped onto sounds, functional lateralization did not significantly differ between L1 and L2 scripts in any region, in any group. Our findings indicate that weaker leftward lateralization for logographic reading reflects greater requirement of the right hemisphere for processing visually complex logographic Kanji symbols, irrespective of whether Kanji is the readers' L1 or L2, rather than characterizing additional cognitive efforts of L2 readers. Finally, brain-behavior analysis revealed that functional lateralization for L2 visual word processing predicted L2 reading competency.

P.1.b.007 Detailed anatomical mapping of ‘neuropeptide S’ expressing cell populations in the human brainstem

We used functional magnetic resonance adaptation (fMRA) to examine whether intra-voxel functional specificity may be present for first (L1)- and second (L2)-language processing. We examined within- and across-language adaptation for spoken words in English–French bilinguals who had acquired their L2 after the age of 4 years. Subjects listened to words presented binaurally through earphones. In two control conditions (one for each language), six identical words were presented to obtain maximal adaptation. The remaining six conditions each consisted of five words that were identical followed by a sixth word that differed. There were thus a total of eight experimental conditions: no-change (sixth word identical to first five); a change in meaning (different final word in L1); a change in language (final item translated into L2); a change in meaning and language (different final word in L2). The same four conditions were presented in L2. The study also included a silent baseline. At the neural level, within- and across-language word changes resulted in release from adaptation. This was true for separate analyses of L1 and L2. We saw no evidence for greater recovery from adaptation in across-language relative to within-language conditions. While many brain regions were common to L1 and L2, we did observe differences in adaptation for forward translation (L1 to L2) as compared to backward translation (L2 to L1). The results support the idea that, at the lexical level, the neural substrates for L1 and L2 in bilinguals are shared, but with some populations of neurons within these shared regions showing language-specific responses.

The bilingual L2 advantage in recognition memory

To better understand the mechanisms by which bilingual proficiency impacts memory processes, two recognition memory experiments were conducted with matched monolingual and bilingual samples. In Experiment 1, monolingual speakers of English and Spanish studied high- and low-frequency words under full attention or cognitive load conditions. In Experiment 2, Spanish-English bilingual participants studied high- and low-frequency words under full-attention conditions in each language. For both monolinguals and bilinguals, low-frequency words were better recognized than high-frequency words. The central new findings were that bilingual recognition was more accurate in the less fluent language (L2) than in the more fluent language (L1) and that bilingual L2 recognition was more accurate than monolingual recognition. The bilingual L2 advantage parallels word frequency effects in recognition and is attributed to the greater episodic distinctiveness of L2 words, relative to L1 words.

Requirements for an "ideal" bilingual L1 →L2 translation- oriented dictionary

The major aim of this article is to outline the requirements for an "ideal" bilingual L1 →L2 dictionary of the general vocabulary specifically designed for the purposes of professional translation. The article challenges three commonly accepted beliefs: (a) a bilingual dictionary equals a translation dictionary; (b) a bilingual dictionary is a source of immediately insertable lexical equivalents of lemmata; and (c) a bilingual dictionary solely furnishes semantic-pragmatic equivalents, whereas a monolingual dictionary always defines meanings of lexical items. It has been claimed that bilingual lexicography should be based on a clear-cut conception of the future reference work specified in terms of lexicographic parameters: (a) the intended user group; (b) the purpose of the dictionary; etc. An "ideal" bilingual L1 →L2 translation-oriented dictionary should be a reference work that is intended to serve the purpose of text production in L2. In the situation of professional translation, L2 text production is subject to two types of constraints: (a) constraints superimposed by the receptor language and culture; and (b) constraints superimposed by the source text. If constraints of the second type cannot be, in principle, envisaged, those of the first type can, and should be accounted for in a bilingual dictionary designed for the professional translator. The article specifies some of the requirements for such a reference work. Keywords: bilingual dictionary, translation dictionary, semanticpragmatic equivalence, interlingual equivalence, intralingual equivalence, defining technique, equivalence definition, periphrastic definition, explanatory definition, professional translation, translation theory, unit of translation.

The status of the “weaker” language in unbalanced French/German bilingual language acquisition

In this paper, I investigate the status of the so-called “weaker” language, French, in French/German bilingual first language acquisition, using data from two children from the DuFDE-corpus (see Schlyter, 1990a), Christophe and François. Schlyter (1993, 1994) proposes that the “weaker” language in the unbalanced children she studied has the status equivalent to that of a second language (L2). I will verify this assumption on the basis of certain grammatical phenomena, such as the use of subject clitics, null subjects and negation, with respect to which L1 and L2 learners show different developmental patterns. The results indicate that the “weaker” language of the children analyzed in this study cannot be interpreted as an L2. Both children behave predominantly like monolingual and balanced bilingual L1 learners in both languages.

<i>The acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition</i> (review)

Reviewed by: The acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition Mihaela Pirvulescu Silvina A. Montrul. 2004. The acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition. In the series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 37. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. xv + 411. US$63.00 (softcover). In this book, the acquisition of Spanish is viewed from three perspectives: monolingual first language (L1) acquisition, bilingual acquisition by children, and adult second language (L2) acquisition. The focus is on the structural aspects of language acquisition, namely morphology, syntax, and some aspects of lexical semantics. The goal of this book, written within the generative framework, is to support the hypothesis that Universal Grammar guides and constrains all instances of language acquisition. Spanish data is used throughout the book to support the Continuity Hypothesis in all instances of language acquisition. The book is organized into six chapters, each focusing on a specific grammatical theme: morphosyntax of the noun phrase (Chapter 2), morphosyntax of the verb phrase (Chapter 3), the pronominal domain (Chapter 4), the complementizer domain (Chapter 5), and lexical aspects of verb meaning (Chapter 6). The introduction gives an overview of the basic assumptions within the generative theory of language acquisition as well as a guide to basic research questions in the various types of acquisition (L1, bilingual, and L2). Each chapter begins with a review of the relevant Spanish constructions and the associated theoretical assumptions. Studies undertaken on each topic are then discussed in detail and the results reproduced in table form. A good number of examples are provided and where necessary the experimental procedures are explained at length. The empirical base comes from various studies and comprises naturalistic as well as experimental data. Different hypotheses are critically discussed and compared. Chapter 1, “Theoretical foundations”, introduces the basic concepts of Universal Grammar and the general approach to the acquisition of language that it implies. The main theoretical questions that arise for L1, bilingual, and L2 acquisition are presented in turn and they are contrasted with alternative positions that frame the debate: Continuity versus Non-continuity in L1 acquisition; the initial state in bilingual development within the Initial Unitary System versus the Language Differentiation Hypothesis; full, partial or no access to UG and the role of L1 in L2 acquisition. A brief overview of the general characteristics of Spanish grammar is given at the end of this chapter. Chapter 2, “Morphosyntax of the noun phrase”, discusses some aspects of the development of the DP category such as initial representation of the determiners, gender and number agreement, and noun-drop. Using studies comparing German, Spanish, and Basque, the chapter concludes that the determiner category is acquired early on both by Spanish children and by adult L2 learners. Chapter 3, “Morphosyntax of the verb phrase”, focuses on the acquisition of finiteness, tense, aspect, and mood. Comparative data is used to show that verbal inflections emerge early in Spanish children, favouring the Continuity Hypothesis in L1 and bilingual acquisition. A comparative discussion of Spanish, Basque, and English supports the observation that root infinitives are not a uniform phenomenon across languages. The author draws on evidence from [End Page 182] all types of acquisition in order to establish that functional categories expressing tense, aspect, and agreement are present in early grammars and that L2 learners are capable of acquiring them. Chapter 4, “Subject and object pronouns”, presents the main issues surrounding the acquisition of pronouns: null subjects and objects, clitic doubling, and binding. Data show that subject and object pronouns appear early on and that children become quickly aware of the pragmatic distribution of null and overt subjects. The chapter contains a detailed discussion of the acquisition of Principle B of the binding theory as well as a comparison among different Spanish dialects concerning the development of pronouns and their interpretation. In the section on bilingual and L2 development, a variety of languages are investigated, including French, English, Basque, Korean, Cantonese, Danish, and Swedish. Chapter 5, “Topics, questions, embedding, and movement”, discusses the development of the CP structure with evidence from imperatives, subject-verb inversion in questions and wh-movement. The data comes...

Lexical attrition in younger and older bilingual adults

Healthy monolingual older adults experience changes in their lexical abilities. Bilingual individuals immersed in an environment in which their second language is dominant experience lexical changes, or attrition, in their first language. Changes in lexical skills in the first language of older individuals who are bilinguals, therefore, can be attributed to the typical processes accompanying older age, the typical processes accompanying first‐language attrition in bilingual contexts, or both. The challenge, then, in understanding how lexical skills change in bilingual older individuals, lies in dissociating these processes. This paper addresses the difficulty of teasing apart the effects of ageing and attrition in older bilinguals and proposes some solutions. It presents preliminary results from a study of lexical processing in bilingual younger and older individuals. Processing differences were found for the older bilingual participants in their first language (L1), but not in their second language (L2). It is concluded that the lexical behaviour found for older bilinguals in this study can be attributed to L1 attrition and not to processes of ageing. These findings are discussed in the context of previous reports concerning changes in lexical skills associated with typical ageing and those associated with bilingual L1 attrition.

The weaker language in early child bilingualism: Acquiring a first language as a second language?

Past research demonstrates that first language (L1)-like competence in each language can be attained in simultaneous acquisition of bilingualism by mere exposure to the target languages. The question is whether this is also true for the “weaker” language (WL). The WL hypothesis claims that the WL differs fundamentally from monolingual L1 and balanced bilingual L1 and resembles second language (L2) acquisition. In this article, these claims are put to a test by analyzing “unusual” constructions in WLs, possibly indicating acquisition failure, and by reporting on analyses of the use of French by bilinguals whose dominant language is German. The available evidence does not justify the claim that WLs resemble L2. Instead, it shows that WL development can be delayed, but does not suggest acquisition failure. Finally, reduced input is unlikely to cause acquisition failure. The fundamental issue at stake is to explore the limits of the human language making capacity.

(In)vulnerable agreement in incomplete bilingual L1 learners

This study investigates morphological vulnerability in incomplete bilingual L1 acquisition. It examines the production of L1 inflections by L2-dominant bilingual children, with the aim of exploring causes of difficulty in agreement marking. Spontaneous data (18 hours) from six Hungarian-English bilingual children, aged seven to nine, is used to compare the production of possessive inflections and verbal inflections, which are expressed by identical surface morphology in Hungarian. Drawing on recent analysis of Hungarian (Alberti, 1995; Szabolcsi, 1994), the paper asks where and why agreement morphology is susceptible to variability in bilingual children's weaker L1. Results indicate significant differences in the accuracy of agreement morphology. Inflections are almost error-free in possessive nominals and subject-verb agreement. However, they are frequently omitted in possessive be-clauses, which can be attributed to a combination of factors: (i) influence of semantic-syntactic properties of English have on Hungarian be possessive construction (transfer from L2); (ii) difficulty with long-distance agreement in Hungarian be-possessives (structural complexity of L1); and (iii) influence of Hungarian existential and locative constructions on possessive- be (ambiguity in L1). It is argued that morphological variability is selective, and the main source of vulnerability is the syntax-semantics interface where the weaker L1 is most susceptible to L2 influence.

THE ACQUISITION OF FRENCH IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS: FOCUS ON FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES

THE ACQUISITION OF FRENCH IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS: FOCUS ON FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES. Philippe Prévost and Johanne Paradis (Eds.). Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2004. Pp. 381. $132.00 cloth.This collection of essays explores, in a generative framework, the acquisition of functional categories in French across four “acquisition contexts” (p. 1): first language (L1) acquisition, second language (L2) acquisition, bilingual L1 acquisition, and L1 acquisition by people with specific language impairment (SLI).

The transition from nominal to pronominal person reference in the early language of a Mandarin-English bilingual child

This paper is a first attempt in the literature to trace the developmental route from nominal to pronominal reference to person of a Mandarin-English bilingual first language acquirer `J'. This progression is seen, longitudinally, in the context of the child's overall syntactic development from age 1; 07—4; 0, to move, in both languages, through three phases: (i) kinship terms and lack of self-reference (1;07—2;0); (ii) nominal reference to self and others (2 ;0—3 ;0 ;07) ; (iii) emergence of first person pronominal reference alongside other self-referential expressions (3;0;07—4;0). These and other significant parallels and differences between monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition in Mandarin and English are documented. Mandarin is the home language spoken by both parents and other family members while English is the language of all other environments. This is different from the one-parent-one-language situation commonly investigated in bilingual L1 acquisition.J's pronominal development follows distinct routes in his two languages, including the coexistence of two self-reference names in Mandarin only with different functions which has not been reported in the literature before. Also, in contrast with monolingual mixing in (English) case-marking (Radford, 1986) J demonstrates categorical, adult-like case-marking contrasts. We show further that this bilingual child adopts an analytic (bottom-up) approach in Mandarin but a synthetic (top-down) approach in English.

Voice onset time of bilingual English and French-speaking Canadians

There is evidence of voice onset drift when bilinguals are submerged in cultures that are dominated by their second language (L2). Sancier and Fowler [Gestural drift in a bilingual speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and English,‘‘ J. Phonet. 4, 421-436 (1997)] found that voiceless stop voice onset times (VOTs) of a bilingual speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and English were longer after months spent in the US than after time spent in the speaker’s first language (L1) context. Flege [’’The production of ‘‘new’’ and ‘‘similar’’ phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification,‘‘ J. Phonet. 15, 47–65 (1987)] studied French L1 English L2 bilinguals and English L1 French L2 bilinguals who had spent about 12 years living in the L2 dominant culture. The French L1 English L2 bilinguals VOTs were longer than the VOTs of French monolinguals. The English L1 French L2 bilinguals VOTs were shorter than the VOTs of English monolinguals. In the present study the nature of the experience underlying VOT drift was investigated. Specifically, the aim of the current study was to see whether exposure to another language with different VOTs affects VOT production in the first (or only) language or if VOT production drift is dependent on speaking the non-native language. Productions from English and French monolinguals and from English-French bilinguals were compared across varying linguistic contexts and order of acquisition.

Bilingual brain organization: A functional magnetic resonance adaptation study

We used functional magnetic resonance adaptation (fMRA) to examine whether intra-voxel functional specificity may be present for first (L1)- and second (L2)-language processing. We examined within- and across-language adaptation for spoken words in English–French bilinguals who had acquired their L2 after the age of 4 years. Subjects listened to words presented binaurally through earphones. In two control conditions (one for each language), six identical words were presented to obtain maximal adaptation. The remaining six conditions each consisted of five words that were identical followed by a sixth word that differed. There were thus a total of eight experimental conditions: no-change (sixth word identical to first five); a change in meaning (different final word in L1); a change in language (final item translated into L2); a change in meaning and language (different final word in L2). The same four conditions were presented in L2. The study also included a silent baseline. At the neural level, within- and across-language word changes resulted in release from adaptation. This was true for separate analyses of L1 and L2. We saw no evidence for greater recovery from adaptation in across-language relative to within-language conditions. While many brain regions were common to L1 and L2, we did observe differences in adaptation for forward translation (L1 to L2) as compared to backward translation (L2 to L1). The results support the idea that, at the lexical level, the neural substrates for L1 and L2 in bilinguals are shared, but with some populations of neurons within these shared regions showing language-specific responses.

The Acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic Development in Monolingual and Bilingual L1 Acquisition and Adult L2 Acquisition

The Acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic Development in Monolingual and Bilingual L1 Acquisition and Adult L2 Acquisition

Imageability effects in normal Spanish–English bilingual adults and in aphasia: Evidence from naming to definition and semantic priming tasks

Background: Whereas the effect of imageability on lexical access has received attention in normal monolingual individuals and in individuals with aphasia, its effect on normal bilingual access and in bilingual aphasia has not been systematically addressed.Aim: The goal of the present experiment was to examine the effects of imageability in normal bilingual adults and in one patient with bilingual aphasia by addressing the following questions: (a) Is there a difference in language performance in early L2 bilinguals? (b) Is there a difference between concrete and abstract words across both languages? (c) Is there a difference between accuracy on a naming to definition task and semantic priming task across language and imageability?Methods & Procedures: A total of 15 normal Spanish–English bilingual adults and 1 bilingual aphasic individual performed two tasks – a naming to definition task and a semantic priming task in English and in Spanish. The targets in both tasks were either concrete or abstract nouns and the words were translation equivalents in the two languages. Naming accuracy in both languages and for both levels of imageability was measured during the naming to definition task. Mean reaction times and accuracy rates to judge relatedness of word pairs on the semantic priming task were also measured.Results: Results indicated that across tasks, performance was better in English than in Spanish, indicating an English dominance in the normal bilingual adults, although performance was the same across languages in the aphasic patient. Across tasks and languages, responses were faster and more accurate for concrete words than abstract words. Finally, retrieval of abstract words was significantly more difficult during naming to definition than during semantic priming, reflecting a processing difference between concrete and abstract words in retrieval of their respective phonological forms.Conclusions: These results highlight differences between concrete and abstract words in conceptual/semantic representations and phonological retrieval that are notably consistent across both languages in a bilingual individual. Data from the one bilingual aphasic individual suggest the possibility of a systematic deterioration of the normal bilingual language system.