Non-dominant Language Research Articles

Monolingual and bilingual children’s performance on arithmetic fluency varies by language fluency

Research has demonstrated that learning two or more languages during development (i.e., becoming bilingual) shapes children’s cognition in myriad ways. However, because such studies have largely been conducted using laboratory experiments, it is unclear how bilingualism may modulate more naturalistic cognitive skills such as arithmetic fluency. Moreover, how the relationship between speaking two (or more) languages and arithmetic varies with language fluency—specifically, the degree of bilingualism—has been understudied. Therefore, this study examined third- to fifth-grade monolingual (n = 70) and bilingual (n = 51) children’s performance on an arithmetic fluency task. Monolinguals’ and bilinguals’ performance on the arithmetic fluency task did not differ. However, individual differences in the relation between children’s arithmetic fluency and their language fluency were found, suggesting that bilingual children’s skill in their nondominant language was associated with arithmetic fluency. These findings point to the importance of examining individual differences in language fluency among bilinguals to understand how bilingualism may shape cognitive skills.

Referential choice in two languages: The role of language dominance

Aims and Objectives: Bilingual speakers that speak a null subject (Spanish) and a non-null subject language (English) may show some indeterminacy in referential choice in their nondominant language in comparison to monolingual speakers. The present study tests the production of referring expressions in the two languages of bilingual speakers (Spanish and English) to assess attainment at the discourse level and explore the role of language dominance on referential choice. Methodology: A group of 49 Spanish–English bilinguals participated in a picture description task in English and Spanish measuring referential choice in contexts of reference maintenance and topic-shift. Data and Analysis: The results of our study show that at a group level, bilingual speakers produced more underspecified references in maintenance contexts than English monolingual speakers and produced more overspecified references in topic-maintenance and topic-shift contexts than Spanish monolingual speakers. The results further show that language dominance in the target language is associated with more monolingual-like referential choice. Conclusions: We discuss the role of language dominance in the development of bilingual referential choice patterns.

Brain Engagement During a Cognitive Flexibility Task Relates to Academic Performance in English Learners.

English Learners (ELs), students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, are a fast-growing, understudied, group of students in the U.S. with unique learning challenges. Cognitive flexibility-the ability to switch between task demands with ease-may be an important factor in learning for ELs as they have to manage learning in their non-dominant language and access knowledge in multiple languages. We used functional MRI to measure cognitive flexibility brain activity in a group of Hispanic middle school ELs (N = 63) and related it to their academic skills. We found that brain engagement during the cognitive flexibility task was related to both out-of-scanner reading and math measures. These relationships were observed across the brain, including in cognitive control, attention, and default mode networks. This work suggests the real-world importance of cognitive flexibility for adolescent ELs, where individual differences in brain engagement were associated with educational outcomes.

Probing the Impact of Prematurity on Segmentation Abilities in the Context of Bilingualism.

Infants born prematurely are at a high risk of developing linguistic deficits. In the current study, we compare how full-term and healthy preterm infants without neuro-sensorial impairments segment words from fluent speech, an ability crucial for lexical acquisition. While early word segmentation abilities have been found in monolingual infants, we test here whether it is also the case for French-dominant bilingual infants with varying non-dominant languages. These bilingual infants were tested on their ability to segment monosyllabic French words from French sentences at 6 months of (postnatal) age, an age at which both full-term and preterm monolinguals are able to segment these words. Our results establish the existence of segmentation skills in these infants, with no significant difference in performance between the two maturation groups. Correlation analyses failed to find effects of gestational age in the preterm group, as well as effects of the language dominance within the bilingual groups. These findings indicate that monosyllabic word segmentation, which has been found to emerge by 4 months in monolingual French-learning infants, is a robust ability acquired at an early age even in the context of bilingualism and prematurity. Future studies should further probe segmentation abilities in more extreme conditions, such as in bilinguals tested in their non-dominant language, in preterm infants with medical issues, or testing the segmentation of more complex word structures.

Perspectives about language direction from signed language interpreters in the United States and Switzerland

In the interpreting profession, the term language direction (or directionality) is used to describe interpreting from one’s native, dominant language (L1) into a second, non-dominant language (L2), or vice versa. Language direction has long been of interest to interpreting scholars in regards to the quality of the output. Spoken language interpreter educators have argued that high quality interpretations can only be produced when working from an L2 into an L1 (Nicodemus & Emmorey, 2013; Seleskovitch, 1978). Further, spoken language interpreters have reported a preference for working from their L2 into their L1 (Donovan, 2004). In contrast, signed language interpreters, particularly novices, report the opposite preference for language direction, that is, the majority indicate a preference to work from their L1 into their L2 (Nicodemus & Emmorey, 2013). Researchers have speculated about the factors underlying this direction asymmetry found between signed and spoken language interpreters; however, these speculations were not data based. In this study, we interviewed 20 experienced signed language interpreters in the U.S. and Switzerland to collect perspectives regarding signed language interpreters’ preference for L1-to-L2 interpreting. The data point to four factors having an influence on language direction: (a) language modality, (b) self-monitoring, (c) deaf consumers, and (d) psychological states. This study sheds further light on social, linguistic, and psychological factors that impact language direction preferences among signed language interpreters.

A more-than-language approach to inclusion and success of indigenous children in education: reflections on Cambodia’s multilingual education plan

This article explores the potential of multilingual education (MLE) and culturally sustaining pedagogy to promote school inclusion and success of children who speak a non-dominant language is explored. This potential is examined with reference to the authors’ formative evaluation of the Royal Government of Cambodia’s implementation of a five year Multilingual Education National Action Plan (MENAP). The plan and its subsequent Multilingual Education Action Plan (MEAP) have enabled Indigenous children to be taught using one of five Indigenous languages during the first three years of school. Our interpretation of findings reinforces a conceptualization of MLE as a means to transmit culturally diverse ways of knowing, doing, and being so that children become multilingual and multicultural. This requires a more-than-language approach to MLE whereby nondominant language speakers partner with educators to generate culturally sustaining curriculum content, learning activities and teaching resources that immerse children in the knowledges, thinking, and skills of their own cultural community./ Keywords: Multilingual education, Cambodia, culturally sustaining pedagogy, multiculturalism, Indigenous children

Inhibitory control of the dominant language: Reversed language dominance is the tip of the iceberg

Theories of speech production have proposed that in contexts where multiple languages are produced, bilinguals inhibit the dominant language with the goal of making both languages equally accessible. This process often overshoots this goal, leading to a surprising pattern: better performance in the nondominant vs dominant language, or reversed language dominance effects. However, the reliability of this effect in single word production studies with cued language switches has been challenged by a recent meta-analysis. Correcting for errors in this analysis, we find that dominance effects are reliably reduced and reversed during language mixing. Reversed dominance has also consistently been reported in the production of connected speech elicited by reading aloud of mixed language paragraphs. When switching, bilinguals produced translation-equivalent intrusion errors (e.g., sayingperoinstead ofbut) more often when intending to produce words in the dominant language. We show this dominant language vulnerability is not exclusive to switching out of the nondominant language and extends to non-switch words, linking connected speech results to patterns first reported in single-picture naming studies. Reversed language dominance is a robust phenomenon that reflects the tip of the iceberg of inhibitory control of the dominant language in bilingual language production.

Measuring bilingual language dominance: An examination of the reliability of the Bilingual Language Profile

Measuring language dominance, broadly defined as the relative strength of each of a bilingual’s two languages, remains a crucial methodological issue in bilingualism research. While various methods have been proposed, the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP) has been one of the most widely used tools for measuring language dominance. While previous studies have begun to establish its validity, the BLP has yet to be systematically evaluated with respect to reliability. Addressing this methodological gap, the current study examines the reliability of the BLP, employing a test–retest methodology with a large ( N = 248), varied sample of Spanish–English bilinguals. Analysis focuses on the test–retest reliability of the overall dominance score, the dominant and non-dominant global language scores, and the subcomponent scores. The results demonstrate that the language dominance score produced by the BLP shows “excellent” levels of test–retest reliability. In addition, while some differences were found between the reliability of global language scores for the dominant and non-dominant languages, and for the different subcomponent scores, all components of the BLP display strong reliability. Taken as a whole, this study provides evidence for the reliability of BLP as a measure of bilingual language dominance.

Heritage languages in full circle

The papers in this volume are a collection of those presented at the 12th annual meeting of the Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas, a conference series co-founded by heritage language researchers from Norway and the United States. The collection of papers demonstrates the sharing of ideas and advancements in the field that have occured as an outcome of the research network’s annual conference and its dedicated and collaborative research members. Some papers make use of various components of the Corpus of American Norwegian Speech, some present results from a survey on postvernacular heritages languages and other sociolinguistic topics, while others focus on morphology and syntax of bilingual situations. The volume contains papers on Dutch, Frisian, German, Greek, Norwegian and Turkish in North America. Together, the collection can be considered a showcase of the state of the field of studies of heritage languages, languages that are non-dominant languages in a given setting, often with little local prestige.

Types of non-dominant languages in Europe

Types of non-dominant languages in Europe

Does Japanese/German L1 Metrical and Tonal Structure Constrain the Acquisition of French L2 Morphology?

In different studies dedicated to the acquisition of verbal morphology by bilingual children or by L2 learners, it has been noted that differences in the acquisition process cannot be accounted for by only considering the distance between L1 and L2 morphology. Some forms, such as auxiliaries, may occur in L2 productions without being motivated by L1 morphology. To account for this, the prosodic transfer hypothesis—according to which the acquisition of morphology in the non-dominant language is influenced by the prosody of the dominant language—has been formulated. That prosodic features may influence the acquisition of morphology is interesting as it shows that the acquisition process must be apprehended by considering interfaces and interrelations between the various levels of linguistic description. The aim of this contribution is thus twofold: (i) clarifying to which aspects of prosody prosodic transfer hypothesis refers (specifically, among tonal and metrical prosodic elements, which one comes into play to account for morphological development); and (ii) explaining the importance of considering grammatical interfaces in study on L2 development. To do so, an exploratory study, which relies on the analysis of L2 French narratives produced by two learners with L1 Japanese and two with L1 German, was achieved. This preliminary analysis of the data suggests that metrical structure—more precisely, the nature of the basic metrical unit—may constrain the occurrence of auxiliary and vowel-final forms in the productions of Japanese learners.

Which Language is More Affected in Bilinguals with Alzheimer’s Disease? Diagnostic sensitivity of the Multilingual Naming Test

AbstractBackgroundThe present study aimed to determine if Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects bilinguals’ ability to name pictures in both languages equally, and to determine what testing procedures best distinguish bilingual patients from controls.MethodSixty Spanish‐English bilinguals, including 19 with dementia and 41 controls with equivalent age, education, and bilingual proficiency level, were tested on the full 68‐items of the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT; Gollan et al., 2012) first in their dominant language and then in the nondominant language. Four naming scores were derived for each participant: one for each language, one for either‐language that counted items as correct if produced only in one of the two languages, and one for both‐languages that only counted as correct items that bilinguals named in both languages. We also considered whether item difficulty modulates which naming score is most affected by AD by dividing the MINT test into difficulty tertiles (easy = items 1–20; medium = 21‐44; difficult = 45‐68).ResultBilinguals with AD named fewer pictures than controls, but this group effect varied with naming score and item difficulty. With difficult and medium items the difference between patients and controls was significant only in the dominant‐language, whereas with easy items the opposite was true (i.e., the group effect was significant only in the nondominant‐language), a significant interaction between participant group, language‐dominance, and item difficulty (F(1,58) = 5.449, partial‐eta‐squared = .086, p = .023). The either‐language scoring procedure increased naming scores especially in balanced bilinguals, and to an equal extent in patients and controls. Critically, ROC analyses revealed that dominant‐language and either‐language naming scores are superior for classifying bilinguals as patients versus controls, and significantly better than nondominant‐language and both‐languages naming scores.ConclusionFor assessment purposes, testing primarily or exclusively in the dominant language is best for detecting bilingual naming impairments. However, AD likely affects the ability to access names in both languages, and simple descriptions of language decline as “similar in both languages” or as affecting one language more than the other may be misleading in terms of theoretical implications for how two languages are represented and processed in the bilingual brain.

The Effect of Phonological Overlap on English and Spanish Expressive Vocabulary.

This study examined the effect of phonological overlap on English and Spanish expressive vocabulary accuracy as measured by the bilingual Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (EOWPVT-IV). We hypothesized that if languages interact during an expressive vocabulary task, then higher phonological overlap will predict higher expressive vocabulary accuracy, especially in the nondominant language. Twenty English-dominant bilingual children (English-Spanish) completed the bilingual EOWPVT-IV. We calculated phonological overlap between 117 English and Spanish words included in the bilingual EOWPVT using the Crosslinguistic Overlap Scale for Phonology. Generalized logistic mixed-effect models revealed that phonological overlap and word frequency predicted vocabulary accuracy in Spanish, in addition to item difficulty. Age and item difficulty were the only predictors of English accuracy. Phonological overlap was a significant predictor of Spanish vocabulary accuracy (the least dominant language of the children in our sample), suggesting a transfer between vocabulary in the dominant language into vocabulary in the least dominant language. Future studies should investigate how languages interact in bilingual children to provide us with information about how to create and administer vocabulary tests that represent vocabulary in each language and use vocabulary teaching strategies that promote dual language development. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21554838.

Touching while listening: Does infants' haptic word processing speed predict vocabulary development?

The present study examined the links between haptic word processing speed, vocabulary, and inhibitory control among bilingual children. Three main hypotheses were tested: faster haptic processing speed, measured by the Computerized Comprehension Task at age 1;11, would be associated with larger concurrent vocabulary and greater longitudinal vocabulary growth. Second, early vocabulary size would be associated with greater vocabulary growth at 3;0 and 5;0. Finally, faster haptic processing speed would be associated with greater concurrent inhibitory control, as measured by the Shape Stroop Task. The results revealed that haptic processing speed was associated with concurrent vocabulary, but not predictive of later language skills. Also, early decontextualized vocabulary was predictive of vocabulary at 3;0. Finally, haptic processing speed measured in the non-dominant language was associated with inhibitory control. These results provide insight on the mechanisms of lexical retrieval in young bilinguals and expand previous research on haptic word processing and vocabulary development.

Testing the Triggering Hypothesis: Effect of Cognate Status on Code-Switching and Disfluencies.

"Triggered switching" is the theory that code-switching happens more often with words connected to both languages, such as cognates. Corpus analyses have supported this theory; however, they do not allow testing for directional causality. Here, we test the triggering hypothesis through a picture-naming task, and examine whether cognates trigger code-switches, as well as more subtle interference effects resulting in disfluencies. Forty English-Spanish bilinguals completed a picture-cued sentence production task in three conditions: English-only, Spanish-only, and mixed. Half of the pictures represented Spanish-English cognates. Unsurprisingly, participants were more likely to code-switch when asked to use both their languages compared to only their dominant or non-dominant language. However, participants were not more likely to switch languages for cognate than for non-cognate trials. Participants tended to be more fluent on cognate trials in the dominant and the non-dominant condition, and on non-cognate trials in the mixed-language condition, although these effects were not significant. These findings suggest that both language context and cognate status are important to consider when testing both overt switches and disfluencies in bilingual speech production.

Reconceptualizing literacy for a new Australia

This article discusses ideas for a new literacy compact in Australia that would encompass multilingual, language revitalizing, and Indigenous grounded perspectives. A key question posed is whether a uniquely Australian literacy order can be imagined, one that would extend the historically inherited tradition of Western grammar–centred practices as conventionally typified in print-based English book and letter reading and its digital equivalents, to include the many languages of the nation and their distinctive literacies, whether Indigenous and immigrant in origin. Any such imagining must understand the inherited and dominant tradition it seeks to change, the colonial legacy of damaged language vitality, and the various revitalization practices underway, and therefore must be situated in the concrete circumstances of contemporary communication issues. This means more than merely teaching non-dominant languages and literacies, but re-conceiving what the national project of “becoming literate” is taken to be, incorporating multiple perspectives, interests, and circumstances. This re-imagining would tie literacy outcomes not just to academic curriculums and assessment purposes, but also to health and wellbeing of populations, to regenerative cultural vitality, and to linguistic human rights. Such aims represent a challenge to current Closing the Gap policy, which is based principally on ameliorating group comparisons of reading performance. The article argues that public discussion about literacy should be able to comprehend such different activities in a coherent and overarching literacy endeavour to grasp the opportunity represented by contemporary social movements calling for a reconstruction of Australian national identity and direction. None of this should lose sight of the need to improve reading acquisition nor deflect from how what counts as literacy is itself being transformed in response to new economic and technological developments as discussed by Farrell, Newman, and Corbel (Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 42 (6):898–912, 2020).

An “asset” rather than “deficit” view of second-language (L2) speech

This talk will present the rationale and empirical foundation for an “asset-” rather than “deficit-based” framework for understanding bilingual speech communication. In this framework, first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) speech are viewed as distinct speech styles each of which is shaped by four interacting sources of influence: (1) the individual talker’s vocal tract and ideolectal speech patterns (“trait” characteristics), (2) the sound structure of the language being spoken (“structural” characteristics), (3) the sound structure of other language(s), if any, in the talker’s repertoire (“repertoire” characteristics), and (4) general patterns of dominant versus non-dominant language function (“mode” characteristics). This “Trait-Structure-Repertoire-Mode” perspective contrasts with “deficit” models of the L1-L2 relationship in which metaphors of vectors (L1 source to L2 target) or filters (L1 filter for L2 production and processing) set up a hierarchy with L1 and L2 as “standard” and “deviant,” respectively. While still acknowledging L1 advantages in communication speed, accuracy, and ease, this perspective emphasizes the confluence of language-general properties (Trait and Mode) and language-specific properties (Structure and Repertoire) for speech production and perception by bilinguals in both/all of their languages.

Predictive Processing and Inhibitory Control Drive Semantic Enhancements for Non-Dominant Language Word Recognition in Noise

Auditory word recognition in the non-dominant language has been suggested to break down under noisy conditions due, in part, to the difficulty of deriving a benefit from contextually constraining information. However, previous studies examining the effects of sentence constraints on word recognition in noise have conflated multiple psycholinguistic processes under the umbrella term of “predictability”. The present study improves on these by narrowing its focus specifically on prediction processes, and on whether the possibility of using semantic constraint to predict an upcoming target word improves word recognition in noise for different listener populations and noise conditions. We find that heritage, but not second language, Spanish listeners derive a word recognition-in-noise benefit from predictive processing, and that non-dominant language word recognition benefits more from predictive processing under conditions of energetic, rather than informational, masking. The latter suggests that managing interference from competing speech and generating predictions about an upcoming target word draw on the same cognitive resources. An analysis of individual differences shows that better inhibitory control ability is associated with reduced disruption from competing speech in the more dominant language in particular, revealing a critical role for executive function in simultaneously managing interference and generating expectations for upcoming words.

The temporal dynamics of bilingual language control.

Bilinguals need to control interference from the nontarget language, to avoid saying words in the wrong language. This study investigates how often bilinguals apply such control in a dual-language mode, when speaking one language after the other when the two languages cannot be used interchangeably: over and over (every time they say a word), or only once (the first time they use a word or language after a language switch). Three groups of Spanish-English bilinguals named pictures first in their dominant, then in their nondominant, and then again in their dominant language; a fourth control group of bilinguals named pictures in their dominant language throughout. The study targeted language control aftereffects on the dominant language after nondominant naming, typically assumed to reflect recovery from previously applied inhibition. If the dominant language is inhibited every time a nondominant word is produced, subsequent dominant-language naming latencies should increase in proportion to the number of pictures previously named in the nondominant language. We found, however, that the number of nondominant picture-naming trials did not affect subsequent naming latencies in the dominant language, despite ample statistical power to detect such effects if they existed. The results suggest that, in a dual-language mode, bilingual (inhibitory) control is applied over a word’s translation upon the word’s first mention but not over and over with subsequent repetitions. This conclusion holds true equally for inhibitory and non-inhibitory language control mechanisms.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13423-022-02168-z.

Language switching may facilitate the processing of negative responses.

It has been proposed that processing sentential negation recruits the neural network of inhibitory control (de Vega et al., 2016; Beltrán et al., 2021). In addition, inhibition mechanisms also play a role in switching languages for bilinguals (Kroll et al., 2015). Since both processes may share inhibitory resources, the current study explored for the first time whether and how language-switching influences the processing of negation. To this end, two groups of Spanish-English bilinguals participated in an encoding-verification memory task. They read short stories involving the same two protagonists (Montse and Jordi), referring to their activities in four different scenarios in Spanish or English. Following each story, the participants received verification questions requiring “yes” or “no” responses depending on whether a given fact was correctly referred to one of the protagonists. Some of the verification questions were in the story’s original language (non-switch condition) and others in the alternate language (switch condition). Results revealed that language-switching facilitated negative responses compared to affirmative responses, exclusively for questions switching from dominant language (L1) to non-dominant language (L2). This effect might reflect that the domain-general mechanisms of inhibitory control are recruited at least partially for both language switch and negation process simultaneously, although this phenomenon is modulated by language dominance.