Spanish-English Bilingual Adults Research Articles

Spanish–English bilinguals’ use of demonstratives esta and esa

Abstract The limited research on bilinguals’ demonstratives suggests that bilingualism may result in a reduced number of demonstrative forms in bilinguals’ linguistic systems as well as a shift in the factors that constrain demonstrative usage. The current study investigates Spanish nominal demonstrative use among Spanish-speaking monolingual adults in Mexico and two groups of Spanish–English bilingual adults in New Mexico: Adult Arrivals, who were born and raised in a Spanish-speaking country, and U.S. Raised bilinguals, who were born in the U.S. or arrived by age seven. Proximal demonstratives este/esta ‘this’ and medial demonstratives ese/esa ‘that’ were elicited using a puzzle task. All groups varied between este/esta and ese/esa. The monolinguals were likelier than the bilinguals to produce ese/esa when referring to referents farther from themselves and closer to the addressee. Whereas the monolinguals and Adult Arrivals tended to produce este/esta rather than ese/esa when the experimenter selected the incorrect referent, thereby creating a misunderstanding, the U.S. Raised bilinguals showed the opposite trend. The findings are interpreted in the context of typological research indicating that distance between the addressee and the referent impacts demonstrative usage in Spanish but not English. It is hypothesized that increased exposure to English may correspond to reduced attention to the addressee when choosing which demonstrative to use.

Bilingual problem size effect: an ERP study of multiplication verification and production in two languages.

The problem size effect (PSE) is defined by better performance solving small problems (e.g., 2x4) than large problems (e.g., 8x9). For monolinguals, the PSE is larger when problems are presented in unfamiliar formats (e.g., written words), reflecting increased processing difficulty. Bilinguals are typically faster and more accurate at retrieving multiplication facts in the language of learning (LA+) than in their other language (LA-). We hypothesized that the less familiar arithmetic language (i.e., LA-) would elicit larger PSEs than LA+. Here, fluent Spanish-English bilingual adults verified spoken multiplication problems presented in LA+ and LA- while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded (Experiment 1A). To further promote language differences, we increased task difficulty by presenting problems at a faster pace (Experiment 1B) and requiring bilinguals to verbally produce solutions (Experiment 2). Language differences in performance were only observed for Experiment 2, where solutions were produced more slowly in LA- than LA+. In the ERPs, a PSE was driven by larger P300s for small than large solutions. A language effect was only observed under time pressure where LA- elicited a PSE at the 2nd operand. Additionally, the PSE was smaller for LA- at the solution. This suggests that categorizing multiplication facts is more effortful in LA-. In sum, very subtle language differences arise in fluent bilinguals when problems are more difficult, such as larger problems presented under time pressure in a weaker language. Critically, the effect of LA+ is at the level of response production and not access to the facts from memory.

Does pain hurt more in Spanish? The neurobiology of pain among Spanish-English bilingual adults.

We previously found Spanish-English bilingual adults reported higher pain intensity when exposed to painful heat in the language of their stronger cultural orientation. Here, we elucidate brain systems involved in language-driven alterations in pain responses. During separate English- and Spanish-speaking fMRI scanning runs, 39 (21 female) bilingual adults rated painful heat intermixed between culturally evocative images and completed sentence reading tasks. Surveys of cultural identity and language use measured relative preference for US-American vs Hispanic culture (cultural orientation). Participants produced higher intensity ratings in Spanish compared to English. Group-level whole-brain differences in pain-evoked activity between languages emerged in somatosensory, cingulate, precuneus and cerebellar cortex. Regions of interest associated with semantic, attention and somatosensory processing showed higher average pain-evoked responses in participants' culturally preferred language, as did expression of a multivariate pain-predictive pattern. Follow-up moderated mediation analyses showed somatosensory activity mediated language effects on pain intensity, particularly for Hispanic oriented participants. These findings relate to distinct ('meddler', 'spotlight' and 'inducer') hypotheses about the nature of language effects on perception and cognition. Knowledge of language influences on pain could improve efficacy of culturally sensitive treatment approaches across the diversity of Hispanic adults to mitigate documented health disparities in this population.

A - 187 A Comparison of Reliable Digit Span and Reliable Digit Span - Revised Failure Rates among a Highly Educated Sample of Bilingual Hispanics.

Patient's bilingual status has significant implications for neuropsychological assessment, namely, performance validity. However, linguistic diversity has made the evaluation of non-credible performance difficult for clinicians and researchers alike. The goal of this research is to supplement the current understanding of Hispanic bilingual individuals' performance on a commonly administered working memory task. Participants included 82 Hispanic, Spanish-English bilingual adults. (Age: Education: M = 15.68, SD = 2.26; Gender: Female (n = 44; 53.7%). Measures included the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale -Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) Digit Span subtest and Language and Social Background Questionnaire (LSBQ). Participants were collected via snowball sampling method within the general community and social media, i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn. Participants were administered Digit Span in English. Statistical analyses indicate 2.4% of participants met failure rate criteria for Reliable Digit Span (RDS; ≤ 7) and 1.2% of participants for Reliable Digit Span - Revised (RDS-R; ≤ 11). Results suggest highly educated Hispanic Spanish-English bilingual individuals perform within the expected range when using traditional cut-off scores of embedded performance validity measures for the Digit Span subtest.

Voluntary use of two languages when counting in bilingual contexts

Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilingual adults can occasionally switch between their languages within a counting sequence; i.e., if they start counting in one language, they may choose to switch into the other language while counting the same set of objects. The present study explores the contexts in which a language switch within a counting sequence occurs. The participants read sentences and counted images in monolingual and bilingual conditions. The overall results display a preference to count in Spanish and maintain its use throughout the counting process when allowed to use their languages as desired. Five participants performed voluntary language switching within a counting sequence in bilingual conditions. Many participants also alternated their use of Spanish and English for counting across stimuli sets in these conditions. The participants’ performance is described and analysed with respect to variables such as the initial language of use for counting, language proficiency and language history.

The influence of raciolinguistic expectations on phoneme categorization in Spanish–English bilinguals

Aims and objectives: This study examines how social information is utilized in processes of bilingual speech perception. Specifically, we investigate whether racialized expectations of native language background trigger language-specific processing strategies in early or simultaneous Spanish–English bilinguals. Methodology: We coupled a visually-primed phoneme categorization task with a social evaluation questionnaire to test whether Spanish–English bilingual adults living in the United States ( n = 30) drew on racialized ideologies about what speakers of certain languages look like during speech perception. We predicted that, if participants drew on these ideologies during the phoneme categorization task, they would cue an expectation of what language was being spoken and, consequently, a shift in the identification boundary. Data and analysis: Mixed logistic regression was used to investigate the effects of photograph (the visual prime) and voice on how participants categorized the continua while paired, two-tailed t-tests were used to compare how participants socially evaluated the two speakers. Findings: Raciolinguistic evaluations appeared to influence bilingual speech perception, significantly affecting how the continua were categorized, but they did not work the same way for every voice. Originality: Prior work has posited that interactional context influences bilingual language control (e.g., Grosjean, 2001); the ideological nature of this context has, however, been understudied. This paper offers insight into how ideologies related to race may shape language perception and use in bilinguals. Implications: The findings provide evidence for the role of social information in bilingual speech perception, suggest that multiple cues (acoustic and social) integrate to determine the interactional context, and indicate that the influence of raciolinguistic ideologies is neither straightforward nor homogeneous but rather contingent on complex aspects of the perceived speaker.

A sociophonetic approach to the acquisition of Spanish rhotics in a bilingual community

This study explores Spanish-English bilingual children’s acquisition of Spanish rhotics. The children’s productions are compared to a group of Spanish-English bilingual adults who represent the Spanish spoken in the same community: Albuquerque, New Mexico. In their narrations of a wordless picture-book, both children and adults produce more non-canonical than canonical variants. Binary logistic regressions run on 817 rhotics produced by 21 children, ages 3-9-years-old, and 6 adults demonstrate that non-canonical variants, instead of canonical variants are more likely to occur as Spanish use increases and in word medial position. The results point towards the propagation of a working change in Spanish rhotics that sees both articulatory and sociolinguistic motivations. Implications for research on phonetic-phonological development are also discussed

Spanish in Albuquerque, New Mexico: Spanish-English Bilingual Adults’ and Children’s Vocalic Realizations

This study explores vocalic production and variation in 29 Spanish-English bilingual children and adults from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Linear mixed-effects models analyzed the effects of lexical stress, word position, phonetic context, Spanish use, and lexical frequency on the F1 (height) and F2 (frontedness) values of 2041 /i e a o u/ vowels. Importantly, results show that /u/ fronting is pervasive in both children and adults’ speech, but in contrast to adults’ more general /u/ fronting, children’s Spanish use also predicted atonic /u/ fronting. Expanding the range of data to include children also showed that children’s realizations displayed a generalized stress effect, whereby the atonic space was condensed compared to the tonic space. The generalized stress effect was absent among the adults. Changes in the degree of phonetic convergence between the adults and children are attributed to acquisitional paths and demographic changes in their community.

Syntactic and Semantic Influences on the Time Course of Relative Clause Processing: The Role of Language Dominance

We conducted a visual world eye-tracking experiment with highly proficient Spanish-English bilingual adults to investigate the effects of relative language dominance, operationalized as a continuous, multidimensional variable, on the time course of relative clause processing in the first-learned language, Spanish. We found that participants exhibited two distinct processing preferences: a semantically driven preference to assign agency to referents of lexically animate noun phrases and a syntactically driven preference to interpret relative clauses as subject-extracted. Spanish dominance was found to exert a distinct influence on each of these preferences, gradiently attenuating the semantic preference while gradiently exaggerating the syntactic preference. While these results might be attributable to particular properties of Spanish and English, they also suggest a possible generalization that greater dominance in a language increases reliance on language-specific syntactic processing strategies while correspondingly decreasing reliance on more domain-general semantic processing strategies.

Disfluencies in English Speech Produced by Spanish-English Bilinguals

Background: Fluency and disfluency exist on a continuum of speech production.Typically fluent speakers produce varying numbers of disfluencies; this number increases in stressful or cognitively demanding situations. Prior research indicates that adult second language learners produce more disfluencies in their weaker, second language, however, this has not been explored among heritage bilinguals who developed in both languages during childhood. There is a lack of foundational knowledge regarding disfluencies among typically fluent adult bilinguals; typical fluency patterns are likely influenced by bidirectional relationships between languages. These patterns may be viewed as disfluencies by listeners who generally perceive disfluencies unfavorably. Objectives: The current study explores the quantity and types of disfluencies produced by bilinguals. Methods: Twenty Spanish-English bilinguals took part in a simulated job interview. Responses were transcribed and the total number and percent of disfluencies were calculated. Results: The findings indicated that typically fluent Spanish-English bilingual adults produce 6.99 typical (nonstuttered) disfluencies per 100 words and are therefore within the range of normative data on monolingual adults (5.1–10.99 per 100 words). The 2 most common disfluencies were superfluous verbal behaviors and pauses. Conclusions: The findings revealed that typically fluent Spanish-English bilingual adult participants produced more fixed postures than previously reported among monolingual English speakers.

A novel approach to assessing language proficiency in adults: A pre-pilot classification accuracy study

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Speech–language pathologists who speak more than one language and who are members of the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association self-identify in one yes/no question whether they have the proficiency level to be bilingual service providers. This research note describes a preliminary attempt to address the very practical issue of whether and in what circumstances Spanish–English bilinguals can accurately judge their proficiency levels in both languages. The research question is: Will bilingual adults accurately identify their first language and second language proficiency levels using a self-assessment when compared to a commonly used standardized norm-referenced test (SNRT) in both formal and informal contexts across the following outcome measures: (a) overall proficiency; (b) listening; (c) speaking; (d) reading; and (e) writing? Design/methodology/approach: Classification accuracy studies require at least 34 participants. Thirty-nine participants completed the commonly used Language Use Questionnaire (LUQ) self-assessment and the commonly used Woodcock–Muñoz Language Survey SNRT (WMLS-III). For this pre-pilot study, participants were Spanish–English bilingual university students. Data and analysis: Forty likelihood ratios (LRs) were calculated. Benchmarks for interpreting LRs for classification accuracy studies were applied to identify the likelihood of an individual being proficient or non-proficient in two languages. Findings/conclusions: For the overall proficiency and formal speaking proficiency outcomes in Spanish, positive LRs met the benchmark for strong agreement. Originality: The current study is the first to show that Spanish–English bilingual adults can accurately judge their Spanish proficiency levels for two specific outcome measures. Significance/implications: These results are important for two reasons. First, they suggest that Spanish–English bilingual adults can accurately judge their overall proficiency levels in Spanish. Second, they identify which outcome measures from the LUQ and WMLS-III should be considered in a future classification accuracy study.

11791 Gray matter volume differences in bilingual compared to monolingual children

ABSTRACT IMPACT: This study examines gray matter volume differences resulting from the bilingual experience in children and adults allowing us to better understand the brains of over half of the world’s population that speaks more than one language. OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Literature is mixed regarding a bilingual advantage in executive control (EC). While it has been shown that young adult bilinguals have greater gray matter volume (GMV) than monolinguals in EC regions, there is behavioral evidence that suggests such difference would be more pronounced in children. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Using SPM12 to test this hypothesis, we used a whole-brain t-test to compare GMV in 35 English-speaking monolingual and 20 Spanish-English early (learned both languages before 6 years old) bilingual children. Next, we submitted both groups of children to an ANOVA with 42 English speaking monolingual and 26 Spanish-English bilingual adults to test for an interaction of Language Experience by Age Group at the level of the whole brain. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: e between-group comparison of bilingual and monolingual children, revealed more GMV in bilingual compared to monolingual children in regions associated with EC (right middle and inferior frontal gyri, superior parietal lobule, and precuneus). Our second analysis, an ANOVA comparing bilingual and monolingual children and adults, revealed an interaction in which bilingual>monolingual GMV in children was greater than any bilingual>monolingual GMV (or bilingual=monolingual GMV) in the adult groups in the right superior parietal lobule (BA1). No regions indicated that bilingual>monolingual GMV was more pronounced in adults. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS: These results provide further evidence for GMV differences in early bilinguals in regions associated with EC and indicate that more GMV differences exist between bilingual and monolingual children than adults.

Highly proficient, balanced bilingualism is related to thinner cortex in two cognitive control regions.

Whereas some bilinguals have one language that is dominant, others attain high proficiency in both languages. This variation is likely explained by a combination of environmental and genetic factors; however, there is a lapse in research on the neural underpinnings of bilingual proficiency. No study to date has examined how highly proficient bilingualism that is balanced relates to brain morphology in adults. Our present study analyzed the brains of 200 Spanish-English bilingual adults. Bilingual proficiency was measured and weighted by the degree of balance across the two languages. It was found that having higher dual language proficiency was related to thinner cortex in two regions: the left anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Neither English nor Spanish proficiency alone could account for neuroanatomical differences. Our findings suggest that thinner cortex of the left anterior PFC and the right ACC in adults with highly proficient, balanced bilingualism is how the adult brain reflects a lifetime of learning to flexibly adapt and utilize both languages and suggests the involvement of these structures in maintaining and increasing dual language proficiency.

Auditory Sentence Processing in Bilinguals: The Role of Cognitive Control.

A number of research studies have shown that the unique need in bilinguals to manage both of their languages positively impacts their cognitive control processes. Yet, due to a dearth of studies at the sentence level, it is still unclear if this benefit extends to sentence processing. In monolinguals and bilinguals, cognitive control helps in reinterpretation of garden path sentences but it is still unknown how it supports the real-time resolution of interference during parsing, such as the type of interference seen in the processing of object relative (OR) sentences. In this study, we compared monolinguals and bilinguals during online spoken OR sentence processing and examined if both groups used cognitive control to resolve interference. In this eye-tracking visual world (ETL-vw) study, OR sentences were aurally presented to 19 monolingual and 21 Spanish-English bilingual adults while gaze patterns were captured throughout the time course of the sentence. Of particular interest was the post-verb position, where the listener connects the verb to its direct object. In OR constructions (e.g., “The man that the boy pushes__ has a red shirt.”), the verb (‘pushes’) links to its syntactically licensed direct object (‘the man’) at verb offset. During syntactic linking, the parser crosses over an intervening noun phrase (NP, ‘the boy’) and the two NP activations create interference. The nature of this paradigm allows us to measure interference and its resolution between the intervening NP and the displaced object in real-time. By relating sentence processing patterns with cognitive control measures, high- and no- conflict N-Back tasks, we investigated group differences in the use of cognitive control during sentence processing. Overall, bilinguals showed less interference than monolinguals from the intervening NP during the real time processing of OR sentences. This interference effect and its resolution was significantly predicted by cognitive control skills for bilingual, but not monolingual listeners. This enhanced effect in bilinguals extends previous findings of interference resolution to real time spoken sentence processing suggesting that bilinguals are more efficient than monolinguals at managing interference during complex sentence processing.

What Does Language Have to Do With It? The Impact of Age and Bilingual Experience on Inhibitory Control in an Auditory Dichotic Listening Task.

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to examine inhibition of irrelevant information in younger and older English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual adults. Method Sixty-one participants divided into four groups: 15 younger English monolinguals, 16 younger Spanish-English bilinguals, 15 older English monolinguals, and 15 older Spanish-English bilinguals participated in this study. Younger participants were 18-25 years of age, and older participants were 47-62 years of age. Bilingual participants had learned Spanish from birth and began learning English by the age of 3 years old (SD = 3.1). All participants had hearing thresholds of < 25 dB HL from 250 to 4000 Hz, bilaterally (American National Standards Institute [ANSI], 2004) and were right-handed. Inhibition was measured using a forced-attention dichotic consonant vowel listening task with a prime stimulus and the Simon task, a nonverbal visual test. Results Younger participants were better able to inhibit the irrelevant auditory and visual stimuli and modulate their attention according to the instructions that they were given compared to the older participants. However, no significant differences in inhibition performance or attention modulation were evidenced between the monolingual and bilingual groups in any of the dichotic listening conditions or on the Simon task. Conclusions No significant differences in performance on an auditory or a visual test of inhibition of irrelevant information was evidenced between the monolingual and bilingual participants in this study. These findings suggest that younger and older adult, early balanced Spanish-English bilinguals may not exhibit an advantage in the inhibition of irrelevant information compared to younger and older adult English monolinguals.

Is bilingualism protective for adults with aphasia?

The bilingual advantage proposes that bilingual individuals have enhanced cognitive control compared to their monolingual counterparts. Bilingualism has also been shown to contribute to cognitive reserve by offsetting the behavioral presentation of brain injury or neural degeneration. However, this effect has not been closely examined in individuals with post-stroke or post-TBI aphasia. Because bilingualism has been suggested as a factor of cognitive reserve, it may provide protective mechanisms for adults with aphasia. In the current study, evidence for the bilingual advantage was examined in 13 Spanish-English bilingual healthy adults (BHA) compared to 13 English monolingual healthy adults (MHA). Additionally, evidence for cognitive reserve as defined by a bilingual advantage was examined in 18 Spanish-English bilingual adults with aphasia (BAA) compared to 18 English monolingual adults with aphasia (MAA) who were otherwise matched on their age, education, language impairment, and non-verbal executive functions. All participants completed a non-linguistic cognitive control task that included congruent and incongruent conditions. Results indicated no bilingual cognitive control advantage on reaction times in healthy adult groups; however, BAA were faster than MAA, suggesting that bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve in adults with aphasia. Thus, manipulating multiple languages throughout the lifetime may be protective after an acquired brain injury.

The use of social–communicative cues to interpret ambiguous pronouns: Bilingual adults differ from monolinguals

AbstractWe examine the interpretation of ambiguous pronouns in Spanish–English bilingual adults, in contexts in which social–communicative cues (looking-only or looking-and-pointing) are used. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that pronoun interpretation is guided by the first-mention bias, which is modulated by the presence of the social–communicative cues both in monolinguals and in bilinguals. In Experiment 2, we show that if the speaker using the social–communicative cues is a non-native speaker of English, bilinguals rely more strongly on the social–communicative cues than monolinguals. Experiment 3 shows that stronger reliance on social–communicative cues in bilinguals’ interpretations is not the result of more accurate speech comprehension. Our results demonstrate that the ability to utilize the looking-only and looking-and-pointing cues is not driven by a superior ability to accurately read social cues in bilingual adults. In addition, monolinguals show lower sensitivity to the speaker’s intent when the speaker is a non-native speaker of English.

Fluency Strategies of Spanish–English Bilinguals Who Stutter: A Thematic Analysis

Purpose Stuttering is multifaceted in that the frequency and types of behaviors vary across speakers, contexts, and languages. Similarly, bilingualism varies in language history, levels of proficiency, and languages spoken. The variations in bilingualism make it difficult to investigate and result in knowledge gaps about the bilingual stuttering experience. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study is to identify and examine fluency-inducing strategies used by Spanish–English bilingual adults who stutter. Method Twenty Spanish–English bilingual adults who stutter, ages 18–61 years, answered open-ended questions about their stuttering and language history via an online survey. Thematic analysis procedures were used to explore participants' narrative responses to 2 survey items regarding fluency-inducing strategies. Result Three major themes emerged from participants' responses regarding self-reported strategies: (a) clinical techniques, (b) focused breathing, and (c) idiosyncratic practices. Participants reported using clinical techniques classified as fluency shaping, stuttering modification, or both approaches. Focused breathing was used as both an anticipatory and a recovery strategy. Idiosyncratic practices included physiological changes, listener-focused strategies, emotional regulation, and switching words. When asked specifically about use of code-switching for the 2nd question, half of the participants stated that they do switch languages to induce fluency. Conclusion Clinical implications include the need for individualized client education, a thorough assessment of avoidance and escape behaviors, and customized treatment programs for bilinguals who stutter.

Predictors of bilinguals’ speaking rates

Second-language acquisition has been shown to be influenced by age of learning (AOL), years of second-language experience and degree of second-language use. This study examined native and second-language speaking rates in a speeded sentence production task; speaking rate was expected to reflect the speed with which processes underlying speech production can be executed. Sixty Spanish-English bilingual adults participated. They differed according to AOL (2–38), years of English Experience (1–45), and percent English Use (10–100). The purpose was to determine the influence of the three just-mentioned factors and their interactions using linear mixed-effects modeling. The primary findings were: (1) a linear AOL effect such that higher AOL predicted lower English relative to Spanish speaking rate (i.e., an AOL effect in both pre- and post-pubescent AOL ranges); (2) opposite effect of English Experience on Spanish and English speaking rates; (3) interaction between Language, AOL and Experience, such that the Experience effect on English speaking rate declined linearly with AOL; (4) a non-significant effect of percent English Use. In addition, strong gender effects and weak education effects were found. The results are discussed in the context of different accounts of AOL-related difficulties with second-language acquisition.

Assessment of executive function in bilingual adults with history of mild traumatic brain injury

AbstractBackground and objective:Adults with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) often show deficits in executive function (EF), including the ability to inhibit, switch, and attend to task relevant information. Although performances differences between bilinguals and monolinguals have been observed in EF tasks, there is little research on the effect of TBI on EF in bilinguals. In this study, an ecologically valid standardized measure and experimental computerized tasks of EF were administered to Spanish-English bilingual adults with and without history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).Method:Twenty-two bilinguals with a history of mTBI [mean age=20.1 years, SD=3.7; education=13.4 years, SD=0.7] and 20 control bilinguals [mean age=20.8 years, SD=3.6; education=13.7 years, SD=1.1], matched for age and education, completed language proficiency questionnaires, the Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies (FAVRES), English and Spanish language assessments, and a Flanker task (a test of inhibition).Results:Performance was analyzed using analyses of covariance. The results revealed that bilinguals with a history of mTBI performed worse on both the standardized assessment (FAVRES) and inhibition task. Interestingly, self-reported EF deficits were consistent with performance on these measures.Conclusion:The findings of this study provide useful information regarding assessment of EF deficits in bilinguals with a history mTBI. Computerized experimental tasks of EF may also prove useful in the assessment of EF in individuals with mTBI.