scholarly journals The development of gender assignment and agreement in English-Greek and German-Greek bilingual children

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Kaltsa ◽  
Ianthi Maria Tsimpli ◽  
Froso Argyri
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

Abstract The aim of this experimental study is to examine the development of Greek gender in bilingual English-Greek and German-Greek children. Four gender production tasks were designed, two targeting gender assignment eliciting determiners and two targeting gender agreement eliciting predicate adjectives for real and novel nouns. Participant performance was assessed in relation to whether the ‘other’ language was a gender language or not (English vs. German) along with the role of the bilinguals’ Greek vocabulary knowledge and language input. The results are argued to contribute significantly to disentangling the role of crosslinguistic influence in gender assignment and agreement by bringing together a variety of input measures such as early and current amount of exposure to Greek, the role of area of residence (i.e. whether Greek is the minority or the majority language), the effect of maternal education and the amount of exposure to Greek in a school setting.

The acquisition of Greek gender by bilingual children: The effects of lexical knowledge, oral input, literacy and bi/monolingual schooling

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 901-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Prentza ◽  
Maria Kaltsa ◽  
Ianthi Maria Tsimpli ◽  
Despina Papadopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Parental Education ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Distinct Process

Aim: The objectives of this study are to examine (a) the development of gender assignment and agreement in real and pseudo nouns by bilingual Greek-Albanian children and (b) how different input-related factors impact on these different processes. Methodology: Real and pseudo nouns were investigated to assess the effect of lexical knowledge (real nouns) and of morphological cues (pseudo nouns). Four tasks eliciting gender production in determiner phrases (assignment) and adjective predicates (agreement) for real and pseudo items were administered. Data: 150 bilingual children and 57 Greek monolingual children, aged 8–12 years old, were tested. Bilingual performance is investigated in relation to the role of the bilinguals’ Greek vocabulary knowledge, as well as in relation to early/current language exposure, oral input, literacy, monolingual/bilingual schooling and parental education as a proxy for socioeconomic status. Findings: The results show a strong relationship between the bilinguals’ performance and their Greek vocabulary development, the amount of oral Greek input and the type of school they are attending. For real nouns, oral Greek input is a positive predictor for accuracy, while literacy in Albanian is associated with lower scores. In pseudo nouns, bilinguals attending bilingual schools are shown to perform significantly better than those attending monolingual schools. Originality: The contribution of this study is related to (a) the examination of pseudo nouns along with real ones showing that gender marking in the former involves a distinct process, (b) the finding regarding the pervasive role of vocabulary knowledge and (c) the consideration of schooling type in relation to the development of a specific grammatical feature. Implications: Bilingual education was shown to positively affect the development of gender, which suggests that schooling type has a significant impact not only on literacy development but also on grammatical development.

scholarly journals Grammatical gender in bilingual Norwegian–Russian acquisition: The role of input and transparency

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
YULIA RODINA ◽  
MARIT WESTERGAARD
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Experimental Production ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Parental Input

This paper investigates the role of parental input and transparency in the acquisition of two different gender systems, Norwegian and Russian, by bilingual children living in Norway. While gender in Russian is generally predictable from the morphophonological shape of the noun (with some exceptions), gender assignment in Norwegian is opaque. An experimental production study was carried out with two groups of bilinguals, children with one or two Russian-speaking parents, and monolingual controls (age 4;1–7;11). The findings show that both groups of bilinguals perform similarly to monolinguals in Norwegian, the majority language, despite the lack of transparency. In Russian, on the other hand, not only quantitative, but also qualitative differences are found in the data of the bilingual children with the least exposure to the language. These qualitative differences indicate that early age of onset is not sufficient to acquire phenomena such as gender; extensive input is necessary.

On the nature of morphological awareness in Japanese–English bilingual children: A cross-linguistic perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUKO HAYASHI ◽  
VICTORIA A. MURPHY
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Morphological Development ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Reciprocal Transfer ◽  
Japanese English

While morphological awareness has received much attention to date, little is understood about how morphological awareness develops within bilingual children learning typologically different languages. Therefore, we investigated children's knowledge of inflections and derivations in Japanese and English, and also asked whether morphological awareness in one language predicted morphological awareness in the other. To that end, 24 Japanese learners of L2 English (ESL) and 21 English learners of Japanese as a heritage language (JHL) were recruited and participated in a range of tasks assessing both vocabulary and morphological knowledge. Cross-linguistic contributions of morphological awareness were identified in both directions (Japanese ↔ English), after controlling for age, IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. This bidirectional transfer was, however, identified only in the ESL group. The group-specific and reciprocal transfer observed is discussed in terms of morphological complexities and relative competence in each language. The potential role of different types of L2 instruction in morphological development is also discussed.

The role of person in subject auxiliary inversion in English wh-questions: Evidence from Korean-English bilingual children

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 313-328
Author(s):  
Sunny K Park-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Third Person ◽  
New Evidence

Aims: The present study investigates whether Korean-English (K-E) bilingual children develop subject auxiliary inversion (SAI) in English wh-questions differently from monolingual English (M-E) speaking children. Specifically, an experimental study was designed to determine whether there is an effect of subject person in their acquisition of SAI in English wh-questions, a factor that had been suggested but not tested as a contributing factor in SAI in a previous study. Design: Twenty-six K-E bilingual and 20 M-E preschool-aged children were recruited for an elicitation study testing the effect of person on the use of SAI in wh-questions in English. The experiment consisted of having children interact with puppets in a guessing game that elicited first, second, and third person object- what questions in English. Data and analysis: Data from the experiment were analyzed through a binomial logistic regression, which accounts for the binary nature of the data (auxiliary inversion: present or absent) and identified which variables contribute significantly to the presence and absence of SAI. Findings/conclusions: Results indicated a significant difference between K-E and M-E groups and a significant main effect for person on SAI for the K-E group. The paper proposes that the [prs] feature is part of the bundle of features that drives the movement of the features in T to C. Originality: The paper contributes evidence for a link between the person feature and SAI, a link that has not been seen before for wh-question research. Significance/implications: The new evidence of a possible link between subject person and auxiliary inversion may open a window to new avenues for wh-question acquisition research.

scholarly journals Profile effects in early bilingual language and literacy

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. KIMBROUGH OLLER ◽  
BARBARA Z. PEARSON ◽  
ALAN B. COBO-LEWIS
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
English Learners ◽  
School Setting ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Comparable Performance ◽  
Home And School ◽  
Broad Scale

Bilingual children's language and literacy is stronger in some domains than others. Reanalysis of data from a broad-scale study of monolingual English and bilingual Spanish–English learners in Miami provided a clear demonstration of “profile effects,” where bilingual children perform at varying levels compared to monolinguals across different test types. The profile effects were strong and consistent across conditions of socioeconomic status, language in the home, and school setting (two way or English immersion). The profile effects indicated comparable performance of bilingual and monolingual children in basic reading tasks, but lower vocabulary scores for the bilinguals in both languages. Other test types showed intermediate scores in bilinguals, again with substantial consistency across groups. These profiles are interpreted as primarily due to the “distributed characteristic” of bilingual lexical knowledge, the tendency for bilingual individuals to know some words in one language but not the other and vice versa.

The role of advance preparation in simultaneous interpreting

Interpreting ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Díaz-Galaz ◽  
Presentacion Padilla ◽  
M. Teresa Bajo
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
High Variability ◽  
The Other ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Speech Segments

Current comprehension models recognize the role of prior topic-specific knowledge in the processing of general and specialized discourse (e.g. Gernsbacher 1990; Johnson-Laird 1983; Kintsch 1988). In interpreting, there is widespread consensus that interpreters work better when they prepare in advance. However, research on how preparation affects interpreting has encountered such methodological challenges as high variability and the need for appropriately sensitive measures and tasks (Gile 2005). This article reports an experimental study to assess the effect of advance preparation on simultaneous interpreting of specialized speeches, comparing seven professional interpreters and sixteen interpreting students. All participants did two simultaneous interpretations, into Spanish (their ‘A’ language) from English, of presentations from scientific congresses: one with preparation materials provided half an hour beforehand, the other without preparation. Each source text contained both ‘neutral’ and ‘difficult’ speech segments (the three types of difficulty being terminology, syntactic complexity and lack of redundancy). Dependent variables were accuracy of interpretation and length of ear-voice span (EVS), the rationale being that longer EVS probably reflects processing difficulties. The results show that both groups worked significantly better after advance preparation, this being reflected both in accuracy and in ability to maintain a shorter EVS. Interaction between preparation and type of difficulty was also examined.

scholarly journals The Building Blocks of Child Bilingual Code-Mixing: A Cross-Corpus Traceback Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Endesfelder Quick ◽  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Individual Input

This paper offers an inductive, exploratory study on the role of input and individual differences in the early code-mixing of bilingual children. Drawing on data from two German-English bilingual children, aged 2–4, we use the traceback method to check whether their code-mixed utterances can be accounted for with the help of constructional patterns that can be found in their monolingual data and/or in their caregivers' input. In addition, we apply the traceback method to check whether the patterns used by one child can also be found in the input of the other child. Results show that patterns found in the code-mixed utterances could be traced back to the input the children receive, suggesting that children extract lexical knowledge from their environment. Additionally, tracing back patterns within each child was more successful than tracing back to the other child's corpus, indicating that each child has their own set of patterns which depends very much on their individual input. As such, these findings can shed new light on the interplay of the two developing grammars in bilingual children and their individual differences.

“I know the word, but ...”

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Hee Ok Kim
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
First Language ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
L2 Vocabulary ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract Bilinguals sometimes report on difficulties in finding words while speaking in the first language (L1) or the second language (L2), which is frequently attributed to the negative influence of one language onto the other. This paper addresses this issue by investigating the relationship between L1 and L2 vocabulary knowledge of Korean-English bilinguals who have been exposed to an L2 learning environment since the age of 12 years. Their vocabulary knowledge in L1 and L2 is measured by using a standardised vocabulary test in each language and their L1 vocabulary measures are compared with that of 12 year old Korean monolinguals. The findings show that there is a significant positive correlation between the scores from the L1 and L2 vocabulary tests among the participants. The findings suggest (1) that L1 vocabulary learning continues in the L2 learning environment, and (2) that the extent of the vocabulary knowledge in one language is the good predictor of the other, highlighting the positive role of L1 vocabulary knowledge in L2 learning. Implications for the support for L1 development of young immigrants are also discussed.

scholarly journals Early lexical composition of Turkish-Dutch bilinguals: Nouns before verbs or verbs before nouns

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Hülya Özcan ◽  
Feyza Altinkamiş ◽  
Steven Gillis
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Language And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Lexical Composition ◽  
Fundamental Categories ◽  
Verb Categories

AbstractNouns and verbs are considered as fundamental categories of lexical development, and there are contradicting views on the order of the acquisition. One view claims that nouns are acquired earlier than verbs and this primacy of nouns can be attributed to perceptual-conceptual constraints from a linguistic point of view, on the other hand, nouns and verbs are the lexical units which categorically highlight language-general and language-specific characteristics. These language-specific characteristics have motivated this research because of the different typological characteristics between Turkish and Dutch in terms of nouns and verbs. The aim of this study is two-fold: to investigate the Dutch and Turkish lexicon of Turkish-Dutch bilingual children with respect to noun-verb categories and to consider the role of gender. Our sample comprised 55 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children aged between 9 and 36 months. We found that age, language and gender are at play during early lexical development. Vocabulary develops after 12 months and nouns are prioritized over verbs both in comprehension and production.

scholarly journals Production-based training benefits the comprehension and production of grammatical gender in L2 German

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Valérie Keppenne ◽  
Elise W. M. Hopman ◽  
Carrie N. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Ongoing debate exists regarding the role of production-based versus comprehension-based training for L2 learning. However, recent research suggests an advantage for production training due to benefits stemming from the opportunity to compare generated output with feedback and from the memory mechanisms associated with language production. Based on recent findings with an artificial language paradigm, we investigated the effects of production-based and comprehension-based training for learning grammatical gender among beginning L2 German learners. Participants received production-based or comprehension-based training on grammatical gender assignment and gender agreement between determiners, adjectives, and 15 German nouns, followed by four tasks targeting the comprehension and production of the target nouns and their corresponding gender marking on determiners and adjectives. Both groups were equally accurate in comprehending and producing the nouns. For tasks requiring knowledge of grammatical gender, the production-based group outperformed the comprehension-based group on both comprehension and production tests. These findings demonstrate the importance of language production for creating robust linguistic representations and have important implications for classroom instruction.

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