Search Results (11)

Previous research has shown that both input quantity and quality play a role in dual language learning. However, it is unclear whether input quantity factors (e.g., school input) and input quality factors (e.g., home media input) work similarly in the language development of bilinguals while other potential internal and external factors are controlled for. This paper addressed this issue through investigating the influence of input quantity and input quality factors, both at the individual and group levels, on morphosyntax, vocabulary size, and lexical access ability in the Kurdish-L1 and English-L2 of Kurdish–English bilingual adolescents. Data were collected via a battery of standardized and researcher-developed measures and a detailed questionnaire. The results from backward regressions revealed that higher parental Kurdish proficiency and more exposure to Kurdish input through siblings and reading activities were associated with better Kurdish morphosyntactic skill, while a larger Kurdish vocabulary size was predicted by more exposure to native-speaker input in Kurdish. Both more Kurdish input received in preschool/school and through Kurdish media were related to better lexical access ability in Kurdish. Further, more exposure to English input in preschool/school predicted better English morphosyntactic skill and a larger vocabulary size, whereas higher paternal English proficiency was associated with better lexical access ability in English. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that input quality was more important in explaining Kurdish morphosyntactic and vocabulary size skills and lexical access ability in both languages, while input quantity explained more variance in English morphosyntactic and vocabulary size skills. Out-of-class Kurdish input outweighed instructional input to a certain extent in relation to Kurdish skills and lexical access ability in English, while instructional English input was more important for English morphosyntax and vocabulary size. Full article

Dynamic Assessment (DA) is recommended for testing bilinguals as it tests the child’s learning potential and not her or his previously acquired language knowledge. Thus, it allows language difficulties to be distinguished from difficulties related to a lack of L2 exposure. This study presents the findings of DA of morphosyntax in French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, both Typically Developing (TD) and with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We examined whether DA was able to distinguish TD from DLD in children, irrespective of their linguistic group (mono- versus bilingual). Morphosyntactic skills were assessed in a sample of 37 children with DLD (19 bilinguals) and 42 with TD (18 bilinguals), aged from 5 to 12. We assessed six syntactic structures: simple sentences (SVO) in present and past tense, subject relatives, accusative clitic pronouns, passives, and object relatives. We provided graduated prompts if children were not able to produce the target sentences. The results confirmed the accuracy of our morphosyntactic task to disentangle children with TD from children with DLD, regardless of their linguistic group. Moreover, cutoffs for each structure as well as for the total score, as determined via ROC curves, indicated high sensitivity and specificity for children with DLD who had a documented morphosyntactic deficit. Full article

The present study examined the predictions the Perceptual Assimilation Model in the context of naïve bilingual speakers while also considering whether the predictions of third language (L3) models of morphosyntax could be extended to L3 phonology. In particular, it was asked whether several groups of Spanish-English bilinguals (constituting a fully combined design) would categorize sounds in two unknown languages, French and German, using their first language (L1) categories, second language (L2) categories, or a combination of both. 199 participants took part in the study, who made up 4 total groups: L1 English–L2 Spanish (n = 55), L1 Spanish–L2 English (n = 59), English monolingual (n = 59) and Spanish monolingual (n = 29). The participants completed a vowel categorization task, where they were asked to match four vowel sounds in French and German to their existing English and Spanish categories. The results of a series of Bayesian Multinomial regression models suggested that bilinguals categorize L3 vowels using both L1 and L2 categories according to the acoustics of the input. There was no evidence of a clear bias for either the L1 or L2 when an L3 vowel exists in both the L1 and L2. Additionally, the bilingual English participants differed from English monolinguals in the their categorization of new language sounds. These results have implications for both the PAM-L2 and L3 models, by showing that the language learners are not solely guided by their native language, and have access to both L1 and L2 categories when accounting for novel language sounds. Full article

This paper examines the expression of futurity in Spanish, specifically the periphrastic future (PF), the morphological future (MF), and the present indicative (PI) in heritage language learners (HLLs) and second language learners (L2 learners), a comparison that allowed us to explore whether linguistic experience provides HLLs an advantage over L2 learners in the domain of morphosyntax. These forms (PF, MF, and PI) are regulated by certainty, temporal distance, and the presence of temporal adverbials. Previous research showed that L2 learners acquire some of these linguistic constraints and that HLLs tend to reduce the MF to modal uses. Data from a contextualized acceptability judgment task completed by 46 HLLs and 42 L2ers manipulated for verb form, certainty, temporal distance, and adverb and revealed that (i) the PF and the MF were generally rated higher than the PI, (ii) HLLs were sensitive to the three linguistic factors examined, while the L2ers’ sensitivity was modulated by proficiency, and, relatedly, (iii) the two groups differed in the effect of proficiency. For the L2 learners, an increase in proficiency led to a closer pattern to that of monolingual native speakers (only for temporal distance). Differences in exposure to and instruction in Spanish are discussed as possible sources of these differences. Full article

Previous research has examined the organization of second-language French narratives through discourse or morphological analyses. At the discourse level, the analyses have investigated the foreground/background relationship. Conversely, at the morphological level, the analyses have examined the role played by verbal morphology and verbal predicates. Different methodological caveats have limited the interpretation of findings in both types of analyses. In order to provide new data, this cross-sectional study examined the evolution of discourse and morphological resources in the written narratives of Mexican Spanish-speaking learners of French whose language learning experience is limited to the classroom. The learners in the cross-sectional sample (n = 11) were selected from a population of 88 participants who completed lexical, past-tense and general proficiency tests. They also generated two written narratives during silent-film retelling tasks. The cross-sectional sample selection was based on the learners’ test scores and the results of parametric statistical analyses. The narratives were analyzed for the identification of foreground/background clauses, verbal morphology and verbal predicates. The results reveal that, as learners’ past-tense knowledge increases, the organization of narratives consolidates through a developmental path that involves the interrelated growth of discourse and morphological features. Full article

This longitudinal study examined morphosyntactic development in the heritage Arabic-L1 and English-L2 of first-generation Syrian refugee children (mean age = 9.5; range = 6–13) within their first three years in Canada. Morphosyntactic abilities were measured using sentence repetition tasks (SRTs) in English and Syrian Arabic that included diverse morphosyntactic structures. Direct measures of verbal and non-verbal cognitive skills were obtained, and a parent questionnaire provided the age at L2 acquisition onset (AOA) and input variables. We found the following: Dominance in the L1 was evident at both time periods, regardless of AOA, and growth in bilingual abilities was found over time. Cognitive skills accounted for substantial variance in SRT scores in both languages and at both times. An older AOA was associated with superior SRT scores at Time−1 for both languages, but at Time-2, older AOA only contributed to superior SRT scores in Arabic. Using the L2 with siblings gave a boost to English at Time−1 but had a negative effect on Arabic at Time-2. We conclude that first-generation children show strong heritage-L1 maintenance early on, and individual differences in cognitive skills have stable effects on morphosyntax in both languages over time, but age and input factors have differential effects on each language and over time. Full article

The aim of this article is to discuss the role of input characteristics in the development of French verb morphology. From a usage-based perspective, several cognitive and linguistic factors contribute to the ease or difficulty of processing input in L2 acquisition. This article concentrates on frequency, salience, and form–function association, factors that might influence what aspects of input are available to the learners’ attention. A presentation of French verb morphology from this perspective shows how these factors can contribute to the use of the regular -er verb paradigm as a default. A review of empirical studies confirms the influence of input characteristics. The results suggest that the dominant pattern of regular verbs and the scarcity of salient clues from irregular verbs contribute to the specificity of L2 French development. The conclusion addresses the question of enriching L2 classroom input with irregular verbs. Such an input could facilitate the perception of form–function association, and thus, contribute to a more efficient development of French verb morphology. The article concludes by suggesting other ways of studying the influence of input as well as avenues for future research. Full article

The Irish language is an indigenous minority language undergoing accelerated convergence with English against a backdrop of declining intergenerational transmission, universal bilingualism, and exposure to large numbers of L2 speakers. Recent studies indicate that the interaction of complex morphosyntax and variable levels of consistent input result in some aspects of Irish grammar having a long trajectory of acquisition or not being fully acquired. Indeed, for the small group of children who are L1 speakers of Irish, identifying which “end point” of this trajectory is appropriate against which to assess these children’s acquisition of Irish is difficult. In this study, data were collected from 135 proficient adult speakers and 306 children (aged 6–13 years) living in Irish-speaking (Gaeltacht) communities, using specially designed measures of grammatical gender. The results show that both quality and quantity of input appear to impact on acquisition of this aspect of Irish morphosyntax: even the children acquiring Irish in homes where Irish is the dominant language showed poor performance on tests of grammatical gender marking, and the adult performance on these tests indicate that children in Irish-speaking communities are likely to be exposed to input showing significant grammatical variability in Irish gender marking. The implications of these results will be discussed in terms of language convergence, and the need for intensive support for mother-tongue speakers of Irish. Full article

The emergence of autonomous interlanguage constructions is widely recognised in the literature on L2 Italian. These constructions involve the overgeneralisation of functional forms learners are in the process of acquiring, e.g., siamo in siamo mangiare ‘be:1PL eat:INF’ (target Italian: mangiamo ‘eat:1PL’); facciamo in facciamo cucinare ‘do:1PL cook:INF’ (target Italian: cuciniamo ‘cook:1PL’); per in piaciare per uscire fuori ‘like:INF for go:INF out’ (target Italian: mi piace uscire fuori ‘to.me like:3SG go:INF out’. ‘Be’/‘do’ forms are assigned a morphosyntactic function to convey temporal/aspectual/person information instead of inflecting the verb, while per ‘for’ is a generic subordinating marker. Based on new corpus data, I claim that such constructions may correlate with a learners’ degree of first language (L1) literacy. In detail, and consistent with, both literate and non-literate learners overgeneralise functional forms while working on the newly acquired morphosyntax; this shows that the non-literates are perfectly able to subconsciously identify functional forms in the input. Non-literates, however, show a stronger tendency than literates to select lexical-syntactic sub-patterns. Full article

The role native language transfer plays in L2 acquisition raises the question of whether L1 constitutes a permanent representational deficit to mastery of the L2 morphosyntax and prosody or if it can eventually be overcome. Earlier research has shown that beginning and low intermediate Anglophone L2 French learners are insensitive to French morphosyntactic and prosodic constraints in using in situ pronouns transferred from the L1. The prosodic transfer hypothesis (PTH) proposes that native prosodic structures may be adapted to facilitate acquisition of L2 prosodic structure. Our study presents new evidence from three Anglophone advanced learners of L2 French that indicates ceiling performance for pronoun production (99% accuracy in 300 tokens over nine interviews) and grammaticality judgment (98% accuracy). This native-like performance demonstrates target French morphosyntax and prosody, built—as predicted by the PTH—by licensing pronominal free clitics in a new pre-verbal L2 position distinct from post-verbal L1. Furthermore, the learners’ data confirms accurate prosody by way of appropriate prominence patterns in clitic + host sequences, correct use of clitics with prefixed verbs, use of stacked pronouns, as well as correct prosodic alternations involving liaison and elision. These results counter impaired representation approaches and suggest early missing inflection may be overcome. Full article

In this study, we elicited grammatical forms (oral production) from a group of child heritage speakers of Spanish (N = 45) in English and Spanish, using the morphosyntax subtest of the Bilingual English–Spanish Assessment (BESA), (Peña et al. 2014). A cross-sectional design was used with 25 participants in kindergarten and 20 in first grade. All children spoke Spanish at home and attended English rural schools. We controlled for L2 class environment and socio-economic status. Research findings indicated children produced more target structures in L1 Spanish. This project supports the view that sequential bilingualism and continuous exposure to the heritage language may assist heritage speakers to maintain some L1 structures (Miller and Cuza 2013; Pascual y Cabo and Gómez Soler 2015). Patterns of L2 development are also addressed. Full article