International Journal of Bilingualism recent issues

The acquisition of L3 English negation by bilingual (Spanish/Basque) learners in an institutional setting

Perales, S., Garcia Mayo, M. d. P., Liceras, J. M. — 2009-05-21

In this article we study the acquisition of sentential negation in English by bilingual (Spanish/Basque) learners in an institutional setting. The learners were divided into three groups according to the age at which they had begun to learn English (four, eight and eleven years respectively). At the time the oral interviews were held, they had all received a similar amount of instruction. The analysis is carried out in terms of the presence/absence of functional categories, the use of cognitive (not UG-driven) strategies, and the transfer of the order of the functional projections NegP and TP. We conclude that placement of the negative marker appears to be independent of the realization of tense and agreement features.

Phonetic variability and the variable perception of L2 word stress by French Canadian listeners

Tremblay, A. — 2009-05-21

This study investigates development and individual attainment in the perception of word stress by French Canadian second language (L2) learners of English at three proficiency levels (intermediate, low-advanced, high-advanced). It aims to determine whether a perceptual or a processing deficit is responsible for their so-called stress `deafness' (e.g., Dupoux et al., 1997, 2001, 2008). Seventy-five French Canadian L2 learners of English and 31 native English speakers completed an AXB perception task in English where contrast type (stress, segmental) and phonetic variability (with, without) were manipulated, but where processing demands were relatively low. The results indicate that the L2 learners had more difficulty perceiving English stress in the presence than in the absence of phonetic variability. Yet, their perception of stress in the phonetically variable condition was above chance and improved as the number of trials increased. Although the three proficiency groups did not perform significantly differently on the experiment, the L2 learners' self-reported per cent daily use of English was found to be a significant predictor of their successful perception of phonetically variable stress. Given these findings, it is argued that French listeners' reported lack of success in the perception of word stress is unlikely to stem from a perceptual deficit.

Gender in Russian--English code-switching

Chirsheva, G. — 2009-05-21

English code-switched nouns in Russian clauses are assigned gender according to two competing strategies — semantic analogy and form. The purpose of this article is to analyze how gender assignment is realized in Russian/English bilingual contexts. The data are represented by spontaneous speech of native Russian speakers, both adults and children, in the USA and Russia. Supporting data are obtained from a form, which asked respondents to add gender suffixes to Russian adjectives, determiners and verbs that agree with English nouns. Gender as part of Russian speakers' linguistic competence must be assigned even to nouns from a non-gender language, but this is done in a specific way: the prevailing strategy is to assign masculine as a default gender for the nouns ending in a consonant. Gender assignment system in bilingual Russian/English contexts presents a restricted version, with the phonological criterion being more significant than semantic analogy. The process of allotting code-switched nouns and borrowings to genders in Russian appears to have different degrees of vacillation.

Code-switching in bilingual children with specific language impairment

Gutierrez-Clellen, V. F., Simon-Cereijido, G., Erickson Leone, A. — 2009-05-21

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) exhibit limited grammatical skills compared to their peers with typical language. These difficulties may be revealed when alternating their two languages (i.e., code-switching) within sentences. Fifty-eight Spanish—English speaking children with and without SLI produced narratives using wordless picture books and conversational samples. The results indicated no significant differences in the proportion of utterances with code-switching (CS) across age groups or contexts of elicitation. There were significant effects for language dominance, language of testing, and a significant dominance by language of testing interaction. The English-dominant children demonstrated more CS when tested in their non-dominant language (Spanish) compared to the Spanish-dominant children tested in their weaker English. The children with SLI did not display more CS or more instances of atypical CS patterns compared to their typical peers. The findings indicate that children with SLI are capable of using grammatical CS, in spite of their language difficulties. In addition, the analyses suggest that CS is sensitive to sociolinguistic variables such as when the home language is not socially supported in the larger sociocultural context. In these cases, children may refrain from switching to the home language, even if that is their dominant language.

Knowledge of A/A'-dependencies on subject extraction with two types of infinitives in non-native Portuguese adult bilingualism

Rothman, J. — 2009-05-21

Within generative L2 acquisition research there is a longstanding debate as to what underlies observable differences in L1/L2 knowledge/ performance. On the one hand, Full Accessibility approaches maintain that target L2 syntactic representations (new functional categories and features) are acquirable (e.g., Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996). Conversely, Partial Accessibility approaches claim that L2 variability and/or optionality, even at advanced levels, obtains as a result of inevitable deficits in L2 narrow syntax and is conditioned upon a maturational failure in adulthood to acquire (some) new functional features (e.g., Beck, 1998; Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Hawkins & Hattori, 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). The present study tests the predictions of these two sets of approaches with advanced English learners of L2 Brazilian Portuguese (n = 21) in the domain of inflected infinitives. These advanced L2 learners reliably differentiate syntactically between finite verbs, uninflected and inflected infinitives, which, as argued, only supports Full Accessibility approaches. Moreover, we will discuss how testing the domain of inflected infinitives is especially interesting in light of recent proposals that Brazilian Portuguese colloquial dialects no longer actively instantiate them (Lightfoot, 1991; Pires, 2002, 2006; Pires & Rothman, 2009; Rothman, 2007).

Errata

2009-05-21

Creole/Spanish contact and the acquisition of clitics on the Dominican-Haitian border

Guijarro-Fuente, P., Ortiz Lopez, L. A. — 2008-12-01

In this paper we investigate language contact between Haitian Creole and Dominican Spanish. We focus particularly on the acquisition of clitic pronouns (dative and accusative) in relation to their morpho-syntactic properties in the interlanguage of L2 Spanish speakers (Haitians and their bilingual descendants, whose first language is Creole) and we compare them with bilingual speakers of Creole and Spanish (Dominican-Haitians and Arayanos) and monolingual Spanish speakers (Dominicans), residents near the Dominican-Haitian border. Although the acquisition of clitic pronouns of L2 Spanish has been the object of multiple studies (Montrul, 2004; Sánchez, 2004), no study to date has referred to the case of native speakers of a Creole language, in this case of Haitian Creole. In Spanish, clitics can be heads of their own functional categories (AgrOP and AgrIOP) (Franco, 1993; Uriagereka, 1995), while acting as affixes of morphological agreement. For the purposes of this paper, we interviewed (semi) spontaneously, 11 informants, belonging to three groups of border speakers, whom we classified according to the variables of ethnicity and degree of bilingualism: 5 Haitians (Hs), 3 Arayanos (AYs) and 3 Dominicans (Ds); these latter were monolingual non-standard Spanish speakers that formed the control group. According to the results, there are significant differences or cases of divergence between the properties of the participants' grammar that could be due to the properties of their L1. The differences occur fundamentally in speakers of interlanguage, in relation to morphology (i.e. agreement — gender and number), rather than syntax. In the light of these results, it could be argued that Creole speakers with Spanish as an interlanguage do not seem to converge with monolingual speakers in their morpho-syntactic terms of the object pronouns (i.e. clitics), or they simply display an `'incomplete'' grammar.

A comparative study of bilingual discourse markers in Chicago Mexican, Puerto Rican, and MexiRican Spanish

Torres, L., Potowski, K. — 2008-12-01

This study examines the use of Spanish and English discourse markers among first, second, and third generation Spanish-speakers in Chicago, Illinois, comparing Mexican, Puerto Rican, and MexiRican speakers. We find that so is a core borrowing for all groups, although there were some differences in the frequency of usage of the discourse markers across the different Spanish dialect varieties. We also find that of all the variables analyzed, weaker Spanish proficiency is most strongly correlated with more frequent usage of so at the expense of entonces. We predict that these two discourse markers will coexist for some time, but that the frequency of so may increase and the frequency of entonces may decrease for all functions with subsequent generations.

Selective attrition in Russian-English bilingual children: Preservation of grammatical aspect

Bar-Shalom, E. G., Zaretsky, E. — 2008-12-01

Loss of language-specific morphosyntactic structures, as well as the lexicon, is a hallmark of a `heritage language.' Specific to Russian, previous research suggested the lexicalization of grammatical aspect. This study investigated early stages of attrition in bilingual children with Russian as L1, using the narrative retelling paradigm. Narratives of 15 Russian-English bilingual subjects, between the ages of 4;0 and 10;11, were examined for signs of possible grammatical aspect restructuring as well as language-specific case and agreement errors. Fifteen monolingual Russian-speaking children within the same age range were tested in Moscow using the same methodology. Our results show only a few aspectual errors contextually, but none in morphological devices, among bilingual children. However, we found numerous lexical errors, as well as errors in the domain of morphosyntax. We conclude that L1 attrition takes place selectively with grammatical aspect spared in the initial process. An inverse correlation was found between the number of produced errors and the length of uninterrupted L1. Our results also suggest that consistent use of Russian at home and in extra-curricular activities, in addition to the length of uninterrupted L1, slows down the attrition of one's native language, especially in the presence of the dominant L2 language.

The role of emotions in L1 attrition: The case of Korean-English late bilinguals in New Zealand

Sun Hee Ok Kim, , Starks, D. — 2008-12-01

This article explores the role of emotions in L1 attrition and L2 acquisition in a group of 30 Korean-English L1-dominant late bilinguals in New Zealand. The relationship between L1/L2 proficiency measures and emotion-related language choice (ERLC) is investigated using three measurement tools: a story-retelling task, a questionnaire, and a follow-up interview. The findings point to a shift from L1 to L2 and show this to be related to an increase in L2 fluency and a decrease in L1 accuracy. The findings also show an overall preference for ERLC to be in L1 rather than L2 and point to a strong relationship between ERLC and proficiency. Two other findings emerge from the data. Scores for ERLC relating to anger show different patterns, as well as those which express light emotional load. Follow-up interviews help explain these differences and add to our understanding of why the literature on ERLC among late bilinguals often appears contradictory.

Book Review: NG BEE CHIN AND GILLIAN WIGGLESWORTH, BILINGUALISM: AN ADVANCED RESOURCE BOOK (Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2007)

Research Centre for Languages and Cultures — 2008-12-01

Phonological acquisition in Malta: A bilingual language learning context

Grech, H., Dodd, B. — 2008-09-01

A total of 241 Maltese children aged 2;0—6;0 years, drawn randomly from the public registry of births, were assessed on a picture naming task to evaluate phone articulation, phonology and consistency of word production. Children were allowed to use the language they chose (either Maltese or English). Ninety-three children (38.6%) were reported by parents to speak both Maltese and English at home, 137 (56.9%) were reported to speak Maltese and 11 (4.7%) only English at home. The data gained were analyzed for percent consonants and vowels correct, adult phonemes absent, developmental speech error patterns, number of English and Maltese words used, and the percentage of children using translation equivalents. The children who were reported to be only exposed to English at home were not compared statistically with other children because of the small number in that group. The data showed an increase in phonological competence over the age range and differences between children reported to be exposed to one as opposed to two languages at home. Many children, irrespective of reported home language context, used both English and Maltese during assessment. The results were interpreted as showing independent phonological systems that nevertheless interacted; a bilingual language learning context affected word naming language choice.

Exceptional bilingualism

Francis, N. — 2008-09-01

New proposals for rethinking the concept of modularity have prompted researchers to increasingly consider the findings from outside their respective fields. A recent discussion by Marcus (2006) calls for such a multidisciplinary reflection. This paper reviews recent research from the field of bilingualism with a special focus on exceptional circumstances of learning and acquisition (deafness, language impairment, and literacy disorder). Findings from this work bear directly on the new approach to modularity that is being proposed. Both exceptionality and bilingualism allow for perspectives on cognitive architecture that may reveal how its components are structured and how they interact in a way that is not as easy to assess in typical language ability and monolingualism. The critical issues appear to be separability (autonomy) of neurophysiological systems, and whether or not cognitive structures are subserved by domain-specific or domain-general substrates. Resolving these questions will have important implications for the remediation of developmental disorders in language and literacy, and for a better understanding of the development of sign language and spoken language-based systems in deaf children.

Speaking Hebrew with an accent: Empathic capacity or other nonpersonal factors

Ibrahim, R., Eviatar, Z., Leikin, M. — 2008-09-01

The study examines a hypothesis that the degree of accent in L2 is related to a measure of ego permeability. Native Hebrew speakers, native Russian-speaking immigrants, and Arabic-speaking Israeli natives participated. All were students at the University of Haifa, where the language of instruction is Hebrew. The participants were recorded producing two speech segments and the recorded segments of speech were played to a group of 20 native Hebrew speakers, who rated the degree of accent in each segment on a scale from 1 (no accent) to 5 (heavy accent). These participants also completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) developed by Davis (1980), which has been translated into Hebrew and validated (Even, 1993). The scale yields a single numerical score that is a reflection of empathic capacity. We looked at the correlations between the "heaviness" of the accent of L2 speakers and a measure of empathy. These revealed strong correlations between degree of accent and empathy scores in the Russian-speaking group, but not in the Arabic-speaking group. The sociolinguistic implications of these findings are discussed.

The time cost of mixed-language processing: an investigation

Cheng, Y.-L., Howard, D. — 2008-09-01

Does it take bilinguals longer to process mixed-language information? This study explores, in two reaction time experiments, the hypothesis that there is only a cost to language switching when the switch is unexpected in the context. Prior to the experiments, an on-line language test and a linguistic background questionnaire were employed to select the bilingual participants. In experiment 1, the subjects, who were Mandarin Chinese-Taiwanese bilinguals, were led to think that Mandarin Chinese was the contextually appropriate language, and were slower to respond on a language switch trial. In experiment 2, the participants were led to think that both languages were contextually appropriate, and were not slower to respond on a language switch trial. The data support Grosjean's language mode hypothesis on the mixed-language processing cost, and show that the cost is a result of context rather than an inevitable consequence of a switch.

Book Review: Ulla Connor, Ed Nagelhout, William V. Rozycki (Eds.), Contrastive rhetoric: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2008. 324 pp

Zhu Hua, — 2008-09-01

Book Review: Vally Lytra, Play frames and social identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007. 300 pp

De Fina, A. — 2008-09-01

Ethnolects? The emergence of new varieties among adolescents

Nortier, J. — 2008-03-01

Brooklyn style: Hip-hop markers and racial affiliation among European immigrants in New York City

Cutler, C. — 2008-03-01

Many immigrants and expatriates of European heritage who come to the United States are surprised at being inducted into a system of racial categorization in which they are labeled as `White'. This paper examines data from informal interviews with teenage immigrants who come from a number of eastern European countries including Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Bulgaria and are bound by their affiliation with hip-hop culture. They live mainly in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and express their affiliation with hip-hop through stylized language and lifestyle practices. For many, hip-hop culture and Black American culture more broadly offer more attractive models for identity formation than the surrounding White mainstream culture. Their use of hip-hop linguistic markers and other forms of identity display place them at odds with their compatriots who have chosen to align themselves with the White mainstream. This is evident in verbal interactions at both the linguistic and discursive level as young people negotiate a place in their adopted homeland. Taken together, the data raise interesting questions about the relationship of hip-hop stylized speech to existing ethnolects such as African American English and the extent to which this speech style represents an emerging ethnolect in its own right.

Where do ethnolects stop?

Eckert, P. — 2008-03-01

The paper discusses the complex role of ethnicity in the construction of a peer-based social order in preadolescence, and argues that the indexical value of "ethnic" variables is constructed among, rather than simply within, ethnic groups, and hence incorporates concerns that span ethnic boundaries. In Northern California, white Anglo speech is showing a split in /ae/ as it raises before nasals and backs elsewhere, while Chicano speakers commonly back both classes of /ae/. Based on ethnography in two Northern California elementary schools, this paper shows that the Chicano pattern does not simply index ethnicity, but indexes place in the peer-based social order as well, and as such is available to speakers regardless of ethnicity.

Sociolinguistic approaches to multiethnolect: Language variety and stylistic practice

Quist, P. — 2008-03-01

The paper presents the findings of two studies of Copenhagen multiethnolect. The first study depicts a set of linguistic features that constitutes the linguistic variety which is termed multiethnolect. This study was by and large carried out from a perspective which in the paper is called a variety perspective. The second study was carried out from a stylistic practice perspective where multiethnolect is analyzed in more holistic terms as part of a broad range of stylistic repertoires in a local community of practice. The two studies serve in this article as illustrations of different approaches to studying language use and variation in multiethnic urban areas.

Multiethnolectal facts and functions in Oslo, Norway

Svendsen, B. A., Royneland, U. — 2008-03-01

Over the last 20 years, linguists have documented the emergence of multiethnolectal speech among adolescents in linguistically and culturally diverse areas in Western Europe. The main approach to multiethnolects has been structural or dialectological, describing the varieties' linguistic traits. Another important approach has been sociopragmatic or functional, examining how multiethnolects are used in discourse. In this article, we have applied both approaches. We will discuss linguistic features of multiethnolectal speech among adolescents in Oslo, Norway, highlighting those traits that have parallels in other Scandinavian multiethnolects. Furthermore, we will discuss multiethnolectal use in discourse as an important marker of identity, focusing on the use of multiethnolect among adolescents with Norwegian as their first language. In this article, we will argue that multiethnolectal Norwegian is part of a larger individual and societal linguistic repertoire, and that its users are sensitive to its sociolinguistic significance.

Problematizing ethnolects: Naming linguistic practices in an Antwerp secondary school

Jaspers, J. — 2008-03-01

This article argues that naming linguistic practices "ethnolectal" is a praxis with ideological consequences that sociolinguists fail sufficiently to address. It suggests that a transformation of linguistic differences into ethnolect-codes quickly falls prey to homogenizing groups and their language use, obscures speakers' styling practices as well as the relations between "ethnolect" and standard language speakers. Furthermore, "ethnolect" as an analytical concept buttresses the idea that linguistic practices are caused by ethnicity, when it is more likely to assume language use is shaped by how speakers interpret prevailing representations of ethnicity and style their language use in relation to that. As an alternative, I argue that ethnolects be viewed as representations of particular ways of speaking that do not necessarily correspond to systematic linguistic practices. Sociolinguists therefore need to investigate how local and general perceptions of ways of speaking lead to specific styling practices, and integrate these into their descriptions. In addition, they need to be aware that their own work is social action as well, which requires taking into account the concerns of who gets labeled. This is illustrated with data from a case study showing how Belgian adolescents of Moroccan background resist an ethnolectal categorization of their routine Dutch.

Loosing grammatical gender in Dutch: The result of bilingual acquisition and/or an act of identity?

Cornips, L. — 2008-03-01

In the Dutch sociolinguistic literature it is often noted that the overgeneralization of common gender, that is, the use of the definite article de where het is required, characterizes the Dutch variety(ies) of immigrants. Recent sociolinguistic research shows that this overgeneralization also occurs in the speech of subsequent generations born in the Netherlands who acquire Dutch as one of their first languages. The aim of this paper is to discuss whether the overuse of de can exclusively be ascribed to the effects of bilingual (2L1 /child L2) acquisition. It is argued that although the overgeneralization of de constitutes a linguistic resource for every bilingual child acquirer (and even for monolingual acquirers), it only becomes meaningful in the indexing and reproducing of an (immigrant) "allochtone" identity versus the dominant (indigenous) "autochtone" one. It is used according to a set of language use norms defined by generations of that social group of speakers.

A Moroccan accent in Dutch: A sociocultural style restricted to the Moroccan community?

Nortier, J., Dorleijn, M. — 2008-03-01

In the major cities in the Western part of The Netherlands, a general "ethnic" accent is developing, which has characteristics of Moroccan languages (Moroccan, Arabic, and Berber). This accent is mainly used by young people in specific in-group situations. It is slightly different from the accent used by adult first generation learners of Dutch as a second language with a Moroccan background. Not only young people from Moroccan descent, but also young people with other ethnic backgrounds (both native Dutch and others) use this accent which will be abbreviated to MFD (Moroccan flavored Dutch) in the remainder of this article. We will address the following questions:

• What are the characteristics of MFD?

• Why is MFD based on Moroccan languages, rather than on any other language?

• In what situations is MFD used? And how does the use of MFD interact with other group defining factors such as music, religion or clothing?

• How does MFD interact with larger dynamic social developments such as politics and with other languages and dialects?

About the Authors

2008-03-01