6,895 research outputs found

    Presenting GECO : an eyetracking corpus of monolingual and bilingual sentence reading

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    This paper introduces GECO, the Ghent Eye-tracking Corpus, a monolingual and bilingual corpus of eye-tracking data of participants reading a complete novel. English monolinguals and Dutch-English bilinguals read an entire novel, which was presented in paragraphs on the screen. The bilinguals read half of the novel in their first language, and the other half in their second language. In this paper we describe the distributions and descriptive statistics of the most important reading time measures for the two groups of participants. This large eye-tracking corpus is perfectly suited for both exploratory purposes as well as more directed hypothesis testing, and it can guide the formulation of ideas and theories about naturalistic reading processes in a meaningful context. Most importantly, this corpus has the potential to evaluate the generalizability of monolingual and bilingual language theories and models to reading of long texts and narratives

    Syntactic development in early foreign language learning: Effects of L1 transfer, input and individual factors

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    This study explores parallels and differences in the comprehension of wh-questions and relative clauses between early foreign-language (FL) learners and monolingual children. We test for (a) effects of syntactic first-language (L1) transfer, (b) the impact of input on syntactic development, and (c) the impact of individual differences on early FL syntactic development. We compare the results to findings in child second language (L2) naturalistic acquisition and adult FL acquisition. Following work on adult FL acquisition, we carried out a picture-based interpretation task with 243 child FL learners in fourth grade at different regular, partial, and high-immersion schools in Germany plus 68 monolingual English children aged 5 to 8 years as controls. The child FL learners display a strong subject-first preference but do not appear to use the L1 syntax in comprehension. Input differences across different schools affect overall accuracy, with students at high-immersion FL schools catching up to monolingual performance within 4 years of learning. Finally, phonological awareness is implicated in both early FL learning and naturalistic child L2 development. These findings suggest that early FL development resembles child L2 acquisition in speed and effects of individual factors, yet is different from adult FL acquisition due to the absence of L1 transfer effects.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

    Developing language in the primary school: literacy and primary languages (National strategies: primary)

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    Languages learning at Key Stage 2: a longitudinal study

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    This is the final report of a 3 year longitudinal study of the teaching of French, German and Spanish at Key Stage 2, funded from 2006-2009 by the Department for Children Schools and Families. The report covers the attitudes of teachers and children towards languages; the organisation and administration of languages within primary schools; current practice in the teaching of languages; the development of children's intercultural understanding; children's attainment in target language oracy and literacy; and concludes with a discussion of the future sustainability of languages in the primary curriculum and steps needed to secure this

    Language and Literacy Development in Children Learning English as an Additional Language: a Longitudinal Cohort and Vocabulary Intervention Study

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    Children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) are a growing but understudied population of learners in English primary schools. As EAL learners vary in their amount of exposure to English, they often begin formal education with relatively lower levels of English language proficiency than their monolingual peers. Little is known about the English language and literacy developmental trajectories of EAL learners in England, and particularly, the extent to which the two groups of learners converge or diverge over time. Additionally, no studies to date have assessed the efficacy of explicit, targeted vocabulary instruction in this group of learners in the run up to the end of primary school. The present study comprised a longitudinal cohort study of 48 EAL learners and 33 monolingual peers who were assessed at three time points between Year 4 (age 8-9) and Year 5 (age 9-10) on a battery of English language and literacy measures. All EAL learners had received English-medium education since at least Year 1 (age 5-6). Relative to their monolingual peers, EAL learners showed strengths in rapid naming, single-word reading efficiency, and spelling, but weaknesses in vocabulary knowledge, expressive syntax, and passage reading accuracy. Where they exhibited weaknesses, EAL learners generally did not make sufficient progress in order to close gaps with their monolingual peers. A subgroup of nine EAL learners with English vocabulary weaknesses also participated in short-term vocabulary intervention. Working one-to-one with speech and language therapy students, children showed significant gains in receptive and productive knowledge of target vocabulary which were maintained six months later. Together, results indicate that regular classroom instruction may be insufficient for EAL learners to close gaps with their monolingual peers in certain domains of oral language, but that targeted vocabulary instruction may be an effective means of achieving this end

    The Role of Multiple Articulatory Channels of Sign-Supported Speech Revealed by Visual Processing

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    Purpose The use of sign-supported speech (SSS) in the education of deaf students has been recently discussed in relation to its usefulness with deaf children using cochlear implants. To clarify the benefits of SSS for comprehension, 2 eye-tracking experiments aimed to detect the extent to which signs are actively processed in this mode of communication. Method Participants were 36 deaf adolescents, including cochlear implant users and native deaf signers. Experiment 1 attempted to shift observers' foveal attention to the linguistic source in SSS from which most information is extracted, lip movements or signs, by magnifying the face area, thus modifying lip movements perceptual accessibility (magnified condition), and by constraining the visual field to either the face or the sign through a moving window paradigm (gaze contingent condition). Experiment 2 aimed to explore the reliance on signs in SSS by occasionally producing a mismatch between sign and speech. Participants were required to concentrate upon the orally transmitted message. Results In Experiment 1, analyses revealed a greater number of fixations toward the signs and a reduction in accuracy in the gaze contingent condition across all participants. Fixations toward signs were also increased in the magnified condition. In Experiment 2, results indicated less accuracy in the mismatching condition across all participants. Participants looked more at the sign when it was inconsistent with speech. Conclusions All participants, even those with residual hearing, rely on signs when attending SSS, either peripherally or through overt attention, depending on the perceptual conditions.Unión Europea, Grant Agreement 31674
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