Bilingual perceptual benefits of experience with a heritage language

Research on the linguistic knowledge of heritage speakers has been concerned primarily with the advantages conferred by heritage language experience in production, perception, and (re)learning of the heritage language. Meanwhile, second-language speech research has begun to investigate potential benefits of first-language transfer in second-language performance. Bridging these two bodies of work, the current study examined the perceptual benefits of heritage language experience for heritage speakers of Korean in both the heritage language (Korean) and the dominant language (American English). It was hypothesized that, due to their early bilingual experience and the different nature of unreleased stops in Korean and American English, heritage speakers of Korean would show not only native-like perception of Korean unreleased stops, but also better-than-native perception of American English unreleased stops. Results of three perception experiments were consistent with this hypothesis, suggesting that benefits of early heritage language experience can extend well beyond the heritage language.The author gratefully acknowledges technical, financial, and logistical support from the Center for Advanced Study of Language, the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, and the Second Language Acquisition Program at the University of Maryland and helpful feedback from four anonymous reviewers and audiences at the CUNY Graduate Center, the 2013 Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, and the 7th Heritage Language Research Institute. (Center for Advanced Study of Language; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences; Second Language Acquisition Program at the University of Maryland)https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_NoAiLQlnkVXVjZFhCOWc4U3M/view?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_NoAiLQlnkVXVjZFhCOWc4U3M/view?usp=sharingPublished versio

De-centering the Monolingual: A Psychophysiological Study of Heritage Speaker Language Processing

Models of grammar, processing and acquisition are primarily built on evidence from monolinguals and adult learners of a second language. Heritage speakers, who are bilinguals of a societal minority language, acquire and use their heritage language in informal settings; but who live, work, and are educated in the societal majority language. The differences between heritage speakers and both monolinguals and adult second language learners are extensive: heritage speakers are not educated in the heritage language, their input is typically not from a prestige variety of the heritage language, and they are dominant in the majority language, using it more frequently (Valdés, 1989). Previous research of heritage speaker characterized their grammars as simple, decayed/attrited, and incomplete (Benmamoun, Montrul, & Polinsky, 2010; Scontras, Fuchs, & Polinsky, 2015), and are compared to intermediate second language learner grammars (Montrul, 2005). The present study: 1) explores the language use and exposure of heritage speakers, 2) examines their performance on metalinguistic tasks, and 3) measures language processing using implicit measures (event-related potentials and pupillometry). Heritage speakers are compared to adult late second language learners living and working in a second language dominant society from the same community. The study focuses on fluent Spanish and English Latinx bilinguals living in the anglophone US. Spanish heritage speakers are appropriately compared to their time-apparent parents (English speaking Latinx immigrants who moved to the anglophone US in adulthood). Online language processing of subject- and object-relative clauses are examined as the subject-object relative clause processing asymmetry has been well-established in both Spanish and English, is early acquired, and is not confounded by prescriptive rules or literacy

The role of phonology in visual word recognition: evidence from Chinese

Posters - Letter/Word Processing V: abstract no. 5024The hypothesis of bidirectional coupling of orthography and phonology predicts that phonology plays a role in visual word recognition, as observed in the effects of feedforward and feedback spelling to sound consistency on lexical decision. However, because orthography and phonology are closely related in alphabetic languages (homophones in alphabetic languages are usually orthographically similar), it is difficult to exclude an influence of orthography on phonological effects in visual word recognition. Chinese languages contain many written homophones that are orthographically dissimilar, allowing a test of the claim that phonological effects can be independent of orthographic similarity. We report a study of visual word recognition in Chinese based on a mega-analysis of lexical decision performance with 500 characters. The results from multiple regression analyses, after controlling for orthographic frequency, stroke number, and radical frequency, showed main effects of feedforward and feedback consistency, as well as interactions between these variables and phonological frequency and number of homophones. Implications of these results for resonance models of visual word recognition are discussed.postprin

Interactive effects of orthography and semantics in Chinese picture naming

Posters - Language Production/Writing: abstract no. 4035Picture-naming performance in English and Dutch is enhanced by presentation of a word that is similar in form to the picture name. However, it is unclear whether facilitation has an orthographic or a phonological locus. We investigated the loci of the facilitation effect in Cantonese Chinese speakers by manipulating—at three SOAs (2100, 0, and 1100 msec)—semantic, orthographic, and phonological similarity. We identified an effect of orthographic facilitation that was independent of and larger than phonological facilitation across all SOAs. Semantic interference was also found at SOAs of 2100 and 0 msec. Critically, an interaction of semantics and orthography was observed at an SOA of 1100 msec. This interaction suggests that independent effects of orthographic facilitation on picture naming are located either at the level of semantic processing or at the lemma level and are not due to the activation of picture name segments at the level of phonological retrieval.postprin

Motivation and Gesture in Foreign and Second Language Development: A Sociocultural Study of Chinese Learners of English

This dissertation study investigated motivation as related to goal-directed activity and gesture awareness as well as their interplay in second and foreign language development in different English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) contexts. This study included four groups of Chinese learners of English. The first EFL group consisted of college students in China learning English without intention of studying abroad (G1) and the second EFL group in China included Chinese learners of English who were learning English to prepare to study abroad (G2). Participants in the first ESL group were living and studying abroad (G3) while the second group consisted of students who had returned to China after completing their study abroad experience but continued to use English for academic studies and work (G4). This explanatory sequential mixed methods research design involved quantitative data of motivation and gesture awareness surveys and then further explained the quantitative results with qualitative data of video recorded gesture tasks and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative analysis of motivation tested mean differences of motivation constructs (ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and attitudes toward learning English) based on the second language motivational self-system (L2MSS) (Dörnyei, 2005; 2009) as well as intended effort as a measurement criterion. In the results, participants in the EFL context intended to put in more effort and had lower ideal L2 self than participants in the ESL context. Results found no difference between the EFL and ESL contexts with regard to ought-to L2 self and attitudes toward learning English. In the EFL context, G2 were highly motivated than G1 in terms of ideal L2 self, attitudes toward learning English, and intended to put into more effort. Additionally, the expectation that G3 would have the highest level of motivation was not supported. In fact, attitudes toward learning English were lower for G3 than G4. No statistical differences were found on ought-to L2 self across groups. These quantitative results were supported and clarified by the qualitative findings in phase 2. Motivation as related to goal-directed activity was found to be affected by the orientation of participants in each group toward learning English in association with their particular contexts. Overall findings of motivation as related to goal-directed activity proved highly coherent with the qualitative dimension supporting the quantitative results and providing nuanced and in-depth information on what motivated participants and why, how motivation shaped experience and how experience shaped motivation in each context. This study also created and validated the first usable scale of gesture awareness, and measurement and structural invariance tests showed that G3 had the lowest scores in terms of comprehension and production across the four groups. Interestingly, no difference was found between G2 and G4. Later, qualitative findings showed that G3 were more aware of their gesture, and their gesture production was more pragmatic than other groups. G1, in particular, were less conscious of gestural differences between Chinese and English than other groups. Quantitative results of gesture awareness were incongruent with qualitative findings, and specific investigation among each individual revealed the importance of conscious awareness of gesture and gesturing for pragmatics. This study is the first effort to examine the relationship between motivation and gesture awareness and found that the relationship was individual specific in the situated context for communicative needs. The integration of individual and contextual factors constituted the plasticity of second and foreign language development and showed the diversity of individual motivation and gesture awareness in different contexts. This dissertation study brings attention to agency, goals, goal-directed activity, and conscious awareness in EFL and ESL contexts for second and foreign language development

Attention Restraint, Working Memory Capacity, and Mind Wandering: Do Emotional Valence or Intentionality Matter?

Attention restraint appears to mediate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and mind wandering (Kane et al., 2016). Prior work has identifed two dimensions of mind wandering—emotional valence and intentionality. However, less is known about how WMC and attention restraint correlate with these dimensions. Te current study examined the relationship between WMC, attention restraint, and mind wandering by emotional valence and intentionality. A confrmatory factor analysis demonstrated that WMC and attention restraint were strongly correlated, but only attention restraint was related to overall mind wandering, consistent with prior fndings. However, when examining the emotional valence of mind wandering, attention restraint and WMC were related to negatively and positively valenced, but not neutral, mind wandering. Attention restraint was also related to intentional but not unintentional mind wandering. Tese results suggest that WMC and attention restraint predict some, but not all, types of mind wandering

Empowering the Filipino Language Classroom: Towards Critical Pedagogy and Curriculum.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Lexical retrieval in bilingual Sinhala-English and monolingual Sinhala healthy speakers and speakers with aphasia

When language breakdown subsequent to neural injury occurs, an apparent disruption of language production skills follow. This is particularly evident in the major grammatical classes of nouns and verbs. This deficit could be selective, effecting either nouns or verbs or both in asymmetrical severity, in selected language modalities or at varied linguistic complexity (i.e. naming vs. connected speech). In bilinguals, these selective disassociation may manifest in equal or varying degrees across the languages known. This is influenced by the differences in the linguistic structure of the bilinguals’ languages. The need for language and culture specific assessment tool and data is therefore critical. This three-phase cross sectional exploratory study aimed to compare word retrieval skills in monolingual and bilingual people with aphasia (PwAs) post stroke. Investigated here are specific language populations of Sri Lanka; Sinhala monolingual (ML) and Sinhala- English bilingual (BL) healthy speakers and PwAs who have not been studied to date. In the first phase, the study adapted test tools and material published in English and develops some other stimuli anew, to gather data from healthy adults. This data was then used as a normative baseline against which 26 PwAs in the said populations were assessed in the second and third phases of the study. The subsequent data compared word production performances between and within the language conditions in the ML and BL groups, across word classes and language tasks. It is anticipated that the findings of this study would contribute towards the cross-linguistic database on aphasia in bilingual speakers and particularly towards developing an evidence-based research and clinical platform for bilingual PwAs in Sri Lanka

A comparison study on the effects of two explicit pronunciation syllabi on Korean adult EFL learners' learning of English sounds

textThis study compared two explicit approaches to teaching English pronunciation to Korean adult EFL learners. One approach involved teaching agendas based on the analysis of pronunciation errors that were considered to be typically observed in the target students. The other approach involved rather general teaching agendas that considered no specific L1 background. The experimental group, the error-analysis-based group, was taught by two Korean instructors of English, while the control group was taught by two native English-speaking instructors. The experimental group teachers used an in-house workbook that consisted of segmental sound items from the clinical data obtained from the error analysis. These Korean instructors of English presented short authentic video clips that the researcher edited from feature movies, situational comedies, news casts, etc. to the learners as model L2 utterances. The native English-speaking teachers used a pre-existing pronunciation workbook published by two native English-speaking language practitioners and presented relevant parts of the supplementary tutorial video to their learners. These four 75-minute pronunciation lectures were conducted as a part of an English intensive course at a tertiary institute in Korea. The two groups did not significantly differ in terms of L2 identification improvements. Based on the real-word and fake-word reading-aloud tests, the experimental group indicated a significantly higher production accuracy rate than the accuracy mean score observed in the control group. Mean accuracy scores of the identification and production tests of each individual sound were compared using Post Hoc ANCOVA techniques for any significant mean differences. Qualitative data from relevant surveys were also included.Foreign Language Educatio

The perspectives of female Emirati pre-service teachers on the use of English as a medium of instruction: An ethnographic investigation

This qualitative study examines an era in the history of English education in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by investigating the perspectives of English offered by 16 female Emirati pre-service teachers. As important stakeholders of education reform, these Emirati women are on the cusp of a linguistic transformation: They are learning in English while preparing to use English as a medium of instruction in classrooms of their own. Within an Arabian context characterised by dynamic change, conceptions of English and how it should be used in relation to Arabic have, undoubtedly, shifted in status and focus. This study explores the complex and diverse ways English is conceptualised and used by Emirati pre-service teachers during a particular phase of educational reforms shaped by expectations of bi-literacy in English and Arabic.This study has two main research questions. They are: 1) What are Emirati pre-service teachers’ conceptions of English in light of its use as a medium of instruction? 2) What are the social influences mediating their conceptions of English? This study, conceptualized as an unfolding, exploratory study, draws on ethnographic methods across three phases of data collection: focus group discussions, participant observations and ethnographic interviews. It also relies on theoretical assumptions about the role of language in the construction of knowledge across diffferent phases of learning, as set by Berger and Luckman (1971). The findings shared in this study shed light on the meanings Emirati pre-service teachers have of English in light of its use as a medium of instruction and the social influences mediating their conceptions. The study offers two main contributions to the field. The first includes a report on the range of ways that English and Arabic are used, modified and incorporated into the participants’ linguistic repertoires, showing that the use of EMI reflects several discrete types of conversational practices. The second contribition highlights awareness of a rich linguistic backdrop. In Abu Dhabi, English and Arabic constitute foregrounded roles in a diverse and multilingual capital city where other languages are experienced and ranked in social importance. The findings conclude that English is regarded as more than a resource serving pragmatic purposes and creative impulses, English is also seen as a feature of Abu Dhabi as a social space. The themes shared in this study are intended to promote clarity of the sociolinguistic dynamics of a particular sub-group of Emirati pre-service teachers and their understandings of the use of English as a medium of instruction in higher education and stimulate discussion about the ways in which English is integrated into daily life on this peninsula in the Arabian Gulf