Nonword Repetition and Interactions Among Vocabulary, Phonotactic probability, and Phonological Awareness in Four Linguistic Groups

The current study was designed to compare the English nonword repetition accuracy in 7-year-old monolingual English, Korean–English bilingual, Chinese–English bilingual, and Spanish–English bilingual children. The relationships among nonword repetition accuracy, vocabulary, phonological awareness, and phonotactic probability in each group of children were also examined. The results indicated significant differences among the groups’ accuracy of consonants and vowels by syllable length. Different correlational patterns emerged among nonword repetition accuracy, vocabulary, and phonological awareness. Theoretical and clinical implications for the use of nonword repetition tasks for children from various linguistic backgrounds are discussed

A New image of the mandala with fibers

None provided

Tips for the Academic Teacher Working with Nonnative Speakers of English

The international student population in the United States is growing by leaps and bounds; our need for teachers who specialize in English as a Second Language, therefore, also grows with each passing day. But everyone cannot be an ESL specialist, right? What we must also, consider is the fact that many of our students who speak a language other than English as their native language are actually born here in the United States. Surprising? Not really when we consider that the demographic composition of major urban areas today consists significantly of families whose parents and grandparents come from different cultures and who still do not speak ( or read or write) English in any way. As educators, we must prepare ourselves for the influx of nonnative speakers of English (NNS) who will come into our classroom and who expect and deserve the education that all people do. As difficult as this preparation may sound, there are some things that non-ESL specialists academic teachers-can do to ready themselves for this-change in classroom environment. The following list is divided into three main categories: 1) helping the NNS adjust to the environment of the class and to classmates; 2) helping the NNS with the content or subject matter of the class; 3) using the community outside the classroom to facilitate learning for the NNS. These tips are by no means exhaustive, and content-teachers would be well-advised to ponder them and to expand and modify them when the need arises

A Psycholinguistic Perspective on Development of Phonetic Category Formation in Bilingual Children

This chapter reviews theories and research about phonetic category formation in bilingual children. Investigating phonetic categories provides us with a way to answer one of the longstanding theoretical issues in bilingualism, that is, whether bilingual children possess one versus two linguistic systems in the learning of their respective languages. In this chapter, theoretical backgrounds of phonetic categories in bilingual adults and children are reviewed. Then, empirical evidence showing phonetic categories in bilingual children is summarized. Finally, a development model of phonetic category formation in simultaneous and sequential bilingual children is proposed. Based on the model, detailed phonetic categories do not form across-the-board and bilingual children may invoke multi-dimensional representations of phonetic categories