Generative Perspectives on Language Acquisition: Empirical Findings, Theoretical Considerations, and Crosslinguistic Comparisons.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clahsen, Harald, Ed.

The collection of essays and studies concerning generative grammar and first and second language acquisition includes: "The Optional-Infinitive Stage in Child English: Evidence from Negation" (Tony Harris, Ken Wexler); "Towards a Structure-Building Model of Acquisition" (Andrew Radford); "The Underspecification of…

Impact of Home Language and Literacy Support on English-Chinese Biliteracy Acquisition among Chinese Heritage Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Chan; Koda, Keiko

2011-01-01

Studies on monolingual children have shown that home language and literacy support is crucial in children's early literacy acquisition. However, such support has not been examined as thoroughly among bilingual children, including heritage speakers. This study investigated the effect of home language and literacy support on important precursors of…

Timelines for English Language Acquisition: A Study of the Rates of Second Language Acquisition among Hispanic English Language Learners Including Exceptionalities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, Jennifer J.

2012-01-01

This study explores No Child Left Behind's required timetable for English language learners (ELLs) to reach English language proficiency within five years, as outlined in the Annual Measurable Achievement Outcomes (AMAOs), despite the lack of research evidence to support this as a reasonable expectation. Analysis was conducted on the archived data…

Intensive Input in Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trimino, Andy; Ferguson, Nancy

This paper discusses the role of input as one of the universals in second language acquisition theory. Considerations include how language instructors can best organize and present input and when certain kinds of input are more important. A self-administered program evaluation exercise using relevant theoretical and methodological contributions…

Second Language Reading and Vocabulary Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huckin, Thomas, Ed.; And Others

This book contains 14 essays on reading and vocabulary learning in second language acquisition. Chapters include: "Research on ESL/EFL Vocabulary Acquisition: Putting It in Context" (James Coady); "Implications for L2 Vocabulary Acquisition and Instruction From L1 Vocabulary Research" (Fredricka Stoller and William Grabe); "Patterns and Perils of…

Frequency Effects in Second Language Acquisition: An Annotated Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartal, Galip; Sarigul, Ece

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between frequency and language acquisition from many perspectives including implicit and explicit instruction, frequency effects on morpheme acquisition in L2, the relationship between frequency and multi-word constructions, frequency effects on phonetics, vocabulary, gerund and infinitive…

Foreign Language Textbook Activities: Keeping Pace with Second Language Acquisition Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aski, Janice M.

2003-01-01

Recent research in second language acquisition found that learners reached higher levels of achievement when grammar practice included the processing and negotiation of meaning. Explored the degree to which certain textbook activities reflected earlier findings. Activities for two grammar points from Italian texts still rely heavily on…

Orthographic Consistency and Individual Learner Differences in Second Language Literacy Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Sun-A; Packard, Jerome; Christianson, Kiel; Anderson, Richard C.; Shin, Jeong-Ah

2016-01-01

This study investigated whether orthographic consistency and individual learner differences including working memory (WM), first language (L1) background, and second language (L2) proficiency affect Chinese L2 learners' literacy acquisition. Seventy American college students in beginning or intermediate Chinese classes participated in a character…

Can language acquisition be facilitated in cochlear implanted children? Comparison of cognitive and behavioral psychologists' viewpoints.

PubMed

Monshizadeh, Leila; Vameghi, Roshanak; Yadegari, Fariba; Sajedi, Firoozeh; Hashemi, Seyed Basir

2016-11-08

To study how language acquisition can be facilitated for cochlear implanted children based on cognitive and behavioral psychology viewpoints? To accomplish this objective, literature related to behaviorist and cognitive psychology prospects about language acquisition were studied and some relevant books as well as Medline, Cochrane Library, Google scholar, ISI web of knowledge and Scopus databases were searched. Among 25 articles that were selected, only 11 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the study. Based on the inclusion criteria, review articles, expert opinion studies, non-experimental and experimental studies that clearly focused on behavioral and cognitive factors affecting language acquisition in children were selected. Finally, the selected articles were appraised according to guidelines of appraisal of medical studies. Due to the importance of the cochlear implanted child's language performance, the comparison of behaviorist and cognitive psychology points of view in child language acquisition was done. Since each theoretical basis, has its own positive effects on language, and since the two are not in opposition to one another, it can be said that a set of behavioral and cognitive factors might facilitate the process of language acquisition in children. Behavioral psychologists believe that repetition, as well as immediate reinforcement of child's language behavior help him easily acquire the language during a language intervention program, while cognitive psychologists emphasize on the relationship between information processing, memory improvement through repetitively using words along with "associated" pictures and objects, motor development and language acquisition. It is recommended to use a combined approach based on both theoretical frameworks while planning a language intervention program.

Social and Psychological Factors in Second Language Acquisition: A Study of an Individual. Proceedings of the Los Angeles Second Language Research Forum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Rebecca A.

The social and psychological factors which affect one person's acquisition of a second language are described in journal format. The psychological factors discussed are: (1) language shock, (2) culture shock, and (3) culture stress. The two social factors examined are both grouped under the term "social distance" but include (1) types of…

The P-chain: relating sentence production and its disorders to comprehension and acquisition

PubMed Central

Dell, Gary S.; Chang, Franklin

2014-01-01

This article introduces the P-chain, an emerging framework for theory in psycholinguistics that unifies research on comprehension, production and acquisition. The framework proposes that language processing involves incremental prediction, which is carried out by the production system. Prediction necessarily leads to prediction error, which drives learning, including both adaptive adjustment to the mature language processing system as well as language acquisition. To illustrate the P-chain, we review the Dual-path model of sentence production, a connectionist model that explains structural priming in production and a number of facts about language acquisition. The potential of this and related models for explaining acquired and developmental disorders of sentence production is discussed. PMID:24324238

The P-chain: relating sentence production and its disorders to comprehension and acquisition.

PubMed

Dell, Gary S; Chang, Franklin

2014-01-01

This article introduces the P-chain, an emerging framework for theory in psycholinguistics that unifies research on comprehension, production and acquisition. The framework proposes that language processing involves incremental prediction, which is carried out by the production system. Prediction necessarily leads to prediction error, which drives learning, including both adaptive adjustment to the mature language processing system as well as language acquisition. To illustrate the P-chain, we review the Dual-path model of sentence production, a connectionist model that explains structural priming in production and a number of facts about language acquisition. The potential of this and related models for explaining acquired and developmental disorders of sentence production is discussed.

Can language acquisition be facilitated in cochlear implanted children? Comparison of cognitive and behavioral psychologists’ viewpoints

PubMed Central

Monshizadeh, Leila; Vameghi, Roshanak; Yadegari, Fariba; Sajedi, Firoozeh; Hashemi, Seyed Basir

2016-01-01

AIM To study how language acquisition can be facilitated for cochlear implanted children based on cognitive and behavioral psychology viewpoints? METHODS To accomplish this objective, literature related to behaviorist and cognitive psychology prospects about language acquisition were studied and some relevant books as well as Medline, Cochrane Library, Google scholar, ISI web of knowledge and Scopus databases were searched. Among 25 articles that were selected, only 11 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the study. Based on the inclusion criteria, review articles, expert opinion studies, non-experimental and experimental studies that clearly focused on behavioral and cognitive factors affecting language acquisition in children were selected. Finally, the selected articles were appraised according to guidelines of appraisal of medical studies. RESULTS Due to the importance of the cochlear implanted child’s language performance, the comparison of behaviorist and cognitive psychology points of view in child language acquisition was done. Since each theoretical basis, has its own positive effects on language, and since the two are not in opposition to one another, it can be said that a set of behavioral and cognitive factors might facilitate the process of language acquisition in children. Behavioral psychologists believe that repetition, as well as immediate reinforcement of child’s language behavior help him easily acquire the language during a language intervention program, while cognitive psychologists emphasize on the relationship between information processing, memory improvement through repetitively using words along with “associated” pictures and objects, motor development and language acquisition. CONCLUSION It is recommended to use a combined approach based on both theoretical frameworks while planning a language intervention program. PMID:27872829

Age of language acquisition and cortical language organization in multilingual patients undergoing awake brain mapping.

PubMed

Fernández-Coello, Alejandro; Havas, Viktória; Juncadella, Montserrat; Sierpowska, Joanna; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Gabarrós, Andreu

2017-06-01

OBJECTIVE Most knowledge regarding the anatomical organization of multilingualism is based on aphasiology and functional imaging studies. However, the results have still to be validated by the gold standard approach, namely electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) during awake neurosurgical procedures. In this ESM study the authors describe language representation in a highly specific group of 13 multilingual individuals, focusing on how age of acquisition may influence the cortical organization of language. METHODS Thirteen patients who had a high degree of proficiency in multiple languages and were harboring lesions within the dominant, left hemisphere underwent ESM while being operated on under awake conditions. Demographic and language data were recorded in relation to age of language acquisition (for native languages and early- and late-acquired languages), neuropsychological pre- and postoperative language testing, the number and location of language sites, and overlapping distribution in terms of language acquisition time. Lesion growth patterns and histopathological characteristics, location, and size were also recorded. The distribution of language sites was analyzed with respect to age of acquisition and overlap. RESULTS The functional language-related sites were distributed in the frontal (55%), temporal (29%), and parietal lobes (16%). The total number of native language sites was 47. Early-acquired languages (including native languages) were represented in 97 sites (55 overlapped) and late-acquired languages in 70 sites (45 overlapped). The overlapping distribution was 20% for early-early, 71% for early-late, and 9% for late-late. The average lesion size (maximum diameter) was 3.3 cm. There were 5 fast-growing and 7 slow-growing lesions. CONCLUSIONS Cortical language distribution in multilingual patients is not homogeneous, and it is influenced by age of acquisition. Early-acquired languages have a greater cortical representation than languages acquired later. The prevalent native and early-acquired languages are largely represented within the perisylvian left hemisphere frontoparietotemporal areas, and the less prevalent late-acquired languages are mostly overlapped with them.

Second Language Acquisition Research in Japan. JALT Applied Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Peter, Ed.; Sawyer, Mark, Ed.; Ross, Steven, Ed.

This collection of papers includes the following: "Second Language Acquisition Research in Japan: Theoretical Issues" (Peter Robinson, Mark Sawyer, and Steven Ross); (2) "Focus on Form: Implicit and Explicit Form Focused Instruction Incorporated into a Communicative Task" (Hitoshi Muranoi); (3) "A Task that Works for…

Brain Dynamics Sustaining Rapid Rule Extraction from Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Diego-Balaguer, Ruth; Fuentemilla, Lluis; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni

2011-01-01

Language acquisition is a complex process that requires the synergic involvement of different cognitive functions, which include extracting and storing the words of the language and their embedded rules for progressive acquisition of grammatical information. As has been shown in other fields that study learning processes, synchronization…

Language Policy and Planning in South America.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H.

1994-01-01

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in South America focuses on the highland indigenous sectors and covers the following: colonial languages; immigrant languages; and indigenous languages, including planning, acquisition planning, and corpus planning. (Contains 83 references.) (LB)

Spanish Second Language Acquisition: State of the Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lafford, Barbara A., Ed.; Salaberry, Rafael, Ed.

This collection of papers provides an overview of previous studies on the acquisition of Spanish as a second or foreign language, theoretical approaches used in these studies, and effects of various pedagogical approaches on the development of Spanish interlanguage systems. The 10 chapters include the following: (1) "Phonology: Staking Out…

Enhancement of the Acquisition Process for a Combat System-A Case Study to Model the Workflow Processes for an Air Defense System Acquisition

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-01

Business Process Modeling BPMN Business Process Modeling Notation SoA Service-oriented Architecture UML Unified Modeling Language CSP...system developers. Supporting technologies include Business Process Modeling Notation ( BPMN ), Unified Modeling Language (UML), model-driven architecture

Immigrant Languages in Europe.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Extra, Guus, Ed.; Verhoeven, Ludo, Ed.

Papers from a 1990 Dutch colloquium on immigrant language varieties in Europe are presented in four categories: (1) use of immigrant language varieties in Europe; (2) first language acquisition in a second language context; (3) code-switching; and (4) language maintenance and loss. Papers include: "Sweden Finnish" (Jarmo Lainio);…

Acquisition des competences discursives dans un contexte plurilingue (Acquisition of Discourse Competencies in a Multilingual Context).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berthoud, Anne-Claude, Ed.

1996-01-01

This collection of articles on second language learning in a multilingual environment includes: "Franzosisch-Deutsch: Zweisprachiges Lernen au der Sekundarstufe 1" (French-German: Learning Two Languages at Secondary School, Level 1) (Otto Stern, Brigit Eriksson, Christine Le Pape, Hans Reutener, Cecilia Serra Oesch); "Das Projekt…

Language acquisition and use: learning and applying probabilistic constraints.

PubMed

Seidenberg, M S

1997-03-14

What kinds of knowledge underlie the use of language and how is this knowledge acquired? Linguists equate knowing a language with knowing a grammar. Classic "poverty of the stimulus" arguments suggest that grammar identification is an intractable inductive problem and that acquisition is possible only because children possess innate knowledge of grammatical structure. An alternative view is emerging from studies of statistical and probabilistic aspects of language, connectionist models, and the learning capacities of infants. This approach emphasizes continuity between how language is acquired and how it is used. It retains the idea that innate capacities constrain language learning, but calls into question whether they include knowledge of grammatical structure.

76 FR 14954 - National Professional Development Program; Office of English Language Acquisition, Language...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-18

... Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students; Overview... to provide instruction that accelerates ELs' acquisition of language, literacy, and content knowledge.... Rosalinda Barrera, Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director for English Language Acquisition, Language...

Early sound patterns in the speech of two Brazilian Portuguese speakers.

PubMed

Teixeira, Elizabeth Reis; Davis, Barbara L

2002-06-01

Sound patterns in the speech of two Brazilian-Portuguese speaking children are compared with early production patterns in English-learning children as well as English and Brazilian-Portuguese (BP) characteristics. The relationship between production system effects and ambient language influences in the acquisition of early sound patterns is of primary interest, as English and BP are characterized by differing phonological systems. Results emphasize the primacy of production system effects in early acquisition, although even the earliest word forms show evidence of perceptual effects from the ambient language in both BP children. Use of labials and coronals and low and midfront vowels in simple syllable shapes is consistent with acquisition data for this period across languages. However, potential ambient language influences include higher frequencies of dorsals, use of multisyllabic words, and different phone types in syllable-offset position. These results suggest that to fully understand early acquisition of sound systems one must account for both production system effects and perceptual effects from the ambient language.

First Language Acquisition and Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena

2011-01-01

"First language acquisition" commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child's natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. "First language teaching" concerns schooling in…

The effects of sign language on spoken language acquisition in children with hearing loss: a systematic review protocol.

PubMed

Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth M; Stevens, Adrienne; Garritty, Chantelle; Moher, David

2013-12-06

Permanent childhood hearing loss affects 1 to 3 per 1000 children and frequently disrupts typical spoken language acquisition. Early identification of hearing loss through universal newborn hearing screening and the use of new hearing technologies including cochlear implants make spoken language an option for most children. However, there is no consensus on what constitutes optimal interventions for children when spoken language is the desired outcome. Intervention and educational approaches ranging from oral language only to oral language combined with various forms of sign language have evolved. Parents are therefore faced with important decisions in the first months of their child's life. This article presents the protocol for a systematic review of the effects of using sign language in combination with oral language intervention on spoken language acquisition. Studies addressing early intervention will be selected in which therapy involving oral language intervention and any form of sign language or sign support is used. Comparison groups will include children in early oral language intervention programs without sign support. The primary outcomes of interest to be examined include all measures of auditory, vocabulary, language, speech production, and speech intelligibility skills. We will include randomized controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, and other quasi-experimental designs that include comparator groups as well as prospective and retrospective cohort studies. Case-control, cross-sectional, case series, and case studies will be excluded. Several electronic databases will be searched (for example, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO) as well as grey literature and key websites. We anticipate that a narrative synthesis of the evidence will be required. We will carry out meta-analysis for outcomes if clinical similarity, quantity and quality permit quantitative pooling of data. We will conduct subgroup analyses if possible according to severity/type of hearing disorder, age of identification, and type of hearing technology. This review will provide evidence on the effectiveness of using sign language in combination with oral language therapies for developing spoken language in children with hearing loss who are identified at a young age. The information from this review can provide guidance to parents and intervention specialists, inform policy decisions and provide directions for future research. CRD42013005426.

Contributions of the Study of Japanese as a Second language to our General Understanding of Second Language Acquisition and the Definition of Second Language Acquisition Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wakabayashi, Shigenori

2003-01-01

Reviews three books on the acquisition of Japanese as a second language: "Second Language Acquisition Process in the Classroom" by A.S. Ohta;"The Acquisition of Grammar by Learners of Japanese" (English translation of title), by H. Noda, K. Sakoda, K. Shibuya, and N. Kobayashi; and "The Acquisition of Japanese as a Second Language," B. K. Kanno,…

Omnivorous Representation Might Lead to Indigestion: Commentary on Amaral and Roeper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slabakova, Roumyana

2014-01-01

This article offers commentary that the Multiple Grammar (MG) language acquisition theory proposed by Luiz Amaral and Tom Roeper (A&R) in the present issue lacks elaboration of the psychological mechanisms at work in second language acquisition. Topics discussed include optionality in a speaker's grammar and the rules of verb position in…

Foreign Language Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Volume 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Bot, Kees, Ed.; And Others

Papers from a conference on empirical research on foreign language instruction in Europe and the United States include: "Foreign Language Instruction and Second Language Acquisition Research in the United States" (Charles A. Fergurson, Thom Huebner); "Empirical Foreign Language Research in Europe" (Theo van Els, Kees de Bot,…

A Research on Second Language Acquisition and College English Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Changyu

2009-01-01

It was in the 1970s that American linguist S.D. Krashen created the theory of "language acquisition". The theories on second language acquisition were proposed based on the study on the second language acquisition process and its rules. Here, the second language acquisition process refers to the process in which a learner with the…

Language in Comparative Perspective. Chapter 11

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rumbaugh, Duane M.; Savage-Rumbaugh, E. Sue

1994-01-01

The twentieth century will be noted for a wide variety of scientific and technological advancements, including powered flight, antibiotics, space travel, and the breaking of the genetic code. It also should be noted as the century in which major psychological, as well as biological, continuities between animal and human have been defined. Charles Darwin (1859) was quite right when he anticipated continuity in mental processes, some of which provide for language. Though none will argue that any animal has the full capacity of humans for language, none should deny that at least some animals have quite impressive competencies for language skills, including speech comprehension. The finding that the language skills in the bonobo and the chimpanzee are likely more fully and efficiently developed as a result of early rearing than by formal training at a later age declares a continuity even stronger than that defined by the language acquisition potential of the ape. To clarify, because early rearing facilitates the emergence of language in ape as well as in child, a naturalness to the familiar course of language acquisition, whereby comprehension precedes production, is also corroborated. In turn, the continuity and the shared naturalness of language acquisition serve jointly to define an advanced and critical point of linkage between the genera Pan and Homo - and, as concluded by Domjan (1993), one worthy of contributing to the series of reconceptions of ourselves as anticipated by Ploog and Melnechuk (1971).

Assessing the Impact of Short-Term Study Abroad on L2 Learners' Attitudes towards Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Artamonova, Tatiana

2017-01-01

Language attitudes, a multifaceted construct, can be broadly defined as evaluative views of a language and other relevant entities, including its speakers and associated cultures. Language attitudes are influential in second language (L2) acquisition as they relate to language learning motivation and achievement, perseverance in language study,…

Cognitive and linguistic biases in morphology learning.

PubMed

Finley, Sara

2018-05-30

Morphology is the study of the relationship between form and meaning. The study of morphology involves understanding the rules and processes that underlie word formation, including the use and productivity of affixes, and the systems that create novel word forms. The present review explores these processes by examining the cognitive components that contribute to typological regularities among morphological systems across the world's language. The review will focus on research in morpheme segmentation, the suffixing preference, acquisition of morphophonology, and acquiring morphological categories and inflectional paradigms. The review will highlight research in a range of areas of linguistics, from child language acquisition, to computational modeling, to adult language learning experiments. In order to best understand the cognitive biases that shape morphological learning, a broad, interdisciplinary approach must be taken. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Linguistic Theory Linguistics > Language Acquisition Psychology > Language. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Three Myths from the Language Acquisition Literature

PubMed Central

Schoneberger, Ted

2010-01-01

Three popular assertions have hindered the promotion of an empiricist approach to language acquisition: (a) that Brown and Hanlon (1970) claimed to offer data that parents do not reinforce their children's grammaticality; (b) that Brown and Hanlon also claimed to offer data that parents do not provide negative evidence (i.e., corrective feedback) for ungrammaticality; and (c) that Gold (1967) claimed to offer a formal proof showing that, without negative evidence, a child cannot acquire a language solely from environmental input. In this paper I offer introductory comments on the nature–nurture distinction (including interactionism, and the nativists' claim to have found a gene for language). Next I debunk the three aforementioned assertions by arguing that the authors (Brown & Hanlon; Gold) never made the claims attributed to them; review evidence on the role of reinforcement and corrective feedback in language acquisition; and offer some concluding comments. PMID:22477466

Beyond Methods: Components of Second Language Teacher Education. The McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series. Directions in Second Language Learning and Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen, Ed.; Hartford, Beverly, Ed.

This collection of essays gives an overview of the different disciplines that inform language teaching and language teacher education. They include the following titles: "The Case for Psycholinguistics" (Bill VanPatten); "The Place of Second Language Acquisition Theory in Language Teacher Preparation" (Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig); "Why Syntactic…

Language Diversity & Practice in Higher Education: Can Discipline-Specific Language Instruction Improve Economics Learning Outcomes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Trien; Trimarchi, Angela; Williams, Julia

2012-01-01

In the field of second language acquisition, discipline-specific language instruction is becoming widely known as Content and Language Integrated Learning. This method includes any activity that involves teaching a subject in a second language for the purpose of teaching both the subject content and the language. Research has shown that this two…

The Influence of Type and Token Frequency on the Acquisition of Affixation Patterns: Implications for Language Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endress, Ansgar D.; Hauser, Marc D.

2011-01-01

Rules, and exceptions to such rules, are ubiquitous in many domains, including language. Here we used simple artificial grammars to investigate the influence of 2 factors on the acquisition of rules and their exceptions, namely type frequency (the relative numbers of different exceptions to different regular items) and token frequency (the number…

Bilingualism, Code-Switching, Language Mixing, Transfer and Borrowing; Clarifying Terminologies in the Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yumoto, Kazuko

A study of second language acquisition in two Japanese children, and corresponding examination of research literature, led to this effort to clarify terminology related to cross-linguistic influence in language contact situations. Terms include: bilingualism, code-switching, language mixing, language transfer, and borrowing. Two forms of transfer…

Restrictions on biological adaptation in language evolution.

PubMed

Chater, Nick; Reali, Florencia; Christiansen, Morten H

2009-01-27

Language acquisition and processing are governed by genetic constraints. A crucial unresolved question is how far these genetic constraints have coevolved with language, perhaps resulting in a highly specialized and species-specific language "module," and how much language acquisition and processing redeploy preexisting cognitive machinery. In the present work, we explored the circumstances under which genes encoding language-specific properties could have coevolved with language itself. We present a theoretical model, implemented in computer simulations, of key aspects of the interaction of genes and language. Our results show that genes for language could have coevolved only with highly stable aspects of the linguistic environment; a rapidly changing linguistic environment does not provide a stable target for natural selection. Thus, a biological endowment could not coevolve with properties of language that began as learned cultural conventions, because cultural conventions change much more rapidly than genes. We argue that this rules out the possibility that arbitrary properties of language, including abstract syntactic principles governing phrase structure, case marking, and agreement, have been built into a "language module" by natural selection. The genetic basis of human language acquisition and processing did not coevolve with language, but primarily predates the emergence of language. As suggested by Darwin, the fit between language and its underlying mechanisms arose because language has evolved to fit the human brain, rather than the reverse.

Second Language Acquisition in a Study Abroad Context. Studies in Bilingualism 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freed, Barbara F., Ed.

The collection of essays on second language learning during study abroad includes: "Language Learning and Study Abroad" (Barbara F. Freed); "Predictors of Foreign Language Gain During Study Abroad" (Richard D. Brecht, Dan E. Davidson, Ralph B. Ginsberg); "A Canadian Interprovincial Exchange: Evaluating the Linguistic…

A Multidimensional Review of Bilingual Aphasia as a Language Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akbari, Mohsen

2014-01-01

Aphasia as a multifaceted language disorder associated with the complicated links between language and brain has been and is of interest and significance to the stream of research in different disciplines including neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive studies and language acquisition. Along with explorations into the manifestations of…

Cross-Language Analysis and Second Language Acquisition. Volume 1. Jyvaskyla Cross-Language Studies, No. 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sajavaara, Kari, Ed.

A collection of 17 papers, most presented at the Fifth International Conference on Contrastive Projects in June 1982 in Finland, includes: "Present Trends in Contrastive Linguistics,""Contrastive Linguistics in Bulgaria,""Communicative Competence in Foreign Language Teaching: A Project Report,""From Traditional…

Issues in English Language Development. Proceedings of a Conference on Issues in English Language Development for Minority Language Education (Arlington, Virginia, July 24, 1985).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

InterAmerica Research Associates, Rosslyn, VA.

Papers presented in this conference report include: "Overview of Theories of Language Learning and Acquisition" (Diane Larsen-Freeman); "A Theory of Strategy-Oriented Language Development" (Michael Canale); "Motivation, Intelligence, and Access: A Theoretical Framework for the Education of Minority Language Students" (Edward De Avila); "Second…

Policy-to-Practice Context to the Delays and Difficulties in the Acquisition of Speech, Language and Communication in the Early Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackburn, Carolyn; Aubrey, Carol

2016-01-01

The aim was to investigate the policy-to-practice context of delays and difficulties in the acquisition of speech, language and communication (SLC) in children from birth to five in one local authority within the context of Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological model. Methods included a survey of early years practitioners (64 responses), interviews with…

Exploring Views on Heritage Language Use and Bilingual Acquisition: Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence from Teachers and Immigrant Students in the Greek Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griva, Eleni; Kiliari, Angeliki; Stamou, Anastasia G.

2017-01-01

In this paper, we present a synthesis of a series of studies, carried out by our research groups, from the Greek educational context on teachers' and immigrant students' views on issues of bilingual acquisition and of heritage language learning and teaching. Albeit including heterogeneous samples and employing quantitative and qualitative…

Literacy and Second Language Intervention for Adult Hebrew Second Language (HSL) Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fanta-Vagenshtein, Yarden

2011-01-01

Language proficiency is a crucial factor for immigrants to integrate successfully in the new society in all aspects of life, especially in the labor market. As a result, there is great importance in acquiring the new language as quickly and effectively as possible. Several factors affect second language acquisition, including motivation, age,…

48 CFR 52.204-2 - Security Requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Security Requirements. 52.204-2 Section 52.204-2 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION... Contractor agrees to insert terms that conform substantially to the language of this clause, including this...

77 FR 31606 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-29

... Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students, Department.... Barrera, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and... Secretary and Director for English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for...

Second Language Acquisition Research and Second Language Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corder, S. Pit

1985-01-01

Discusses second language acquisition, the importance of comprehensible input to this acquisition, and the inadequacy of the theory of language interference as an explanation for errors in second language speech. The role of the teacher in the language classroom and the "procedural syllabus" are described. (SED)

75 FR 26942 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-13

... Management. Office of English Language Acquisitions Type of Review: Reinstatement. Title: Application for Grants Under English Language Acquisition and Language Enhancement: Native American and Alaska Native... Grants Under English Language Acquisition and Language Enhancement: Native American and Alaska Native...

48 CFR 1313.106-2-70 - Evaluation of solicitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... include provision 1352.213-70, Evaluation Utilizing Simplified Acquisition Procedures, or similar language... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Evaluation of solicitations. 1313.106-2-70 Section 1313.106-2-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE...

48 CFR 1313.106-2-70 - Evaluation of solicitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... include provision 1352.213-70, Evaluation Utilizing Simplified Acquisition Procedures, or similar language... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Evaluation of solicitations. 1313.106-2-70 Section 1313.106-2-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE...

Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. The Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coady, James, Ed.; Huckin, Thomas, Ed.

A collection of essays on second language vocabulary learning includes: "Historical Trends in Second Language Vocabulary Instruction" (Cheryl Boyd Zimmerman); "The Lexical Plight in Second Language Reading: Words You Don't Know, Words You Think You Know, and Words You Can't Guess" (Batia Laufer); "Orthographic Knowledge in L2 Lexical Processing: A…

The Language of Formal Education and the Role of Libraries in Oral-Traditional Societies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

John, Magnus

1984-01-01

This essay addresses the effect of introducing a foreign language into the formal education of oral-traditional societies. Highlights include the nature of such societies, language in formal education, reading and language acquisition, developing a theory of high retention and recall, and overall implications for national development and…

Memory Functioning and Mental Verbs Acquisition in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spanoudis, George C.; Natsopoulos, Demetrios

2011-01-01

Memory and language operate in synergy. Recent literature stresses the importance of memory functioning in interpreting language deficits. Two groups of 50 children each, ages 8-12 were studied. The first group included children with specific language impairment, while the participants in the second group were typically developing children. The…

Linguistica applicata e glottodidattica: Una collana per insegnanti (Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching: A Series for Teachers).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salvi, Rita

1988-01-01

A series on language teaching and learning for teachers includes books on the following topics: (1) psycholinguistics (Titone); (2) the role of the brain in language acquisition (Danesi); (3) the creative language of children (Crema & De Robertis); and (4) suggestopedia (Lozanov & Gateva). (CFM)

Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review (Aprendizaje incidental de vocabulario en la adquisición de una segunda lengua: una revisión de literatura)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Restrepo Ramos, Falcon Dario

2015-01-01

This literature review aims to analyze previous studies that address the incidental learning of vocabulary in second language acquisition. The articles included in this literature review look into the understanding of vocabulary learning through incidental means, the relationship of reading and incidental vocabulary learning, and the strategies…

Advanced Language Attrition of Spanish in Contact with Brazilian Portuguese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iverson, Michael Bryan

2012-01-01

Language acquisition research frequently concerns itself with linguistic development and result of the acquisition process with respect to a first or subsequent language. For some, it seems tacitly assumed that a first language, once acquired, remains stable, regardless of exposure to and the acquisition of additional language(s) beyond the first…

Insights into Second Language Acquisition Theory and Different Approaches to Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ponniah, Joseph

2010-01-01

This paper attempts to review second language acquisition theory and some of the methods practiced in language classes. The review substantiates that comprehensible input as the crucial determining factor for language acquisition and consciously learned linguistic knowledge can be used only to edit the output of the acquired language sometimes…

Variability and Variation in Second Language Acquisition Orders: A Dynamic Reevaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowie, Wander; Verspoor, Marjolijn

2015-01-01

The traditional morpheme order studies in second language acquisition have tried to demonstrate the existence of a fixed order of acquisition of English morphemes, regardless of the second language learner's background. Such orders have been taken as evidence of the preprogrammed nature of language acquisition. This article argues for a…

Schizophrenia and second language acquisition.

PubMed

Bersudsky, Yuly; Fine, Jonathan; Gorjaltsan, Igor; Chen, Osnat; Walters, Joel

2005-05-01

Language acquisition involves brain processes that can be affected by lesions or dysfunctions in several brain systems and second language acquisition may depend on different brain substrates than first language acquisition in childhood. A total of 16 Russian immigrants to Israel, 8 diagnosed schizophrenics and 8 healthy immigrants, were compared. The primary data for this study were collected via sociolinguistic interviews. The two groups use language and learn language in very much the same way. Only exophoric reference and blocking revealed meaningful differences between the schizophrenics and healthy counterparts. This does not mean of course that schizophrenia does not induce language abnormalities. Our study focuses on those aspects of language that are typically difficult to acquire in second language acquisition. Despite the cognitive compromises in schizophrenia and the manifest atypicalities in language of speakers with schizophrenia, the process of acquiring a second language seems relatively unaffected by schizophrenia.

Gender and Number Agreement in the Oral Production of Arabic Heritage Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albirini, Abdulkafi; Benmamoun, Elabbas; Chakrani, Brahim

2013-01-01

Heritage language acquisition has been characterized by various asymmetries, including the differential acquisition rates of various linguistic areas and the unbalanced acquisition of different categories within a single area. This paper examines Arabic heritage speakers' knowledge of subject-verb agreement versus noun-adjective agreement with the…

Language Acquisition and Language Learning: A Plea for Syncretism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgs, Theodore V.

1985-01-01

Discusses the apparent opposition between the concepts of language learning and language acquisition in the context of adult second-language study. Proposes that these two concepts are mutually supportive, not mutually exclusive. Demonstrates how the implications of learning vs. acquisition can be integrated into a communicative…

Self-organizing map models of language acquisition

PubMed Central

Li, Ping; Zhao, Xiaowei

2013-01-01

Connectionist models have had a profound impact on theories of language. While most early models were inspired by the classic parallel distributed processing architecture, recent models of language have explored various other types of models, including self-organizing models for language acquisition. In this paper, we aim at providing a review of the latter type of models, and highlight a number of simulation experiments that we have conducted based on these models. We show that self-organizing connectionist models can provide significant insights into long-standing debates in both monolingual and bilingual language development. We suggest future directions in which these models can be extended, to better connect with behavioral and neural data, and to make clear predictions in testing relevant psycholinguistic theories. PMID:24312061

Conventions for sign and speech transcription of child bimodal bilingual corpora in ELAN.

PubMed

Chen Pichler, Deborah; Hochgesang, Julie A; Lillo-Martin, Diane; de Quadros, Ronice Müller

2010-01-01

This article extends current methodologies for the linguistic analysis of sign language acquisition to cases of bimodal bilingual acquisition. Using ELAN, we are transcribing longitudinal spontaneous production data from hearing children of Deaf parents who are learning either American Sign Language (ASL) and American English (AE), or Brazilian Sign Language (Libras, also referred to as Língua de Sinais Brasileira/LSB in some texts) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Our goal is to construct corpora that can be mined for a wide range of investigations on various topics in acquisition. Thus, it is important that we maintain consistency in transcription for both signed and spoken languages. This article documents our transcription conventions, including the principles behind our approach. Using this document, other researchers can chose to follow similar conventions or develop new ones using our suggestions as a starting point.

Conventions for sign and speech transcription of child bimodal bilingual corpora in ELAN

PubMed Central

Chen Pichler, Deborah; Hochgesang, Julie A.; Lillo-Martin, Diane; de Quadros, Ronice Müller

2011-01-01

This article extends current methodologies for the linguistic analysis of sign language acquisition to cases of bimodal bilingual acquisition. Using ELAN, we are transcribing longitudinal spontaneous production data from hearing children of Deaf parents who are learning either American Sign Language (ASL) and American English (AE), or Brazilian Sign Language (Libras, also referred to as Língua de Sinais Brasileira/LSB in some texts) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Our goal is to construct corpora that can be mined for a wide range of investigations on various topics in acquisition. Thus, it is important that we maintain consistency in transcription for both signed and spoken languages. This article documents our transcription conventions, including the principles behind our approach. Using this document, other researchers can chose to follow similar conventions or develop new ones using our suggestions as a starting point. PMID:21625371

The ontogeny of phonological categories and the primacy of lexical learning in linguistic development.

PubMed

Beckman, M E; Edwards, J

2000-01-01

In this paper, we draw on recent developments in several areas of cognitive science that suggest that the lexicon is at the core of grammatical generalizations at several different levels of representation. Evidence comes from many sources, including recent studies on language processing in adults and on language acquisition in children. Phonological behavior is influenced very early by pattern frequency in the lexicon of the ambient language, and we propose that phonological acquisition might provide the initial bootstrapping into grammatical generalization in general. The phonological categories over which pattern frequencies are calculated, however, are neither transparently available in the audiovisual signal nor deterministically fixed by the physiological and perceptual capacities of the species. Therefore, we need several age-appropriate models of how the lexicon can influence a child's interactions with the ambient language over the course of phonological acquisition.

77 FR 69604 - Applications for New Awards; Model Demonstration Projects on Promoting Reentry Success Through...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-20

... skills (including English language acquisition), complete secondary education, and transition to further... limited to, assessment; instruction in reading, writing, and speaking the English language, numeracy...

N. Chomsky am Wendepunkt (N. Chomsky at the Turning Point)?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weisgerber, Leo

1971-01-01

Questions Chomsky's postulation of an innate capacity for language use, and suggests that Chomsky is modifying his theory by including the time factor in his consideration of language acquisition. (RS)

Language Acquisition and Language Learning: Developing the System of External and Internal Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zascerinska, Jelena

2010-01-01

Introduction. The use of three-five languages is of the greatest importance in order to form varied cooperative networks for the creation of new knowledge. Aim of the paper is to analyze the synergy between language acquisition and language learning. Materials and Methods. The search for the synergy between language acquisition and language…

A Celebration of FLES: Sequential FLES, FLEX, and Immersion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipton, Gladys C., Ed.

A collection of essays on FLES (foreign languages in the elementary school) includes: "Public Education in America and the Implications of Foreign Language and Second Language Acquisition" (Peter Negroni); "The People Factor in the Glastonbury Public Schools" (Christine Brown); "Public Relations: Inside and Outside"…

Language acquisition is model-based rather than model-free.

PubMed

Wang, Felix Hao; Mintz, Toben H

2016-01-01

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) propose that learning language is learning to process language. However, we believe that the general-purpose prediction mechanism they propose is insufficient to account for many phenomena in language acquisition. We argue from theoretical considerations and empirical evidence that many acquisition tasks are model-based, and that different acquisition tasks require different, specialized models.

Asian/Pacific Islander Languages Spoken by English Learners (ELs). Fast Facts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of English Language Acquisition, US Department of Education, 2015

2015-01-01

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on Asian/Pacific Islander languages spoken by English Learners (ELs) include: (1) Top 10 Most Common Asian/Pacific Islander Languages Spoken Among ELs:…

Cross-Language Transfer in English Immersion Programs in Germany: Reading Comprehension and Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gebauer, Sandra Kristina; Zaunbauer, Anna C. M.; Moller, Jens

2013-01-01

Cross-language effects on reading skills are of particular interest in the context of foreign language immersion programs. Although there is an extensive literature on cross-language effects on reading in general, research focusing on immersion students and including different dimensions of reading acquisition such as reading fluency and reading…

Some Myths You May Have Heard about First Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gathercole, Virginia C.

1988-01-01

Reviews research and empirical evidence to refute three first language acquisition myths: (1) comprehension precedes production; (2) children acquire language in a systematic, rule-governed way; and (3) the impetus behind first language acquisition is communicative need. (Author/CB)

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Title III: Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students. 107th Congress, 1st Session.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, Washington, DC.

This report describes the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Title III: Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students. Part A describes the English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act. Its four subparts include the following: (1) grants and subgrants for English language acquisition…

Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolfson, Nessa, Ed.; Judd, Elliot, Ed.

The following are included in this collection of essays on patterns of rules of speaking, and sociolinguistics and second language learning and teaching: "How to Tell When Someone Is Saying 'No' Revisited" (Joan Rubin); "Apology: A Speech-Act Set" (Elite Olshtain and Andrew Cohen); "Interpreting and Performing Speech Acts in a Second Language: A…

The Effect of Community Linguistic Isolation on Language-Minority Student Achievement in High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drake, Timothy Arthur

2014-01-01

Research on language-minority student outcomes has revealed sizeable and persistent achievement gaps. The reasons for these gaps are often closely linked with other factors related to underperformance, including generational status, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Using sociocultural second-language acquisition theories and community…

Second Language Acquisition: Possible Insights from Studies on How Birds Acquire Song.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neapolitan, Denise M.; And Others

1988-01-01

Reviews research that demonstrates parallels between general linguistic and cognitive processes in human language acquisition and avian acquisition of song and discusses how such research may provide new insights into the processes of second-language acquisition. (Author/CB)

Linguistic Diversity in First Language Acquisition Research: Moving beyond the Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Barbara F.; Forshaw, William; Nordlinger, Rachel; Wigglesworth, Gillian

2015-01-01

The field of first language acquisition (FLA) needs to take into account data from the broadest typological array of languages and language-learning environments if it is to identify potential universals in child language development, and how these interact with socio-cultural mechanisms of acquisition. Yet undertaking FLA research in remote…

Adult Second Language Acquisition: Laotian Hmong in Southland.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lert, Erika Nagy

The study described in this paper focuses on English language acquisition by adult Hmong Laotian immigrants in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program in a city in the Northeastern United States. Preexistent levels of literacy and second language familiarity are discounted as influences on the speed of students' acquisition of language.…

The Neurobiology of Affect in Language. A Supplement to "Language Learning."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumann, John H.

1997-01-01

This document presents a theory of how the psychology and neurobiology of stimulus appraisal influence variability in second language acquisition, and extends the notion of affect developed for second language acquisition to primary language acquisition and to cognition in general. The first chapter lays out a psychological framework that develops…

Structural brain changes linked to delayed first language acquisition in congenitally deaf individuals.

PubMed

Pénicaud, Sidonie; Klein, Denise; Zatorre, Robert J; Chen, Jen-Kai; Witcher, Pamela; Hyde, Krista; Mayberry, Rachel I

2013-02-01

Early language experience is essential for the development of a high level of linguistic proficiency in adulthood and in a recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, we showed that a delayed acquisition of a first language results in changes in the functional organization of the adult brain (Mayberry et al., 2011). The present study extends the question to explore if delayed acquisition of a first language also modulates the structural development of the brain. To this end, we carried out anatomical MRI in the same group of congenitally deaf individuals who varied in the age of acquisition of a first language, American Sign Language -ASL (Mayberry et al., 2011) and used a neuroanatomical technique, Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), to explore changes in gray and white matter concentrations across the brain related to the age of first language acquisition. The results show that delayed acquisition of a first language is associated with changes in tissue concentration in the occipital cortex close to the area that has been found to show functional recruitment during language processing in these deaf individuals with a late age of acquisition. These findings suggest that a lack of early language experience affects not only the functional but also the anatomical organization of the brain. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cross-language Activation and the Phonetics of Code-switching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piccinini, Page Elizabeth

It is now well established that bilinguals have both languages activated to some degree at all times. This cross-language activation has been documented in several research paradigms, including picture naming, reading, and electrophysiological studies. What is less well understood is how the degree a language is activated can vary in different language environments or contexts. Furthermore, when investigating effects of order of acquisition and language dominance, past research has been mixed, as the two variables are often conflated. In this dissertation, I test how degree of cross-language activation can vary according to context by examining phonetic productions in code-switching speech. Both spontaneous speech and scripted speech are analyzed. Follow-up perception experiments are conducted to see if listeners are able to anticipate language switches, potentially due to the phonetic cues in the signal. Additionally, by focusing on early bilinguals who are L1 Spanish but English dominant, I am able to see what plays a greater role in cross-language activation, order of acquisition or language dominance. I find that speakers do have intermediate phonetic productions in code-switching contexts relative to monolingual contexts. Effects are larger and more consistent in English than Spanish. Similar effects are found in speech perception. Listeners are able to anticipate language switches from English to Spanish but not Spanish to English. Together these results suggest that language dominance is a more important factor than order of acquisition in cross-language activation for early bilinguals. Future models on bilingual language organization and access should take into account both context and language dominance when modeling degrees of cross-language activation.

Learning with a missing sense: what can we learn from the interaction of a deaf child with a turtle?

PubMed

Miller, Paul

2009-01-01

This case study reports on the progress of Navon, a 13-year-old boy with prelingual deafness, over a 3-month period following exposure to Logo, a computer programming language that visualizes specific programming commands by means of a virtual drawing tool called the Turtle. Despite an almost complete lack of skills in spoken and sign language, Navon made impressive progress in his programming skills, including acquisition of a notable active written vocabulary, which he learned to apply in a purposeful, rule-based manner. His achievements are discussed with reference to commonly held assumptions about the relationship between language and thought, in general, and the prerequisite of proper spoken language skills for the acquisition of reading and writing, in particular. Highlighted are the central principles responsible for Navon's unexpected cognitive and linguistic development, including the way it affected his social relations with peers and teachers.

Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Lydia

1990-01-01

Discusses the motivation for Universal Grammar (UG), as assumed in the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar (Chomsky, 1981), focusing on the logical problem of first-language acquisition and the potential role of UG in second-language acquisition. Recent experimental research regarding the second-language status of the…

The Design and Evaluation of African Language Learning Materials. Proceedings of the Spring 1984 Conference on Developing Guidelines for the Evaluation of African Language Learning Materials (East Lansing, Michigan, April 13-14, 1984).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dwyer, David J., Ed.

Representatives from major institutions teaching African languages convened to discuss the design of African language textbooks and to propose guidelines for the writing of new textbooks and evaluation of existing ones. Conference papers include: "Language Acquisition Theory and Materials Construction" (Stephen Krashen); "The Structures of Verbal…

English speech acquisition in 3- to 5-year-old children learning Russian and English.

PubMed

Gildersleeve-Neumann, Christina E; Wright, Kira L

2010-10-01

English speech acquisition in Russian-English (RE) bilingual children was investigated, exploring the effects of Russian phonetic and phonological properties on English single-word productions. Russian has more complex consonants and clusters and a smaller vowel inventory than English. One hundred thirty-seven single-word samples were phonetically transcribed from 14 RE and 28 English-only (E) children, ages 3;3 (years;months) to 5;7. Language and age differences were compared descriptively for phonetic inventories. Multivariate analyses compared phoneme accuracy and error rates between the two language groups. RE children produced Russian-influenced phones in English, including palatalized consonants and trills, and demonstrated significantly higher rates of trill substitution, final devoicing, and vowel errors than E children, suggesting Russian language effects on English. RE and E children did not differ in their overall production complexity, with similar final consonant deletion and cluster reduction error rates, similar phonetic inventories by age, and similar levels of phonetic complexity. Both older language groups were more accurate than the younger language groups. We observed effects of Russian on English speech acquisition; however, there were similarities between the RE and E children that have not been reported in previous studies of speech acquisition in bilingual children. These findings underscore the importance of knowing the phonological properties of both languages of a bilingual child in assessment.

Beyond Poverty: Engaging with Input in Generative SLA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rankin, Tom; Unsworth, Sharon

2016-01-01

A generative approach to language acquisition is no different from any other in assuming that target language input is crucial for language acquisition. This discussion note addresses the place of input in generative second language acquisition (SLA) research and the perception in the wider field of SLA research that generative SLA…

Beyond Production: Learners' Perceptions about Interactional Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackey, Alison

2002-01-01

The interaction hypothesis of second language acquisition and associated work by Gass (Input, Interaction, and the Second Language Learner, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, NJ, 1997), Long (The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition, in: W.C. Ritchie, T.K. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of Language Acquisition,…

A Correlational Study: Personality Types and Foreign Language Acquisition in Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capellan, Frank

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality types and second language acquisition. The study addressed a problem that is inadequately investigated in foreign language acquisition research; specifically, personality traits as predictors of language learning in college students studying Spanish as a foreign…

Language Issues in Literacy and Bilingual/Multicultural Education. Harvard Educational Review Reprint. Series No. 22.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minami, Masahiko, Ed.; Kennedy, Bruce P., Ed.

This collection of articles related to language issues and literacy and bilingual and multicultural education include the following: "Three Processes in the Child's Acquisition of Syntax" (Roger Brown and Ursula Bellugi); "Pre-School Children's Knowledge of English Phonology" (Charles Read); "Stages in Language Development and Reading Exposure"…

Mi Lengua: Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roca, Ana, Ed.; Colombi, M. Cecilia, Ed.

This collection of papers includes the following: (1) "Insights from Research and Practice in Spanish as a Heritage Language" (M. Cecilia Colombi and Ana Roca); (2) "Toward a Theory of Heritage Language Acquisition: Spanish in the United States" (Andrew Lynch); (3) "Profiles of SNS Students in the Twenty-First Century:…

Learning across Languages: Bilingual Experience Supports Dual Language Statistical Word Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antovich, Dylan M.; Graf Estes, Katharine

2018-01-01

Bilingual acquisition presents learning challenges beyond those found in monolingual environments, including the need to segment speech in two languages. Infants may use statistical cues, such as syllable-level transitional probabilities, to segment words from fluent speech. In the present study we assessed monolingual and bilingual 14-month-olds'…

3-Year-Olds' Comprehension, Production, and Generalization of Sesotho Passives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demuth, Katherine; Moloi, Francina; Machobane, Malillo

2010-01-01

Researchers have long been puzzled by the challenge English passive constructions present for language learners, with adult-like comprehension and production emerging only around the age of 5. It has therefore been of significant interest that researchers of other languages, including the Bantu language Sesotho, have reported acquisition of the…

Telemetry Monitoring and Display Using LabVIEW

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wells, George; Baroth, Edmund C.

1993-01-01

The Measurement Technology Center of the Instrumentation Section configures automated data acquisition systems to meet the diverse needs of JPL's experimental research community. These systems are based on personal computers or workstations (Apple, IBM/Compatible, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems) and often include integrated data analysis, visualization and experiment control functions in addition to data acquisition capabilities. These integrated systems may include sensors, signal conditioning, data acquisition interface cards, software, and a user interface. Graphical programming is used to simplify configuration of such systems. Employment of a graphical programming language is the most important factor in enabling the implementation of data acquisition, analysis, display and visualization systems at low cost. Other important factors are the use of commercial software packages and off-the-shelf data acquisition hardware where possible. Understanding the experimenter's needs is also critical. An interactive approach to user interface construction and training of operators is also important. One application was created as a result of a competative effort between a graphical programming language team and a text-based C language programming team to verify the advantages of using a graphical programming language approach. With approximately eight weeks of funding over a period of three months, the text-based programming team accomplished about 10% of the basic requirements, while the Macintosh/LabVIEW team accomplished about 150%, having gone beyond the original requirements to simulate a telemetry stream and provide utility programs. This application verified that using graphical programming can significantly reduce software development time. As a result of this initial effort, additional follow-on work was awarded to the graphical programming team.

L2 Interactional Competence and Development. Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Joan Kelly; Hellermann, John; Doehler, Simona Pekarek

2011-01-01

Drawing on data from a range of contexts, including classrooms, pharmacy consultations, tutoring sessions, and video-game playing, and a range of languages including English, German, French, Danish and Icelandic, the studies in this volume address challenges suggested by these questions: What kinds of interactional resources do L2 users draw on to…

Language Acquisition without an Acquisition Device

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Grady, William

2012-01-01

Most explanatory work on first and second language learning assumes the primacy of the acquisition phenomenon itself, and a good deal of work has been devoted to the search for an "acquisition device" that is specific to humans, and perhaps even to language. I will consider the possibility that this strategy is misguided and that language…

Incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary through brief multi-modal exposure.

PubMed

Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J

2013-01-01

First language acquisition requires relatively little effort compared to foreign language acquisition and happens more naturally through informal learning. Informal exposure can also benefit foreign language learning, although evidence for this has been limited to speech perception and production. An important question is whether informal exposure to spoken foreign language also leads to vocabulary learning through the creation of form-meaning links. Here we tested the impact of exposure to foreign language words presented with pictures in an incidental learning phase on subsequent explicit foreign language learning. In the explicit learning phase, we asked adults to learn translation equivalents of foreign language words, some of which had appeared in the incidental learning phase. Results revealed rapid learning of the foreign language words in the incidental learning phase showing that informal exposure to multi-modal foreign language leads to foreign language vocabulary acquisition. The creation of form-meaning links during the incidental learning phase is discussed.

A Cross-Linguistic Study of the Acquisition of Clitic and Pronoun Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Belletti, Adriana; Costa, João; Friedmann, Naama; Gavarró, Anna; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Tuller, Laurice; Lobo, Maria; Andelkovic, Darinka; Argemí, Núria; Avram, Larisa; Berends, Sanne; Brunetto, Valentina; Delage, Hélène; Ezeizabarrena, María-José; Fattal, Iris; Haman, Ewa; van Hout, Angeliek; de López, Kristine Jensen; Katsos, Napoleon; Kologranic, Lana; Krstic, Nadezda; Kraljevic, Jelena Kuvac; Miekisz, Aneta; Nerantzini, Michaela; Queraltó, Clara; Radic, Zeljana; Ruiz, Sílvia; Sauerland, Uli; Sevcenco, Anca; Smoczynska, Magdalena; Theodorou, Eleni; van der Lely, Heather; Veenstra, Alma; Weston, John; Yachini, Maya; Yatsushiro, Kazuko

2016-01-01

This study develops a single elicitation method to test the acquisition of third-person pronominal objects in 5-year-olds for 16 languages. This methodology allows us to compare the acquisition of pronominals in languages that lack object clitics ("pronoun languages") with languages that employ clitics in the relevant context…

Some Implications of Research in Second Language Acquisition for Foreign Language Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lombardo, Linda

On the continuum along which theories of first and second language acquisition are located, the two extremes represent the classic controversy of nature (nativist) vs. nurture (environmentalist), while those in the middle view language acquisition as a result of a more or less balanced interaction between innate capacities and linguistic…

Effects of a Treatment Package to Facilitate English/Language Arts Learning for Middle School Students with Moderate to Severe Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mims, Pamela J.; Lee, Angel; Browder, Diane M.; Zakas, Tracie-Lynn; Flynn, Susan

2012-01-01

This pilot study sought to develop and evaluate the use of a treatment package that included systematic and direct instruction on acquisition of literacy skills aligned with middle school English/Language Arts standards for students with moderate to severe disabilities, including autism. Participants included five teachers and 15 middle school…

Current Research in Southeast Asia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beh, Yolanda

1991-01-01

Summaries of seven language-related research projects are presented from Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Topics include a lexicon of Kelabit, cognitive theory for second-language acquisition, academic writing in Filipino, cultural politics of English instruction, use of conjunctions, and communicative grammar. (LB)

Predictors of second language acquisition in Latino children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela; Sweet, Monica

2012-02-01

This study evaluated the extent to which the language of intervention, the child's development in Spanish, and the effects of English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure predict differences in the rates of acquisition of English in Latino children with specific language impairment (SLI). In this randomized controlled trial, 188 Latino preschoolers with SLI participated in a small-group academic enrichment program for 12 weeks and were followed up 3 and 5 months later. Children were randomly assigned to either a bilingual or an English-only program. Predictors of English growth included measures of Spanish language skills and English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure. Performance on English outcomes (i.e., picture description and narrative sample) was assessed over time. A series of longitudinal models were tested via multilevel modeling with baseline and posttreatment measures nested within child. Children demonstrated growth on the English outcomes over time. The language of intervention, Spanish skills, English vocabulary, and English use significantly predicted differences in rates of growth across children for specific measures of English development. This study underscores the role of the child's first language skills, the child's level of English vocabulary development, and level of English use for predicting differences in English acquisition in Latino preschoolers with SLI. These factors should be carefully considered in making clinical decisions.

Age and Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collard, Lucien

1977-01-01

An investigation of the differences between first and second language acquisition and the relationship between age and second language learning. The stages in native language acquisition and the advantages of an early start in second language learning are discussed. (AMH)

Readings on English as a Second Language for Teachers and Teacher Trainees. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Croft, Kenneth, Ed.

Thirty-five articles on teaching English as a second language are presented under the following headings: (1) "Trends and Practices," (2) "The Matter of Errors," (3) "Second Language Acquisition," (4) "Speaking and Understanding," (5) "Reading and Writing," (6) "Vocabulary," (7) "Testing," and (8) "The Matter of Culture." Authors include Clifford…

Taking a Social Turn for the Worse: The Language Socialization Paradigm for Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregg, Kevin R.

2006-01-01

In recent years, a number of researchers in the field of second language acquisition have voiced discontent regarding the tendency of second language acquisition (SLA) research to be conducted within a framework of cognitive science (Firth and Wagner, 1997; Atkinson, 2002; Johnson, 2004). Watson-Gegeo (2004) expresses this same discontent, and…

The Parameter of Aspect in Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slabakova, Roumyana

1999-01-01

Presents a detailed study of the second-language (L2) acquisition of English aspect by native speakers of Slavic languages. Results bring new evidence to bear on the theoretical choice between direct access to the L2 value or starting out the process of acquisition with the first-language value of a parameter, supporting the latter view.…

Language Acquisition and Assessment in Normal and Handicapped Preschool Children: A Review of the Literature. Final Report. Volume II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longhurst, Thomas M.

The second of four documents provides a summary of the scientific literature pertaining to spontaneous language acquisition in handicapped preschool children, and reviews and evaluates procedures for assessing language acquisition in these children. Chapter l focuses on language development in nonhandicapped children after they have acquired their…

[Environmental and genetic variables related with alterations in language acquisition in early childhood].

PubMed

Moriano-Gutierrez, A; Colomer-Revuelta, J; Sanjuan, J; Carot-Sierra, J M

2017-01-01

A great deal of research has addressed problems in the correct acquisition of language, but with few overall conclusions. The reasons for this lie in the individual variability, the existence of different measures for assessing language and the fact that a complex network of genetic and environmental factors are involved in its development. To review the environmental and genetic variables that have been studied to date, in order to gain a better under-standing of the causes of specific language impairment and create new evidence that can help in the development of screening systems for the early detection of these disorders. The environmental variables related with poorer early child language development include male gender, low level of education of the mother, familial history of problems with language or psychiatric problems, perinatal problems and health problems in early childhood. Bilingualism seems to be a protective factor. Temperament and language are related. Within the genetic factors there are several specific genes associated with language, two of which have a greater influence on its physiological acquisition: FOXP2 and CNTNAP2. The other genes that are most related with specific language disorders are ATP2C2, CMIP, ROBO2, ZNF277 and NOP9. The key to comprehending the development of specific language disorders lies in reaching an understanding of the true role played by genes in the ontogenesis, in the regulation of the different developmental processes, and how this role is modulated by the environment.

76 FR 3120 - Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program; Office of English Language...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-19

... English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English.... Barrera, Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director, Office of English Language Acquisition, Language... learners (ELs) \\1\\, and to promote parental and community participation in language instruction educational...

48 CFR 1552.239-70 - Rehabilitation act notice.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Rehabilitation act notice. 1552.239-70 Section 1552.239-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... substantially to the language of this clause, including this paragraph, unless otherwise authorized by the...

48 CFR 1552.227-76 - Project employee confidentiality agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Project employee confidentiality agreement. 1552.227-76 Section 1552.227-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL... electrical services, provisions which shall conform substantially to the language of this clause, including...

48 CFR 1552.239-70 - Rehabilitation act notice.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Rehabilitation act notice. 1552.239-70 Section 1552.239-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... substantially to the language of this clause, including this paragraph, unless otherwise authorized by the...

48 CFR 1552.227-76 - Project employee confidentiality agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Project employee confidentiality agreement. 1552.227-76 Section 1552.227-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL... electrical services, provisions which shall conform substantially to the language of this clause, including...

48 CFR 1552.227-76 - Project employee confidentiality agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Project employee confidentiality agreement. 1552.227-76 Section 1552.227-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL... electrical services, provisions which shall conform substantially to the language of this clause, including...

44 CFR 80.13 - Application information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... HOMELAND SECURITY INSURANCE AND HAZARD MITIGATION National Flood Insurance Program PROPERTY ACQUISITION AND... acquisition of property for the purpose of open space must include: (1) A photograph that represents the... language, which shall be consistent with the FEMA model deed restriction that the local government will...

48 CFR 1552.239-70 - Rehabilitation act notice.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Rehabilitation act notice. 1552.239-70 Section 1552.239-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... substantially to the language of this clause, including this paragraph, unless otherwise authorized by the...

48 CFR 1552.227-76 - Project employee confidentiality agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Project employee confidentiality agreement. 1552.227-76 Section 1552.227-76 Federal Acquisition Regulations System ENVIRONMENTAL... electrical services, provisions which shall conform substantially to the language of this clause, including...

Parallel Architecture, Parallel Acquisition Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Nominal and Verbal Domains

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutton, Brett R.

2017-01-01

This dissertation explores parallels between Complementizer Phrase (CP) and Determiner Phrase (DP) semantics, syntax, and morphology--including similarities in case-assignment, subject-verb and possessor-possessum agreement, subject and possessor semantics, and overall syntactic structure--in first language acquisition. Applying theoretical…

Societal Responses to Adult Difficulties in L2 Acquisition: Toward an Evolutionary Perspective on Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumann, John H.

2013-01-01

It is generally accepted that second language (L2) acquisition becomes more difficult as one grows older and that success in adult L2 acquisition is highly variable. Nevertheless, humans in language contact situations have to cope with intergroup communication. This article examines the ways society has responded to this challenge. It describes…

Is CALL Obsolete? Language Acquisition and Language Learning Revisited in a Digital Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarvis, Huw; Krashen, Stephen

2014-01-01

In this article, Huw Jarvis and Stephen Krashen ask "Is CALL Obsolete?" When the term CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) was introduced in the 1960s, the language education profession knew only about language learning, not language acquisition, and assumed the computer's primary contribution to second language acquisition…

75 FR 60261 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Award-Fee Language Revision

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-29

...-AL42 Federal Acquisition Regulation; Award-Fee Language Revision AGENCIES: Department of Defense (DoD...: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have adopted as final, with changes, the interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition...

Rapid Profile: A Second Language Screening Procedure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackey, Alison; And Others

1991-01-01

Rapid Profile, developed by Manfred Pienemann of National Languages Institute of Australia/Language Acquisition Research Centre, is a computer-based procedure for screening speech samples collected from language learners to assess their level of language development as compared to standard patterns in the acquisition of the target language. Rapid…

44 CFR 80.13 - Application information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... ACQUISITION AND RELOCATION FOR OPEN SPACE Requirements Prior to Award § 80.13 Application information. (a) An application for acquisition of property for the purpose of open space must include: (1) A photograph that... deed restriction language, which shall be consistent with the FEMA model deed restriction that the...

44 CFR 80.13 - Application information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... ACQUISITION AND RELOCATION FOR OPEN SPACE Requirements Prior to Award § 80.13 Application information. (a) An application for acquisition of property for the purpose of open space must include: (1) A photograph that... deed restriction language, which shall be consistent with the FEMA model deed restriction that the...

44 CFR 80.13 - Application information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... ACQUISITION AND RELOCATION FOR OPEN SPACE Requirements Prior to Award § 80.13 Application information. (a) An application for acquisition of property for the purpose of open space must include: (1) A photograph that... deed restriction language, which shall be consistent with the FEMA model deed restriction that the...

Second Language Learning by Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California Child Development Programs Advisory Committee, Sacramento.

Six papers presented at a conference on early childhood first and second language acquisition sponsored by the California state legislature's Child Development Programs Advisory Committee include: "Bilingual Development and the Education of Bilingual Children During Early Childhood" (Eugene E. Garcia); "An English-Only Preschool Program" (William…

Input and Intake in Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gagliardi, Ann C.

2012-01-01

This dissertation presents an approach for a productive way forward in the study of language acquisition, sealing the rift between claims of an innate linguistic hypothesis space and powerful domain general statistical inference. This approach breaks language acquisition into its component parts, distinguishing the input in the environment from…

Syntactic Markedness and Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazurkewich, Irene

1985-01-01

Argues that Chomsky's theory of generative grammar provides a model for second language acquisition that meets the criteria of descriptive and exploratory adequacy in accounting for the language learning process. Illustrates this by presenting data on the acquisition of dative complements and dative questions in a passive context by second…

The Road to Language Learning Is Not Entirely Iconic: Iconicity, Neighborhood Density, and Frequency Facilitate Acquisition of Sign Language.

PubMed

Caselli, Naomi K; Pyers, Jennie E

2017-07-01

Iconic mappings between words and their meanings are far more prevalent than once estimated and seem to support children's acquisition of new words, spoken or signed. We asked whether iconicity's prevalence in sign language overshadows two other factors known to support the acquisition of spoken vocabulary: neighborhood density (the number of lexical items phonologically similar to the target) and lexical frequency. Using mixed-effects logistic regressions, we reanalyzed 58 parental reports of native-signing deaf children's productive acquisition of 332 signs in American Sign Language (ASL; Anderson & Reilly, 2002) and found that iconicity, neighborhood density, and lexical frequency independently facilitated vocabulary acquisition. Despite differences in iconicity and phonological structure between signed and spoken language, signing children, like children learning a spoken language, track statistical information about lexical items and their phonological properties and leverage this information to expand their vocabulary.

Bilingual Language Acquisition in a Minority Context: Using the Irish-English Communicative Development Inventory to Track Acquisition of an Endangered Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Toole, Ciara; Hickey, Tina M.

2017-01-01

This study investigated the role of language exposure in vocabulary acquisition in Irish, a threatened minority language in Ireland which is usually acquired with English in a bilingual context. Using a bilingual Irish-English adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories) [Fenson, L., V. A. Marchman, D. J. Thal, P. S.…

School Libraries Addressing the Needs of ELL Students: Enhancing Language Acquisition, Confidence, and Cultural Fluency in ELL Students by Developing a Targeted Collection and Enriching Your Makerspace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Peggy Henderson

2018-01-01

English Language Learner (ELL) students are sometimes a small constituency. Many resources already in the library can be used to enhance their language acquisition, confidence, and cultural fluency--resources such as graphic novels, hi-lo books, and makerspace materials. This article discusses enhancing language acquisition, confidence, and…

Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis. Second Language Acquisition Research: Theoretical and Methodological Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birdsong, David, Ed.

This book considers the question of whether, or to what extent, a critical period limits the acquisition of a first language as well as a second language acquired postpubertally. The diversity of opinion on this question is represented in this volume. It is a question that has been approached by researchers working in linguistic theory, evolution…

Learning-related brain hemispheric dominance in sleeping songbirds.

PubMed

Moorman, Sanne; Gobes, Sharon M H; van de Kamp, Ferdinand C; Zandbergen, Matthijs A; Bolhuis, Johan J

2015-03-12

There are striking behavioural and neural parallels between the acquisition of speech in humans and song learning in songbirds. In humans, language-related brain activation is mostly lateralised to the left hemisphere. During language acquisition in humans, brain hemispheric lateralisation develops as language proficiency increases. Sleep is important for the formation of long-term memory, in humans as well as in other animals, including songbirds. Here, we measured neuronal activation (as the expression pattern of the immediate early gene ZENK) during sleep in juvenile zebra finch males that were still learning their songs from a tutor. We found that during sleep, there was learning-dependent lateralisation of spontaneous neuronal activation in the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), a secondary auditory brain region that is involved in tutor song memory, while there was right hemisphere dominance of neuronal activation in HVC (used as a proper name), a premotor nucleus that is involved in song production and sensorimotor learning. Specifically, in the NCM, birds that imitated their tutors well were left dominant, while poor imitators were right dominant, similar to language-proficiency related lateralisation in humans. Given the avian-human parallels, lateralised neural activation during sleep may also be important for speech and language acquisition in human infants.

Learning-related brain hemispheric dominance in sleeping songbirds

PubMed Central

Moorman, Sanne; Gobes, Sharon M. H.; van de Kamp, Ferdinand C.; Zandbergen, Matthijs A.; Bolhuis, Johan J.

2015-01-01

There are striking behavioural and neural parallels between the acquisition of speech in humans and song learning in songbirds. In humans, language-related brain activation is mostly lateralised to the left hemisphere. During language acquisition in humans, brain hemispheric lateralisation develops as language proficiency increases. Sleep is important for the formation of long-term memory, in humans as well as in other animals, including songbirds. Here, we measured neuronal activation (as the expression pattern of the immediate early gene ZENK) during sleep in juvenile zebra finch males that were still learning their songs from a tutor. We found that during sleep, there was learning-dependent lateralisation of spontaneous neuronal activation in the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), a secondary auditory brain region that is involved in tutor song memory, while there was right hemisphere dominance of neuronal activation in HVC (used as a proper name), a premotor nucleus that is involved in song production and sensorimotor learning. Specifically, in the NCM, birds that imitated their tutors well were left dominant, while poor imitators were right dominant, similar to language-proficiency related lateralisation in humans. Given the avian-human parallels, lateralised neural activation during sleep may also be important for speech and language acquisition in human infants. PMID:25761654

Language Acquisition as Rational Contingency Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Nick C.

2006-01-01

This paper considers how fluent language users are rational in their language processing, their unconscious language representation systems optimally prepared for comprehension and production, how language learners are intuitive statisticians, and how acquisition can be understood as contingency learning. But there are important aspects of second…

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence from Word Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-01-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's "cognitive plausibility." We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition…

Incidental Foreign-Language Acquisition by Children Watching Subtitled Television Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ina, Lekkai

2014-01-01

Series of international studies have shown that subtitled television programs provide a rich context for foreign language acquisition. This study investigated whether incidental language acquisition occurs from watching a television program with/without subtitles. Children in the experimental conditions watch: (a) a 15 minute snapshot of a well…

Language Acquisitional Universals: L1, L2, Pidgins, and FLT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wode, Henning

Human capacity for language acquisition is not strictly compartmentalized, with one acquisitional mechanism for the native language and others totally unrelated to it; rather, it consists of a unified mechanism flexible enough to handle various differences in external settings. This learning system operates on the formal properties of the…

Can Production Precede Comprehension in L2 Acquisition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tasseva-Kurktchieva, Mila

2015-01-01

So far, the comprehension and production language modes have typically been studied separately in generative second language acquisition research, with the focus shifting from one to the other. This article revisits the asymmetric relationship between comprehension and production by examining the second language (L2) acquisition of the noun phrase…

The Comparative Method of Language Acquisition Research: A Mayan Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pye, Clifton; Pfeiler, Barbara

2014-01-01

This article demonstrates how the Comparative Method can be applied to cross-linguistic research on language acquisition. The Comparative Method provides a systematic procedure for organizing and interpreting acquisition data from different languages. The Comparative Method controls for cross-linguistic differences at all levels of the grammar and…

Language Acquisition: The Age Factor. Multilingual Matters 47.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singleton, David

This book provides an overview of research and thinking on age-related dimensions of language acquisition, intended for students, researchers, and educators with some experience in linguistics and applied linguistics. The first chapter introduces the variety of issues associated with age and language acquisition. Chapter 2 examines the evidence…

L3 Acquisition of German Adjectival Inflection: A Generative Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaensch, Carol

2011-01-01

Studies testing the knowledge of syntactic properties have resulted in two potentially contrasting proposals in relation to third language acquisition (TLA); the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn et al., 2004), which proposes that previously learned languages will positively affect the acquisition of a third language (L3); and the "second…

[First language acquisition research and theories of language acquisition].

PubMed

Miller, S; Jungheim, M; Ptok, M

2014-04-01

In principle, a child can seemingly easily acquire any given language. First language acquisition follows a certain pattern which to some extent is found to be language independent. Since time immemorial, it has been of interest why children are able to acquire language so easily. Different disciplinary and methodological orientations addressing this question can be identified. A selective literature search in PubMed and Scopus was carried out and relevant monographies were considered. Different, partially overlapping phases can be distinguished in language acquisition research: whereas in ancient times, deprivation experiments were carried out to discover the "original human language", the era of diary studies began in the mid-19th century. From the mid-1920s onwards, behaviouristic paradigms dominated this field of research; interests were focussed on the determination of normal, average language acquisition. The subsequent linguistic period was strongly influenced by the nativist view of Chomsky and the constructivist concepts of Piaget. Speech comprehension, the role of speech input and the relevance of genetic disposition became the centre of attention. The interactionist concept led to a revival of the convergence theory according to Stern. Each of these four major theories--behaviourism, cognitivism, interactionism and nativism--have given valuable and unique impulses, but no single theory is universally accepted to provide an explanation of all aspects of language acquisition. Moreover, it can be critically questioned whether clinicians consciously refer to one of these theories in daily routine work and whether therapies are then based on this concept. It remains to be seen whether or not new theories of grammar, such as the so-called construction grammar (CxG), will eventually change the general concept of language acquisition.

A Statistical-Physics Approach to Language Acquisition and Language Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cassandro, Marzio; Collet, Pierre; Galves, Antonio; Galves, Charlotte

1999-02-01

The aim of this paper is to explain why Statistical Physics can help understanding two related linguistic questions. The first question is how to model first language acquisition by a child. The second question is how language change proceeds in time. Our approach is based on a Gibbsian model for the interface between syntax and prosody. We also present a simulated annealing model of language acquisition, which extends the Triggering Learning Algorithm recently introduced in the linguistic literature.

Predictors of Second Language Acquisition in Latino Children With Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Gutiérrez-Clellen, Vera; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela; Sweet, Monica

2012-01-01

Purpose This study evaluated the extent to which the language of intervention, the child’s development in Spanish, and the effects of English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure predict differences in the rates of acquisition of English in Latino children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method In this randomized controlled trial, 188 Latino preschoolers with SLI participated in a small-group academic enrichment program for 12 weeks and were followed up 3 and 5 months later. Children were randomly assigned to either a bilingual or an English-only program. Predictors of English growth included measures of Spanish language skills and English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure. Performance on English outcomes (i.e., picture description and narrative sample) was assessed over time. A series of longitudinal models were tested via multilevel modeling with baseline and posttreatment measures nested within child. Results Children demonstrated growth on the English outcomes over time. The language of intervention, Spanish skills, English vocabulary, and English use significantly predicted differences in rates of growth across children for specific measures of English development. Conclusions This study underscores the role of the child’s first language skills, the child’s level of English vocabulary development, and level of English use for predicting differences in English acquisition in Latino preschoolers with SLI. These factors should be carefully considered in making clinical decisions. PMID:22230174

48 CFR 1852.214-70 - Caution to offerors furnishing descriptive literature.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Caution to offerors furnishing descriptive literature. 1852.214-70 Section 1852.214-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System... literature that includes language reserving to the bidder the right to deviate from the requirements of the...

48 CFR 1052.219-75 - Mentor Requirements and Evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Mentor Requirements and Evaluation. 1052.219-75 Section 1052.219-75 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... to the non-price factors. If this incentive is used, the contracting officer shall include language...

48 CFR 1052.219-75 - Mentor Requirements and Evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Mentor Requirements and Evaluation. 1052.219-75 Section 1052.219-75 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... to the non-price factors. If this incentive is used, the contracting officer shall include language...

48 CFR 1052.219-75 - Mentor Requirements and Evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Mentor Requirements and Evaluation. 1052.219-75 Section 1052.219-75 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... to the non-price factors. If this incentive is used, the contracting officer shall include language...

48 CFR 1052.219-75 - Mentor Requirements and Evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Mentor Requirements and Evaluation. 1052.219-75 Section 1052.219-75 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... to the non-price factors. If this incentive is used, the contracting officer shall include language...

"Voices" and "Voces": Cultural and Linguistic Dimensions of Giftedness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Ellen Riojas; Gonzalez, Virginia

1998-01-01

Assessments of a 6-year-old Spanish monolingual and 5-year-old bilingual children included a home-language survey, parents' and teachers' ratings, cartoon conservation scales, and standardized tests. Nonverbal cognitive development was shown to influence language acquisition. Cultural and linguistic factors affected children differently. (SK)

Language Acquisition and Language Revitalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Grady, William; Hattori, Ryoko

2016-01-01

Intergenerational transmission, the ultimate goal of language revitalization efforts, can only be achieved by (re)establishing the conditions under which an imperiled language can be acquired by the community's children. This paper presents a tutorial survey of several key points relating to language acquisition and maintenance in children,…

First language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: Evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British Sign Language

PubMed Central

Cormier, Kearsy; Schembri, Adam; Vinson, David; Orfanidou, Eleni

2012-01-01

Age of acquisition (AoA) effects have been used to support the notion of a critical period for first language acquisition. In this study, we examine AoA effects in deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users via a grammaticality judgment task. When English reading performance and nonverbal IQ are factored out, results show that accuracy of grammaticality judgement decreases as AoA increases, until around age 8, thus showing the unique effect of AoA on grammatical judgement in early learners. No such effects were found in those who acquired BSL after age 8. These late learners appear to have first language proficiency in English instead, which may have been used to scaffold learning of BSL as a second language later in life. PMID:22578601

Examining the Relationship between Interaction and Linguistic Outcomes: Is the Online Learning Environment a Viable Alternative to Traditional Classroom Instruction for Beginning Language Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flesvig Bruland, Nicole

2013-01-01

Many in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) agree that interaction is a critical component in the process of second language acquisition (Hatch 1978; Long, 1996; Pica 1994). According to Long (1996), second language (L2) learners have the best chance of successful L2 acquisition when placed in an environment in which conversational…

Formulas in First and Second Language Acquisition. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, No. 18.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vihman, Marilyn May

The use of formulaic speech is seen as a learning strategy in children's first language (L1) acquisition to a limited extent, and to an even greater extent in their second language (L2) acquisition. While the first utterances of the child learning L1 are mostly one-word constructions, many of them are routine words or phrases that the child learns…

A Minimalist Approach to Null Subjects and Objects in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, H.

2004-01-01

Studies of the second language acquisition of pronominal arguments have observed that: (1) L1 speakers of null subject languages of the Spanish type drop more subjects in their second language (L2) English than first language (L1) speakers of null subject languages of the Korean type and (2) speakers of Korean-type languages drop more objects than…

The Missing Link in Vision and Governance: Foreign Language Acquisition Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramsch, Claire J.

1987-01-01

Foreign language acquisition research (concerned with the theoretical and practical issues related to socialization into and literacy in another language and culture) can help integrate language, literature, and culture in foreign language departments because it draws on insights gained from such diverse fields as anthropology, sociology,…

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Technology in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Cheng-Chieh; Kritsonis, William Allan

2006-01-01

The purpose of this article is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of computer technology and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs for current second language learning. According to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs' report (2002), more than nine million…

Usage-Based Language: Investigating the Latent Structures That Underpin Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Nick C.; O'Donnell, Matthew Brook; Romer, Ute

2013-01-01

Each of us as language learners had different language experiences, yet somehow we have converged upon broadly the same language system. From diverse, often noisy samples, we have attained similar linguistic competence. How so? What mechanisms channel language acquisition? Could our linguistic commonalities possibly have converged from our shared…

Revisiting First Language Acquisition through Empirical and Rational Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tahriri, Abdorreza

2012-01-01

Acquisition in general and first language acquisition in particular is a very complex and a multifaceted phenomenon. The way that children acquire a language in a very limited period is astonishing. Various approaches have been proposed so far to account for this extraordinary phenomenon. These approaches are indeed based on various philosophical…

Some Aspects of Developing Background Knowledge in Second Language Acquisition Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zashchitina, Galina; Moysyak, Natalia

2017-01-01

The article focuses on defining how background knowledge impacts on second-language acquisition by giving a brief overview of schema theory, the interaction of the basic modes of information processing. A challenge of dealing with culturally specific texts in second language acquisition is also touched upon. Different research-supported views on…

A Shared Platform for Studying Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacWhinney, Brian

2017-01-01

The study of second language acquisition (SLA) can benefit from the same process of datasharing that has proven effective in areas such as first language acquisition and aphasiology. Researchers can work together to construct a shared platform that combines data from spoken and written corpora, online tutors, and Web-based experimentation. Many of…

Assess the Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Du, Lihong

2010-01-01

The Critical Period Hypothesis aims to investigate the reason for significant difference between first language acquisition and second language acquisition. Over the past few decades, researchers carried out a series of studies to test the validity of the hypothesis. Although there were certain limitations in these studies, most of their results…

Specific Cognitive Antecedents of Structures and Functions Involved in Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moerk, Ernst L.

1973-01-01

The antecedents of verbal behavior, together with the teaching skills of the adult linguistic community, probably constitute all the necessary bases for language acquisition. As they seemed to be sufficient for the explanation of all the known phenomena, an assumption of an innate linguistic language acquisition device was rejected as superfluous.…

Field Dependence/Independence in Second Language Acquisition and Implications for Educators and Instructional Designers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Suzanne Q.

1997-01-01

Discusses whether the relationship between field dependence/independence (FD/I) and second-language acquisition is significant. The article contains introductory material defining FD/I within the context of second-language acquisition, a review of relevant research, and a discussion of the research's implications for educators and instructional…

Environmental Influence on Language Acquisition: Comparing Second and Foreign Language Acquisition of Swedish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakansson, Gisela; Norrby, Catrin

2010-01-01

This article explores the influence of the learning environment on the second language acquisition of Swedish. Data were collected longitudinally over 1 year from 35 university students studying Swedish in Malmo, Sweden, and in Melbourne, Australia. Three areas were investigated: grammar, pragmatics, and lexicon. The development of grammar was…

Caregivers' suffix frequencies and suffix acquisition by language impaired, late talking, and typically developing children.

PubMed

Warlaumont, Anne S; Jarmulowicz, Linda

2012-11-01

Acquisition of regular inflectional suffixes is an integral part of grammatical development in English and delayed acquisition of certain inflectional suffixes is a hallmark of language impairment. We investigate the relationship between input frequency and grammatical suffix acquisition, analyzing 217 transcripts of mother-child (ages 1 ; 11-6 ; 9) conversations from the CHILDES database. Maternal suffix frequency correlates with previously reported rank orders of acquisition and with child suffix frequency. Percentages of children using a suffix are consistent with frequencies in caregiver speech. Although late talkers acquire suffixes later than typically developing children, order of acquisition is similar across populations. Furthermore, the third person singular and past tense verb suffixes, weaknesses for children with language impairment, are less frequent in caregiver speech than the plural noun suffix, a relative strength in language impairment. Similar findings hold across typical, SLI and late talker populations, suggesting that frequency plays a role in suffix acquisition.

Early Visual Language Exposure and Emergent Literacy in Preschool Deaf Children: Findings from a National Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Thomas E.; Letteri, Amy; Choi, Song Hoa; Dang, Daqian

2014-01-01

A brief review is provided of recent research on the impact of early visual language exposure on a variety of developmental outcomes, including literacy, cognition, and social adjustment. This body of work points to the great importance of giving young deaf children early exposure to a visual language as a critical precursor to the acquisition of…

Factors Influencing Oral Corrective Feedback Provision in the Spanish Foreign Language Classroom: Investigating Instructor Native/Nonnative Speaker Status, SLA Education, & Teaching Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gurzynski-Weiss, Laura

2010-01-01

The role of interactional feedback has been a critical area of second language acquisition (SLA) research for decades and while findings suggest interactional feedback can facilitate SLA, the extent of its influence can vary depending on a number of factors, including the native language of those involved in communication. Although studies have…

76 FR 18538 - Applications for New Awards; National Professional Development Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-04

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION [CFDA 84.195N] Applications for New Awards; National Professional Development Program AGENCY: Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic... Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students...

The Goldwater Nichols Act of 1986: 30 Years of Acquisition Reform

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

making it more difficult to purchase commercial items from a sole source when the value is above the simplified acquisition threshold; such language ...that private-sector witnesses supported language in the bill that proposed “an aggressive training program for the acquisition workforce” because “a...TECHNOLOGICAL EDGE ACT (2015) The most recent effort before the current sweeping reform language proposed in the 2017 NDAA was the Agile Acquisition to Retain

Task-Oriented Language Acquisition and the Advanced Learner of French.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rolin-Ianziti, Jeanne; McCarthy, Brian

A new third-year French textbook, in its introduction, describes its rationale and construction. The book's main objective is to provide authentic material for developing students' linguistic skills, focusing on language learning rather than civilization but including a cultural component. The textbook's organization is based on 20 recorded…

Speech Acts across Cultures: Challenges to Communication in a Second Language. Studies on Language Acquisition, 11.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gass, Susan M., Ed.; Neu, Joyce, Ed.

Articles on speech acts and intercultural communication include: "Investigating the Production of Speech Act Sets" (Andrew Cohen); "Non-Native Refusals: A Methodological Perspective" (Noel Houck, Susan M. Gass); "Natural Speech Act Data versus Written Questionnaire Data: How Data Collection Method Affects Speech Act…

Exploring Regularities and Dynamic Systems in L2 Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenzing, Anke

2015-01-01

This article focuses on a theoretical and empirical exploration of developmental trajectories and individual learner variation in second language (L2) acquisition. Taking a processability perspective, I view learner language as a dynamic system that includes predictable universal developmental trajectories as well as individual learner variation,…

The Power of Stories: Facilitating Social Communication in Children with Limited Language Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brinton, Bonnie; Fujiki, Martin

2017-01-01

Children with limited language expression and comprehension abilities are at risk for academic failure, particularly in literacy acquisition. In addition, these children often have poor social outcomes, including difficulty forming friendships, social exclusion, withdrawal, and victimization. The academic and social difficulties that these…

Language plus for international graduate students in nursing.

PubMed

Julian, M A; Keane, A; Davidson, K

1999-01-01

To provide information about an English-language support program that focuses on the needs of international graduate nursing students. The growing presence of these students coincides with the increasing numbers of universities committed to world health. Crucial social and language competence affect the success and progress of international students in graduate nursing programs. Reviewed literature was 1980 to 1998, in nursing and applied linguistic research including second-language acquisition, phonology, discourse analysis, and language pragmatics to identify social and language phenomena. Investigators suggest essential elements such as conventions of academic writing, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and pronunciation skills be included in the supportive Language Plus program. Ongoing development of the Language Plus program can promote collaboration between nurses and linguists and increase the success of international graduate nursing students.

First language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British Sign Language.

PubMed

Cormier, Kearsy; Schembri, Adam; Vinson, David; Orfanidou, Eleni

2012-07-01

Age of acquisition (AoA) effects have been used to support the notion of a critical period for first language acquisition. In this study, we examine AoA effects in deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users via a grammaticality judgment task. When English reading performance and nonverbal IQ are factored out, results show that accuracy of grammaticality judgement decreases as AoA increases, until around age 8, thus showing the unique effect of AoA on grammatical judgement in early learners. No such effects were found in those who acquired BSL after age 8. These late learners appear to have first language proficiency in English instead, which may have been used to scaffold learning of BSL as a second language later in life. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience

PubMed Central

Marshall, Chloë; Jones, Anna; Denmark, Tanya; Mason, Kathryn; Atkinson, Joanna; Botting, Nicola; Morgan, Gary

2015-01-01

Several recent studies have suggested that deaf children perform more poorly on working memory tasks compared to hearing children, but these studies have not been able to determine whether this poorer performance arises directly from deafness itself or from deaf children's reduced language exposure. The issue remains unresolved because findings come mostly from (1) tasks that are verbal as opposed to non-verbal, and (2) involve deaf children who use spoken communication and therefore may have experienced impoverished input and delayed language acquisition. This is in contrast to deaf children who have been exposed to a sign language since birth from Deaf parents (and who therefore have native language-learning opportunities within a normal developmental timeframe for language acquisition). A more direct, and therefore stronger, test of the hypothesis that the type and quality of language exposure impact working memory is to use measures of non-verbal working memory (NVWM) and to compare hearing children with two groups of deaf signing children: those who have had native exposure to a sign language, and those who have experienced delayed acquisition and reduced quality of language input compared to their native-signing peers. In this study we investigated the relationship between NVWM and language in three groups aged 6–11 years: hearing children (n = 28), deaf children who were native users of British Sign Language (BSL; n = 8), and deaf children who used BSL but who were not native signers (n = 19). We administered a battery of non-verbal reasoning, NVWM, and language tasks. We examined whether the groups differed on NVWM scores, and whether scores on language tasks predicted scores on NVWM tasks. For the two executive-loaded NVWM tasks included in our battery, the non-native signers performed less accurately than the native signer and hearing groups (who did not differ from one another). Multiple regression analysis revealed that scores on the vocabulary measure predicted scores on those two executive-loaded NVWM tasks (with age and non-verbal reasoning partialled out). Our results suggest that whatever the language modality—spoken or signed—rich language experience from birth, and the good language skills that result from this early age of acquisition, play a critical role in the development of NVWM and in performance on NVWM tasks. PMID:25999875

Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism, and Dialectal Variants: Defining the Boundaries, Clarifying Clinical Conditions, and Sorting Out Causes

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this research forum article is to provide an overview of a collection of invited articles on the topic “specific language impairment (SLI) in children with concomitant health conditions or nonmainstream language backgrounds.” Topics include SLI, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, cochlear implants, bilingualism, and dialectal language learning contexts. Method The topic is timely due to current debates about the diagnosis of SLI. An overarching comparative conceptual framework is provided for comparisons of SLI with other clinical conditions. Comparisons of SLI in children with low-normal or normal nonverbal IQ illustrate the unexpected outcomes of 2 × 2 comparison designs. Results Comparative studies reveal unexpected relationships among speech, language, cognitive, and social dimensions of children's development as well as precise ways to identify children with SLI who are bilingual or dialect speakers. Conclusions The diagnosis of SLI is essential for elucidating possible causal pathways of language impairments, risks for language impairments, assessments for identification of language impairments, linguistic dimensions of language impairments, and long-term outcomes. Although children's language acquisition is robust under high levels of risk, unexplained individual variations in language acquisition lead to persistent language impairments. PMID:26502218

Addressing Cultural and Native Language Interference in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allard, Daniele; Bourdeau, Jacqueline; Mizoguchi, Riichiro

2011-01-01

This paper addresses the problem of cultural and native language interference in second/foreign language acquisition. More specifically, it examines issues of interference that can be traced to a student's native language and that also have a cultural component. To this effect, an understanding of what actually comprises both interference and…

On Teaching Strategies in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Hong

2008-01-01

How to acquire a second language is a question of obvious importance to teachers and language learners, and how to teach a second language has also become a matter of concern to the linguists' interest in the nature of primary linguistic data. Starting with the development stages of second language acquisition and Stephen Krashen's theory, this…

Three Fundamental Concepts in Second Language Acquisition and Their Relevance in Multilingual Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramsch, Claire; Whiteside, Anne

2007-01-01

This article considers how 3 fundamental concepts of second language acquisition (SLA), the native speaker, interlanguage, and the language learner have fared since Firth and Wagner (1997). We review the ascendancy of these concepts and their relationship to the traditional dichotomies of language learning versus language use and individual mind…

Verb Particle and Preposition Acquisition in Language-Impaired Preschoolers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watkins, Ruth V.; Rice, Mabel L.

1991-01-01

This study examined the acquisition of verb particles and prepositions in language-impaired, language-matched, and age-matched preschool children (total n=42). Results indicated that the use of verb particles constituted a particularly challenging task for the language-impaired subjects relative to both the age-matched and language-matched peers.…

Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I.

2015-01-01

Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon but also what people are intending to convey with their utterances: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this article we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of…

Assessment of Language Learners' Strategies: Do They Prefer Learning or Acquisition Strategies?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altmisdort, Gonca

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to evaluate learning and acquisition strategies used by second/foreign language learners. This study is a comparative investigation of learning and acquisition strategies of successful and less successful language learners. The main question of the study is to investigate if there is a relationship between the learners'…

Implementing Oral English Language Acquisition Policy in Career and Technical Education Classes: Changing to a Social Pedagogy Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crockett, Kelley E.

2010-01-01

Federal and state policies have long sought to address the social inequities faced by limited English proficient (LEP) students through the improvement of English language acquisition. English language acquisition policy has focused on access to resources, qualified teachers, and instructional methodologies (e.g. pedagogy) that create a learning…

Second Language Acquisition, Culture Shock and Language Stress of Adult Latina Students in New York.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buttaro, Lucia

This study identified the second language acquisition, culture shock, and language stress of adult Latinas in New York as related to language, culture, and education. Participants were eight adult Latinas, for whom Spanish was the first language, who had come to the United States 10-15 years previously and developed some functioning English as a…

"If We Lose Their Language We Lose Our History": Knowledge and Disposition in Maori Language Acquisition Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albury, Nathan John

2018-01-01

Localising knowledge and dispositions helps to predict the likely success of top-down language policies. In so far as language acquisition is a pillar of language revitalisation policy, then community perspectives on learning a minority language deserve attention. This article presents the knowledge, dispositions, and ideas of around 1,300…

48 CFR 728.313 - Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services. 728.313 Section 728.313 Federal Acquisition...) USAID is required by law to include language in all its direct contracts and subcontracts ensuring that...

48 CFR 728.313 - Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services. 728.313 Section 728.313 Federal Acquisition...) USAID is required by law to include language in all its direct contracts and subcontracts ensuring that...

48 CFR 728.313 - Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services. 728.313 Section 728.313 Federal Acquisition...) USAID is required by law to include language in all its direct contracts and subcontracts ensuring that...

48 CFR 728.313 - Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Contract clauses for insurance of transportation or transportation-related services. 728.313 Section 728.313 Federal Acquisition...) USAID is required by law to include language in all its direct contracts and subcontracts ensuring that...

The Comprehension Approach to Foreign Language Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winitz, Harris, Ed.

The comprehension approach to second language education emphasizes acquisition of listening comprehension prior to and as a vehicle for acquisition of other language skills. The following articles on this approach are collected here: (1) "Nonlinear Learning and Language Teaching" (Winitz); (2) "Aital cal aprene las lengas…

Vocabulary Levels and Size of Malaysian Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harji, Madhubala Bava; Balakrishnan, Kavitha; Bhar, Sareen Kaur; Letchumanan, Krishnaveni

2015-01-01

Vocabulary is a fundamental requirement of language acquisition, and its competence enables independent reading and effective language acquisition. Effective language use requires adequate level of vocabulary knowledge; therefore, efforts must be made to identify students' vocabulary base for greater efficiency and competency in the language.…

Music and Early Language Acquisition

PubMed Central

Brandt, Anthony; Gebrian, Molly; Slevc, L. Robert

2012-01-01

Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence. Music, while recognized as a human universal, is often treated as an ancillary ability – one dependent on or derivative of language. In contrast, we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development. PMID:22973254

Music and early language acquisition.

PubMed

Brandt, Anthony; Gebrian, Molly; Slevc, L Robert

2012-01-01

Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence. Music, while recognized as a human universal, is often treated as an ancillary ability - one dependent on or derivative of language. In contrast, we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development.

Acquisition by Processing Theory: A Theory of Everything?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Susanne E.

2004-01-01

Truscott and Sharwood Smith (henceforth T&SS) propose a novel theory of language acquisition, "Acquisition by Processing Theory" (APT), designed to account for both first and second language acquisition, monolingual and bilingual speech perception and parsing, and speech production. This is a tall order. Like any theoretically ambitious…

76 FR 46206 - NASA Implementation of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-02

... of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision AGENCY: National Aeronautics and... Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46. DATES: Effective Date: August 2, 2011. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT... on February 8, 2011 (76 FR 6696) implementing Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46 which...

Exploring the acquisition and production of grammatical constructions through human-robot interaction with echo state networks.

PubMed

Hinaut, Xavier; Petit, Maxime; Pointeau, Gregoire; Dominey, Peter Ford

2014-01-01

One of the principal functions of human language is to allow people to coordinate joint action. This includes the description of events, requests for action, and their organization in time. A crucial component of language acquisition is learning the grammatical structures that allow the expression of such complex meaning related to physical events. The current research investigates the learning of grammatical constructions and their temporal organization in the context of human-robot physical interaction with the embodied sensorimotor humanoid platform, the iCub. We demonstrate three noteworthy phenomena. First, a recurrent network model is used in conjunction with this robotic platform to learn the mappings between grammatical forms and predicate-argument representations of meanings related to events, and the robot's execution of these events in time. Second, this learning mechanism functions in the inverse sense, i.e., in a language production mode, where rather than executing commanded actions, the robot will describe the results of human generated actions. Finally, we collect data from naïve subjects who interact with the robot via spoken language, and demonstrate significant learning and generalization results. This allows us to conclude that such a neural language learning system not only helps to characterize and understand some aspects of human language acquisition, but also that it can be useful in adaptive human-robot interaction.

Exploring the acquisition and production of grammatical constructions through human-robot interaction with echo state networks

PubMed Central

Hinaut, Xavier; Petit, Maxime; Pointeau, Gregoire; Dominey, Peter Ford

2014-01-01

One of the principal functions of human language is to allow people to coordinate joint action. This includes the description of events, requests for action, and their organization in time. A crucial component of language acquisition is learning the grammatical structures that allow the expression of such complex meaning related to physical events. The current research investigates the learning of grammatical constructions and their temporal organization in the context of human-robot physical interaction with the embodied sensorimotor humanoid platform, the iCub. We demonstrate three noteworthy phenomena. First, a recurrent network model is used in conjunction with this robotic platform to learn the mappings between grammatical forms and predicate-argument representations of meanings related to events, and the robot's execution of these events in time. Second, this learning mechanism functions in the inverse sense, i.e., in a language production mode, where rather than executing commanded actions, the robot will describe the results of human generated actions. Finally, we collect data from naïve subjects who interact with the robot via spoken language, and demonstrate significant learning and generalization results. This allows us to conclude that such a neural language learning system not only helps to characterize and understand some aspects of human language acquisition, but also that it can be useful in adaptive human-robot interaction. PMID:24834050

Emergent Literacy Skills in Preschool Children with Hearing Loss Who Use Spoken Language: Initial Findings from the Early Language and Literacy Acquisition (ELLA) Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werfel, Krystal L.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare change in emergent literacy skills of preschool children with and without hearing loss over a 6-month period. Method: Participants included 19 children with hearing loss and 14 children with normal hearing. Children with hearing loss used amplification and spoken language. Participants completed…

The Past, Present, and Future of Second Language Research: Selected Proceedings of the 2000 Second Language Research Forum (Madison, Wisconsin, September 7-10, 2000).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonch-Bruevich, Xenia, Ed.; Crawford, William J., Ed.; Hellermann, John, Ed.; Higgins, Christina, Ed.; Nguyen, Hanh, Ed.

This book presents 16 peer-reviewed papers from a 2000 conference on second language research. Part 1, "Formal Investigations of SLA," includes "L2 Acquisition of English Liquids: Evidence for Production Independent from Perception" (Laura Catharine Smith); "Is L2 Learning the Same as L1 Learning? Learning L2 Phonology in…

Incidental Foreign Language Acquisition from Media Exposure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuppens, An H.

2010-01-01

A number of experimental studies have demonstrated the incidental acquisition of a foreign language by children and adolescents when watching foreign language television. While such experiments can only establish short-term effects, this article investigates the extent to which children's foreign language skills benefit from their long-term…

Hit or Miss, or Missing: The Role of Second Language Acquisition Research in Language Teacher Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rankin, Jamie

1994-01-01

This article discusses how the syllabus for language teacher training in German has evolved and considers what direction foreign language teacher training might take if it were to follow the cue of "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" and appropriate the research agenda of second-language acquisition studies. (Contains 51 references.) (JL)

Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third Language Perception: L2 and L3 Perception of Japanese Contrasts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onishi, Hiromi

2013-01-01

This dissertation examines the possible influence of language learners' second language (L2) on their perception of phonological contrasts in their third language (L3). Previous studies on Third Language Acquisition (TLA) suggest various factors as possible sources of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of an L3. This dissertation…

Songs vs. Stories: Impact of Input Sources on ESL Vocabulary Acquisition by Preliterate Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lesniewska, Justyna; Pichette, François

2016-01-01

Research in second language acquisition has paid little attention to preliterate children learning a language which is absent from their environment outside the language class. This study examines the acquisition of English words by 24 French-speaking children aged 35-59 months, who were introduced to 57 words, embedded in stories and songs. Four…

Acquisition of speech rhythm in first language.

PubMed

Polyanskaya, Leona; Ordin, Mikhail

2015-09-01

Analysis of English rhythm in speech produced by children and adults revealed that speech rhythm becomes increasingly more stress-timed as language acquisition progresses. Children reach the adult-like target by 11 to 12 years. The employed speech elicitation paradigm ensured that the sentences produced by adults and children at different ages were comparable in terms of lexical content, segmental composition, and phonotactic complexity. Detected differences between child and adult rhythm and between rhythm in child speech at various ages cannot be attributed to acquisition of phonotactic language features or vocabulary, and indicate the development of language-specific phonetic timing in the course of acquisition.

Iconicity as a General Property of Language: Evidence from Spoken and Signed Languages

PubMed Central

Perniss, Pamela; Thompson, Robin L.; Vigliocco, Gabriella

2010-01-01

Current views about language are dominated by the idea of arbitrary connections between linguistic form and meaning. However, if we look beyond the more familiar Indo-European languages and also include both spoken and signed language modalities, we find that motivated, iconic form-meaning mappings are, in fact, pervasive in language. In this paper, we review the different types of iconic mappings that characterize languages in both modalities, including the predominantly visually iconic mappings found in signed languages. Having shown that iconic mapping are present across languages, we then proceed to review evidence showing that language users (signers and speakers) exploit iconicity in language processing and language acquisition. While not discounting the presence and importance of arbitrariness in language, we put forward the idea that iconicity need also be recognized as a general property of language, which may serve the function of reducing the gap between linguistic form and conceptual representation to allow the language system to “hook up” to motor, perceptual, and affective experience. PMID:21833282

The Development of the Causative Construction in Persian Child Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Family, Neiloufar; Allen, Shanley E. M.

2015-01-01

The acquisition of systematic patterns and exceptions in different languages can be readily examined using the causative construction. Persian allows four types of causative structures, including one productive multiword structure (i.e. the light verb construction). In this study, we examine the development of all four structures in Persian child…

A Language without Borders: English Slang and Bulgarian Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charkova, Krassimira D.

2007-01-01

This study investigated the acquisition of English slang in a foreign language context. The participants were 101 Bulgarian learners of English, 58 high school students, and 43 university students. The instrument included knowledge tests of English slang terms and questions about attitudes, sources, reasons, and methods employed in learning…

77 FR 64768 - Regulations Regarding the Application of Section 172(h) Including Consolidated Groups; Correction

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-23

... treatment of multiple step plans for the acquisition of stock and CERTs involving members of a consolidated... language ``Service, 1111 Constitution Avenue NW.,'' is corrected to read ``Service, 1111 Constitution... from the bottom of the page, the language ``return group; (4) application of these'' is corrected to...

Effects of Textual Enhancement and Input Enrichment on L2 Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rassaei, Ehsan

2015-01-01

Research on second language (L2) acquisition has recently sought to include formal instruction into second and foreign language classrooms in a more unobtrusive and implicit manner. Textual enhancement and input enrichment are two techniques which are aimed at drawing learners' attention to specific linguistic features in input and at the same…

The Effect of Music Therapy upon Language Acquisition for Children on the Autism Spectrum Aged 3-8 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller-Jones, Annette Marjorie

2017-01-01

Research indicates the characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder include challenges with receptive and expressive language, which can negatively impact social-emotional development and physical regulation. The needs of children with autism are expected to greatly impact the current medical and educational resources, thus effective intervention…

The Importance of Early Sign Language Acquisition for Deaf Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, M. Diane; Hauser, Peter C.; Miller, Paul; Kargin, Tevhide; Rathmann, Christian; Guldenoglu, Birkan; Kubus, Okan; Spurgeon, Erin; Israel, Erica

2016-01-01

Researchers have used various theories to explain deaf individuals' reading skills, including the dual route reading theory, the orthographic depth theory, and the early language access theory. This study tested 4 groups of children--hearing with dyslexia, hearing without dyslexia, deaf early signers, and deaf late signers (N = 857)--from 4…

Language specificity in the perception of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Japanese and English: Implications for cross-language differences in speech-sound development

PubMed Central

Li, Fangfang; Munson, Benjamin; Edwards, Jan; Yoneyama, Kiyoko; Hall, Kathleen

2011-01-01

Both English and Japanese have two voiceless sibilant fricatives, an anterior fricative ∕s∕ contrasting with a more posterior fricative ∕∫∕. When children acquire sibilant fricatives, English children typically substitute [s] for ∕∫∕, whereas Japanese children typically substitute [∫] for ∕∫∕. This study examined English- and Japanese-speaking adults’ perception of children’s productions of voiceless sibilant fricatives to investigate whether the apparent asymmetry in the acquisition of voiceless sibilant fricatives reported previously in the two languages was due in part to how adults perceive children’s speech. The results of this study show that adult speakers of English and Japanese weighed acoustic parameters differently when identifying fricatives produced by children and that these differences explain, in part, the apparent cross-language asymmetry in fricative acquisition. This study shows that generalizations about universal and language-specific patterns in speech-sound development cannot be determined without considering all sources of variation including speech perception. PMID:21361456

Language Learners in Study Abroad Contexts. Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuFon, Margaret A., Ed.; Churchill, Eton, Ed.

2006-01-01

Examining the overseas experience of language learners in diverse contexts through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, studies in this volume look at the acquisition of language use, socialization processes, learner motivation, identity and learning strategies. In this way, the volume offers a privileged window into learner…

Multilingual Communication and Language Acquisition: New Research Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canagarajah, A. Suresh; Wurr, Adrian J.

2011-01-01

In this article, we outline the differences between a monolingual and multilingual orientation to language and language acquisition. The increasing contact between languages in the context of globalization motivates such a shift of paradigms. Multilingual communicative practices have remained vibrant in non-western communities for a long time. We…

Very Early Processing Skills and Language Acquisition in Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kushner, Nicole Blake

2017-01-01

With the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses, large percentage of diagnosed individuals with comorbid language difficulties, and negative effects of these difficulties on language development and overall functioning, research on language acquisition in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder is essential. The current study used data…

"Language Learning" Roundtable: Memory and Second Language Acquisition 2012, Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wen, Zhisheng; McNeill, Arthur; Mota, Mailce Borges

2014-01-01

Organized under the auspices of the "Language Learning" Roundtable Conference Grant (2012), this seminar aimed to provide an interactive forum for a group of second language acquisition (SLA) researchers with particular interests in cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics to discuss key theoretical and methodological issues in the…

Language lateralization of a bilingual person with epilepsy using a combination of fMRI and neuropsychological assessment findings.

PubMed

O'Grady, Christopher; Omisade, Antonina; Sadler, R Mark

2016-10-01

This report describes the findings of language functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a left-handed Urdu and English speaker with right hemisphere-originating epilepsy and unclear language dominance. fMRI is a reliable method for determining hemispheric language dominance in presurgical planning. However, the effects of bilingualism on language activation depend on many factors including age of acquisition and proficiency in the tested language, and morphological properties of the language itself. This case demonstrates that completing fMRI in both spoken languages and interpreting the results within the context of a neuropsychological assessment are essential in arriving at accurate conclusions about language distribution in bilingual patients.

Multilingualism and fMRI: Longitudinal Study of Second Language Acquisition

PubMed Central

Andrews, Edna; Frigau, Luca; Voyvodic-Casabo, Clara; Voyvodic, James; Wright, John

2013-01-01

BOLD fMRI is often used for the study of human language. However, there are still very few attempts to conduct longitudinal fMRI studies in the study of language acquisition by measuring auditory comprehension and reading. The following paper is the first in a series concerning a unique longitudinal study devoted to the analysis of bi- and multilingual subjects who are: (1) already proficient in at least two languages; or (2) are acquiring Russian as a second/third language. The focus of the current analysis is to present data from the auditory sections of a set of three scans acquired from April, 2011 through April, 2012 on a five-person subject pool who are learning Russian during the study. All subjects were scanned using the same protocol for auditory comprehension on the same General Electric LX 3T Signa scanner in Duke University Hospital. Using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for statistical analysis, proficiency measurements are shown to correlate significantly with scan results in the Russian conditions over time. The importance of both the left and right hemispheres in language processing is discussed. Special attention is devoted to the importance of contextualizing imaging data with corresponding behavioral and empirical testing data using a multivariate analysis of variance. This is the only study to date that includes: (1) longitudinal fMRI data with subject-based proficiency and behavioral data acquired in the same time frame; and (2) statistical modeling that demonstrates the importance of covariate language proficiency data for understanding imaging results of language acquisition. PMID:24961428

Multilingualism and fMRI: Longitudinal Study of Second Language Acquisition.

PubMed

Andrews, Edna; Frigau, Luca; Voyvodic-Casabo, Clara; Voyvodic, James; Wright, John

2013-05-28

BOLD fMRI is often used for the study of human language. However, there are still very few attempts to conduct longitudinal fMRI studies in the study of language acquisition by measuring auditory comprehension and reading. The following paper is the first in a series concerning a unique longitudinal study devoted to the analysis of bi- and multilingual subjects who are: (1) already proficient in at least two languages; or (2) are acquiring Russian as a second/third language. The focus of the current analysis is to present data from the auditory sections of a set of three scans acquired from April, 2011 through April, 2012 on a five-person subject pool who are learning Russian during the study. All subjects were scanned using the same protocol for auditory comprehension on the same General Electric LX 3T Signa scanner in Duke University Hospital. Using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for statistical analysis, proficiency measurements are shown to correlate significantly with scan results in the Russian conditions over time. The importance of both the left and right hemispheres in language processing is discussed. Special attention is devoted to the importance of contextualizing imaging data with corresponding behavioral and empirical testing data using a multivariate analysis of variance. This is the only study to date that includes: (1) longitudinal fMRI data with subject-based proficiency and behavioral data acquired in the same time frame; and (2) statistical modeling that demonstrates the importance of covariate language proficiency data for understanding imaging results of language acquisition.

The Now-or-Never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language.

PubMed

Christiansen, Morten H; Chater, Nick

2016-01-01

Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal with this "Now-or-Never" bottleneck, the brain must compress and recode linguistic input as rapidly as possible. This observation has strong implications for the nature of language processing: (1) the language system must "eagerly" recode and compress linguistic input; (2) as the bottleneck recurs at each new representational level, the language system must build a multilevel linguistic representation; and (3) the language system must deploy all available information predictively to ensure that local linguistic ambiguities are dealt with "Right-First-Time"; once the original input is lost, there is no way for the language system to recover. This is "Chunk-and-Pass" processing. Similarly, language learning must also occur in the here and now, which implies that language acquisition is learning to process, rather than inducing, a grammar. Moreover, this perspective provides a cognitive foundation for grammaticalization and other aspects of language change. Chunk-and-Pass processing also helps explain a variety of core properties of language, including its multilevel representational structure and duality of patterning. This approach promises to create a direct relationship between psycholinguistics and linguistic theory. More generally, we outline a framework within which to integrate often disconnected inquiries into language processing, language acquisition, and language change and evolution.

How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?

PubMed

Sturdy, Christopher B; Nicoladis, Elena

2017-01-01

Since the 1950s, when Chomsky argued that Skinner's arguments could not explain syntactic acquisition, psychologists have generally avoided explicitly invoking operant or instrumental conditioning as a learning mechanism for language among human children. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. We focus on research that has been done on language learning in human infants and toddlers in order to illustrate our points. Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in actual practice, not only resemble but also in fact are examples of operant conditioning (OC) by any other name they select. We argue that language acquisition researchers should proceed by first ruling out OC before invoking alternative learning mechanisms. While it is possible that OC cannot explain all of the language acquisition, simple learning mechanisms that work across species may have some explanatory power in children's language learning.

How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?

PubMed Central

Sturdy, Christopher B.; Nicoladis, Elena

2017-01-01

Since the 1950s, when Chomsky argued that Skinner’s arguments could not explain syntactic acquisition, psychologists have generally avoided explicitly invoking operant or instrumental conditioning as a learning mechanism for language among human children. In this article, we argue that this is a mistake. We focus on research that has been done on language learning in human infants and toddlers in order to illustrate our points. Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in actual practice, not only resemble but also in fact are examples of operant conditioning (OC) by any other name they select. We argue that language acquisition researchers should proceed by first ruling out OC before invoking alternative learning mechanisms. While it is possible that OC cannot explain all of the language acquisition, simple learning mechanisms that work across species may have some explanatory power in children’s language learning. PMID:29163295

Age of acquisition effects on the functional organization of language in the adult brain.

PubMed

Mayberry, Rachel I; Chen, Jen-Kai; Witcher, Pamela; Klein, Denise

2011-10-01

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we neuroimaged deaf adults as they performed two linguistic tasks with sentences in American Sign Language, grammatical judgment and phonemic-hand judgment. Participants' age-onset of sign language acquisition ranged from birth to 14 years; length of sign language experience was substantial and did not vary in relation to age of acquisition. For both tasks, a more left lateralized pattern of activation was observed, with activity for grammatical judgment being more anterior than that observed for phonemic-hand judgment, which was more posterior by comparison. Age of acquisition was linearly and negatively related to activation levels in anterior language regions and positively related to activation levels in posterior visual regions for both tasks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

76 FR 6696 - NASA Implementation of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-08

... of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Award Fee Language Revision AGENCY: National Aeronautics and... (NFS) to implement the FAR Award Fee revision issued in Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46.... Background Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-46 significantly revised FAR Parts 16.305, 16.401, and 16...

Does Equal Access Mean Treat the Same? From Theory to Practice in the Classroom of English as an Additional Language Learner in Ireland--Towards a Transformative Agenda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Niamh

2014-01-01

While a substantial body of research exists on First- and Second-Language Acquisition (SLA), research on the language acquisition process that a language minority student goes through when they are acquiring a second language has been largely unexplored. Pedagogical practices that espouse language learning theories facilitate both the language…

The Acquisition of Tense in English: Distinguishing Child Second Language from First Language and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paradis, Johanne; Rice, Mabel L.; Crago, Martha; Marquis, Janet

2008-01-01

This study reports on a comparison of the use and knowledge of tense-marking morphemes in English by first language (L1), second language (L2), and specific language impairment (SLI) children. The objective of our research was to ascertain whether the L2 children's tense acquisition patterns were similar or dissimilar to those of the L1 and SLI…

Recovery from First-Language Transfer: The Second Language Acquisition of English Double Objects by Korean Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oh, Eunjeong

2010-01-01

Previous studies on second language (L2) acquisition of English dative alternation by Korean speakers (Oh and Zubizarreta, 2003, 2006a, 2006b) have shown that the acquisition of English benefactive double object (DO) (e.g. "John baked Mary a cake") lags behind that of its counterpart goal double object (e.g. "John sent Mary the letter"). This…

Memory functioning and mental verbs acquisition in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Spanoudis, George C; Natsopoulos, Demetrios

2011-01-01

Memory and language operate in synergy. Recent literature stresses the importance of memory functioning in interpreting language deficits. Two groups of 50 children each, ages 8-12 were studied. The first group included children with specific language impairment, while the participants in the second group were typically developing children. The two groups, which were matched on age, nonverbal intelligence and varied significantly in verbal ability were examined, using a test battery of four memory functioning (phonological, working and long-term memory) and five mental verb measures. The statistical analyses indicated that the two groups differed significantly in all language and memory measures; a logistic regression analysis revealed that within each main group existed nested subgroups of different developmental patterns with working and long-term memory measures as the most robust discriminate markers of classification. Language impaired children had more difficulties in the acquisition of mental verbs because they are less able to process and store phonological information in working memory and long-term lexicon. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aspects of the Acquisition of Object Control and ECM-Type Verbs in European Portuguese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Ana Lúcia; Gonçalves, Anabela; Hyams, Nina

2016-01-01

We investigate the acquisition of sentential complementation under causative, perception, and object control verbs in European Portuguese, a language rich in complement types, including the typologically marked inflected infinitives. We tested 58 children between 3 and 5 years of age and 24 adults on a sentence completion task. The results support…

Structure, Meaning, and Acquisition in Spanish: Papers from the 4th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, James F., Ed.; Geeslin, Kimberly L., Ed.; Clemens, J. Clancy, Ed.

This collection of papers is divided into four sections. Section 1, "Historical Linguistics," includes "The Grammaticalization of Non-Dative Reflexes of Latin ill- in Spanish" (Jose R. Carrasquel) and "'Esto es Ligero de Fazer': Object to Subject Raising in Medieval and Early Modern Spanish" (Mark Davies). Section 2, "Language Acquisition and…

A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition*

PubMed Central

MACWHINNEY, BRIAN

2006-01-01

Many researchers believe that there is a logical problem at the center of language acquisition theory. According to this analysis, the input to the learner is too inconsistent and incomplete to determine the acquisition of grammar. Moreover, when corrective feedback is provided, children tend to ignore it. As a result, language learning must rely on additional constraints from universal grammar. To solve this logical problem, theorists have proposed a series of constraints and parameterizations on the form of universal grammar. Plausible alternatives to these constraints include: conservatism, item-based learning, indirect negative evidence, competition, cue construction, and monitoring. Careful analysis of child language corpora has cast doubt on claims regarding the absence of positive exemplars. Using demonstrably available positive data, simple learning procedures can be formulated for each of the syntactic structures that have traditionally motivated invocation of the logical problem. Within the perspective of emergentist theory (MacWhinney, 2001), the operation of a set of mutually supportive processes is viewed as providing multiple buffering for developmental outcomes. However, the fact that some syntactic structures are more difficult to learn than others can be used to highlight areas of intense grammatical competition and processing load. PMID:15658750

NASA Data Acquisition System Software Development for Rocket Propulsion Test Facilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herbert, Phillip W., Sr.; Elliot, Alex C.; Graves, Andrew R.

2015-01-01

Current NASA propulsion test facilities include Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, Plum Brook Station in Ohio, and White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Within and across these centers, a diverse set of data acquisition systems exist with different hardware and software platforms. The NASA Data Acquisition System (NDAS) is a software suite designed to operate and control many critical aspects of rocket engine testing. The software suite combines real-time data visualization, data recording to a variety formats, short-term and long-term acquisition system calibration capabilities, test stand configuration control, and a variety of data post-processing capabilities. Additionally, data stream conversion functions exist to translate test facility data streams to and from downstream systems, including engine customer systems. The primary design goals for NDAS are flexibility, extensibility, and modularity. Providing a common user interface for a variety of hardware platforms helps drive consistency and error reduction during testing. In addition, with an understanding that test facilities have different requirements and setups, the software is designed to be modular. One engine program may require real-time displays and data recording; others may require more complex data stream conversion, measurement filtering, or test stand configuration management. The NDAS suite allows test facilities to choose which components to use based on their specific needs. The NDAS code is primarily written in LabVIEW, a graphical, data-flow driven language. Although LabVIEW is a general-purpose programming language; large-scale software development in the language is relatively rare compared to more commonly used languages. The NDAS software suite also makes extensive use of a new, advanced development framework called the Actor Framework. The Actor Framework provides a level of code reuse and extensibility that has previously been difficult to achieve using LabVIEW. The

Developmental and Evolutionary Lexicon Acquisition in Cognitive Agents/Robots with Grounding Principle: A Short Review.

PubMed

Rasheed, Nadia; Amin, Shamsudin H M

2016-01-01

Grounded language acquisition is an important issue, particularly to facilitate human-robot interactions in an intelligent and effective way. The evolutionary and developmental language acquisition are two innovative and important methodologies for the grounding of language in cognitive agents or robots, the aim of which is to address current limitations in robot design. This paper concentrates on these two main modelling methods with the grounding principle for the acquisition of linguistic ability in cognitive agents or robots. This review not only presents a survey of the methodologies and relevant computational cognitive agents or robotic models, but also highlights the advantages and progress of these approaches for the language grounding issue.

Developmental and Evolutionary Lexicon Acquisition in Cognitive Agents/Robots with Grounding Principle: A Short Review

PubMed Central

Rasheed, Nadia; Amin, Shamsudin H. M.

2016-01-01

Grounded language acquisition is an important issue, particularly to facilitate human-robot interactions in an intelligent and effective way. The evolutionary and developmental language acquisition are two innovative and important methodologies for the grounding of language in cognitive agents or robots, the aim of which is to address current limitations in robot design. This paper concentrates on these two main modelling methods with the grounding principle for the acquisition of linguistic ability in cognitive agents or robots. This review not only presents a survey of the methodologies and relevant computational cognitive agents or robotic models, but also highlights the advantages and progress of these approaches for the language grounding issue. PMID:27069470

Adult English Language Learners' Perceptions of Audience Response Systems (Clickers) as Communication Aides: A Q-Methodology Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Lisa Ann; Shepard, MaryFriend

2013-01-01

This study explored the perceptions of adult English language learners about audience response systems (clickers) as tools to facilitate communication. According to second language acquisition theory, learners' receptive capabilities in the early stages of second language acquisition surpass expressive capabilities, often rendering them silent in…

Predictors of Second Language Acquisition in Latino Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutierrez-Clellen, Vera; Simon-Cereijido, Gabriela; Sweet, Monica

2012-01-01

Purpose: This study evaluated the extent to which the language of intervention, the child's development in Spanish, and the effects of English vocabulary, use, proficiency, and exposure predict differences in the rates of acquisition of English in Latino children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: In this randomized controlled trial,…

Language Acquisition by Children with Down Syndrome: A Naturalistic Approach to Assisting Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vilaseca, R.M.; Del Rio, M-J.

2004-01-01

Many child language studies emphasize the value of verbal and social support, of 'scaffolding' processes and mutual adjustments that naturally occur in adult-child interactions in everyday contexts. Based on such theories, this study attempted to improve the language and communication skills in children with special educational needs through…

Knowledge, Skills, and Training in Second Language Acquisition: A Comparative Study of Preservice Teachers' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Christine

2017-01-01

Preservice teachers must have opportunities in their university teaching programs to apply theories of second language learning. Courses in second language acquisition and English as a second language methodology are essential to prepare mainstream teachers for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Additionally, creating a…

Authenticity and Authorship in the Computer-Mediated Acquisition of L2 Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramsch, Claire

2000-01-01

Examines two tenets of communicative language teaching--authenticity of the input and authorship of the language user--in an electronic environment. Reviews research in textually-mediated second language acquisition and analyzes two cases of computer-mediated language learning: the construction of a multimedia CD-ROM by American college learners…

The Evolution of Language Acquisition in Immigrant Students in Catalonia: The Role of the Home Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sansó, Clara; Navarro, José Luis; Huguet, Ángel

2015-01-01

Introduction: The development of immigrant students' language proficiency is one of the main challenges facing education professionals today. Our study was a longitudinal analysis of Catalan and Spanish language acquisition. Method: Participants were 72 immigrant students (27 Spanish speakers and 45 non-Spanish speakers) enrolled in compulsory…

Bilingual Welsh-English Children's Acquisition of Vocabulary and Reading: Implications for Bilingual Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhys, Mirain; Thomas, Enlli Môn

2013-01-01

Previous studies have highlighted early differences in bilinguals' rate of language acquisition in comparison with monolinguals. However, these differences seem to disappear with increasing age and exposure to the language, and do so quicker in dominant community languages than in minority status languages. This study aimed to replicate these…

Two functions of early language experience.

PubMed

Arshavsky, Yuri I

2009-05-01

The unique human ability of linguistic communication, defined as the ability to produce a practically infinite number of meaningful messages using a finite number of lexical items, is determined by an array of "linguistic" genes, which are expressed in neurons forming domain-specific linguistic centers in the brain. In this review, I discuss the idea that infants' early language experience performs two complementary functions. In addition to allowing infants to assimilate the words and grammar rules of their mother language, early language experience initiates genetic programs underlying language production and comprehension. This hypothesis explains many puzzling characteristics of language acquisition, such as the existence of a critical period for acquiring the first language and the absence of a critical period for the acquisition of additional language(s), a similar timetable for language acquisition in children belonging to families of different social and cultural status, the strikingly similar timetables in the acquisition of oral and sign languages, and the surprisingly small correlation between individuals' final linguistic competence and the intensity of their training. Based on the studies of microcephalic individuals, I argue that genetic factors determine not only the number of neurons and organization of interneural connections within linguistic centers, but also the putative internal properties of neurons that are not limited to their electrophysiological and synaptic properties.

Language Acquisition in the Swedish-Speaking Minority in Finland.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brunell, A. Viking

1991-01-01

Documents the differences in language acquisition and school achievement between Finnish- and Swedish-speaking students in Finland's comprehensive school systems. Discusses the need for language maintenance and enrichment measures in both out-of-school and in-school environments. (SR)

Testing Hypotheses about Second Language Acquisition: The Copula and Negative in Three Subjects. Working Papers on Bilingualism, No. 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cancino, Herlinda; And Others

Three hypotheses are examined in relation to English copula and negative utterances produced by three native Spanish speakers. The hypotheses are interference, interlanguage and L1=L2, which states that acquisition of a language by second language learners will parallel acquisiton of the same language by first language learners. The results of the…

Iconicity in English and Spanish and Its Relation to Lexical Category and Age of Acquisition

PubMed Central

Lupyan, Gary

2015-01-01

Signed languages exhibit iconicity (resemblance between form and meaning) across their vocabulary, and many non-Indo-European spoken languages feature sizable classes of iconic words known as ideophones. In comparison, Indo-European languages like English and Spanish are believed to be arbitrary outside of a small number of onomatopoeic words. In three experiments with English and two with Spanish, we asked native speakers to rate the iconicity of ~600 words from the English and Spanish MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories. We found that iconicity in the words of both languages varied in a theoretically meaningful way with lexical category. In both languages, adjectives were rated as more iconic than nouns and function words, and corresponding to typological differences between English and Spanish in verb semantics, English verbs were rated as relatively iconic compared to Spanish verbs. We also found that both languages exhibited a negative relationship between iconicity ratings and age of acquisition. Words learned earlier tended to be more iconic, suggesting that iconicity in early vocabulary may aid word learning. Altogether these findings show that iconicity is a graded quality that pervades vocabularies of even the most “arbitrary” spoken languages. The findings provide compelling evidence that iconicity is an important property of all languages, signed and spoken, including Indo-European languages. PMID:26340349

Sign Language Acquisition and Use by Single-Generation Deaf Adults in Australia Who Attended Specific Educational Settings for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winn, Stephen

2007-01-01

This article examines the acquisition and use of Australian Sign Language (Auslan) by 53 profoundly deaf adults (31 male, 22 female) who attended educational units for deaf and hard of hearing children. The results indicate that, regardless of age, the acquisition of sign language, particularly Auslan, by deaf people occurred primarily through…

Commentary to "Multiple Grammars and Second Language Representation," by Luiz Amaral and Tom Roeper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pérez-Leroux, Ana T.

2014-01-01

In this commentary, the author defends the Multiple Grammars (MG) theory proposed by Luiz Amaral and Tom Roepe (A&R) in the present issue. Topics discussed include second language acquisition, the concept of developmental optionality, and the idea that structural decisions involve the lexical dimension. The author states that A&R's…

Language Development in Down Syndrome: From the Prelinguistic Period to the Acquisition of Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbeduto, Leonard; Warren, Steven F.; Conners, Frances A.

2007-01-01

Down syndrome (DS) is associated with abnormalities in multiple organ systems and a characteristic phenotype that includes numerous behavioral features. Language, however, is among the most impaired domains of functioning in DS and, perhaps, also the greatest barrier to independent meaningful inclusion in the community. In this article, we review…

Workpapers in Teaching English as a Second Language, Vol. 11.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Povey, John, Ed.

This issue of the workpapers includes the following reports and papers: "The ESL Service Courses at UCLA: A Progress Report," by Kathleen M. Bailey; "A Comparison of Item Analysis Programs," by Earl Rand; "Stereotypes in Media - or - How to Avoid Functional Fixedness," by James Heaton; "The Search for a Second Language Acquisition Index of…

Linguistic Proficiency Assessment in Second Language Acquisition Research: The Elicited Imitation Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaillard, Stéphanie; Tremblay, Annie

2016-01-01

This study investigated the elicited imitation task (EIT) as a tool for measuring linguistic proficiency in a second/foreign (L2) language, focusing on French. Nonnative French speakers (n = 94) and native French speakers (n = 6) completed an EIT that included 50 sentences varying in length and complexity. Three raters evaluated productions on…

Language Processing as Cue Integration: Grounding the Psychology of Language in Perception and Neurophysiology

PubMed Central

Martin, Andrea E.

2016-01-01

I argue that cue integration, a psychophysiological mechanism from vision and multisensory perception, offers a computational linking hypothesis between psycholinguistic theory and neurobiological models of language. I propose that this mechanism, which incorporates probabilistic estimates of a cue's reliability, might function in language processing from the perception of a phoneme to the comprehension of a phrase structure. I briefly consider the implications of the cue integration hypothesis for an integrated theory of language that includes acquisition, production, dialogue and bilingualism, while grounding the hypothesis in canonical neural computation. PMID:26909051

Acculturation, Communication Apprehension, and Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mettler, Sally

1987-01-01

Describes acculturation as the negotiation of linguistic, behavioral, and affiliation barriers. Reviews three models of second-language acquisition and highlights problems for the learner related to linguistic noise, comprehension lag, and communication apprehension. Considers ways English-as-a-Second-Language instructors can ease linguistic and…

48 CFR 752.7011 - Orientation and language training.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Orientation and language training. 752.7011 Section 752.7011 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL....7011 Orientation and language training. For use in all USAID cost-reimbursement contracts involving...

48 CFR 752.7011 - Orientation and language training.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Orientation and language training. 752.7011 Section 752.7011 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL....7011 Orientation and language training. For use in all USAID cost-reimbursement contracts involving...

48 CFR 752.7011 - Orientation and language training.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Orientation and language training. 752.7011 Section 752.7011 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL....7011 Orientation and language training. For use in all USAID cost-reimbursement contracts involving...

48 CFR 752.7011 - Orientation and language training.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Orientation and language training. 752.7011 Section 752.7011 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL....7011 Orientation and language training. For use in all USAID cost-reimbursement contracts involving...

Real-Time Processing of ASL Signs: Delayed First Language Acquisition Affects Organization of the Mental Lexicon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lieberman, Amy M.; Borovsky, Arielle; Hatrak, Marla; Mayberry, Rachel I.

2015-01-01

Sign language comprehension requires visual attention to the linguistic signal and visual attention to referents in the surrounding world, whereas these processes are divided between the auditory and visual modalities for spoken language comprehension. Additionally, the age-onset of first language acquisition and the quality and quantity of…

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC SIMILARITIES IN THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN AS NATIVE LANGUAGES.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SLOBIN, DAN I.

ONE APPROACH TO CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IS THAT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL, GENERATIVE GRAMMAR WHICH EMPHASIZES MAN'S ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND PRODUCE AN UNLIMITED VARIETY OF SENTENCES THROUGH CONTROL OF A LIMITED NUMBER OF LANGUAGE RULES. THUS, A CHILD LEARNS TO SPEAK BY DEVELOPING HIS OWN THEORIES OF THE STRUCTURE OF HIS LANGUAGE. STUDIES OF…

Listening in a Multilingual World: The Challenges of Second Language (L2) Listening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rost, Michael

2014-01-01

Research into language acquisition and oral language use was examined in order to identify key factors that contribute to the successful acquisition of second language (L2) listening ability. The factors were grouped into three major domains: affective, cognitive, and interpersonal. It is claimed that in each domain, proficient L2 listeners have…

Saying What We Mean: Making a Case for "Language Acquisition" to Become "Language Development"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsen-Freeman, Diane

2015-01-01

As applied linguists know very well, how we use language both constructs and reflects our understanding. It is therefore important that we use terms that do justice to our concerns. In this presentation, I suggest that a more apt designation than "multilingual" or "second language acquisition" (SLA) is "multilingual"…

Language-General and Language-Specific Influences on Children's Acquisition of Argument Structure: A Comparison of French and English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naigles, Letitia R.; Lehrer, Nadine

2002-01-01

This research investigates language-general and language-specific properties of the acquisition of argument structure. Ten French preschoolers enacted forty sentences containing motion verbs; sixteen sentences were ungrammatical in that the syntactic frame was incompatible with the standard argument structure for the verb (e.g. *"Le tigre va le…

Developing language in a developing body: the relationship between motor development and language development.

PubMed

Iverson, Jana M

2010-03-01

ABSTRACTDuring the first eighteen months of life, infants acquire and refine a whole set of new motor skills that significantly change the ways in which the body moves in and interacts with the environment. In this review article, I argue that motor acquisitions provide infants with an opportunity to practice skills relevant to language acquisition before they are needed for that purpose; and that the emergence of new motor skills changes infants' experience with objects and people in ways that are relevant for both general communicative development and the acquisition of language. Implications of this perspective for current views of co-occurring language and motor impairments and for methodology in the field of child language research are also considered.

Developing language in a developing body: the relationship between motor development and language development*

PubMed Central

Iverson, Jana M.

2010-01-01

During the first eighteen months of life, infants acquire and refine a whole set of new motor skills that significantly change the ways in which the body moves in and interacts with the environment. In this review article, I argue that motor acquisitions provide infants with an opportunity to practice skills relevant to language acquisition before they are needed for that purpose; and that the emergence of new motor skills changes infants’ experience with objects and people in ways that are relevant for both general communicative development and the acquisition of language. Implications of this perspective for current views of co-occurring language and motor impairments and for methodology in the field of child language research are also considered. PMID:20096145

Data acquisition and real-time control using spreadsheets: interfacing Excel with external hardware.

PubMed

Aliane, Nourdine

2010-07-01

Spreadsheets have become a popular computational tool and a powerful platform for performing engineering calculations. Moreover, spreadsheets include a macro language, which permits the inclusion of standard computer code in worksheets, and thereby enable developers to greatly extend spreadsheets' capabilities by designing specific add-ins. This paper describes how to use Excel spreadsheets in conjunction to Visual Basic for Application programming language to perform data acquisition and real-time control. Afterwards, the paper presents two Excel applications with interactive user interfaces developed for laboratory demonstrations and experiments in an introductory course in control. 2010 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers.

PubMed

Katsos, Napoleon; Cummins, Chris; Ezeizabarrena, Maria-José; Gavarró, Anna; Kuvač Kraljević, Jelena; Hrzica, Gordana; Grohmann, Kleanthes K; Skordi, Athina; Jensen de López, Kristine; Sundahl, Lone; van Hout, Angeliek; Hollebrandse, Bart; Overweg, Jessica; Faber, Myrthe; van Koert, Margreet; Smith, Nafsika; Vija, Maigi; Zupping, Sirli; Kunnari, Sari; Morisseau, Tiffany; Rusieshvili, Manana; Yatsushiro, Kazuko; Fengler, Anja; Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Konstantzou, Katerina; Farby, Shira; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Vernice, Mirta; Okabe, Reiko; Isobe, Miwa; Crosthwaite, Peter; Hong, Yoonjee; Balčiūnienė, Ingrida; Ahmad Nizar, Yanti Marina; Grech, Helen; Gatt, Daniela; Cheong, Win Nee; Asbjørnsen, Arve; Torkildsen, Janne von Koss; Haman, Ewa; Miękisz, Aneta; Gagarina, Natalia; Puzanova, Julia; Anđelković, Darinka; Savić, Maja; Jošić, Smiljana; Slančová, Daniela; Kapalková, Svetlana; Barberán, Tania; Özge, Duygu; Hassan, Saima; Chan, Cecilia Yuet Hung; Okubo, Tomoya; van der Lely, Heather; Sauerland, Uli; Noveck, Ira

2016-08-16

Learners of most languages are faced with the task of acquiring words to talk about number and quantity. Much is known about the order of acquisition of number words as well as the cognitive and perceptual systems and cultural practices that shape it. Substantially less is known about the acquisition of quantifiers. Here, we consider the extent to which systems and practices that support number word acquisition can be applied to quantifier acquisition and conclude that the two domains are largely distinct in this respect. Consequently, we hypothesize that the acquisition of quantifiers is constrained by a set of factors related to each quantifier's specific meaning. We investigate competence with the expressions for "all," "none," "some," "some…not," and "most" in 31 languages, representing 11 language types, by testing 768 5-y-old children and 536 adults. We found a cross-linguistically similar order of acquisition of quantifiers, explicable in terms of four factors relating to their meaning and use. In addition, exploratory analyses reveal that language- and learner-specific factors, such as negative concord and gender, are significant predictors of variation.

A Teacher’s Guide for Using Learning Strategies in English-as-a-Second- Language Instruction

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-11-01

learner strategies used in the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL). The Teacher’s Guide demonstrates for ESL...strategies to apply to a wide range of language learning tasks are far more likely to be effective language learners . The language lessons in this section...skills in the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL). This study completed a review of the literature on learning strategies in

The Effect on Cumulative Language Acquisition Increase for English Language Learner Students in Kindergarten through Third Grade Who Attended Multiple Years of Summer Remediation Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Gregory A.

2013-01-01

Already academically at risk, students in the rapidly growing English Language Learner (ELL) student population in the United States face additional challenges due to regression of English language acquisition over the average ten-week agrarian summer break when they return to homes in which Spanish was the primary language spoken. While the…

Foreign Language Acquisition and Melody Singing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mora, Carmen Fonseca

2000-01-01

Considers the value of relating music and language in the English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) classroom. This "melodic" approach is based on evidence that musicality of speech has an effect not only on the pronunciation skills of EFL students but also their entire acquisition process. (Author/VWL)

Improving Language Acquisition through Journal Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chanthalangsy, Sonevilay; Moskalis, Stan

This study examined how journal writing could improve language minority students' language acquisition. Participants were Serbo-Croatian and Laotian second and third graders from two elementary schools. Initial student surveys and writing assignments, conducted in September to document the problem, found that students lacked writing skills,…

Age of acquisition predicts rate of lexical evolution.

PubMed

Monaghan, Padraic

2014-12-01

The processes taking place during language acquisition are proposed to influence language evolution. However, evidence demonstrating the link between language learning and language evolution is, at best, indirect, constituting studies of laboratory-based artificial language learning studies or computational simulations of diachronic change. In the current study, a direct link between acquisition and evolution is established, showing that for two hundred fundamental vocabulary items, the age at which words are acquired is a predictor of the rate at which they have changed in studies of language evolution. Early-acquired words are more salient and easier to process than late-acquired words, and these early-acquired words are also more stably represented within the community's language. Analysing the properties of these early-acquired words potentially provides insight into the origins of communication, highlighting features of words that have been ultra-conserved in language. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language acquisition from a biolinguistic perspective.

PubMed

Crain, Stephen; Koring, Loes; Thornton, Rosalind

2017-10-01

This paper describes the biolinguistic approach to language acquisition. We contrast the biolinguistic approach with a usage-based approach. We argue that the biolinguistic approach is superior because it provides more accurate and more extensive generalizations about the properties of human languages, as well as a better account of how children acquire human languages. To distinguish between these accounts, we focus on how child and adult language differ both in sentence production and in sentence understanding. We argue that the observed differences resist explanation using the cognitive mechanisms that are invoked by the usage-based approach. In contrast, the biolinguistic approach explains the qualitative parametric differences between child and adult language. Explaining how child and adult language differ and demonstrating that children perceive unity despite apparent diversity are two of the hallmarks of the biolinguistic approach to language acquisition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acquisition of speech rhythm in a second language by learners with rhythmically different native languages.

PubMed

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

2015-08-01

The development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) acquisition was investigated. Speech rhythm was defined as durational variability that can be captured by the interval-based rhythm metrics. These metrics were used to examine the differences in durational variability between proficiency levels in L2 English spoken by French and German learners. The results reveal that durational variability increased as L2 acquisition progressed in both groups of learners. This indicates that speech rhythm in L2 English develops from more syllable-timed toward more stress-timed patterns irrespective of whether the native language of the learner is rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Although both groups showed similar development of speech rhythm in L2 acquisition, there were also differences: German learners achieved a degree of durational variability typical of the target language, while French learners exhibited lower variability than native British speakers, even at an advanced proficiency level.

Anatomical Substrates of Visual and Auditory Miniature Second-language Learning

PubMed Central

Newman-Norlund, Roger D.; Frey, Scott H.; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Grafton, Scott T.

2007-01-01

Longitudinal changes in brain activity during second language (L2) acquisition of a miniature finite-state grammar, named Wernickese, were identified with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants learned either a visual sign language form or an auditory-verbal form to equivalent proficiency levels. Brain activity during sentence comprehension while hearing/viewing stimuli was assessed at low, medium, and high levels of proficiency in three separate fMRI sessions. Activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca’s area) correlated positively with improving L2 proficiency, whereas activity in the right-hemisphere (RH) homologue was negatively correlated for both auditory and visual forms of the language. Activity in sequence learning areas including the premotor cortex and putamen also correlated with L2 proficiency. Modality-specific differences in the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal accompanying L2 acquisition were localized to the planum temporale (PT). Participants learning the auditory form exhibited decreasing reliance on bilateral PT sites across sessions. In the visual form, bilateral PT sites increased in activity between Session 1 and Session 2, then decreased in left PT activity from Session 2 to Session 3. Comparison of L2 laterality (as compared to L1 laterality) in auditory and visual groups failed to demonstrate greater RH lateralization for the visual versus auditory L2. These data establish a common role for Broca’s area in language acquisition irrespective of the perceptual form of the language and suggest that L2s are processed similar to first languages even when learned after the ‘‘critical period.’’ The right frontal cortex was not preferentially recruited by visual language after accounting for phonetic/structural complexity and performance. PMID:17129186

The comparative method of language acquisition research: a Mayan case study.

PubMed

Pye, Clifton; Pfeiler, Barbara

2014-03-01

This article demonstrates how the Comparative Method can be applied to cross-linguistic research on language acquisition. The Comparative Method provides a systematic procedure for organizing and interpreting acquisition data from different languages. The Comparative Method controls for cross-linguistic differences at all levels of the grammar and is especially useful in drawing attention to variation in contexts of use across languages. This article uses the Comparative Method to analyze the acquisition of verb suffixes in two Mayan languages: K'iche' and Yucatec. Mayan status suffixes simultaneously mark distinctions in verb transitivity, verb class, mood, and clause position. Two-year-old children acquiring K'iche' and Yucatec Maya accurately produce the status suffixes on verbs, in marked distinction to the verbal prefixes for aspect and agreement. We find evidence that the contexts of use for the suffixes differentially promote the children's production of cognate status suffixes in K'iche' and Yucatec.

Chemical education experiences from the English language learner perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flores, Annette

2011-12-01

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is a region populated by Spanish-speaking immigrants and their descendants producing a large English Language Learner (ELL) student population. ELLs have historically had low literacy rates and achievement levels when compared to their counterparts. In order to address this achievement gap, previous research efforts and curriculum interventions have focused on language acquisition as being the determining factor in ELL education, with little attention given to academic content acquisition. More current research efforts have transitioned into English language acquisition through academic content instruction; this present research study specifically focuses on ELL experiences in chemistry. Participants were high school chemistry students who identified as ELL or had recently exited out of ELL status. Students were interviewed to identify factors that attributed to their experiences in chemistry. Findings indicate code-switching as a key to learning chemistry in English but also the deterrent in English language acquisition.

Supporting Young Indigenous Children's Language Development in Canada: A Review of Research on Needs and Promising Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ball, Jessica

2009-01-01

This article offers an original review of research and reports about young Indigenous children's language development needs and approaches to meeting them. The review addresses not only children's acquisition of an Indigenous language but also their acquisition of other languages (e.g., English and French), because their progress in one linguistic…

L1 Frequency in Foreign Language Acquisition: Recurrent Word Combinations in French and Spanish EFL Learner Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paquot, Magali

2017-01-01

This study investigated French and Spanish EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' preferred use of three-word lexical bundles with discourse or stance-oriented function with a view to exploring the role of first language (L1) frequency effects in foreign language acquisition. Word combinations were extracted from learner performance data…

Language Attrition and Reactivation in the Context of Bilingual First Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slavkov, Nikolay

2015-01-01

This paper reports on a case study of a child raised in the context of bilingual first-language acquisition in English and Bulgarian, where the latter represents a minority (heritage) language. Using diary data and spontaneous speech recordings, the study identifies a period of loss of production in Bulgarian (1;7-2;3) and a subsequent…

Labov's Concept of the Vernacular Speech: The Site of Language Structure, Acquisition and Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agnihotri, Rama Kant

2013-01-01

The basic questions that a scholar interested in the study of language asks are concerned with language structure, acquisition, and change. William Labov is a linguist who has deeply influenced the linguistic scene in the past 60 years. It is to Labov's credit that he showed, backed by solid evidence, that the questions concerning language change,…

The Influence of Working Memory and Phonological Processing on English Language Learner Children's Bilingual Reading and Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, H. Lee; Orosco, Michael J.; Lussier, Cathy M.; Gerber, Michael M.; Guzman-Orth, Danielle A.

2011-01-01

In this study, we explored whether the contribution of working memory (WM) to children's (N = 471) 2nd language (L2) reading and language acquisition was best accounted for by processing efficiency at a phonological level and/or by executive processes independent of phonological processing. Elementary school children (Grades 1, 2, & 3) whose…

Interactive natural language acquisition in a multi-modal recurrent neural architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinrich, Stefan; Wermter, Stefan

2018-01-01

For the complex human brain that enables us to communicate in natural language, we gathered good understandings of principles underlying language acquisition and processing, knowledge about sociocultural conditions, and insights into activity patterns in the brain. However, we were not yet able to understand the behavioural and mechanistic characteristics for natural language and how mechanisms in the brain allow to acquire and process language. In bridging the insights from behavioural psychology and neuroscience, the goal of this paper is to contribute a computational understanding of appropriate characteristics that favour language acquisition. Accordingly, we provide concepts and refinements in cognitive modelling regarding principles and mechanisms in the brain and propose a neurocognitively plausible model for embodied language acquisition from real-world interaction of a humanoid robot with its environment. In particular, the architecture consists of a continuous time recurrent neural network, where parts have different leakage characteristics and thus operate on multiple timescales for every modality and the association of the higher level nodes of all modalities into cell assemblies. The model is capable of learning language production grounded in both, temporal dynamic somatosensation and vision, and features hierarchical concept abstraction, concept decomposition, multi-modal integration, and self-organisation of latent representations.

Lingua Franca English, Multilingual Communities, and Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canagarajah, Suresh

2007-01-01

Firth and Wagner (1997) questioned the dichotomies nonnative versus native speaker, learner versus user, and interlanguage versus target language, which reflect a bias toward innateness, cognition, and form in language acquisition. Research on lingua franca English (LFE) not only affirms this questioning, but reveals what multilingual communities…

Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larsen-Freeman, Diane

2000-01-01

Discusses the second language acquisition (SLA) process and the differential success of second language learners. Examines the fundamental challenges that this characterization faces, and highlights the contributions SLA is capable of in the coming decade. Offers topics for a training and development of curriculum for future applied linguists from…

48 CFR 752.211-70 - Language and measurement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Language and measurement. 752.211-70 Section 752.211-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL....211-70 Language and measurement. The following clause shall be used in all USAID-direct contracts...

Supporting Language Access: Teaching Talk without Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Gail Fox

2014-01-01

In neurotypical infants, genetically-specified attachment/attention mechanisms underpin the motivation to interact, which enables the acquisition of socio-cultural norms for language and accounts for the efficacy of socialization processes (Lee et al., 2009; Schumann, 2013). In children with autism, as in second language acquisition,…

Applying Data Mining Principles to Library Data Collection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guenther, Kim

2000-01-01

Explains how libraries can use data mining techniques for more effective data collection. Highlights include three phases: data selection and acquisition; data preparation and processing, including a discussion of the use of XML (extensible markup language); and data interpretation and integration, including database management systems. (LRW)

The development of language and literacy: evaluating the stereotypes.

PubMed

Goodman, Judith C; Wagovich, Stacy A

2009-01-01

People hold many stereotypes about the development of language and reading. We review current data concerning three stereotypes: (1) Girls learn language faster than boys; (2) Biological factors determine the time course of language acquisition; and (3) Dyslexia is a visual problem involving the reversal of letters. In each case, recent data leads to a different picture of the acquisition of language and literacy and deepens our understanding of the processes involved.

48 CFR 52.214-34 - Submission of Offers in the English Language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Submission of Offers in the English Language. 52.214-34 Section 52.214-34 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (CONTINUED) CLAUSES AND FORMS SOLICITATION PROVISIONS AND CONTRACT CLAUSES Text of...

The Ubiquity of Frequency Effects in First Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambridge, Ben; Kidd, Evan; Rowland, Caroline F.; Theakston, Anna L.

2015-01-01

This review article presents evidence for the claim that frequency effects are pervasive in children's first language acquisition, and hence constitute a phenomenon that any successful account must explain. The article is organized around four key domains of research: children's acquisition of single words, inflectional morphology, simple…

48 CFR 52.214-34 - Submission of Offers in the English Language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Submission of Offers in the English Language. 52.214-34 Section 52.214-34 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (CONTINUED) CLAUSES AND FORMS SOLICITATION PROVISIONS AND CONTRACT CLAUSES Text of...

48 CFR 52.214-34 - Submission of Offers in the English Language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Submission of Offers in the English Language. 52.214-34 Section 52.214-34 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (CONTINUED) CLAUSES AND FORMS SOLICITATION PROVISIONS AND CONTRACT CLAUSES Text of...

48 CFR 52.214-34 - Submission of Offers in the English Language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Submission of Offers in the English Language. 52.214-34 Section 52.214-34 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (CONTINUED) CLAUSES AND FORMS SOLICITATION PROVISIONS AND CONTRACT CLAUSES Text of...

Balancing Generalization and Lexical Conservatism: An Artificial Language Study with Child Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wonnacott, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

Successful language acquisition involves generalization, but learners must balance this against the acquisition of lexical constraints. Such learning has been considered problematic for theories of acquisition: if learners generalize abstract patterns to new words, how do they learn lexically-based exceptions? One approach claims that learners use…

English Learners (ELs) Who Are Asian or Pacific Islander. Fast Facts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of English Language Acquisition, US Department of Education, 2016

2016-01-01

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on English Learners (ELs) who are Asian or Pacific Islander include: (1) Top 10 Asian and Pacific Islander Languages Spoken Among ELs: SY 2013-14; (2)…

A Multiple Case Study: Gauging the Effects of Poverty on School Readiness amongst Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onesto, Melissa J.

2017-01-01

The home environment, which includes the level of organization and stability in the home, plays a crucial role in the development of executive function and oral language skills. For children who live in a low-SES environment, executive function and oral language acquisition are inferior compared to that of students living at other economic levels.…

The Effects of Age on Second Language Grammar and Speech Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Becky H.

2014-01-01

The current study examined the age of learning effect on second language (L2) acquisition. The research goals of the study were twofold: to test whether there is an independent age effect controlling for other potentially confounding variables, and to clarify the age effect across L2 grammar and speech production domains. The study included 118…

The Impact of Utilising Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) on Vocabulary Acquisition among Migrant Women English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmad, Kham Sila; Armarego, Jocelyn; Sudweeks, Fay

2017-01-01

Aim/Purpose: To develop a framework for utilizing Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) to assist non-native English migrant women to acquire English vocabulary in a non-formal learning setting. Background: The women in this study migrated to Australia with varied backgrounds including voluntary or forced migration, very low to high levels of…

Online Dutch L2 Learning in Adult Education: Educators' and Providers' Viewpoints on Needs, Advantages and Disadvantages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Paepe, Liesbeth; Zhu, Chang; Depryck, Koen

2018-01-01

This study critically addresses the assumptions made by educators and providers in the field of Dutch second language (L2) acquisition about the online learning of Dutch L2. These include assumptions about advantages and disadvantages of online language learning, such as flexibility, learner autonomy, enhanced opportunities for remediation and…

Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Exploring the Limits of the Language Faculty.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genesee, Fred

2001-01-01

Reviews current research in three domains of bilingual acquisition: pragmatic features of bilingual code mixing, grammatical constraints on child bilingual code mixing, and bilingual syntactic development. Examines implications from these domains for the understanding of the limits of the mental faculty to acquire language. (Author/VWL)

48 CFR 615.205-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Use of English language. 615.205-70 Section 615.205-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING... Information 615.205-70 Use of English language. The requirements of DOSAR 614.201-70 also apply when...

48 CFR 614.201-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Use of English language. 614.201-70 Section 614.201-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES SEALED BIDDING Solicitation of Bids 614.201-70 Use of English language. Use of...

Combining Language Corpora with Experimental and Computational Approaches for Language Acquisition Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monaghan, Padraic; Rowland, Caroline F.

2017-01-01

Historically, first language acquisition research was a painstaking process of observation, requiring the laborious hand coding of children's linguistic productions, followed by the generation of abstract theoretical proposals for how the developmental process unfolds. Recently, the ability to collect large-scale corpora of children's language…

Toward More Substantial Theories of Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenson, Cinnamon Ann

2015-01-01

Cognitive linguists argue that certain sets of knowledge of language are innate. However, critics have argued that the theoretical concept of "innateness" should be eliminated since it is ambiguous and insubstantial. In response, I aim to strengthen theories of language acquisition and identify ways to make them more substantial. I…

48 CFR 352.239-71 - Standard for encryption language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard for encryption language. 352.239-71 Section 352.239-71 Federal Acquisition Regulations System HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... Standard for encryption language. As prescribed in 339.101(d)(2), the Contracting Officer shall insert the...

48 CFR 614.201-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Use of English language. 614.201-70 Section 614.201-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES SEALED BIDDING Solicitation of Bids 614.201-70 Use of English language. Use of...

48 CFR 614.201-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Use of English language. 614.201-70 Section 614.201-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES SEALED BIDDING Solicitation of Bids 614.201-70 Use of English language. Use of...

48 CFR 615.205-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Use of English language. 615.205-70 Section 615.205-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING... Information 615.205-70 Use of English language. The requirements of DOSAR 614.201-70 also apply when...

48 CFR 614.201-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Use of English language. 614.201-70 Section 614.201-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES SEALED BIDDING Solicitation of Bids 614.201-70 Use of English language. Use of...

48 CFR 615.205-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Use of English language. 615.205-70 Section 615.205-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING... Information 615.205-70 Use of English language. The requirements of DOSAR 614.201-70 also apply when...

48 CFR 615.205-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Use of English language. 615.205-70 Section 615.205-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING... Information 615.205-70 Use of English language. The requirements of DOSAR 614.201-70 also apply when...

48 CFR 615.205-70 - Use of English language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Use of English language. 615.205-70 Section 615.205-70 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING... Information 615.205-70 Use of English language. The requirements of DOSAR 614.201-70 also apply when...

The Reading Venture: Accelerating Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sifontes, Aida I.; Baez, Dodie

This presentation describes how to use reading to improve second language acquisition. Part 1, "Building Awareness of Reading Habits and Attitudes," has students report their habits and attitudes about reading in English and their native language and recognize the importance of reading for improving English skills. Part 2, "Choosing a Book," has…

Understanding Successful and Unsuccessful EFL Students in Chinese Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gan, Zhengdong; Humphreys, Gillian; Hamp-Lyons, Liz

2004-01-01

Unlike success in first language acquisition, success in learning a second or foreign language is considerably more variable. Recently, second language acquisition researchers have called for more integrative research on individual difference factors. With this goal in mind, this study followed a larger, quantitative study of the links between…

Environmental Correlates of Individual Differences in Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furrow, David; Nelson, Katherine

1984-01-01

Reports on a study of mothers' uses of nouns and pronouns and their references to objects and persons as environmental variables which might relate to children's nominal preferences. Findings suggest that environmental factors do contribute to stylistic differences in language acquisition and that the communicative functions of language are an…

Television as a Talking Picture Book: A Prop for Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lemish, Dafna; Rice, Mabel L.

1986-01-01

Provides longitudinal observations of young children's behaviors while viewing television in their own homes when the children were actively involved in the process of language acquisition. The observations show an overwhelming and consistent occurrence of language-related behaviors among children and parents in the viewing situation. (Author/SED)

Interactional Feedback in Naturalistic Interaction between L2 English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ranaweera, Mahishi

2015-01-01

Theoretical and empirical data support that the feedback given in small group activities promote second language acquisition. There are many studies that have examined the impact of interaction on second language acquisition in controlled language situations. This study examines the small group activity "conversation partner" in order to…

The Acquisition of Non-Null Subjects in English: A Minimalist Account.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wakabayashi, Shigenori

2002-01-01

Explains the differences between learners with a Japanese-type language as their first language (L1) and those with a Spanish-type language concerning the acquisition of the prohibition of null-subjects in English. Adopts the minimalist program as the theoretical framework for the study. (Author/VWL)

A Study of Multimedia Application-Based Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shao, Jing

2012-01-01

The development of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has created the opportunity for exploring the effects of the multimedia application on foreign language vocabulary acquisition in recent years. This study provides an overview the computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and detailed a developing result of CALL--multimedia. With the…

Modality-specific processing precedes amodal linguistic processing during L2 sign language acquisition: A longitudinal study.

PubMed

Williams, Joshua T; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene D

2016-02-01

The present study tracked activation pattern differences in response to sign language processing by late hearing second language learners of American Sign Language. Learners were scanned before the start of their language courses. They were scanned again after their first semester of instruction and their second, for a total of 10 months of instruction. The study aimed to characterize modality-specific to modality-general processing throughout the acquisition of sign language. Results indicated that before the acquisition of sign language, neural substrates related to modality-specific processing were present. After approximately 45 h of instruction, the learners transitioned into processing signs on a phonological basis (e.g., supramarginal gyrus, putamen). After one more semester of input, learners transitioned once more to a lexico-semantic processing stage (e.g., left inferior frontal gyrus) at which language control mechanisms (e.g., left caudate, cingulate gyrus) were activated. During these transitional steps right hemispheric recruitment was observed, with increasing left-lateralization, which is similar to other native signers and L2 learners of spoken language; however, specialization for sign language processing with activation in the inferior parietal lobule (i.e., angular gyrus), even for late learners, was observed. As such, the present study is the first to track L2 acquisition of sign language learners in order to characterize modality-independent and modality-specific mechanisms for bilingual language processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mobile Learning in Foreign Language Learning: Podcasts and Lexicon Acquisition in the Elementary Instruction of Italian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unterrainer, Eva Maria

2012-01-01

This paper illustrates the research design (including the pilot study) of a work-in-progress study aimed at examining the potential of bilingual podcasts for the vocabulary acquisition in Italian as an L3 in the Austrian school context for beginning learners. The longitudinal study tries to link findings of the Lexical Approach (Lewis, 1993, 1997)…

Teaching English through Action: Total Physical Response (T.P.R.). A Right-Brain/Left-Brain Approach to Language Acquisition. A Workshop.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Segal, Bertha E.

Materials from a teacher workshop on the Total Physical Response method for teaching English as a second language are presented. The technique describes the process of first language acquisition, uses physical activities in the classroom to reinforce learning, and allows a long period of receptive language learning before requiring production. The…

Impacto de un programa de lectura extensiva en la adquisicion de una segunda lengua (Impact of an Extensive Reading Program on Second Language Acquisition).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coll, Ana; And Others

This study investigates the application of Krashen's Input Hypothesis, studying the relationship between exposure to the target language and language acquisition within the context of the English-as-a-foreign-language secondary classroom in Spain. The project studied the effect of additional reading instruction with emphasis on reading for…

Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers

PubMed Central

Cummins, Chris; Gavarró, Anna; Kuvač Kraljević, Jelena; Hrzica, Gordana; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Skordi, Athina; Jensen de López, Kristine; Sundahl, Lone; van Hout, Angeliek; Hollebrandse, Bart; Overweg, Jessica; Faber, Myrthe; van Koert, Margreet; Smith, Nafsika; Vija, Maigi; Zupping, Sirli; Kunnari, Sari; Morisseau, Tiffany; Rusieshvili, Manana; Yatsushiro, Kazuko; Fengler, Anja; Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Konstantzou, Katerina; Farby, Shira; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Vernice, Mirta; Okabe, Reiko; Isobe, Miwa; Crosthwaite, Peter; Hong, Yoonjee; Balčiūnienė, Ingrida; Ahmad Nizar, Yanti Marina; Grech, Helen; Gatt, Daniela; Cheong, Win Nee; Asbjørnsen, Arve; Torkildsen, Janne von Koss; Haman, Ewa; Miękisz, Aneta; Gagarina, Natalia; Puzanova, Julia; Anđelković, Darinka; Savić, Maja; Jošić, Smiljana; Slančová, Daniela; Kapalková, Svetlana; Barberán, Tania; Özge, Duygu; Hassan, Saima; Chan, Cecilia Yuet Hung; Okubo, Tomoya; van der Lely, Heather; Sauerland, Uli; Noveck, Ira

2016-01-01

Learners of most languages are faced with the task of acquiring words to talk about number and quantity. Much is known about the order of acquisition of number words as well as the cognitive and perceptual systems and cultural practices that shape it. Substantially less is known about the acquisition of quantifiers. Here, we consider the extent to which systems and practices that support number word acquisition can be applied to quantifier acquisition and conclude that the two domains are largely distinct in this respect. Consequently, we hypothesize that the acquisition of quantifiers is constrained by a set of factors related to each quantifier’s specific meaning. We investigate competence with the expressions for “all,” “none,” “some,” “some…not,” and “most” in 31 languages, representing 11 language types, by testing 768 5-y-old children and 536 adults. We found a cross-linguistically similar order of acquisition of quantifiers, explicable in terms of four factors relating to their meaning and use. In addition, exploratory analyses reveal that language- and learner-specific factors, such as negative concord and gender, are significant predictors of variation. PMID:27482119

Acquisition of English Grammatical Morphology by Internationally Adopted Children from China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierce, Lara J.; Genesee, Fred; Paradis, Johanne

2013-01-01

Acquisition of English grammatical morphology was examined in five internationally adopted (IA) children from China (aged 0;10-1;1 at adoption) during the first three years' exposure to English to determine whether acquisition patterns were characteristic of child second language (L2) learners or monolingual first language (L1) learners. Results…

Second Language Acquisition Research and the Study of Non-Native Varieties of English: Some Issues in Common.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritchie, William C.

1986-01-01

Proposes that the study of basilectal and acrolectal Singapore English can contribute to a better understanding of second language acquisition and use, emphasizing the operation of the monitor and specifications of the hierarchy of difficulty in the acquisition of syntactic structures. (Author/CB)

What We Know about Second Language Acquisition: A Synthesis from Four Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, L. Quentin; Zhao, Jing; Shin, Jee-Young; Wu, Shuang; Su, Jung-Hsuan; Burgess-Brigham, Renata; Gezer, Melike Unal; Snow, Catherine

2012-01-01

Educational policies that impact second language (L2) learners--a rapidly-growing group--are often enacted without consulting relevant research. This review synthesized research regarding optimal conditions for L2 acquisition, facilitative L2 learner and teacher characteristics, and speed of L2 acquisition, from four bodies of work--foreign…

Consonant Cluster Acquisition by L2 Thai Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rungruang, Apichai

2017-01-01

Attempts to account for consonant cluster acquisition are always made into two aspects. One is transfer of the first language (L1), and another is markedness effects on the developmental processes in second language acquisition. This study has continued these attempts by finding out how well Thai university students were able to perceive English…

Chinese Learners' Acquisition of English Verbs: A Corpus-Driven Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Linxiao; Jo, Hie-myung

2012-01-01

Limited research has investigated advanced language learners' acquisition of English verbs. The current study examines and compares the acquisition pattern of English verbs among Chinese second language (L2) learners at both intermediate and advanced levels to answer the following questions: (1) Do L2 learners acquire regular verbs and irregular…

Sociolinguistic Variation and Acquisition in Two-Way Language Immersion: Negotiating the Standard

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starr, Rebecca Lurie

2016-01-01

This book investigates the acquisition of sociolinguistic knowledge in the early elementary school years of a Mandarin-English two-way immersion program in the United States. Using ethnographic observation and quantitative analysis of data, the author explores how input from teachers and classmates shapes students' language acquisition. The book…

Individual Differences in Language Acquisition and Processing.

PubMed

Kidd, Evan; Donnelly, Seamus; Christiansen, Morten H

2018-02-01

Humans differ in innumerable ways, with considerable variation observable at every level of description, from the molecular to the social. Traditionally, linguistic and psycholinguistic theory has downplayed the possibility of meaningful differences in language across individuals. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that there is significant variation among speakers at any age as well as across the lifespan. Here, we review recent research in psycholinguistics, and argue that a focus on individual differences (IDs) provides a crucial source of evidence that bears strongly upon core issues in theories of the acquisition and processing of language; specifically, the role of experience in language acquisition, processing, and attainment, and the architecture of the language system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The differences in clinical aspect between specific language impairment and global developmental delay.

PubMed

Kim, Seong Woo; Jeon, Ha Ra; Park, Eun Ji; Chung, Hee Jung; Song, Jung Eun

2014-12-01

To compare and analyze the clinical characteristics of children with delayed language acquisition due to two different diagnoses, which were specific language impairment (SLI, a primarily delayed language development) and global developmental delay (GDD, a language delay related to cognitive impairment). Among 1,598 children who had visited the developmental delay clinic from March 2005 to February 2011, 467 children who were diagnosed with GDD and 183 children who were diagnosed with SLI were included in this study. All children were questioned about past, family, and developmental history, and their language competences and cognitive function were assessed. Some children got electroencephalography (EEG), in case of need. The presence of the perinatal risk factors showed no difference in two groups. In the children with GDD, they had more delayed acquisition of independent walking and more frequent EEG abnormalities compared with the children with SLI (p<0.01). The positive family history of delayed language development was more prevalent in children with SLI (p<0.01). In areas of language ability, the quotient of receptive language and expressive language did not show any meaningful statistical differences between the two groups. Analyzing in each group, the receptive language quotient was higher than expressive language quotient in both group (p<0.01). In the GDD group, the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID-II) showed a marked low mental and motor quotient while the Wechsler Intelligence Scale showed low verbal and nonverbal IQ. In the SLI group, the BSID-II and Wechsler Intelligence Scale showed low scores in mental area and verbal IQ but sparing motor area and nonverbal IQ. The linguistic profiles of children with language delay could not differentiate between SLI and GDD. The clinicians needed to be aware of these developmental issues, and history taking and clinical evaluation, including cognitive assessment, could be helpful to diagnose adequately and set the treatment plan for each child.

Knowledge acquisition to qualify Unified Medical Language System interconceptual relationships.

PubMed Central

Le Duff, F.; Burgun, A.; Cleret, M.; Pouliquen, B.; Barac'h, V.; Le Beux, P.

2000-01-01

Adding automatically relations between concepts from a database to a knowledge base such as the Unified Medical Language System can be very useful to increase the consistency of the latter one. But the transfer of qualified relationships is more interesting. The most important interest of these new acquisitions is that the UMLS became more compliant and medically pertinent to be used in different medical applications. This paper describes the possibility to inherit automatically medical inter-conceptual relationships qualifiers from a disease description included into a database and to integrate them into the UMLS knowledge base. The paper focuses on the transmission of knowledge from a French medical database to an English one. PMID:11079930

Complexity in language acquisition.

PubMed

Clark, Alexander; Lappin, Shalom

2013-01-01

Learning theory has frequently been applied to language acquisition, but discussion has largely focused on information theoretic problems-in particular on the absence of direct negative evidence. Such arguments typically neglect the probabilistic nature of cognition and learning in general. We argue first that these arguments, and analyses based on them, suffer from a major flaw: they systematically conflate the hypothesis class and the learnable concept class. As a result, they do not allow one to draw significant conclusions about the learner. Second, we claim that the real problem for language learning is the computational complexity of constructing a hypothesis from input data. Studying this problem allows for a more direct approach to the object of study--the language acquisition device-rather than the learnable class of languages, which is epiphenomenal and possibly hard to characterize. The learnability results informed by complexity studies are much more insightful. They strongly suggest that target grammars need to be objective, in the sense that the primitive elements of these grammars are based on objectively definable properties of the language itself. These considerations support the view that language acquisition proceeds primarily through data-driven learning of some form. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Sentence Reading and Writing for Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pichette, Francois; de Serres, Linda; Lafontaine, Marc

2012-01-01

This study compares the relative effectiveness of reading and writing sentences for the incidental acquisition of new vocabulary in a second language. It also examines if recall varies according to the concreteness of target words. Participants were 203 French-speaking intermediate and advanced English as second language (ESL) learners, tested for…

Psycholinguistic Techniques and Resources in Second Language Acquisition Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Leah

2012-01-01

In this article, a survey of current psycholinguistic techniques relevant to second language acquisition (SLA) research is presented. I summarize many of the available methods and discuss their use with particular reference to two critical questions in current SLA research: (1) What does a learner's current knowledge of the second language (L2)…

A Quantitative Analysis of Language Interventions for Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Meghan; Connell, James E.; Pellecchia, Melanie

2010-01-01

Research and services continue to expand to community-based programs serving individuals diagnosed with autism. A focus of great interest in those efforts is that of language acquisition and functional usage. For the purpose of this evaluation, language acquisition interventions are grouped into two broad categories, contrived and naturalistic.…

Dissimilation in the Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hang

2016-01-01

This article extends Optimality Theoretic studies to the research on second language tone phonology. Specifically, this work analyses the acquisition of identical tone sequences in Mandarin Chinese by adult speakers of three non-tonal languages: English, Japanese and Korean. This study finds that the learners prefer not to use identical lexical…

Direct Instruction in Second Language Acquisition: A Critical Review of Related Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernandez, Hjalmar Punla

2017-01-01

Second Language Acquisition (SLA), as a sub-discipline in applied linguistics, is rapidly growing and changing (Ellis & Shintani, 2014). As such, it has yielded stirring issues on both naturalistic and instructed settings causing reviews and/or investigations by language researchers. This paper accordingly serves as a humble attempt at…

Memory Retention in Second Language Acquisition and Instruction: Insights from Literature and Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanatullova-Allison , Elvira

2014-01-01

This article reviews some essential theoretical and empirical research literature that discusses the role of memory in second language acquisition and instruction. Two models of literature review--thematic and study-by-study--were used to analyze and synthesize the existing research. First, issues of memory retention in second language acquisition…

The Spacing Effect and Its Relevance to Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogers, John

2017-01-01

This commentary discusses some theoretical and methodological issues related to research on the spacing effect in second language acquisition research (SLA). There has been a growing interest in SLA in how the temporal distribution of input might impact language development. SLA research in this area has frequently drawn upon the rich field of…

Target Language Variation and Second-Language Acquisition: Learning English in New York City.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenstein, Miriam R.

1986-01-01

Investigates the role of dialect variation in the acquisition of American English by adult second language learners. The study revealed that dialect differences present problems for learners and cause variable intelligibility and negative learner attitude toward some varieties of English and its speakers. This attitude could negatively affect a…

EMOTIONS AND IMAGES IN LANGUAGE--A LEARNING ANALYSIS OF THEIR ACQUISITION AND FUNCTION.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

STAATS, ARTHUR W.

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTED THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES CONCERNING IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE. IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT A LEARNING THEORY WHICH INEGRATES INSTRUMENTAL AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING, CUTTING ACROSS THEORETICAL LINES, COULD SERVE AS THE BASIS FOR A COMPREHENSIVE THEORY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND FUNCTION. THE PAPER ILLUSTRATED THE…

Gender Differences in Identity and Acculturation Patterns and L2 Accent Attainment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polat, Nihat; Mahalingappa, Laura J.

2010-01-01

Addressing the influence of sociocultural theory, current views of second language acquisition situate language learning in a much broader context than the isolated box of the classroom. There is need to consider second language (L2) acquisition practices more broadly. This study addresses differences between girls and boys of Kurdish ethnic…

Second Language Acquisition in Applied Linguistics: 1925-2015 and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarone, Elaine

2015-01-01

Taking 1925, the founding year of "Language", the journal of the Linguistics Society of America, as a benchmark for "the past", and 2015 as benchmark for "the present", the author considers what was known then and what is known now about second language acquisition in applied linguistics. The field has grown more…

Playing to Learn: A Review of Physical Games in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomlinson, Brian; Masuhara, Hitomi

2009-01-01

This article focuses on the potential of competitive games involving physical movement to facilitate the acquisition of a second or foreign language and argues that such activities can promote educational development too. It first provides a critical overview of the literature on physical games in language learning. Then, it outlines our…

Language Learning in Mindbodyworld: A Sociocognitive Approach to Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atkinson, Dwight

2014-01-01

Based on recent research in cognitive science, interaction, and second language acquisition (SLA), I describe a sociocognitive approach to SLA. This approach adopts a "non-cognitivist" view of cognition: Instead of an isolated computational process in which input is extracted from the environment and used to build elaborate internal…

The Interpretability Hypothesis: Evidence from Wh-Interrogatives in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria; Dimitrakopoulou, Maria

2007-01-01

The second language acquisition (SLA) literature reports numerous studies of proficient second language (L2) speakers who diverge significantly from native speakers despite the evidence offered by the L2 input. Recent SLA theories have attempted to account for native speaker/non-native speaker (NS/NNS) divergence by arguing for the dissociation…

Cerebral Dominance, Language Acquisition, and Foreign Accents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scovel, Tom

1969-01-01

Implicit in the discussion of views taken by Wolfe, Geschwind, and Newmark is a claim that no learning theory based solely on "nurture" can account for the fact that language acquisition in childhood is a trait, in adulthood a skill. The child can master the language system completely, regardless of his intellectual capacity or his social…

AAC Modeling Intervention Research Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sennott, Samuel C.; Light, Janice C.; McNaughton, David

2016-01-01

A systematic review of research on the effects of interventions that include communication partner modeling of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) on the language acquisition of individuals with complex communication needs was conducted. Included studies incorporated AAC modeling as a primary component of the intervention,…

Learning Additional Languages as Hierarchical Probabilistic Inference: Insights From First Language Processing.

PubMed

Pajak, Bozena; Fine, Alex B; Kleinschmidt, Dave F; Jaeger, T Florian

2016-12-01

We present a framework of second and additional language (L2/L n ) acquisition motivated by recent work on socio-indexical knowledge in first language (L1) processing. The distribution of linguistic categories covaries with socio-indexical variables (e.g., talker identity, gender, dialects). We summarize evidence that implicit probabilistic knowledge of this covariance is critical to L1 processing, and propose that L2/L n learning uses the same type of socio-indexical information to probabilistically infer latent hierarchical structure over previously learned and new languages. This structure guides the acquisition of new languages based on their inferred place within that hierarchy, and is itself continuously revised based on new input from any language. This proposal unifies L1 processing and L2/L n acquisition as probabilistic inference under uncertainty over socio-indexical structure. It also offers a new perspective on crosslinguistic influences during L2/L n learning, accommodating gradient and continued transfer (both negative and positive) from previously learned to novel languages, and vice versa.

Learning Additional Languages as Hierarchical Probabilistic Inference: Insights From First Language Processing

PubMed Central

Pajak, Bozena; Fine, Alex B.; Kleinschmidt, Dave F.; Jaeger, T. Florian

2015-01-01

We present a framework of second and additional language (L2/Ln) acquisition motivated by recent work on socio-indexical knowledge in first language (L1) processing. The distribution of linguistic categories covaries with socio-indexical variables (e.g., talker identity, gender, dialects). We summarize evidence that implicit probabilistic knowledge of this covariance is critical to L1 processing, and propose that L2/Ln learning uses the same type of socio-indexical information to probabilistically infer latent hierarchical structure over previously learned and new languages. This structure guides the acquisition of new languages based on their inferred place within that hierarchy, and is itself continuously revised based on new input from any language. This proposal unifies L1 processing and L2/Ln acquisition as probabilistic inference under uncertainty over socio-indexical structure. It also offers a new perspective on crosslinguistic influences during L2/Ln learning, accommodating gradient and continued transfer (both negative and positive) from previously learned to novel languages, and vice versa. PMID:28348442

No childhood advantage in the acquisition of skill in using an artificial language rule.

PubMed

Ferman, Sara; Karni, Avi

2010-10-27

A leading notion is that language skill acquisition declines between childhood and adulthood. While several lines of evidence indicate that declarative ("what", explicit) memory undergoes maturation, it is commonly assumed that procedural ("how-to", implicit) memory, in children, is well established. The language superiority of children has been ascribed to the childhood reliance on implicit learning. Here we show that when 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds and young adults were provided with an equivalent multi-session training experience in producing and judging an artificial morphological rule (AMR), adults were superior to children of both age groups and the 8-year-olds were the poorest learners in all task parameters including in those that were clearly implicit. The AMR consisted of phonological transformations of verbs expressing a semantic distinction: whether the preceding noun was animate or inanimate. No explicit instruction of the AMR was provided. The 8-year-olds, unlike most adults and 12-year-olds, failed to explicitly uncover the semantic aspect of the AMR and subsequently to generalize it accurately to novel items. However, all participants learned to apply the AMR to repeated items and to generalize its phonological patterns to novel items, attaining accurate and fluent production, and exhibiting key characteristics of procedural memory. Nevertheless, adults showed a clear advantage in learning implicit task aspects, and in their long-term retention. Thus, our findings support the notion of age-dependent maturation in the establishment of declarative but also of procedural memory in a complex language task. In line with recent reports of no childhood advantage in non-linguistic skill learning, we propose that under some learning conditions adults can effectively express their language skill acquisition potential. Altogether, the maturational effects in the acquisition of an implicit AMR do not support a simple notion of a language skill learning advantage in children.

Directed Blogging with Community College ESL Students: Its Effects on Awareness of Language Acquisition Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Cathy

2012-01-01

English as a Second Language (ESL) students often have problems progressing in their acquisition of the language and frequently do not know how to solve this dilemma. Many of them think of their second language studies as just another school subject that they must pass in order to move on to the next level, so few of them realize the metacognitive…

Fostering Language Acquisition in Daycare Settings: What Does the Research Tell Us? Working Papers in Early Childhood Development, No. 49

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beller, Simone

2008-01-01

The ways in which children learn a language--be it their mother tongue or their second language--can have a strong influence on their success in school. Researchers in linguistics and early child development have tried to determine the factors that can help and hinder language acquisition in young children, with some conflicting results. In this…

Generative Research on Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eubank, Lynn

1995-01-01

Reviews recent trends in generative research on second language acquisition, focusing on the role of universal grammar, parameter resetting, and anaphoric binding. An annotated bibliography discusses five important works in the field. (61 references) (MDM)

L2 vs. L3 Initial State: A Comparative Study of the Acquisition of French DPs by Vietnamese Monolinguals and Cantonese-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leung, Yan-Kit Ingrid

2005-01-01

This paper compares the initial state of second language acquisition (L2A) and third language acquisition (L3A) from the generative linguistics perspective. We examine the acquisition of the Determiner Phrase (DP) by two groups of beginning French learners: an L2 group (native speakers of Vietnamese who do not speak any English) and an L3 group…

Exploring Cross-Linguistic Vocabulary Effects on Brain Structures Using Voxel-Based Morphometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, David W.; Crinion, Jenny; Price, Cathy J.

2007-01-01

Given that there are neural markers for the acquisition of a non-verbal skill, we review evidence of neural markers for the acquisition of vocabulary. Acquiring vocabulary is critical to learning one's native language and to learning other languages. Acquisition requires the ability to link an object concept (meaning) to sound. Is there a region…

The Role of Repeated Exposure to Multimodal Input in Incidental Acquisition of Foreign Language Vocabulary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J. B.; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J.

2014-01-01

Prior research has reported incidental vocabulary acquisition with complete beginners in a foreign language (FL), within 8 exposures to auditory and written FL word forms presented with a picture depicting their meaning. However, important questions remain about whether acquisition occurs with fewer exposures to FL words in a multimodal situation…

The Interaction of Language-Specific and Universal Factors during the Acquisition of Morphophonemic Alternations with Exceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baer-Henney, Dinah; Kügler, Frank; van de Vijver, Ruben

2015-01-01

Using the artificial language paradigm, we studied the acquisition of morphophonemic alternations with exceptions by 160 German adult learners. We tested the acquisition of two types of alternations in two regularity conditions while additionally varying length of training. In the first alternation, a vowel harmony, backness of the stem vowel…

Le Carte Blanc or La Carte Blanche? Bilingual Children's Acquisition of French Adjective Agreement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicoladis, Elena; Marchak, Kristan

2011-01-01

Because of less exposure to either language, bilingual children's language acquisition can be delayed relative to monolingual children in domains related to input frequency. This study predicted that the acquisition of gender agreement with adjectives in French would be delayed in bilingual children on a picture description task. The results…

Learned Attention in Adult Language Acquisition: A Replication and Generalization Study and Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Nick C.; Sagarra, Nuria

2011-01-01

This study investigates associative learning explanations of the limited attainment of adult compared to child language acquisition in terms of learned attention to cues. It replicates and extends Ellis and Sagarra (2010) in demonstrating short- and long-term learned attention in the acquisition of temporal reference in Latin. In Experiment 1,…

Tense over Time: The Longitudinal Course of Tense Acquisition in Children with Specific Language Impairment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Mabel L.; Wexler, Kenneth; Hershberger, Scott

1998-01-01

A longitudinal study of 43 typical children (ages 2 to 8) and 21 children with specific language impairments (SLI) found that a diverse set of morphemes share the property of tense marking, that acquisition shows linear and nonlinear components, and that mean length of utterance predicts rate of acquisition. (Author/CR)

Low-Educated Immigrants and the Social Relevance of Second Language Acquisition Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young-Scholten, Martha

2013-01-01

Since the 1980s' decoupling of the formal study of second language acquisition from pedagogical concerns, the social relevance of such research has been of little concern. Early studies, in the 1970s, of uninstructed adult learners' acquisition of morphosyntax pointed to social implications: these working class immigrants had varying levels of…

Feasibility of Spanish-language acquisition for acute medical care providers: novel curriculum for emergency medicine residencies.

PubMed

Grall, Kristi H; Panchal, Ashish R; Chuffe, Eliud; Stoneking, Lisa R

2016-01-01

Language and cultural barriers are detriments to quality health care. In acute medical settings, these barriers are more pronounced, which can lead to poor patient outcomes. We implemented a longitudinal Spanish-language immersion curriculum for emergency medicine (EM) resident physicians. This curriculum includes language and cultural instruction, and is integrated into the weekly EM didactic conference, longitudinal over the entire 3-year residency program. Language proficiency was assessed at baseline and annually on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, via an oral exam conducted by the same trained examiner each time. The objective of the curriculum was improvement of resident language skills to ILR level 1+ by year 3. Significance was evaluated through repeated-measures analysis of variance. The curriculum was launched in July 2010 and followed through June 2012 (n=16). After 1 year, 38% had improved over one ILR level, with 50% achieving ILR 1+ or above. After year 2, 100% had improved over one level, with 90% achieving the objective level of ILR 1+. Mean ILR improved significantly from baseline, year 1, and year 2 (F=55, df =1; P<0.001). Implementation of a longitudinal, integrated Spanish-immersion curriculum is feasible and improves language skills in EM residents. The curriculum improved EM-resident language proficiency above the goal in just 2 years. Further studies will focus on the effect of language acquisition on patient care in acute settings.

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence From Word Segmentation.

PubMed

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-11-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's cognitive plausibility. We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition model can aim to be cognitively plausible in multiple ways. We discuss these cognitive plausibility checkpoints generally and then apply them to a case study in word segmentation, investigating a promising Bayesian segmentation strategy. We incorporate cognitive plausibility by using an age-appropriate unit of perceptual representation, evaluating the model output in terms of its utility, and incorporating cognitive constraints into the inference process. Our more cognitively plausible model shows a beneficial effect of cognitive constraints on segmentation performance. One interpretation of this effect is as a synergy between the naive theories of language structure that infants may have and the cognitive constraints that limit the fidelity of their inference processes, where less accurate inference approximations are better when the underlying assumptions about how words are generated are less accurate. More generally, these results highlight the utility of incorporating cognitive plausibility more fully into computational models of language acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Best Practices in Using Video Technology to Promote Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNulty, Anastassia; Lazarevic, Bojan

2012-01-01

Inclusion of technology in the process of second language acquisition has always been a priority for both teachers and theoreticians. This paper reviews the current trends in using video-based language instruction in K-12 educational settings. Although it has been demonstrated for many years that the use of video as an instructional medium…

Individual Differences in Sequence Learning Ability and Second Language Acquisition in Early Childhood and Adulthood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Granena, Gisela

2013-01-01

Language aptitude has been hypothesized as a factor that can compensate for postcritical period effects in language learning capacity. However, previous research has primarily focused on instructed contexts and rarely on acquisition-rich learning environments where there is a potential for massive amounts of input. In addition, the studies…

The Impact of Host Family Relations and Length of Stay on Adolescent Identity Expression during Study Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grieve, Averil Marie

2015-01-01

This study focuses on the relationships between host family success, social integration, length of stay and acquisition of adolescent language by students on extended international homestay programmes. Degree of adolescent language acquisition and integration is measured by use of two hallmarks of adolescent language: markers of approximation…

Tense or Aspect?: Effects of L1 Tense/Aspect Prominence in L2 Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinovic-Zic, Aida

2009-01-01

This study introduces a typological model of the "conceptual language-specific approach" to the L2 research on the acquisition of tense-aspect. The model is based on the typological notion of prominence, classifying languages into tense-prominent and aspect-prominent (Bhat 1999) and the L1 research proposal that language-specific…

Early Language Stimulation of Down's Syndrome Babies: A Study on the Optimum Age To Begin.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aparicio, Maria Teresa Sanz; Balana, Javier Menendez

2002-01-01

Examined the marked delay in language acquisition suffered by babies with Down Syndrome and how early treatment affects the subsequent observed development among 36 subjects in Spain. Found statistically significant differences in language acquisitions in favor of newborns, compared with 90-day-old through 18-month-old infants who experienced…

Specificity and Sensitivity Ratios of the Pediatric Language Acquisition Screening Tool for Early Referral-Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherman, Tracy; Shulman, Brian B.

1999-01-01

This study examined test characteristics of the Pediatric Language Acquisition Screening Tool for Early Referral-Revised (PLASTER-R), a set of developmental questionnaires for children 3 to 60 months of age. The PLASTER-R was moderately to highly successful in identifying children within normal limits for language development. Test-retest…

If a Chimpanzee Could Talk and Other Reflections on Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Jerry H.

This book relates several case studies of language acquisition--for example, chimpanzees "learning" to speak at a higher level than so-called 'wolf' children and a father and mother who, against the advice of professionals, force their way into the closed world of an autistic son--to examine the threshold of language, that point…

Language and Literacy Acquisition through Parental Mediation in American Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailes, Cynthia Neese; Erting, Lynne C.; Thumann-Prezioso, Carlene; Erting, Carol J.

2009-01-01

This longitudinal case study examined the language and literacy acquisition of a Deaf child as mediated by her signing Deaf parents during her first three years of life. Results indicate that the parents' interactions with their child were guided by linguistic and cultural knowledge that produced an intuitive use of child-directed signing (CDSi)…

Research in the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Costa, Peter I.; Bernales, Carolina; Merrill, Margaret

2011-01-01

Faculty and graduate students in the Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison engage in a broad spectrum of research. From Professor Sally Magnan's research on study abroad and Professor Monika Chavez's work in foreign language policy through Professor Richard Young's examination of…

Infant Language Development Is Related to the Acquisition of Walking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walle, Eric A.; Campos, Joseph J.

2014-01-01

The present investigation explored the question of whether walking onset is related to infant language development. Study 1 used a longitudinal design (N = 44) to assess infant locomotor and language development every 2 weeks from 10 to 13.5 months of age. The acquisition of walking was associated with a significant increase in both receptive and…

The Foreign Language and Intercultural Competence Teacher: The Acquisition of a New Professional Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sercu, Lies

2006-01-01

It has now become commonplace to state that foreign language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective. The main objective of foreign language education is no longer defined strictly in terms of the acquisition of communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the…

Early Acquisition of Basic Word Order in Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugisaki, Koji

2008-01-01

The acquisition of word order has been one of the central issues in the study of child language. One striking finding from the detailed investigation of various child languages is that from the earliest observable stages, children are highly sensitive to the basic word order of their target language. However, the evidence so far comes mainly from…

Portraits of the L2 User. Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Vivian, Ed.

This collection of papers treats second language users in their own right rather than as failed native speakers, reflecting a new shift within the field of second language acquisition research. The 13 papers are: (1) "Background to the L2 User" (Vivian Cook); (2) "Lexical Representation and Lexical Processing in the L2 User"…

Unconventional Expressions: Productive Syntax in the L2 Acquisition of Formulaic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen; Stringer, David

2017-01-01

This article presents a generative analysis of the acquisition of formulaic language as an alternative to current usage-based proposals. One influential view of the role of formulaic expressions in second language (L2) development is that they are a bootstrapping mechanism into the L2 grammar; an initial repertoire of constructions allows for…

Acquisition of Zero Relative Clauses in English by Adult Turkish Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ordem, Eser

2017-01-01

Studies on acquisition of relative clauses by first and second language learners have evoked considerable interest in recent decades. In line with such studies, in this present study we aim to show the possible effect of first language (Turkish) on second language (English) in zero relative clause constructions. English uses certain stranded…

How Children Learn Their Mother Tongue: They Don't

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halpern, Mark

2016-01-01

A new solution is offered to the Infant Language Acquisition Problem, rejecting both of Chomsky's alternatives. It proposes that the infant does not acquire his mother tongue by mastering its grammar, whether by inference from personal experience or via an innate Language Acquisition Device such as the UG, but that the language he hears is all…

The proper treatment of language acquisition and change in a population setting.

PubMed

Niyogi, Partha; Berwick, Robert C

2009-06-23

Language acquisition maps linguistic experience, primary linguistic data (PLD), onto linguistic knowledge, a grammar. Classically, computational models of language acquisition assume a single target grammar and one PLD source, the central question being whether the target grammar can be acquired from the PLD. However, real-world learners confront populations with variation, i.e., multiple target grammars and PLDs. Removing this idealization has inspired a new class of population-based language acquisition models. This paper contrasts 2 such models. In the first, iterated learning (IL), each learner receives PLD from one target grammar but different learners can have different targets. In the second, social learning (SL), each learner receives PLD from possibly multiple targets, e.g., from 2 parents. We demonstrate that these 2 models have radically different evolutionary consequences. The IL model is dynamically deficient in 2 key respects. First, the IL model admits only linear dynamics and so cannot describe phase transitions, attested rapid changes in languages over time. Second, the IL model cannot properly describe the stability of languages over time. In contrast, the SL model leads to nonlinear dynamics, bifurcations, and possibly multiple equilibria and so suffices to model both the case of stable language populations, mixtures of more than 1 language, as well as rapid language change. The 2 models also make distinct, empirically testable predictions about language change. Using historical data, we show that the SL model more faithfully replicates the dynamics of the evolution of Middle English.

The Age of Second Language Acquisition Determines the Variability in Activation Elicited by Narration in Three Languages in Broca's and Wernicke's Area

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bloch, Constantine; Kaiser, Anelis; Kuenzli, Esther; Zappatore, Daniela; Haller, Sven; Franceschini, Rita; Luedi, Georges; Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm; Nitsch, Cordula

2009-01-01

It is generally accepted that the presence of a second language (L2) has an impact on the neuronal substrates build up and used for language processing; the influence of the age of L2 exposure, however, is not established. We tested the hypothesis that the age of L2 acquisition has an effect on the cortical representation of a multilingual…

Bilinguals’ Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language

PubMed Central

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-01-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants’ memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model. PMID:28781384

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language.

PubMed

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-03-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants' memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model.

Temporal Dynamics of Late Second Language Acquisition: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steinhauer, Karsten; White, Erin J.; Drury, John E.

2009-01-01

The ways in which age of acquisition (AoA) may affect (morpho)syntax in second language acquisition (SLA) are discussed. We suggest that event-related brain potentials (ERPs) provide an appropriate online measure to test some such effects. ERP findings of the past decade are reviewed with a focus on recent and ongoing research. It is concluded…

Gruppeorganiseret og selvstyret fremmedsprogstilegnelse. Et undervisningseksperiment pa RUC [and] Skolesprogene. Om fremmedsprogenes status og funktion i gymnasiet. ROLIG Papir 22 (Group Organized and Self Managed Foreign Language Acquisition. A Research Project at RUC [and] School Languages. On the Status and Function of Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools. ROLIG Paper 22).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jakobsen, Karen Sonne

Two articles highlight different issues on foreign language learning and instruction in Denmark. The first article describes a research project at Roskilde University Center that focuses on group organized and self managed foreign language acquisition. The idea for the project came about as a result of concern over problems related to foreign…

48 CFR 1523.703-1 - Acquisition of environmentally preferable meeting and conference services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... purchasing agreement that includes contractor support for meeting and conference planning and logistics must include a green meeting and conference requirement. The contracting officer shall ensure language is... as the provision at 1552.223-71, EPA Green Meetings and Conferences, in solicitations for meeting and...

48 CFR 1523.703-1 - Acquisition of environmentally preferable meeting and conference services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... purchasing agreement that includes contractor support for meeting and conference planning and logistics must include a green meeting and conference requirement. The contracting officer shall ensure language is... as the provision at 1552.223-71, EPA Green Meetings and Conferences, in solicitations for meeting and...

48 CFR 1523.703-1 - Acquisition of environmentally preferable meeting and conference services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... purchasing agreement that includes contractor support for meeting and conference planning and logistics must include a green meeting and conference requirement. The contracting officer shall ensure language is... as the provision at 1552.223-71, EPA Green Meetings and Conferences, in solicitations for meeting and...

48 CFR 1523.703-1 - Acquisition of environmentally preferable meeting and conference services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... purchasing agreement that includes contractor support for meeting and conference planning and logistics must include a green meeting and conference requirement. The contracting officer shall ensure language is... as the provision at 1552.223-71, EPA Green Meetings and Conferences, in solicitations for meeting and...

Age of language learning shapes brain structure: a cortical thickness study of bilingual and monolingual individuals.

PubMed

Klein, Denise; Mok, Kelvin; Chen, Jen-Kai; Watkins, Kate E

2014-04-01

We examined the effects of learning a second language (L2) on brain structure. Cortical thickness was measured in the MRI datasets of 22 monolinguals and 66 bilinguals. Some bilingual subjects had learned both languages simultaneously (0-3 years) while some had learned their L2 after achieving proficiency in their first language during either early (4-7 years) or late childhood (8-13 years). Later acquisition of L2 was associated with significantly thicker cortex in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and thinner cortex in the right IFG. These effects were seen in the group comparisons of monolinguals, simultaneous bilinguals and early and late bilinguals. Within the bilingual group, significant correlations between age of acquisition of L2 and cortical thickness were seen in the same regions: cortical thickness correlated with age of acquisition positively in the left IFG and negatively in the right IFG. Interestingly, the monolinguals and simultaneous bilinguals did not differ in cortical thickness in any region. Our results show that learning a second language after gaining proficiency in the first language modifies brain structure in an age-dependent manner whereas simultaneous acquisition of two languages has no additional effect on brain development. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intravelar veloplasty in cleft lip, alveolus and palate and outcome of speech and language acquisition: a prospective study.

PubMed

Bitter, Klaus; Wegener, Carla; Gomille, Nadine

2003-12-01

Speech and language acquisition are major, important criteria in the treatment outcomes of cleft lip and palate patients. A generally accepted and definitive treatment protocol regarding surgical techniques and the time schedule does not yet exist. In the world literature, there are reports of velo-pharyngeal insufficiency rates between 7 and 30%. In a prospective study, all children aged 312 months with cleft lip, alveolus and palate, or cleft palate only, underwent an intravelar veloplasty. Follow-up monitoring consisted of frequent clinical linguistic checks and supervision of language development without a planned intention of articulation therapy before the age of about 5 years. Three hundred and ninety-seven children with non-syndromic clefts were included in this study, the youngest being 8-year old. Sixty children (15%) showed deviations in language and speech acquisition. From these, 56 (14%) had received articulation therapy after the 5th birthday. From these 56 children, 45 had overcome their problems with speech therapy alone whereas 11 (3%) needed a velo-pharyngeoplasty. Although these results are much better than those reported in other cohorts, some children still have velo-pharyngeal incompetence for no apparent reason. One possible explanation might be surgical, since on occasions, the intravelar muscle bundle is divided into two parts and the palato-pharyngeal part runs isolated more laterally and can be missed during reconstruction and retropositioning.

Cybersecurity of Critical Control Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-07-14

project are included below. The tasks include work in link encryption for existing legacy SCADA equipment, where we continue to develop lightweight...language for authoring and monitoring compliance of SCADA systems, including technologies for a “policy monitor” which reports out on any observance issues...Acquisition ( SCADA ). Details of each project are included below. The tasks include work in link encryption for existing legacy SCADA equipment

The Contribution of Phonological and Morphological Awareness in Chinese-English Bilingual Reading Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Candise Y.; Cheng, Chenxi; Wang, Min

2018-01-01

The current study examined the contribution of cross-language phonological and morphological awareness to reading acquisition in bilingual children. Participants were 140 children (M[subscript age] = 8.26 years) between Grades 1-4 who learned Chinese as their first language and English as their second language. Awareness of phoneme, onset-rime,…

The Etiology of Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition in Australian School Students: A Behavior-Genetic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coventry, William; Anton-Mendez, Ines; Ellis, Elizabeth M.; Levisen, Christina; Byrne, Brian; van Daal, Victor H. P.; Ellis, Nick C.

2012-01-01

We present one of the first behavior-genetic studies of individual differences in school students' levels of achievement in instructed second language acquisition (ISLA). We assessed these language abilities in Australian twin pairs (maximum N pairs = 251) by means of teacher ratings, class rankings, and self-ratings of proficiency, and used the…

Developing Language in a Developing Body: The Relationship between Motor Development and Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iverson, Jana M.

2010-01-01

During the first eighteen months of life, infants acquire and refine a whole set of new motor skills that significantly change the ways in which the body moves in and interacts with the environment. In this review article, I argue that motor acquisitions provide infants with an opportunity to practice skills relevant to language acquisition before…

Second Language Acquisition of Variable Structures in Spanish by Portuguese Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geeslin, Kimberly L.; Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro

2006-01-01

This study provides a model for examining the second language (L2) acquisition of structures where the first language (L1) and (L2) are similar, and where native speaker (NS) use varies. Research on the copula contrast in Spanish ("ser" and "estar" mean "to be") has shown that an assessment of learner choice cannot rely on an error analysis…

Modularity, Working Memory, and Second Language Acquisition: A Research Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Truscott, John

2017-01-01

Considerable reason exists to view the mind, and language within it, as modular, and this view has an important place in research and theory in second language acquisition (SLA) and beyond. But it has had very little impact on the study of working memory and its role in SLA. This article considers the need for modular study of working memory,…

Utility of Krashen's Five Hypotheses in the Saudi Context of Foreign Language Acquisition/Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gulzar, Malik Ajmal; Gulnaz, Fahmeeda; Ijaz, Attiya

2014-01-01

In the last twenty years, the paradigm that has dominated the discipline of language teaching is the SLA theory and Krashen's five hypotheses which are still proving flexible to accommodate earlier reforms. This paper reviews second language acquisition (SLA) theory to establish an understanding of its role in the EFL/ESL classrooms. Other areas…

Analytical Review of Universal Grammar (UG) Approach on Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irwandy

2015-01-01

The aim of this paper is to explore the analysis of Universal Grammar (UG) approach on Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This paper is significant as the sources for teacher or researcher of the second language since this elaboration is deeply focusing on the use of UG on SLA. The method used in this academic writing is inductive method of…

Word Meaning as a Palimpsest: A Defense of Sociocultural Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Song, Seonmi; Kellogg, David

2011-01-01

Vygotsky's work on the acquisition of foreign language words has been criticized for lacking a formal view of language as a system and for taking little interest in questions such as the route and rate of language acquisition. We argue that word meanings really do not constitute a formal system, either in the way they develop, or in the way they…

Implications of Second Language Acquisition Theory for Business English Teaching in Current China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wenzhong, Zhu; Muchun, Wan

2015-01-01

Second language acquisition (SLA) as a sub-branch of applied linguistics has been researched by Chinese and foreign scholars for over 40 years, but few researches have been done on its implications for Business English teaching which needs more language teaching theories to support. This paper makes a review of related studies, and puts forward a…

Common Ground between Form and Content: The Pragmatic Solution to the Bootstrapping Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oller, John W.

2005-01-01

The frame of reference for this article is second or foreign language (L2 or FL) acquisition, but the pragmatic bootstrapping hypothesis applies to language processing and acquisition in any context or modality. It is relevant to teaching children to read. It shows how connections between target language surface forms and their content can be made…

Difficulty in Learning Similar-Sounding Words: A Developmental Stage or a General Property of Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pajak, Bozena; Creel, Sarah C.; Levy, Roger

2016-01-01

How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary acquisition, we know from the infant literature that the ability to discriminate similar-sounding words at a particular age does not guarantee successful word-meaning…

Insights from Skill Acquisition Theory for Grammar Activity Sequencing and Design in Foreign Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Criado, Raquel

2016-01-01

This article presents a framework for the elaboration of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) grammar materials for adults based on the application to SLA of Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT). This theory is argued to compensate for the major drawbacks of FLT settings in comparison with second language contexts (lack of classroom learning time and limited…

The Effect of Aided Language Stimulation on Vocabulary Acquisition in Children with Little or No Functional Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dada, Shakila; Alant, Erna

2009-01-01

Purpose: To describe the nature and frequency of the aided language stimulation program and determine the effects of a 3-week-long aided language stimulation program on the vocabulary acquisition skills of children with little or no functional speech (LNFS). Method: Four children participated in this single-subject,multiple-probe study across…

The Exploring Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition and Common Main Gaps in the Current Studies of Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fazeli, Seyed Hossein

2012-01-01

Vocabulary can be a key factor for success, central to a language, and paramount to a language learner. In such situation, the lexicon may be the most important component for learners (Grass and Selinker, 1994), and mastering of vocabulary is an essential component of second/foreign language teaching and learning that has been repeatedly…

The Symbolic World of the Bilingual Child: Digressions on Language Acquisition, Culture and the Process of Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nowak-Fabrykowski, Krystyna; Shkandrij, Miroslav

2004-01-01

In this paper we explore the relationship between language acquisition, and the construction of a symbolic world. According to Bowers (1989) language is a collection of patterns regulating social life. This conception is close to that of Symbolic Interactionists (Charon, 1989) who see society as made up of interacting individuals who are symbol…

The Acquisition of Relative Clauses: How Do Second Language Learners of Arabic Do It?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Algady, Dola

2013-01-01

The new developments in syntactic theory under Minimalism reconsiders the relation between the language faculty and general cognitive systems whereby language acquisition is accomplished by the interaction of Chomsky (2005)'s three factors: (F1) a minimally specified UG (Genetic endowment); (F2) Primary Linguistic Data (PLD), i.e., input; and (F3)…

Language/culture/mind/brain. Progress at the margins between disciplines.

PubMed

Kuhl, P K; Tsao, F M; Liu, H M; Zhang, Y; De Boer, B

2001-05-01

At the forefront of research on language are new data demonstrating infants' strategies in the early acquisition of language. The data show that infants perceptually "map" critical aspects of ambient language in the first year of life before they can speak. Statistical and abstract properties of speech are picked up through exposure to ambient language. Moreover, linguistic experience alters infants' perception of speech, warping perception in a way that enhances native-language speech processing. Infants' strategies are unexpected and unpredicted by historical views. At the same time, research in three additional disciplines is contributing to our understanding of language and its acquisition by children. Cultural anthropologists are demonstrating the universality of adult speech behavior when addressing infants and children across cultures, and this is creating a new view of the role adult speakers play in bringing about language in the child. Neuroscientists, using the techniques of modern brain imaging, are revealing the temporal and structural aspects of language processing by the brain and suggesting new views of the critical period for language. Computer scientists, modeling the computational aspects of childrens' language acquisition, are meeting success using biologically inspired neural networks. Although a consilient view cannot yet be offered, the cross-disciplinary interaction now seen among scientists pursuing one of humans' greatest achievements, language, is quite promising.

Cognitive assessment of refugee children: Effects of trauma and new language acquisition.

PubMed

Kaplan, Ida; Stolk, Yvonne; Valibhoy, Madeleine; Tucker, Alan; Baker, Judy

2016-02-01

Each year, approximately 60,000 children of refugee background are resettled in Western countries. This paper reviews the effects of the refugee experience on cognitive functioning. The distinctive influences for these children include exposure to traumatic events and the need to acquire a new language, factors that need to be considered to avoid overdiagnosis of learning disorders and inappropriate educational placements. Prearrival trauma, psychological sequelae of traumatic events, developmental impact of trauma, and the quality of family functioning have been found to influence cognitive functioning, learning, and academic performance. In addition, the refugee child may be semiproficient in several languages, but proficient in none, whilst also trying to learn a new language. The influence that the child's limited English proficiency, literacy, and school experience may have on academic and test performance is demonstrated by drawing on the research on refugees' English language acquisition, as well as the more extensive literature on bilingual English language learners. Implications for interventions are drawn at the level of government policy, schools, and the individual. The paper concludes with the observation that there is a major need for longitudinal research on refugee children's learning and academic performance and on interventions that will close the academic gap, thereby enabling refugee children to reach their educational potential. © The Author(s) 2015.

Ovide Decroly's Views on Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lebrun, Yvan; Van De Craen, Piet

1975-01-01

Belgian physician and psychologist Ovide Decroly, keenly interested in language acquisition, devised tests to measure verbal skills in children and campaigned for the adoption of the sentence method rather than the word-building method in teaching reading and writing. (Author/CL)

Brain Bases of Morphological Processing in Young Children

PubMed Central

Arredondo, Maria M.; Ip, Ka I; Hsu, Lucy Shih-Ju; Tardif, Twila; Kovelman, Ioulia

2017-01-01

How does the developing brain support the transition from spoken language to print? Two spoken language abilities form the initial base of child literacy across languages: knowledge of language sounds (phonology) and knowledge of the smallest units that carry meaning (morphology). While phonology has received much attention from the field, the brain mechanisms that support morphological competence for learning to read remain largely unknown. In the present study, young English-speaking children completed an auditory morphological awareness task behaviorally (n = 69, ages 6–12) and in fMRI (n = 16). The data revealed two findings: First, children with better morphological abilities showed greater activation in left temporo-parietal regions previously thought to be important for supporting phonological reading skills, suggesting that this region supports multiple language abilities for successful reading acquisition. Second, children showed activation in left frontal regions previously found active in young Chinese readers, suggesting morphological processes for reading acquisition might be similar across languages. These findings offer new insights for developing a comprehensive model of how spoken language abilities support children’s reading acquisition across languages. PMID:25930011

Thinking About Multiword Constructions: Usage-Based Approaches to Acquisition and Processing.

PubMed

Ellis, Nick C; Ogden, Dave C

2017-07-01

Usage-based approaches to language hold that we learn multiword expressions as patterns of language from language usage, and that knowledge of these patterns underlies fluent language processing. This paper explores these claims by focusing upon verb-argument constructions (VACs) such as "V(erb) about n(oun phrase)." These are productive constructions that bind syntax, lexis, and semantics. It presents (a) analyses of usage patterns of English VACs in terms of their grammatical form, semantics, lexical constituency, and distribution patterns in large corpora; (b) patterns of VAC usage in child-directed speech and child language acquisition; and (c) investigations of VAC free-association and psycholinguistic studies of online processing. We conclude that VACs are highly patterned in usage, that this patterning drives language acquisition, and that language processing is sensitive to the forms of the syntagmatic construction and their distributional statistics, the contingency of their association with meaning, and spreading activation and prototypicality effects in semantic reference. Language users have rich implicit knowledge of the statistics of multiword sequences. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

On the Second Language Acquisition of Spanish Reflexive Passives and Reflexive Impersonals by French- and English-Speaking Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tremblay, Annie

2006-01-01

This study, a partial replication of Bruhn de Garavito (1999a; 1999b), investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals by French- and English-speaking adults at an advanced level of proficiency. The L2 acquisition of Spanish reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals by native French and…

[On factors that effect the variability of central mechanisms of bilingualism].

PubMed

Kruchinina, O V; Gal'perina, E I; Kats, E É; Shepoval'nikov, A N

2012-01-01

The article discusses the probable role of many factors that determine the individual variety of neurophysiological mechanisms, which provide the opportunity to learn and free use two or more languages. The formation of a speech functions is affected by both the general factors for bilinguals and monolinguals, as well as the specific characteristic of the situation of bilingualism. The general factors include genetic and environmental impact of explaining the diversity of individual options for the development of morphofunctional organization of speech functions. A bilinguals, obviously, have even more wide variance of the central maintenance of speech activity, due to the combination of different conditions that influence the language environment, which include the age of the second language acquisition, the language proficiency, linguistic closeness of the languages, the method of their acquisition, intensity of use and the scope of application of each of the languages. The influence of these factors can mediates in different ways by the individual characteristics of the bilingual's brain. Being exposed to two languages from the first days of life, the child uses for the development of speech skills of the unique features of the brain, which are available only in the initial stages of postnatal ontogenesis. In older age mastering a second language requires much more effort, when, as maturation, the brain acquires new additional possibilities, but permanently lose that special "bonus", which nature gives a small child only in the first months of life. Large individual variability patterns of activation of the cortex when verbal activity in late bilingual" compared with the "early", allows to assume, that the brain of "late bilingual", mastering a new language, forced to operate a large number of backup mechanisms, and this is reflected in the increase of variation in the cerebral processes, responsible for providing of speech functions. In addition, there is serious reason to believe that learning a second language contributes to the expansion of the functional capabilities of the brain and creates the basis for a successful cognitive activity.

Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?

PubMed

Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I

Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon, but also what someone is intending to convey with their utterance: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this paper we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of language by comparing deaf adults who had either early or late first exposure to their first language (ASL). We focus on the particular type of meaning at the semantic/pragmatic interface called scalar implicature , for which preschool-age children typically differ from adults. Children's behavior has been attributed to either their not knowing appropriate linguistic alternatives to consider or to cognitive developmental differences between children and adults. Unlike children, deaf adults with late language exposure are cognitively mature, although they never fully acquire some complex linguistic structures, and thus serve as a test for the role of language in such interpretations. Our results indicate an overall high performance by late learners, especially when implicatures are not based on conventionalized items. However, compared to early language learners, late language learners compute fewer implicatures when conventionalized linguistic alternatives are involved (e.g. ). We conclude that (i) in general, Gricean pragmatic reasoning does not seem to be impacted by delayed first language acquisition and can account for multiple quantity implicatures, but (ii) the creation of a scale based on lexical items can lead to ease in alternative creation that may be advantageously learned early in life, and that this may be one of several factors contributing to differences between adults and children on scalar implicature tasks.

Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaughlin, Barry; Harrington, Michael

1989-01-01

A distinction is drawn between representational and processing models of second-language acquisition. The first approach is derived primarily from linguistics, the second from psychology. Both fields, it is argued, need to collaborate more fully, overcoming disciplinary narrowness in order to achieve more fruitful research. (GLR)

Learn Locally, Act Globally: Learning Language from Variation Set Cues

PubMed Central

Onnis, Luca; Waterfall, Heidi R.; Edelman, Shimon

2011-01-01

Variation set structure — partial overlap of successive utterances in child-directed speech — has been shown to correlate with progress in children’s acquisition of syntax. We demonstrate the benefits of variation set structure directly: in miniature artificial languages, arranging a certain proportion of utterances in a training corpus in variation sets facilitated word and phrase constituent learning in adults. Our findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms of L1 acquisition by children, and for the development of more efficient algorithms for automatic language acquisition, as well as better methods for L2 instruction. PMID:19019350

Second Annual Conference on Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems. Abstracts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

Abstracts from the conference are presented. The topics covered include the following: next generation software systems and languages; databases, catalogs, and archives; user interfaces/visualization; real-time data acquisition/scheduling; and IRAF/STSDAS/PROS status reports.

Grammar! A Conference Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Lid, Ed.; Boaks, Peter, Ed.

Papers from a conference on the teaching of grammar, particularly in second language instruction, include: "Grammar: Acquisition and Use" (Richard Johnstone); "Grammar and Communication" (Brian Page); "Linguistic Progression and Increasing Independence" (Bernardette Holmes); "La grammaire? C'est du bricolage!" ("Grammar? That's Hardware!") (Barry…

A longitudinal study of lexical and grammar development in deaf Italian children provided with early cochlear implantation.

PubMed

Chilosi, Anna Maria; Comparini, Alessandro; Scusa, Maria Flora; Orazini, Laura; Forli, Francesca; Cipriani, Paola; Berrettini, Stefano

2013-01-01

A growing number of studies on deaf children with cochlear implant (CI) document a significant improvement in receptive and expressive language skills after implantation, even if they show language delay when compared with normal-hearing peers. Data on language acquisition in CI Italian children are still scarce and limited to only certain aspects of language. The purpose of this study is to prospectively describe the trajectories of language development in early CI Italian children, with particular attention to the transition from first words to combinatorial speech and to acquisition of complex grammar in a language with rich morphology, such as Italian. Six children, with profound prelingual deafness, provided with CI, between 16 and 24 months of age were prospectively assessed and followed over a mean period of up to 34.8 months postimplant. During follow-up, each child received between four to five individual language evaluations through a combination of indirect procedures (parent reports of early lexical and grammar development) and direct ones (administration of standardized receptive and expressive language tests with Italian norms and collection of spontaneous language samples). In relation to chronological age, the acquisition of expressive vocabulary was delayed. However, considering the duration of hearing experience, most CI participants showed an earlier start and faster growth of expressive rather than receptive vocabulary in comparison with typically developing children. This quite atypical result persisted right up until the end of the follow-up. The acquisition of expressive grammar was delayed relative to chronological age, though all but one CI participant achieved the expected grammar level after approximately 3 years of CI use. In addition, the rate of grammar acquisition was not homogeneous during development, showing two different paces: one comparable with normal hearing in the transition from holophrastic to primitive combinatorial speech and a much slower one to attain more advanced levels of morphosyntactic control. From a rehabilitative viewpoint, our results suggest the importance of implementing rehabilitation in lexical comprehension, even when expressive vocabulary appears to be within normal range. Moreover, assessment of language acquisition in CI Italian children should focus on those grammar aspects that are more vulnerable to early acoustic deprivation (such as free and bound morphology) to ensure enhanced language therapy planning.

Dependency distance: A new perspective on the syntactic development in second language acquisition. Comment on "Dependency distance: A new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural language" by Haitao Liu et al.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Jingyang; Ouyang, Jinghui

2017-07-01

Liu et al. [1] offers a clear and informative account of the use of dependency distance in studying natural languages, with a focus on the viewpoint that dependency distance minimization (DDM) can be regarded as a linguistic universal. We would like to add the perspective of employing dependency distance in the studies of second languages acquisition (SLA), particularly the studies of syntactic development.

Does Adding Mathematics to English Language Learners' Timetables Improve Their Acquisition of English?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stacey, Jenny

2016-01-01

This enquiry based project set out to find out if adult English language learners, known as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners in the UK, might benefit, in terms of their acquisition of English, from studying maths. This research has been conducted at a medium sized FE college in the East Midlands where I teach. I evaluate…

Input Skewedness, Consistency, and Order of Frequent Verbs in Frequency-Driven Second Language Construction Learning: A Replication and Extension of Casenhiser and Goldberg (2005) to Adult Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakamura, Daisuke

2012-01-01

Recent usage-based models of language acquisition research has found that three frequency manipulations; (1) skewed input (Casenhiser & Goldberg 2005), (2) input consistency (Childers & Tomasello 2001), and (3) order of frequent verbs (Goldberg, Casenhiser, & White 2007) facilitated construction learning in children. The present paper addresses…

Developmental Asynchrony in the Acquisition of Subject Properties in Child L2 English and Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pladevall-Ballester, Elisabet

2016-01-01

Given that L1A of subject properties in non-null subject languages emerges later than that of null subject languages, this study aims at determining to what extent the same pattern of acquisition is observed in early child L2A in bilingual immersion settings where English and Spanish are both source and target languages. Using an elicited oral…

Do Learners Lighten Up?: Phonetic and Allophonic Acquisition of Spanish /l/ by English-Speaking Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solon, Megan

2017-01-01

This study explores the second language (L2) acquisition of a segment that exists in learners' first language (L1) and in their L2 but that differs in its phonetic realization and allophonic patterning in the two languages. Specifically, this research tracks development in one aspect of the production of the alveolar lateral /l/ in the L2 Spanish…

Bad Influence?--An Investigation into the Purported Negative Influence of Foreign Domestic Helpers on Children's Second Language English Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leung, Alex Ho-Cheong

2012-01-01

This paper explores the purported negative influence of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) on child second language acquisition (SLA) by studying Hong Kong Cantonese children's listening ability in second language (L2) English. 31 kindergarten third graders aged 4;6 to 6, and 29 first year secondary students aged 11-14 who have had a Filipino…

The 'biliterate' ballot controversy: language acquisition and cultural shift among immigrants.

PubMed

Loo, C M

1985-01-01

This US study tested the validity of assumptions made regarding multilingual electoral ballot provisions. Rationale for language assistance was found to exist on the basis of number and proportion of recent immigrants, proportion of foreign born, lag of biliterate skill behind bilingual ability, linguistic differences between the Chinese language and English, and the discriminatory structure of the labor market. In California, where close to 1/2 the population is an ethnic minority, the issue is particularly relevant. Bilingual advocates view English-only advocates as "un-American" on legal and ideological grounds, while English-only advocates consider it "un-American" to be non-English speaking. In addition to census data and the existing literature, this study relies on the structured interview survey data of a representative sample of the Chinese adult population of San Francisco's Chinatown. 2/3 of the immigrants believed an immigrant should make some cultural changes, and 1/2 of the immigrants had done so. Data failed to support the claim that immigrants are uninformed that English is necessary for sociopolitical participation. Their more recent pattern of immigration, the linguistic differences between Asian languages and the English language, and structural constraints of US society make successive language acquisition difficult for Chinese migrant adults. Policy recommendations include: 1) changing language assistance criteria in the electoral process, 2) adding Vietnamese as a single language minority, 3) not considering Asian language minorities as 1 generic category, 4) justifying electoral assistance on several grounds, 5) disseminating data bearing directly on misguided assumptions related to language and cultural shift factors, and 6) renaming the "bilingual ballots" to "biliterate ballots."

The role of the left inferior parietal lobule in second language learning: An intensive language training fMRI study.

PubMed

Barbeau, Elise B; Chai, Xiaoqian J; Chen, Jen-Kai; Soles, Jennika; Berken, Jonathan; Baum, Shari; Watkins, Kate E; Klein, Denise

2017-04-01

Research to date suggests that second language acquisition results in functional and structural changes in the bilingual brain, however, in what way and how quickly these changes occur remains unclear. To address these questions, we studied fourteen English-speaking monolingual adults enrolled in a 12-week intensive French language-training program in Montreal. Using functional MRI, we investigated the neural changes associated with new language acquisition. The participants were scanned before the start of the immersion program and at the end of the 12 weeks. The fMRI scan aimed to investigate the brain regions recruited in a sentence reading task both in English, their first language (L1), and in French, their second language (L2). For the L1, fMRI patterns did not change from Time 1 to Time 2, while for the L2, the brain response changed between Time 1 and Time 2 in language-related areas. Of note, for the L2, there was higher activation at Time 2 compared to Time 1 in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) including the supramarginal gyrus. At Time 2 this higher activation in the IPL correlated with faster L2 reading speed. Moreover, higher activation in the left IPL at Time 1 predicted improvement in L2 reading speed from Time 1 to Time 2. Our results suggest that learning-induced plasticity occurred as early as 12 weeks into immersive second-language training, and that the IPL appears to play a special role in language learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A minimal standardization setting for language mapping tests: an Italian example.

PubMed

Rofes, Adrià; de Aguiar, Vânia; Miceli, Gabriele

2015-07-01

During awake surgery, picture-naming tests are administered to identify brain structures related to language function (language mapping), and to avoid iatrogenic damage. Before and after surgery, naming tests and other neuropsychological procedures aim at charting naming abilities, and at detecting which items the subject can respond to correctly. To achieve this goal, sufficiently large samples of normed and standardized stimuli must be available for preoperative and postoperative testing, and to prepare intraoperative tasks, the latter only including items named flawlessly preoperatively. To discuss design, norming and presentation of stimuli, and to describe the minimal standardization setting used to develop two sets of Italian stimuli, one for object naming and one for verb naming, respectively. The setting includes a naming study (to obtain picture-name agreement ratings), two on-line questionnaires (to acquire age-of-acquisition and imageability ratings for all test items), and the norming of other relevant language variables. The two sets of stimuli have >80 % picture-name agreement, high levels of internal consistency and reliability for imageability and age of acquisition ratings. They are normed for psycholinguistic variables known to affect lexical access and retrieval, and are validated in a clinical population. This framework can be used to increase the probability of reliably detecting language impairments before and after surgery, to prepare intraoperative tests based on sufficient knowledge of pre-surgical language abilities in each patient, and to decrease the probability of false positives during surgery. Examples of data usage are provided. Normative data can be found in the supplementary materials.

Innovations in Second Language Research Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gass, Susan M.

2001-01-01

Focuses on two approaches to research in second language acquisition: (1) various types of acceptability judgments or probes aimed at assessing acquisition of syntactic structure; and (2) various types of stimulated recall designed to gather learners' accounts of their own thought processes. (Author/VWL)

The Foray into the Neurosciences: Have We Learned Anything Useful Yet?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mollica, Anthony; Danesi, Marcel

1995-01-01

Reviews research on the neuroscientific perspective to second-language acquisition and teaching, focusing on the "critical period" of language acquisition, brain hemispheric mapping, universal grammar theory, the modal directionality principle, and the modal focusing principle. (contains 74 references) (MDM)

Semantic facilitation in bilingual first language acquisition.

PubMed

Bilson, Samuel; Yoshida, Hanako; Tran, Crystal D; Woods, Elizabeth A; Hills, Thomas T

2015-07-01

Bilingual first language learners face unique challenges that may influence the rate and order of early word learning relative to monolinguals. A comparison of the productive vocabularies of 435 children between the ages of 6 months and 7 years-181 of which were bilingual English learners-found that monolinguals learned both English words and all-language concepts faster than bilinguals. However, bilinguals showed an enhancement of an effect previously found in monolinguals-the preference for learning words with more associative cues. Though both monolinguals and bilinguals were best fit by a similar model of word learning, semantic network structure and growth indicated that the two groups were learning English words in a different order. Further, in comparison with a model of two-monolinguals-in-one-mind, bilinguals overproduced translational equivalents. Our results support an emergent account of bilingual first language acquisition, where learning a word in one language facilitates its acquisition in a second language. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relationship of Piaget's sensorimotor period to language acquisition of profoundly retarded children.

PubMed

Kahn, J V

1975-05-01

The relationship of Stage 6 of Piaget's sensorimotor period and the acquisition of meaningful expressive language was investigated. The sample consisted of eight profoundly retarded children who exhibited some meaningful expressive language and eight profoundly retarded children who exhibited none. Chronological ages of the children ranged from 47 to 98 months. A strong relationship was found between meaningful expressive language and Stage 6 functioning as tested by the Uzgiris and Hunt (Note 1) instrument. The findings were discussed in terms of supporting Piaget's theory that cognitive structures exist which are prerequisites for the development of language.

Learning grammatical categories from distributional cues: flexible frames for language acquisition.

PubMed

St Clair, Michelle C; Monaghan, Padraic; Christiansen, Morten H

2010-09-01

Numerous distributional cues in the child's environment may potentially assist in language learning, but what cues are useful to the child and when are these cues utilised? We propose that the most useful source of distributional cue is a flexible frame surrounding the word, where the language learner integrates information from the preceding and the succeeding word for grammatical categorisation. In corpus analyses of child-directed speech together with computational models of category acquisition, we show that these flexible frames are computationally advantageous for language learning, as they benefit from the coverage of bigram information across a large proportion of the language environment as well as exploiting the enhanced accuracy of trigram information. Flexible frames are also consistent with the developmental trajectory of children's sensitivity to different sources of distributional information, and they are therefore a useful and usable information source for supporting the acquisition of grammatical categories. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language Nests and Language Acquisition: An Empirical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okura, Eve K.

2017-01-01

This dissertation presents the findings from interviews conducted with language nest workers, teachers, language nest coordinators, administrators of language revitalization programs, principals and directors of language immersion schools that work in close proximity with language nests, and linguists involved in language revitalization efforts.…

Assessing Differences and Similarities between Instructed Heritage Language Learners and L2 Learners in Their Knowledge of Spanish Tense-Aspect and Mood (TAM) Morphology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montrul, Silvina; Perpinan, Silvia

2011-01-01

The acquisition of the aspectual difference between the preterit and imperfect in the past tense and the acquisition of the contrast between subjunctive and indicative mood are classic problem areas in second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish by English-speaking learners (Collentine, 1995, 1998, 2003; Salaberry, 1999; Slabakova & Montrul, 2002;…

Science as a Second Language: Acquiring Fluency through Science Enterprises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shope, R. E.

2012-12-01

Science Enterprises are problems that students genuinely want to solve, questions that students genuinely want to answer, that naturally entail reading, writing, exploration, investigation, and discussion. Engaging students in personally-relevant science enterprises provides both a diagnostic opportunity and a context for providing students the comprehensible input they need. We can differentiate instruction by creating science enterprise zones that are set up for the incremental increase in challenge for the students. Comprehensible input makes reachable, those just-out-of-reach concepts in the mix of the familiar and the new. We explore a series of science enterprise tools that have been developed and implemented in the context of informal science education projects that have reached over 10,000 urban youth in the Greater Los Angles area over the past six years. 1) The ED3U Science Inquiry Model, a learning cycle model that accounts for conceptual change; 2) The ¿NQUIRY Wheel, a compass of scientific inquiry strategies; 3) Inquiry Science Expeditions, a way of laying out a science learning environment, emulating a field and lab research collaboratory; 4) The Science Educative Experience Scale, a diagnostic measure of the quality of the science learning experience; and 5) Science Mimes, participatory enactment of science understanding. Practical examples of Science Enterprises will be presented, including a range of projects: Watershed Ecology; Astrobiology; Mars Rovers; Planetary Science; Icy Worlds. BACKGROUND: Language Acquisition is an informal process that occurs in the midst of exploring, solving problems, seeking answers to questions, playing, reading for pleasure, conversing, discussing, where the focus is not specifically on language development, but on the activity, which is of interest to the participant. Language Learning is a formal education process, the language arts aspect of the school day: the direct teaching of reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and speaking. Fluency results primarily from language acquisition and secondarily from language learning. We can view the problem of science education and communication as similar to language acquisition. Science Learning is a formal education process, the school science aspect of the school day: the direct teaching of standards-aligned science content. Science Acquisition is an informal process that occurs in the midst of exploring, solving problems, seeking answers to questions, playing, experimenting for pleasure, conversing, discussing, where the focus is not specifically on science content development, but on the inquiry activity, driven by the curiosity of the participant. Comprehensible input refers to the premise that we acquire language in the midst of activity when we understand the message; that is, when we understand what we hear or what we read or what we see. Acquisition is caused by comprehensible input as it occurs in the midst of a rich environment of language activity while doing something of interest to the learner. Providing comprehensible input is not the same as oversimplifying or "dumbing down." It is devising ways to create conditions where the interest of the learner is piqued.

Science As A Second Language: Acquiring Fluency through Science Enterprises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shope, R.; EcoVoices Expedition Team

2013-05-01

Science Enterprises are problems that students genuinely want to solve, questions that students genuinely want to answer, that naturally entail reading, writing, investigation, and discussion. Engaging students in personally-relevant science enterprises provides both a diagnostic opportunity and a context for providing students the comprehensible input they need. We can differentiate instruction by creating science enterprise zones that are set up for the incremental increase in challenge for the students. Comprehensible input makes reachable, those just-out-of-reach concepts in the mix of the familiar and the new. EcoVoices takes students on field research expeditions within an urban natural area, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center. This project engages students in science enterprises focused on understanding ecosystems, ecosystem services, and the dynamics of climate change. A sister program, EcoVoces, has been launched in Mexico, in collaboration with the Universidad Loyola del Pacífico. 1) The ED3U Science Inquiry Model, a learning cycle model that accounts for conceptual change: Explore { Diagnose, Design, Discuss } Use. 2) The ¿NQUIRY Wheel, a compass of scientific inquiry strategies; 3) Inquiry Science Expeditions, a way of laying out a science learning environment, emulating a field and lab research collaboratory; 4) The Science Educative Experience Scale, a diagnostic measure of the quality of the science learning experience; and 5) Mimedia de la Ciencia, participatory enactment of science concepts using techniques of mime and improvisational theater. BACKGROUND: Science has become a vehicle for teaching reading, writing, and other communication skills, across the curriculum. This new emphasis creates renewed motivation for Scientists and Science Educators to work collaboratively to explore the common ground between acquiring science understanding and language acquisition theory. Language Acquisition is an informal process that occurs in the midst of exploring, solving problems, seeking answers to questions, playing, reading for pleasure, conversing, discussing, where the focus is not specifically on language development, but on the activity, which is of interest to the participant. Language Learning is a formal education process, the language arts aspect of the school day: the direct teaching of reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and speaking. Fluency results primarily from language acquisition and secondarily from language learning. We can view the problem of science education and communication as similar to language acquisition. Science Learning is a formal education process, the school science aspect of the school day: the direct teaching of standards-aligned science content. Science Acquisition is an informal process that occurs in the midst of exploring, solving problems, seeking answers to questions, playing, experimenting for pleasure, conversing, discussing, where the focus is not specifically on science content development, but on the inquiry activity, driven by the curiosity of the participant. Treating Science as a Second Language shifts the evaluation of science learning to include gauging the extent to which students choose to deepen their pursuit of science learning.

Music Perception Influences Language Acquisition: Melodic and Rhythmic-Melodic Perception in Children with Specific Language Impairment.

PubMed

Sallat, Stephan; Jentschke, Sebastian

2015-01-01

Language and music share many properties, with a particularly strong overlap for prosody. Prosodic cues are generally regarded as crucial for language acquisition. Previous research has indicated that children with SLI fail to make use of these cues. As processing of prosodic information involves similar skills to those required in music perception, we compared music perception skills (melodic and rhythmic-melodic perception and melody recognition) in a group of children with SLI (N = 29, five-year-olds) to two groups of controls, either of comparable age (N = 39, five-year-olds) or of age closer to the children with SLI in their language skills and about one year younger (N = 13, four-year-olds). Children with SLI performed in most tasks below their age level, closer matching the performance level of younger controls with similar language skills. These data strengthen the view of a strong relation between language acquisition and music processing. This might open a perspective for the possible use of musical material in early diagnosis of SLI and of music in SLI therapy.

Music Perception Influences Language Acquisition: Melodic and Rhythmic-Melodic Perception in Children with Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Sallat, Stephan; Jentschke, Sebastian

2015-01-01

Language and music share many properties, with a particularly strong overlap for prosody. Prosodic cues are generally regarded as crucial for language acquisition. Previous research has indicated that children with SLI fail to make use of these cues. As processing of prosodic information involves similar skills to those required in music perception, we compared music perception skills (melodic and rhythmic-melodic perception and melody recognition) in a group of children with SLI (N = 29, five-year-olds) to two groups of controls, either of comparable age (N = 39, five-year-olds) or of age closer to the children with SLI in their language skills and about one year younger (N = 13, four-year-olds). Children with SLI performed in most tasks below their age level, closer matching the performance level of younger controls with similar language skills. These data strengthen the view of a strong relation between language acquisition and music processing. This might open a perspective for the possible use of musical material in early diagnosis of SLI and of music in SLI therapy. PMID:26508812

Learning difficulties or learning English difficulties? Additional language acquisition: an update for paediatricians.

PubMed

Clifford, Vanessa; Rhodes, Anthea; Paxton, Georgia

2014-03-01

Australia is a diverse society: 26% of the population were born overseas, a further 20% have at least one parent born overseas and 19% speak a language other than English at home. Paediatricians are frequently involved in the assessment and management of non-English-speaking-background children with developmental delay, disability or learning issues. Despite the diversity of our patient population, information on how children learn additional or later languages is remarkably absent in paediatric training. An understanding of second language acquisition is essential to provide appropriate advice to this patient group. It takes a long time (5 years or more) for any student to develop academic competency in a second language, even a student who has received adequate prior schooling in their first language. Refugee students are doubly disadvantaged as they frequently have limited or interrupted prior schooling, and many are unable to read and write in their first language. We review the evidence on second language acquisition during childhood, describe support for English language learners within the Australian education system, consider refugee-background students as a special risk group and address common misconceptions about how children learn English as an additional language. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2013 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

The Iterated Classification Game: A New Model of the Cultural Transmission of Language

PubMed Central

Swarup, Samarth; Gasser, Les

2010-01-01

The Iterated Classification Game (ICG) combines the Classification Game with the Iterated Learning Model (ILM) to create a more realistic model of the cultural transmission of language through generations. It includes both learning from parents and learning from peers. Further, it eliminates some of the chief criticisms of the ILM: that it does not study grounded languages, that it does not include peer learning, and that it builds in a bias for compositional languages. We show that, over the span of a few generations, a stable linguistic system emerges that can be acquired very quickly by each generation, is compositional, and helps the agents to solve the classification problem with which they are faced. The ICG also leads to a different interpretation of the language acquisition process. It suggests that the role of parents is to initialize the linguistic system of the child in such a way that subsequent interaction with peers results in rapid convergence to the correct language. PMID:20190877

Interaction and Instructed Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loewen, Shawn; Sato, Masatoshi

2018-01-01

Interaction is an indispensable component in second language acquisition (SLA). This review surveys the instructed SLA research, both classroom and laboratory-based, that has been conducted primarily within the interactionist approach, beginning with the core constructs of interaction, namely input, negotiation for meaning, and output. The review…

Piagetian and Vygotskian Approach to Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomasello, Michael

1996-01-01

Recent research has established closer links between language, cognition, and social life than Piaget or Vygotsky imagined. Connections have been established between object permanence development and acquisition of disappearance words and the quantity and quality of child-adult joint attentional social interactions and children's early word…

Captioned Television as Comprehensible Input: Effects of Incidental Word Learning from Context for Language Minority Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neuman, Susan B.; Koskinen, Patricia

1992-01-01

Analyzes whether comprehensible input via captioned television influences acquisition of science vocabulary and concepts using 129 bilingual seventh and eighth graders. Finds that comprehensible input is a key ingredient in language acquisition and reading development. (MG)

On TESOL '75: New Directions in Second Language Learning, Teaching and Bilingual Education. Selected Papers from the Annual TESOL Convention (9th, Los Angeles, CA, March 4-9, 1975)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burt, Marina K., Ed.; Dulay, Heidi C., Ed.

This volume consists of 35 papers divided into the following 12 sections: (1) organizational policy: a dialogue between TESOL and bilingual education--two papers on compatibility and cooperation; (2) second language acquisition--six papers dealing with language learning and teaching, effect of background on learning, order of acquisition,…

Role of Focus-on-Form Instruction, Corrective Feedback and Uptake in Second Language Classrooms: Some Insights from Recent Second Language Acquisition Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afitska, Oksana

2015-01-01

A considerable number of studies on focus-on-form instruction, corrective feedback and uptake have been carried out in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research over the last two decades. These studies have investigated the above-mentioned concepts from different perspectives, in a number of different contexts and in a number of…

Reading skills in young adolescents with a history of Specific Language Impairment: The role of early semantic capacity.

PubMed

Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier

2015-01-01

This study assessed the reading skills of 19 Spanish-Catalan children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and 16 age-matched control children. Children with SLI have difficulties with oral language comprehension, which may affect later reading acquisition. We conducted a longitudinal study examining reading acquisition in these children between 8 and 12 years old and we relate this data with early oral language acquisition at 6 years old. Compared to the control group, the SLI group presented impaired decoding and comprehension skills at age 8, as evidenced by poor scores in all the assessed tasks. Nevertheless, only text comprehension abilities appeared to be impaired at age 12. Individual analyses confirmed the presence of comprehension deficits in most of the SLI children. Furthermore, early semantic verbal fluency at age 6 appeared to significantly predict the reading comprehension capacity of SLI participants at age 12. Our results emphasize the importance of semantic capacity at early stages of oral language development over the consolidation of reading acquisition at later stages. Readers will recognize the relevance of prior oral language impairment, especially semantic capacity, in children with a history of SLI as a risk factor for the development of later reading difficulties. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Measuring orthographic transparency and morphological-syllabic complexity in alphabetic orthographies: a narrative review.

PubMed

Borleffs, Elisabeth; Maassen, Ben A M; Lyytinen, Heikki; Zwarts, Frans

2017-01-01

This narrative review discusses quantitative indices measuring differences between alphabetic languages that are related to the process of word recognition. The specific orthography that a child is acquiring has been identified as a central element influencing reading acquisition and dyslexia. However, the development of reliable metrics to measure differences between language scripts hasn't received much attention so far. This paper therefore reviews metrics proposed in the literature for quantifying orthographic transparency, syllabic complexity, and morphological complexity of alphabetic languages. The review included searches of Web of Science, PubMed, PsychInfo, Google Scholar, and various online sources. Search terms pertained to orthographic transparency, morphological complexity, and syllabic complexity in relation to reading acquisition, and dyslexia. Although the predictive value of these metrics is promising, more research is needed to validate the value of the metrics discussed and to understand the 'developmental footprint' of orthographic transparency, morphological complexity, and syllabic complexity in the lexical organization and processing strategies.

[What bimodal bilingual have to say about bilingual developing?

PubMed

de Quadros, Ronice Müller; Lillo-Martin, Diane; Pichler, Deborah Chen

2013-07-01

The goal of this work is to present what our research with hearing children from Deaf parents, acquiring Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and Portuguese, and American Sign Language (ASL) and English (Lillo-Martin et. al. 2010) have to say about bilingual development. The data analyzed in this study is part of the database of spontaneous interactions collected longitudinally, alternating contexts of sign and spoken languages. Moreover, there is data from experimental studies with tests in both pairs of languages that is incorporated to the present study. A general view about previous studies related to bimodal bilingual acquisition with hearing children, from "deaf" parents, will be presented. Then, we will show some linguistics aspects of this kind of acquisition found in our study and discuss about bilingual acquisition.

Word recognition and phonetic structure acquisition: Possible relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morgan, James

2002-05-01

Several accounts of possible relations between the emergence of the mental lexicon and acquisition of native language phonological structure have been propounded. In one view, acquisition of word meanings guides infants' attention toward those contrasts that are linguistically significant in their language. In the opposing view, native language phonological categories may be acquired from statistical patterns of input speech, prior to and independent of learning at the lexical level. Here, a more interactive account will be presented, in which phonological structure is modeled as emerging consequentially from the self-organization of perceptual space underlying word recognition. A key prediction of this model is that early native language phonological categories will be highly context specific. Data bearing on this prediction will be presented which provide clues to the nature of infants' statistical analysis of input.

Description of real-time Ada software implementation of a power system monitor for the Space Station Freedom PMAD DC testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ludwig, Kimberly; Mackin, Michael; Wright, Theodore

1991-01-01

The authors describe the Ada language software developed to perform the electrical power system monitoring functions for the NASA Lewis Research Center's Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) DC testbed. The results of the effort to implement this monitor are presented. The PMAD DC testbed is a reduced-scale prototype of the electric power system to be used in Space Station Freedom. The power is controlled by smart switches known as power control components (or switchgear). The power control components are currently coordinated by five Compaq 386/20e computers connected through an 802.4 local area network. The power system monitor algorithm comprises several functions, including periodic data acquisition, data smoothing, system performance analysis, and status reporting. Data are collected from the switchgear sensors every 100 ms, then passed through a 2-Hz digital filter. System performance analysis includes power interruption and overcurrent detection. The system monitor required a hardware timer interrupt to activate the data acquisition function. The execution time of the code was optimized by using an assembly language routine. The routine allows direct vectoring of the processor to Ada language procedures that perform periodic control activities.

Growth of language-related brain areas after foreign language learning.

PubMed

Mårtensson, Johan; Eriksson, Johan; Bodammer, Nils Christian; Lindgren, Magnus; Johansson, Mikael; Nyberg, Lars; Lövdén, Martin

2012-10-15

The influence of adult foreign-language acquisition on human brain organization is poorly understood. We studied cortical thickness and hippocampal volumes of conscript interpreters before and after three months of intense language studies. Results revealed increases in hippocampus volume and in cortical thickness of the left middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus for interpreters relative to controls. The right hippocampus and the left superior temporal gyrus were structurally more malleable in interpreters acquiring higher proficiency in the foreign language. Interpreters struggling relatively more to master the language displayed larger gray matter increases in the middle frontal gyrus. These findings confirm structural changes in brain regions known to serve language functions during foreign-language acquisition. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Acquisition of English Focus Marking by Non-Native Speakers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, Rachel Elizabeth

This dissertation examines Mandarin and Korean speakers' acquisition of English focus marking, which is realized by accenting particular words within a focused constituent. It is important for non-native speakers to learn how accent placement relates to focus in English because appropriate accent placement and realization makes a learner's English more native-like and easier to understand. Such knowledge may also improve their English comprehension skills. In this study, 20 native English speakers, 20 native Mandarin speakers, and 20 native Korean speakers participated in four experiments: (1) a production experiment, in which they were recorded reading the answers to questions, (2) a perception experiment, in which they were asked to determine which word in a recording was the last prominent word, (3) an understanding experiment, in which they were asked whether the answers in recorded question-answer pairs had context-appropriate prosody, and (4) an accent placement experiment, in which they were asked which word they would make prominent in a particular context. Finally, a new group of native English speakers listened to utterances produced in the production experiment, and determined whether the prosody of each utterance was appropriate for its context. The results of the five experiments support a novel predictive model for second language prosodic focus marking acquisition. This model holds that both transfer of linguistic features from a learner's native language (L1) and features of their second language (L2) affect learners' acquisition of prosodic focus marking. As a result, the model includes two complementary components: the Transfer Component and the L2 Challenge Component. The Transfer Component predicts that prosodic structures in the L2 will be more easily acquired by language learners that have similar structures in their L1 than those who do not, even if there are differences between the L1 and L2 in how the structures are realized. The L2 Challenge Component predicts that for difficult tasks, language learners will rely on widely-applied prosodic patterns, making them more successful at prosodically marking broad focus than narrow focus. However, for easy tasks, language learners will more successfully mark information structures that have a more direct relationship between focus and accent placement.

Acquisition of Mathematical Language: Suggestions and Activities for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cirillo, Michelle; Bruna, Katherine Richardson; Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth

2010-01-01

In this article, we describe aspects of mathematical language that could be problematic to English-language learners, provide recommendations for teaching English-language learners, and suggest activities intended to foster language development in mathematics. (Contains 1 figure.)

The "Globularization Hypothesis" of the Language-ready Brain as a Developmental Frame for Prosodic Bootstrapping Theories of Language Acquisition.

PubMed

Irurtzun, Aritz

2015-01-01

In recent research (Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco, 2014a,b) have advanced the hypothesis that our species-specific language-ready brain should be understood as the outcome of developmental changes that occurred in our species after the split from Neanderthals-Denisovans, which resulted in a more globular braincase configuration in comparison to our closest relatives, who had elongated endocasts. According to these authors, the development of a globular brain is an essential ingredient for the language faculty and in particular, it is the centrality occupied by the thalamus in a globular brain that allows its modulatory or regulatory role, essential for syntactico-semantic computations. Their hypothesis is that the syntactico-semantic capacities arise in humans as a consequence of a process of globularization, which significantly takes place postnatally (cf. Neubauer et al., 2010). In this paper, I show that Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco's hypothesis makes an interesting developmental prediction regarding the path of language acquisition: it teases apart the onset of phonological acquisition and the onset of syntactic acquisition (the latter starting significantly later, after globularization). I argue that this hypothesis provides a developmental rationale for the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis of language acquisition (cf. i.a. Gleitman and Wanner, 1982; Mehler et al., 1988, et seq.; Gervain and Werker, 2013), which claim that prosodic cues are employed for syntactic parsing. The literature converges in the observation that a large amount of such prosodic cues (in particular, rhythmic cues) are already acquired before the completion of the globularization phase, which paves the way for the premises of the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis, allowing babies to have a rich knowledge of the prosody of their target language before they can start parsing the primary linguistic data syntactically.

Extended, Embodied Cognition and Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atkinson, Dwight

2010-01-01

A "cognitivist" approach to cognition has traditionally dominated second language acquisition (SLA) studies. In this article, I examine two alternative approaches--"extended cognition" and "embodied cognition"--for how they might help us conceptualize SLA. More specifically, I present: (i) summaries of extended and embodied cognition, followed by…

Developing L2 Pragmatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen

2013-01-01

This article positions research on the acquisition of pragmatics as an inquiry in the greater field of second language acquisition research. Viewing pragmatics from this intersection, I consider five areas of research that are of interest in both fields and have the potential to make significant contributions to second language pragmatics…

Computational Evaluation of the Traceback Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kol, Sheli; Nir, Bracha; Wintner, Shuly

2014-01-01

Several models of language acquisition have emerged in recent years that rely on computational algorithms for simulation and evaluation. Computational models are formal and precise, and can thus provide mathematically well-motivated insights into the process of language acquisition. Such models are amenable to robust computational evaluation,…

Auditory Processing Disorder and Foreign Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veselovska, Ganna

2015-01-01

This article aims at exploring various strategies for coping with the auditory processing disorder in the light of foreign language acquisition. The techniques relevant to dealing with the auditory processing disorder can be attributed to environmental and compensatory approaches. The environmental one involves actions directed at creating a…

Probe into the Internal Mechanism of Interlanguage Fossilization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Qian

2009-01-01

Interlanguage fossilization is normal for second language acquisition. It is also a hotspot for studies on theory of foreign language acquisition. Many reasons cause the interlanguage fossilization. This paper probes into the internal mechanism of interlanguage fossilization from five aspects, namely the physiological aspect, the psychological…

Foreign-grammar acquisition while watching subtitled television programmes.

PubMed

Van Lommel, Sven; Laenen, Annouschka; d'Ydewalle, Géry

2006-06-01

Past research has shown that watching a subtitled foreign movie (i.e. foreign language in the soundtrack and native language in the subtitles) leads to considerable foreign-language vocabulary acquisition; however, acquisition of the grammatical rules has failed to emerge. The aim of this study was to obtain evidence for the acquisition of grammatical rules in watching subtitled foreign movies. Given an informal context, younger children were predicted to outperform older children in acquiring a foreign language; however, older children will take more advantage of explicit instruction compared with younger children. In Experiment 1, 62 sixth-graders from a primary school and 47 sixth-graders from a secondary school volunteered to participate. The participants in Experiment 2 were 94 sixth-graders from primary schools and 84 sixth-graders from secondary schools. The two experiments manipulated the instructions (incidental- vs. intentional-language learning). Moreover, before the experiments began, some participants explicitly received some of the foreign grammatical rules (presented rules), while the movie contained cases of presented rules as well as cases of rules which had to be inferred (not-presented rules). Rule acquisition through the movie only was not obtained; there was a strong effect of advance rule presentation but only on the items of presented rules, particularly among the older participants. Contrary to vocabulary, grammar may be too complicated to acquire from a rather short movie presentation.

Complexities of Teaching and Implications for Equity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Carol D.

2011-01-01

Teacher knowledge involves a complex network of inter-related domains, including cognition; differences in learning strengths for primary and secondary school students; social and emotional development across the life course; motivation; language acquisition and socialization; curriculum design and assessment; and classroom management. In…

Acquisition of stress and pitch accent in English-Spanish bilingual children

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Sahyang; Andruski, Jean; Nathan, Geoffrey S.; Casielles, Eugenia; Work, Richard

2005-09-01

Although understanding of prosodic development is considered crucial for understanding of language acquisition in general, few studies have focused on how children develop native-like prosody in their speech production. This study will examine the acquisition of lexical stress and postlexical pitch accent in two English-Spanish bilingual children. Prosodic characteristics of English and Spanish are different in terms of frequent stress patterns (trochaic versus penultimate), phonetic realization of stress (reduced unstressed vowel versus full unstressed vowel), and frequent pitch accent types (H* versus L*+H), among others. Thus, English-Spanish bilingual children's prosodic development may provide evidence of their awareness of language differences relatively early during language development, and illustrate the influence of markedness or input frequency in prosodic acquisition. For this study, recordings from the children's one-word stage are used. Durations of stressed and unstressed syllables and F0 peak alignment are measured, and pitch accent types in different accentual positions (nuclear versus prenuclear) are transcribed using American English ToBI and Spanish ToBI. Prosodic development is compared across ages within each language and across languages at each age. Furthermore, the bilingual children's productions are compared with monolingual English and Spanish parents' productions.

The Gender Gap in Second Language Acquisition: Gender Differences in the Acquisition of Dutch among Immigrants from 88 Countries with 49 Mother Tongues.

PubMed

van der Slik, Frans W P; van Hout, Roeland W N M; Schepens, Job J

2015-01-01

Gender differences were analyzed across countries of origin and continents, and across mother tongues and language families, using a large-scale database, containing information on 27,119 adult learners of Dutch as a second language. Female learners consistently outperformed male learners in speaking and writing proficiency in Dutch as a second language. This gender gap remained remarkably robust and constant when other learner characteristics were taken into account, such as education, age of arrival, length of residence and hours studying Dutch. For reading and listening skills in Dutch, no gender gap was found. In addition, we found a general gender by education effect for all four language skills in Dutch for speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Female language learners turned out to profit more from higher educational training than male learners do in adult second language acquisition. These findings do not seem to match nurture-oriented explanatory frameworks based for instance on a human capital approach or gender-specific acculturation processes. Rather, they seem to corroborate a nature-based, gene-environment correlational framework in which language proficiency being a genetically-influenced ability interacting with environmental factors such as motivation, orientation, education, and learner strategies that still mediate between endowment and acquiring language proficiency at an adult stage.

75 FR 59102 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement; Part 204, Administrative Matters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-27

... indexing methodology across DoD. This technical amendment adds language to the Defense Federal Acquisition... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Defense Acquisition Regulations System 48 CFR Part 204 Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement; Part 204, Administrative Matters AGENCY: Defense Acquisition Regulations...

75 FR 51416 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement; Acquisition of Commercial Items

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-20

... be used for the acquisition of commercial items, and revised the language to address the conditions... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Defense Acquisition Regulations System 48 CFR Parts 202, 212, and 234 [DFARS Case 2008-D011] Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement; Acquisition of Commercial Items...

Evaluation, Use, and Refinement of Knowledge Representations through Acquisition Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearl, Lisa

2017-01-01

Generative approaches to language have long recognized the natural link between theories of knowledge representation and theories of knowledge acquisition. The basic idea is that the knowledge representations provided by Universal Grammar enable children to acquire language as reliably as they do because these representations highlight the…

Consciousness in SLA: A Modular Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Truscott, John

2015-01-01

Understanding the place of consciousness in second language acquisition (SLA) is crucial for an understanding of how acquisition occurs. Considerable work has been done on this topic, but nearly all of it assumes a highly non-modular view, according to which language and its development is "nothing special". As this assumption runs…

Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use: The Taipei Lectures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krashen, Stephen D.

This book is based on a series of four lectures, presented at National Taipei University, Taiwan, which reviewed the fundamentals of second language acquisition theory, presented original research supporting the theory, offered counterarguments to criticisms, and explored new areas that appeared to have promise for progress in both theory and…

Complexity and Conflicting Grammars in Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westergaard, Marit

2014-01-01

The article by Amaral and Roeper (this issue; henceforth A&R) presents many interesting ideas about first and second language acquisition as well as some experimental data convincingly illustrating the difference between production and comprehension. The article extends the concept of Universal Bilingualism proposed in Roeper (1999) to second…

On Learning to Talk: Are Principles Derived from the Learning Laboratory Applicable?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palermo, David S.

While studies in learning and verbal behavior show that learning comes through paired-associate problems, they do not explain the acquisition of language. Three paradigms demonstrate mediation effect in paired-associate learning: response equivalence, stimulus equivalence, and chaining model. By reviewing children's language acquisition patterns…