1,720,997 research outputs found
Code-mixing in young bilingual children
No full textThis thesis examined several possible explanations for young bilingual children's code-mixing: the unitary language system (ULS) hypothesis, parental rates of code-mixing, parental discourse strategies in response to children's code-mixing, and children's language dominance. These explanations were examined in six French-English bilingual children, observed between the ages of 18 and 30 months. They were observed separately in interaction with each of their parents. The results showed that the ULS hypothesis cannot explain children's language use. Similarly, parental input could not explain children's code-mixing. In contrast, children's dominance was shown to be the best explanation of their code-mixing. It was suggested that bilingual children are particularly likely to code-mix when they do not know a translation equivalent. These results suggest that bilingual children's code-mixing is largely due to performance factors rather than underlying competence
Functional categories in the grammatical development of bilingual and second language children
No full textThe research for this dissertation is focused on the following two issues: (1) Can bilingual child language development be considered as 'two monolinguals in one', and (2) Can bilingual child language contribute uniquely to our understanding of the acquisition process in all children? Three studies examining functional categories in the grammatical development of bilingual and second language children were conducted in order to address these questions.Study 1 investigates potential interference between the developing grammars of three French-English bilingual children. Naturalistic production data were collected from the children at six month intervals between approximately 2;0 and 3;0 years of age. The data were examined for the children's acquisition of INFL and these results were compared with extant findings for monolingual French and English speaking children. The results indicate that these bilingual children showed no evidence of transfer, acceleration. or delay in acquisition and support the hypothesis that their grammars are acquired autonomously and like those of monolinguals.The principle focus of Study 2 is an investigation of the continuity debate on functional category acquisition through an analysis of bilingual language development. In this study, the acquisition of INFL and DET by two French-English bilingual children was examined. These children were at an earlier stage of syntactic development than those in Study 1. Naturalistic production data were collected at two month intervals from the children, between approximately 2;0 to 3;0 years of age. The analyses indicate that INFL appeared at different times in the children's languages; whereas, DET appeared at the same time. The results are discussed with respect to the maturation and continuity views on the acquisition of functional categories. Because of the between-language discrepancy in the emergence of INFL, it is argued that these findings support a continuity perspective. It is also argued that bilingual first language acquisition provides unique evidence bearing on the continuity debate.The principal focus of Study 3 is also the continuity debate on functional category acquisition, but in contrast to Study 2, the children in this study were second language learners. In this study, the acquisition of features within INFL, agreement and tense, were examined separately to determine if they are acquired in sequence. Fifteen English-speaking learners of French and five monolingual francophone grade-mates. participated in the study. A structured oral interview was given annually to each of the children from grade one to grade three, and the transcripts were analysed for the use of tense and agreement. The results revealed that items encoding agreement emerged before items encoding tense in the second language learners' speech, suggesting that these features emerge in sequence in their grammars. The findings are interpreted with respect to three prevailing views on continuity in the acquisition of functional phrase structure in second language acquisition. It is argued that a weak continuity position is best supported by the data
The communicative competence of young French-English bilingual children /
No full textThe communicative competence of bilingual children involves a large array of skills---they must not only acquire the full range of communication skills of monolinguals but also learn when, how and with whom to use each language. This dissertation features three studies on the communication skills of bilingual children (French-English bilinguals aged 2.5 and 3 years from the Montreal area). Studies 1 and 2 explored these children's ability to make appropriate language choices by studying their responsiveness to two types of cues: The first study investigated whether children's language choice is influenced by their interlocutor's code-mixing; the second study examined whether children change their language in response to their interlocutor's requests for clarification following the children's use of the inappropriate language. The children demonstrated that they were capable of making on-line adjustments in their language choice in response to both types of cues, thereby showing that sensitivity to cues for language change is part of bilingual children's communicative competence from a young age. Study 3 compared bilingual and monolingual children's responses to requests for clarification following breakdowns in communication due to problematic aspects of their utterances such as speaking too softly or mispronouncing words. The findings revealed no significant differences between the bilingual and monolingual children's responses and suggest that the acquisition of conversational repair skills is not influenced by the simultaneous acquisition of two languages. Together, these three studies contribute to the understanding of the skills underlying children's ability to make appropriate language choices and suggest that the unique demands of bilingual interpersonal communication do not interfere with the acquisition of more general communication skills
An investigation of the origins and development of phonological awareness in pre-literate children /
No full textDespite the fact that phonological awareness (PA) is one of the strongest predictors of reading acquisition, relatively little is known about its origins and development. Theories of spoken word representation and cognitive control were examined to explore the respective roles of linguistic and cognitive factors in the development of PA following debate in the research literature regarding the linguistic versus cognitive basis of PA. Pre-literate, kindergarten children were administered tasks assessing PA, spoken word representation in long-term memory, phonological encoding in working memory, and cognitive control at the beginning and end of the kindergarten year. At the end of grade one, the same children were administered tasks of reading in order to investigate the roles of PA and each of the linguistic and cognitive factors in the development of reading skills. While the ability to phonologically encode spoken words in working memory was a significant predictor of PA, spoken word representation in long-term memory and cognitive control were not causally related to PA. PA was the best predictor of the development of word identification skills in children; however, spoken word representation in long-term memory may play a role in the development of reading comprehension skills. These findings refute the theory of spoken word representation in long-term memory proposed by Walley (1993) and Fowler (1991) and suggest that the causal relationship between cognitive control and PA obtained by Tunmer et al. (1988) may be due to methodological shortcomings in their investigation. Finally, the theory that awareness of an awareness of phonemes arises from the acquisition of reading skills is challenged with the findings that pre-literate phoneme awareness is a significant predictor of reading ability approximately 18 months later. The implications of these findings for the diagnosis of reading disability and reading remediation are discussed
The acquisition of natural language negation : a logical resources approach
No full textThe logic of natural language negation (e.g. no) is prima facie at odds with an exclusively CLASSICAL LOGIC based on SET THEORY. The negation of classical logic obeys the LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION (according to which an element cannot be both in and not in a set) and the LAW OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE (according to which an element either is or is not in a set). In contrast, natural language negation tolerates APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS (as in, Do you like your supper?---Yes and no) and UNEXCLUDED MIDDLES (as in, Do you love your supper?--- No; Do you hate your supper?---No). These prima facie non-classical phenomena relate to non-set theoretic INTERPRETIVE STRUCTURES, particularly OBJECT STRUCTURE, i.e. that objects may possess properties in part but not in whole (e.g. one might love one part of a supper but hate another), and PREDICATE DIMENSIONALITY , i.e. that properties may have mid-range values (e.g. one might evaluate the supper as a whole as an average between the two extremes). I describe several experiments exploring adults' and children's grasp of object structure and predicate dimensionality and their relation to natural language negation, using two different reasoning tasks: the ability to resolve apparent contradictions and the ability to draw inferences about unexcluded middles. Results suggest that even the negation of children as young as age three is not exclusively classical and set theoretic, but rather reflects a principled grasp of object structure and predicate dimensionality. I argue that children's grasp of natural language negation is guided by sophisticated LOGICAL RESOURCES that relate to the NATURAL LOGIC of common objects and their properties, particularly object structure and predicate dimensionality
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variation in early language experiences and their impact on general language and memory abilities
Get PDFPierce, Genesee, Delcenserie et Morgan (2017) ont proposé que les variations en termes de moment, de qualité et de quantité de l'apport linguistique au cours des premiers stades du développement sont liées à des variations du développement de la mémoire de travail phonologique et, à leur tour, aux résultats ultérieurs de l'apprentissage du langage. Les deux premières études de la présente thèse ont examiné cette hypothèse en utilisant une approche directe multi-groupes, permettant d’investiguer des variations d’apport linguisitique entre différents groupes. La première étude a examiné les capacités langagières de trois groupes d'enfants à risque pour l'apprentissage du langage : les enfants porteurs d'implants cochléaires n’ayant pas été exposés à la langue des signes, les enfants souffrant d’un trouble développemental du langage et les enfants adoptés à l'étranger. Deux groupes contrôle composés d'enfants ayant un développement typique et étant soit monolingues ou apprenants d'une deuxième langue ont également été inclus. La seconde étude a examiné les capacités de mémoire phonologique des ces mêmes groupes d'enfants ainsi que les liens entre leurs habiletés langagières et mnésiques. L'impact de la variation des expériences linguistiques précoces a fait l'objet d'une troisième étude qui, cette fois, a examiné cette variation dans des groupes d’enfants sourds porteurs d’implants cochléaires. En effet, cette étude a examiné les capacités de langage et de mémoire phonologique d'enfants sourds porteurs d'implants cochléaires qui ont été exposés très tôt et à court terme à une langue des signes non-native dispensée par leurs parents entendants. Ces enfants ont été comparés à des enfants normoentendants ainsi qu'à des enfants sourds n’ayant jamais été exposés à la langue des signes – donc à des enfants qui ont subi une privation linguistique totale ainsi qu’un retard d’exposition langagière avant leur implantation. Dans chacune des études, les enfants apprenaient le français, comme première ou deuxième langue, et ont été appariés en fonction de l'âge, du sexe assigné à la naissance et du statut socio- économique, ainsi que d'autres facteurs spécifiques au groupe. Ils étaient âgés de cinq à sept ans au moment des études. Dans chaque étude, une large batterie de tests de langage et de mémoire ainsi que des mesures contrôle, évaluant l'attention auditive, la vitesse de traitement, le raisonnement fluide et le développement socio-émotionnel, ont été administrées aux différents groupes. Les résultats des études 1 et 2 suggèrent que les enfants dont l'accès ou la capacité à traiter l’apport linguistique dès la naissance est limitée courent un plus grand risque de difficultés de i langage et de mémoire phonologique que les enfants dont l’apport linguistique est retardé, mais par ailleurs normal ou relativement normal. Cela s'est avéré pour les mesures des capacités langagières générales ainsi que pour les mesures des capacités de mémoire phonologique, mais aussi pour la mémoire de travail non verbale. En outre, des relations développementales différentes entre la mémoire phonologique et le langage ont été constatés chez les groupes d’intérêt comparativement aux groupes contrôles. Cela vient appuyer l’hypothèse selon laquelle les expériences linguistiques au début de la vie ont une incidence sur le développement du langage en raison de leurs effets sur le développement de la mémoire phonologique. Les résultats de l'étude 3 soulignent l'importance supplémentaire d'examiner les effets des variations de l'apport linguistique précoce sur le développement des compétences langagières et de la mémoire phonologique, mais cette fois au sein d’un groupe, celui des enfants sourds porteurs d’implants cochléaires. Les résultats suggèrent que même une exposition de courte durée à la langue des signes non native a des effets positifs sur les capacités générales de langage et de mémoire phonologique – la durée totale de l'exposition à la langue des signes étant le meilleur prédicteur des performances des enfants sourds dans ces domaines. Les présentes données suggèrent qu'un apport linguistique limité en quantité et de qualité sous-optimale peut aider à surmonter les effets négatifs d'une privation totale de langage et d'une exposition tardive à l'apport linguistique. Les études examinant les variations entre les groupes, ainsi qu’à l'intérieur des groupes, en ce qui concerne le moment, la qualité et la quantité de l'apport linguistique au cours des premiers stades du développement, ainsi que son impact sur les habiletés cognitives, permettent non seulement d’éclairer les théories de la psychologie du développement, mais aussi les pratiques cliniques qui permettront de maximiser le développement et le potentiel d'apprentissage des enfants (Norbury, 2019).Pierce, Genesee, Delcenserie and Morgan (2017) proposed that variations in the timing, quality and quantity of linguistic input during early development are linked to variations in the development of phonological working memory and, in turn, to later language learning outcomes. The first two studies in the present dissertation examined this hypothesis using a direct multi-group approach, enabling the investigation of variations in linguistic input between different groups. The first study examined the general language abilities of three groups of children at risk for language learning: children with cochlear implants who had not been exposed to sign language, children with a developmental language disorder, and internationally adopted children. Two control groups of typically developing children who were either monolingual or second language learners were also included. The second study examined the phonological memory abilities of these same groups of children, and the links between their language and phonological memory skills. The impact of variations in early language experiences was the subject of a third study, which, this time, examined variations in groups of deaf children with cochlear implants. Specifically, the third study examined the language and phonological memory abilities of deaf children with cochlear implants who had had early short-term exposure to nonnative sign language provided by their hearing parents. Deaf children with short-term exposure to nonnative sign language before and after cochlear implantation were compared with normal-hearing children and with deaf children with CIs who had never been exposed to sign language – thus who had undergone total language deprivation and delayed language exposure prior to implantation. In each study, the children were learning French as a first or second language, and were matched for age, sex assigned at birth and socio-economic status, as well as other group-specific factors. They were between five and seven years of age at the time of testing. In all three studies, a large battery of language and phonological memory tests, as well as control measures assessing auditory attention, processing speed, fluid reasoning and socio-emotional development, were administered to the different groups. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 suggest that children with limited access to or ability to process early language input are at greater risk for language learning than children with delayed input to an additional language but otherwise typical or relatively typical early input. This was true on measures of general language ability as well as on measures of phonological memory abilities, but also on nonverbal working memory. As well, differential developmental relationships between iii phonological memory and language among the groups of interest in comparison to the typically- developing monolingual and second language learner groups were found – supporting the hypothesis that language experiences early in life are consequential for language development because of their effects on the development of phonological memory. The results of Study 3 underline the additional importance of examining the effects of variations in early language input on the development of language skills and phonological memory, but this time within the same group, that of deaf children with cochlear implants. The results indeed suggest that even short-term exposure to non-native sign language has positive effects on general language and phonological memory skills with the total duration of exposure to sign language being the best predictor of deaf children's performance in these areas. The results suggest that language input that is limited in quantity and suboptimal in quality can help overcome the negative effects of total language deprivation and delayed exposure to language input. Studies examining between-group and within-group variations in the timing, quality and quantity of language input during early development, and its impact on cognitive skills, not only inform developmental psychology theories, but also clinical practices that will maximize children's development and learning potential (Norbury, 2019)
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