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Modeling Bilingualism: From Structure to Chaos. In Honor of Kees de Bot
No full textThis volume presents an overview of changes in paradigms, perspectives and contexts of research into bilingual development over the past two decades. During this time, the focus of perspective has changed. In the early 1990s, most investigations still proceeded from models that assumed modular components, hierarchical relationships and linear processes, and investigated what were perceived to be the ?typical? contexts of bilingual development (sequential, usually instructed bilingualism, where the second language would remain the weaker one and the speakers investigated were typically young adults). More recently it has been proposed that such models may not be complex enough to accommodate bilingual development in all its facets and settings (bimodal bilingualism, attrition, aging). This change has recently culminated in applications of chaos theory to Applied Linguistics, and in the widening range of situations of language acquisition, learning and deterioration which have been investigated
Contact x time: External factors and variability in L1 attrition
Full text linkInvestigations of the language behaviour of immigrant communities usually find that the degree of maintenance of the heritage language or shift to the language of the host country differs both between immigrant communities and between individuals. On the one hand, group comparisons between migrants and controls typically show signs of attrition among the experimental populations. On the other, investigations of individual linguistic development within one group of immigrants also show great variation between speakers where the degree of L1 maintenance or deterioration is concerned. Two decades ago, an explanation for such differences in L1 proficiency was proposed which invoked an interaction of two factors: time spent in emigration and amount of contact with the L1. In a study of Dutch migrants in France, De Bot, Gommans & Rossing (1991) established that there was a correlation between attrition effects in free speech and length of residence, but that this effect was only apparent for those speakers who had very little contact with their L1.The present investigation attempts to replicate this finding in a large-scale study of the attrition of L1 German in an L2 English and an L2 Dutch setting. It finds that, while length of residence has no explanatory validity when assessed across the entire population, a differential investigation of subgroups of speakers with different amounts of contact does show an impact of time with respect to performance on formal tasks, perceived foreign accent, and accuracy in free speech. Interestingly, with the exception of accuracy measures, this correlation obtains not only for those migrants who have the least contact with L1, but also for those with the most. It is argued that both very frequent and very infrequent use of the L1 can accelerate attrition, either through contact-induced change within a bilingual migrant community, or through lack of rehearsal
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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