This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Zeynep Erdil-Moody, Kate Cockcroft, Wang Ping, Gözde Akoglu, Mun Woo Lee, Naomi Gorbatt, Catrin Wyn Edwards, Mitsuyo Sakamoto, Cajsa Ottesjö, and Dongbo Zhang.
(2016). "Why Do We Know Hebrew and They Do Not Know Arabic?" Children's Meta-Linguistic Talk in Bilingual Preschool, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Language-focused listening to young children's talk provides insight into their internal thinking mechanisms regarding language as they engage in language learning. The aim of this exploratory longitudinal study was to examine and analyze children's meta-linguistic talk and its main characteristics in a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew-speaking preschool. This talk takes the form either of short comments or of fully fledged discursive events. The target preschool is located in central Israel, and is attended by 29 children: 19 L1 Arabic-speaking children and 10 L1 Hebrew-speaking children. Data were collected during one year and included video-recordings of the children's conversations. The following content categories were extracted from the children's meta-linguistic talk: (1) focus on language form; (2) discourse management: children as language policymakers–who speaks which language to whom and when, critical evaluation of L2 competence, and positive notions of bilingualism; and (3) difficulty in understanding the talk. We found that through active discourse management within intergroup contexts, children tried to build their social world and enhance their ethnic identities. This type of meta-linguistic talk addressed such macro-level issues as minority-majority language status and asymmetry in L2 input. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Preschool Children, Second Language Learning, Video Technology
(2016). Morphology in Malay-English Biliteracy Acquisition: An Intervention Study, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This intervention study examined the effect of English morphological instruction on the development of English as well as Malay morphological awareness and word reading abilities among Malay-English bilingual fourth graders in Singapore, where English is the medium of instruction. The intervention group experienced semester-long instruction in English derivation; the control group was taught with their regular English curriculum. Both groups were tested with derivational awareness and derived word decoding tasks in English and Malay at the end of Grade 3 prior to the intervention (pre-test) and at the end of the first semester of Grade 4 right after the intervention (post-test). There was no significant difference between the two groups on all tasks at pre-testing. Significant intervention effects were found on the development of English abilities in that the intervention group's performance gain was significantly greater than that of the control group on all English tasks except the derived decoding fluency task. More important, such intervention effects were also evident with some Malay tasks. These findings provide empirical evidence that supports the benefits of morphological instruction to bilingual children's reading development and a possibly causal effect of cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from English to Malay. [More] Descriptors: Literacy, Bilingualism, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning
(2016). Adult Monolingual Policy Becomes Children's Bilingual Practice: Code-Alternation among Children and Staff in an English-Medium Preschool in Sweden, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Parents, teachers and institutions often attempt to implement monolingual policies in bilingual settings, believing that they thereby facilitate children's bilingual development. Children, however, often have their own communicative agendas. In this study, we investigate how the twofold language policy of an English-medium preschool in Sweden is put into practice in everyday interaction. The results show that children (aged 3-4) develop a broader range of code alternation practices than the staff uses in their interaction with the children. The paper analyses several examples of spontaneous interaction either between staff and children, or among children playing with each other in the preschool. We show how the preschool's English language profile in practice becomes a bilingual policy, which encourages children not only to acquire English and Swedish in the preschool, but also to learn different ways to manage their bilingualism in the school context. [More] Descriptors: English (Second Language), Language of Instruction, Swedish, Bilingualism
(2016). Swedish or English? Migrants' Experiences of the Exchangeability of Language Resources, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Patterns of transmigration emerging as a consequence of globalization are creating new and complex markets for communicative resources in which languages and language varieties are differently valued. In a Swedish context, where lingua franca English can facilitate communication but where monolingual norms prevail and Swedish is positioned as the key to "integration," the purpose of this study is to examine English-speaking migrants' experiences of opportunities to use Swedish and English in communication. Interviews were conducted with 14 recently arrived migrants with English in their repertoires. Drawing on participants' experiences of language use in institutional contexts, analyses focus on the influence of value assessments, orientations to ideal-type norms, processes of self-surveillance and the effects of discursive positionings. While migrants' language choices are understood as a consequence of structural conditions, attention is also drawn to the ways in which such choices are flexibly negotiated. Analyses shed light on participants' creative and critical capacities and how, in their language choices, they evaluate, relate to and resist macro-social structures. Different varieties of English are shown to offer different communicative opportunities and not all are equally exchangeable. Opportunities to use English also differ as a consequence of the intersections of discursive positionings. [More] Descriptors: Swedish, English (Second Language), Language Usage, Social Integration
(2016). Operationalizing Multilingualism: Language Learning Motivation in Turkey, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study is an examination of language learning motivation and multilingual status in the Turkish English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Using Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) framework, specifically the ideal and ought-to L2 selves, this study examines the relationship between motivation and two operationalizations of multilingualism: (1) any experience with a third language and (2) Perceived Positive Language Interaction (PPLI). Using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and one-way ANOVAs with the data from 159 EFL learners in Turkey, the results indicate that there is a significant group effect for multilingual status for both operationalizations of multilingualism with the ideal L2 self; however, no significant difference was found between the groups with the ought-to L2 self. There is also a discussion about the importance of performing EFAs with questionnaire data in a variety of contexts, as well as further insights regarding the operationalization of the PPLI construct. As the L2MSS has not yet been investigated in the Turkish context, the results of this study help to further elucidate Turkish EFL students' language learning motivation to add to the growing body of literature on the multifaceted and dynamic nature of motivation in the field of second language acquisition. [More] Descriptors: Learning Motivation, Second Language Learning, Factor Analysis, English (Second Language)
(2016). Discursive Mechanisms and Human Agency in Language Policy Formation: Negotiating Bilingualism and Parallel Language Use at a Swedish University, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In the wake of the enactment of Sweden's Language Act in 2009 and in the face of the growing presence of English, Swedish universities have been called upon by the Swedish Higher Education Authority to craft their own language policy documents. This study focuses on the discursive negotiation of institutional bilingualism by a language policy committee at one Swedish university during the process of developing a draft language policy. Following an ethnographic/discourse analytic orientation to language policy and planning research, data were collected during language policy committee meetings at the university. Using nexus analysis, circulating discourses are mapped and analyzed, with a specific focus on how these discourses were negotiated through mediated actions during committee meeting interaction and then entextualized in a draft policy. Analysis reveals how "bilingualism" became reinterpreted as "parallel language use," a concept developed and used in Nordic language planning over the past 15 years. Analysis further shows how committee members negotiated the meaning of parallel language use and the processes of resemiotization that took place as discourses from other sociolinguistic scales entered into the committee's discussion and writing. In all, the study highlights discursive mechanisms of language planning and the interplay of social actors and texts. [More] Descriptors: Language Planning, Swedish, Bilingualism, Universities
(2016). Does Gender Have an Impact on the Potential Benefits Learners May Achieve in Two Contexts Compared: Formal Instruction and Formal Instruction + Content and Language Integrated Learning?, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study focuses on the degree of influence of one individual factor, namely gender, on the level of English competence attained in two different groups of intermediate-level Catalan Spanish adolescent learners of English as a foreign language: the first group (Group A) is 1 year younger and follows formal instruction (FI) and in parallel content and language integrated learning (CLIL) instruction (FI + CLIL). That is, the group receives some 'extra' hours which are CLIL hours. The second group (Group B) follows a FI only programme. Data were elicited both for receptive and production skills, except speaking, and were statistically analysed using a pretest-posttest design over one academic year. Results obtained, contrary to expectations, confirm that female participants are better than male participants in both contexts of acquisition although not in all skills and domains analysed. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Gender Differences, Educational Benefits, English (Second Language)
(2016). The Early Childhood Education and Care Partnership for Bilingualism in Minority Language Schooling: Collaboration between Bilingual Families and Pedagogical Practitioners, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Educational partnerships occur at the intersection of early childhood education and care (ECEC), families, and the surrounding community, and have been shown to play a significant role in student success rates in education. There is, however, a gap in research on the role and potential of "partnership" in the case of bilingual families with children enrolled in monolingual minority language ECEC. This study aimed to fill this void by examining parental and practitioner discourses on partnership and on obligations, desires, abilities, and competencies involved in acting on a bilingual childhood in the context of monolingual minority ECEC. Parents in nine Finnish-Swedish bilingual families and six pedagogical practitioners at three Swedish-medium minority language ECEC units in Finland were interviewed. We applied ethnographic discourse analysis–nexus analysis–on the interview data and found that the family languages (Finnish and Swedish) did not seem to be given equal importance; Swedish, the minority language in Finland and the language of the ECEC, was foregrounded at the expense of Finnish. The study suggests that partnership is a useful concept and a tool to understand the possibilities and challenges involved in promoting bilingualism in ECEC, especially in the context of a minority language ECEC. [More] Descriptors: Early Childhood Education, Child Care, Bilingualism, Language Minorities
(2016). First-Language Skills of Bilingual Turkish Immigrant Children Growing up in a Dutch Submersion Context, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The interdependence between the first and second language of bilingual immigrant children has not received sufficient attention in research. Most studies concentrate on mainstream language skills of immigrant pupils. In some studies, the gaps in the language development of immigrant children are documented by comparing mainstream pupils with immigrant children. The competence in the first language receives very little attention. In order to show the role of first language competence in second-language acquisition and lower school achievement, we present the findings of our empirical study by comparing bilingual Turkish immigrant children (n = 30, mean age = 67.27 months) in the Netherlands and monolingual Turkish speakers (n = 30, mean age = 66.97 months) in Turkey. The evidence presented in this paper shows that compared to monolingual Turkish speakers, Turkish immigrant children lag behind in their first language cognitive concepts, lexical, syntactic, and textual skills. Mothers' education level turns out to be an important factor in explaining the performance differences of immigrant children. This would have an effect on their concept and cognitive development as well as on their second-language acquisition. [More] Descriptors: Turkish, Native Language, Immigrants, Bilingualism
(2016). Songs vs. Stories: Impact of Input Sources on ESL Vocabulary Acquisition by Preliterate Children, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 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 stories and four songs were randomly spread across four consecutive weekly workshops consisting of play-based pedagogical activities. The impact of the input source, number of encounters with each lexical item, animacy as a feature of the lexical items, and first language (L1) lexicon size was examined. Recall of target words was assessed through the selection between four images after hearing the word, and L1 lexicon was assessed through the Peabody test. Results show significantly higher recall for animate concepts, while no difference in recall was found in relation to input source (words in songs vs. stories) or L1 lexicon size. Results also stress the need for a possibly higher number of encounters than that normally found for adults in order to achieve significant recall. [More] Descriptors: Singing, Linguistic Input, Native Language, Vocabulary Development
(2016). "Gangnam Style" English Ideologies: Neoliberalism, Class and the Parents of Early Study-Abroad Students, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study examines the English ideologies of Korean early study-abroad students' parents in Gangnam, one of the most affluent areas in South Korea. The data collected were drawn from in-depth individual interviews with 23 parents, and subjected to critical discourse analysis. The findings showed that the issue of class was foregrounded prominently in the Gangnam parents' discourses. They believed that English was a requisite for being in the Gangnam inner-circle, and that their children's native-like English reflected their own high socio-economic status. They also perceived English to be a capitalistic instrument through which they could hand over their own socio-economic class to their children. English was perceived to help the children get high-paying jobs that would then enable them to live in Gangnam like their parents. This study is expected to unpack the neoliberal English ideologies, especially in relation to class, and give us an opportunity to rethink them from a more critical perspective. [More] Descriptors: Neoliberalism, Language Attitudes, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning
(2016). Language-in-Education Policies, Immigration and Social Cohesion in Catalonia: The Case of Vic, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper analyses the language-in-education policies implemented to integrate international immigrants into the Catalan language community in Vic, Catalonia. It focuses on the Catalan Government's "Languages and Social Cohesion Plan" (LIC) plan, Vic city council's local education plans, which were adopted as part of LIC plan, and the EBE centre, a Catalan Government initiative that was opened in Vic as an educational welcome space for newly arrived immigrant families. Drawing upon empirical data gathered from semi-structured interviews and substantiated with analysis of policy documents, this paper advances three main claims. First, that immigrant families and community members in Vic have played a vital role in reinforcing the city's language-in-education policies. Second, that immigrant parents can contribute to their children's linguistic integration, even when they are not fluent in the minority language. Third, that the wider discourse of social cohesion in Catalonia has facilitated this greater participation amongst the immigrant family and community members. Together, these three claims present a counterargument to the growing belief in the literature on minority language revival and revitalisation that the family and the community no longer play a significant role in minority language maintenance. [More] Descriptors: Language of Instruction, Educational Policy, Romance Languages, Spanish
(2016). Ethnolinguistic Vitality among Japanese-Brazilians: Challenges and Possibilities, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper explores ethnolinguistic vitality among Japanese-Brazilians ("Nikkeis"). First, an 18-item questionnaire was administered to 33 individuals who attended a seminar on bilingual studies held in São Paulo. Then, two bilingual "Nikkei" teachers who participated in the questionnaire and who grew up to be bilinguals themselves were invited for a more in-depth one-on-one follow-up interview. This study confirms the importance of parental involvement as well as various social infrastructures that give rise to quality teacher training and community establishment. Key issues identified were: (1) linguistic and cultural capital ascribed to Japanese language and cultural knowledge, (2) persistence of the native-speaker myth, (3) the complex constellation of "Nikkei," and (4) the lack of partnership between the Brazilian Government and Japanese-sponsored institutions. From our participants' narratives, we discovered that society still strongly reinforces beliefs that language teaching should be delivered by native L1 speakers, and that this ascription of native speaker superiority is impeding the training and hiring of "Nikkei" teachers. It is crucial to establish Brazilian-Japanese governmental partnerships to realize effective Japanese language education in Brazil. Finally, further collecting and disseminating of "Nikkei" teachers' voices is called for in order to challenge the hegemonic discourse prevalent in language teaching today. [More] Descriptors: Japanese, Questionnaires, Bilingualism, Parent Participation
(2016). A Comparison between Verbal Working Memory and Vocabulary in Bilingual and Monolingual South African School Beginners: Implications for Bilingual Language Assessment, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study compared bilingual and monolingual school beginners on measures of simple and complex verbal working memory and receptive and expressive vocabulary. The aim was to determine whether the tests of working memory are fairer measures of language ability than the vocabulary tests for bilingual children when tested in their second language. Participants were 120 school beginners, comprising English first- (monolingual) and second-language (bilingual) speakers, matched for age, grade and socio-economic background. All were being educated in English. Results showed that (1) the monolinguals outperformed the bilinguals on both expressive and receptive vocabulary; (2) there were no significant differences between the language groups on any of the working memory tests, when receptive and expressive vocabulary both were and were not statistically controlled; and (3) from the working memory measures, Digit Span tasks were significantly associated with vocabulary for both language groups, while Non-word Recall and Counting Recall were only related to vocabulary for the monolinguals. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for the functioning of verbal working memory in bilinguals and the types of verbal working memory measures suitable for assessing the language abilities of bilingual children. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Receptive Language, Expressive Language, Verbal Communication
(2016). Assessment on Language Rights in Education Domain: Shift-Oriented, Maintenance-Oriented or Something Else?, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. There is a trend towards the shift of the Uyghur language as the language of instruction in schools in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. This article presents several examples of such a shift first and then it reviews the concept of language rights (LR) and applies them to the current situation of the Uyghur language in education domain. After that it presents and discusses some reasons to address a pressing concern of the LRs in Xinjiang in accordance with China's domestic conventions as well as with some international conventions. In the end, it introduces the concept of language ecology on the basis of legally binding LRs as an ideal outlet for the Uyghur language in Xinjiang. [More] Descriptors: Civil Rights, Language Maintenance, Language Minorities, Foreign Countries