This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Anatoliy V. Kharkhurin, Panos Athanasopoulos, Anastasia Gkaintartzi, Elaine R. Silliman, So Hee Bae, Marco Santello, Ruth Huntley Bahr, Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Chun Lai, and Fiona O'Hanlon.
(2015). Teaching Health Sciences Students about Culturally Sensitive Communication between Health Professionals and Patients from Diverse Cultures, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. As members of a nationally accredited research project (I?+?D+i) InterMED (ref.: FF2011-25500) being carried out in the field of Intercultural Mediation, we are aware of the mediator's delicate role in communicative interactions between health professionals and foreign population. Sales has pointed out the dangers of stereotyping minorities and thus has warned Western citizens "to assume that they are unaware of people's reality coming from other cultures, that prejudices are built due to lack of knowledge and the fear that ignorance entails." For all these reasons, we aim at informing learners enrolled in" English for Physical Therapy" at the University of Alcalá about the importance that nowadays immigration has in public health settings and the role that mediators play in these contexts. This objective can be attained with the help of class blogs, a web 2.0 tool available at the Blackboard online platform, whose teaching and learning uses are currently being researched by the teaching innovation group FILWIT ("Filologías, Wikis y Traducción"; Philology, Wikis and Translation) in the framework of the ALCES ("Aprendizaje de Lenguas y Cultura en Entornos Sociales"; Learning Languages and Culture in Social Networks) project. The interdisciplinary spirit guiding the present teaching experience strives to show that students can learn a foreign language at the same time as they come into contact with multiculturalism in public health services. [More] Descriptors: Health Personnel, Cultural Awareness, Cultural Differences, Patients
(2015). Bilingual Idiosyncratic Dimensions of Language Attitudes, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The goal of this study is to identify new dimensions of language attitudes to allow for both their multidimensionality and possible language-specificity stemming from local sociolinguistic environments. Adopting a two-step methodology comprising (1) elicitation of adjectives in group interviews and (2) employment of the semantic differential technique within a direct approach, this article demonstrates that language attitudes of bilinguals may be made up of a number of latent dimensions that go beyond those found in previous academic studies. In particular, Italian English bilinguals in Australia rate their languages according to three idiosyncratic dimensions only partly ascertained in the literature: attractiveness, superiority and efficiency. These three dimensions, emerged through rotated principal component analysis, reveal the significance of bilingualism in attitude formation. Moreover, this study provides insights on language attitudes as constructions avulsed from their contextualised manifestations and indeed accounts for both their language-specific singularity and intrinsic multidimensionality. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Language Attitudes, Semantic Differential, Sociolinguistics
(1976). Texas Telecomputer Grid/Bilingual Career Education Demonstration Project. Final Project Performance Report. A demonstration project was conducted in 1975-76 at three locations in Texas to show the effectiveness of the Texas Telecomputer Grid (TTG) as a teaching method in bilingual career education. (TTG is a system designed to connect regional concentrations of computer and television resources by microwaves to transmit televised programs, computer information, and face-to-face conversations without the use of telephones.) A course, entitled "The World of Work: Career Orientation for Adults," was developed to incorporate the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic into the topics of job choice, search, and tenure. Of the 218 adult students who enrolled in the course, the 74% who participated in the evaluation study were for the majority Spanish-surnamed. Except in the area of affective development toward careers and education (which reflected little difference), TTG was found to be more effective than conventional teaching methods, and, in general, to be a flexible, viable delivery system for bilingual career education. Further study is needed to explore (1) the learning style of Spanish-speaking adult students, (2) the application of TTG to other areas of career education, and (3) other possible uses of TTG's ability to simulate face-to-face conversations. Descriptors: Adult Education, Basic Skills, Bilingual Education, Career Choice
(2015). Children Learning Chinese as a Home Language in an English-Dominant Society, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Many Chinese families face many difficulties in maintaining their heritage language for their children in English-dominant societies. This article first looks at the losses from monolingualism and benefits of bilingualism. Then, it explores the common methods used today in teaching Chinese. We conclude that families and community play an indispensable role in their children's acquisition. For children to acquire adequate proficiency in the language, educators should inform families about this topic and partner with them. Families can indeed be active in the process. Hence, the article further describes a guide designed and written by the author to accommodate the needs of parents. It can be used as a model for future guides. Further, the article recommends effective media routes by which families can have access to similar guides. [More] Descriptors: Chinese, Language Acquisition, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning
(2015). Choice of Scottish Gaelic-Medium and Welsh-Medium Education at the Primary and Secondary School Stages: Parent and Pupil Perspectives, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Results are presented of a comparative study of the reasons for parental choice of Scottish Gaelic-medium and Welsh-medium primary education in the year 2000 and of the reasons for pupils' decisions to continue with Gaelic or Welsh-medium education at secondary school in 2007. Parents in both contexts cited the quality of Celtic-medium education to similar extents in the choice of Welsh or Gaelic-medium education, but parents in the Welsh context more frequently cited employment rationales, and parents in the Scottish context more frequently cited heritage and the benefits of bilingualism. The Welsh-medium and Gaelic-medium pupils cited a preference for learning in Welsh or Gaelic, a wish to continue to be educated with friends, heritage, quality of Celtic-medium education and employment rationales to similar extents in the choice of Celtic-medium secondary education. However, Welsh-medium pupils more frequently cited the Welsh-medium education experiences of older family members, and Gaelic-medium pupils more frequently cited valuing bilingualism as a reason for such a choice. The results are discussed in relation to previous research on choice of Gaelic and Welsh-medium education, and in relation to contextual factors, such as linguistic demographics, and the level of institutionalization of Gaelic and Welsh within each national context. [More] Descriptors: Welsh, Indo European Languages, Language of Instruction, Bilingualism
(2015). Bicultural Orientation and Chinese Language Learning among South Asian Ethnic Minority Students in Hong Kong, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Understanding the value of monocultural acculturation orientation to the host culture (assimilation) and bicultural acculturation orientation (integration) for language learning is critical in guiding educational policy and practices for immigrant students. This study aimed to enhance our understanding on the relationship between acculturation orientation and second language (L2) learning. It generated two conceptual models to describe how cultural identification affects language learning as hypothesized in different theories on identity and L2 learning and tested these two hypothesized models in the immigration context of Hong Kong. A survey was conducted among a group of senior high school South Asian minority students on their learning of the language of the host culture, Chinese, to provide the basis for comparison. It was found that the students mainly adopted the bicultural/integration orientation and that bicultural orientation was the optimal acculturation orientation for learning Chinese. Bicultural orientation influenced the participants' Chinese language learning outcome through impacting psychosocial well-being and engagement with the target language and community. The findings suggest that we need to take both linguistic and psychosocial adjustment factors into consideration when conceptualizing the role of identity in L2 learning. Furthermore, this study cautions us against a context-independent stance toward the utility of assimilation for language learning. [More] Descriptors: Biculturalism, Asians, Minority Group Students, High School Students
(2015). Complexity of Language Ideologies in Transnational Movement: Korean "Jogi Yuhak" Families' Ambivalent Attitudes towards Local Varieties of English in Singapore, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper discusses the complex and competing language ideologies that Korean educational migrant families in Singapore hold about the normativity and legitimacy of English language varieties. During their educational migration in Singapore, Korean families show ambivalent attitudes toward the local variety of English in Singapore, Singlish. Through an analysis of this ambivalence, this paper explores how polycentricity and mobility work to shape the families' complex ideologies about English. It is shown that their orientations to multiple markets of English become crucial in their evaluation of different linguistic varieties in transnational space. Though the hegemonic linguistic order which privileges globally valued varieties of English (i.e. English varieties of the Inner Circle) dominates the linguistic investment strategies of these families, their language ideologies are not predetermined or fixed but continuously negotiated, contested, and reshaped by their everyday sociocultural experience and future trajectories. [More] Descriptors: Language Attitudes, Immigrants, Asians, English (Second Language)
(2015). Bilingual Spelling Patterns in Middle School: It Is More than Transfer, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study examined the Spanish and English spelling patterns of bilingual adolescents, including the cross-linguistic effects of each language, by applying a fine-grained measure to the differences in spelling in naturalistic writing. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 20 Spanish-English bilingual adolescents (n = 160). Errors were coded by categories (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic features affected and then analyzed by language and genre. Descriptive analyses noted similarities and differences among error patterns in both languages as well as language transfer (i.e., borrowings and code-switching). Statistical analyses revealed language differences in proportions of misspellings across linguistic categories. More fine-grained analyses indicated linguistic feature patterns that were shared across languages and unique to each language. Finally, borrowing, while infrequent, was noted more frequently in English compositions. This investigation appears to demonstrate that spelling, when approached as both a cognitive and linguistic activity, is complex since multiple knowledge systems must be coordinated. The use of triple word form theory to analyze misspellings in emerging bilingual writers suggests that discerning patterns of misspellings in each language provides more insight than does transfer alone into the extent that phonology, orthography, and morphology are becoming unified. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Spelling, Expository Writing, Spanish
(2015). On the Role of Frequency-Based Cues in the Segmentation Strategies of Adult OV-VO Bilinguals, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The present investigation seeks to determine whether and under what circumstances can adult bilinguals deploy segmentation strategies characteristic of their two languages, or of their dominant language. To that end, we inquired whether the context language employed during the segmentation experiment (i.e., the language in which participants receive the instructions of the experiment) modulates the bilinguals' segmentation preferences given an ambiguous artificial language. Four groups of bilingual speakers of Basque (Object Verb, i.e., OV) and Spanish (Verb Object, i.e., VO) were sorted by their L1 and the context language (Basque or Spanish) in which the experiment was explained to the participants. We examined the bilinguals' segmentation preferences of an artificial language consistent of a strict alternation of frequent and infrequent syllables that allows two possible segmentations: a frequent-initial segmentation (i.e., in which frequent elements occur at initial position) and a frequent-final segmentation (i.e., in which frequent elements occur at final position). Results revealed that the context language modulated the segmentation preferences of L1Basque-L2Spanish bilinguals, but not the preferences of L1Spanish-L2Basque bilinguals. Adult bilinguals are thus able to deploy the frequency-based segmentation strategies of their two languages, though acquisition of the L2's strategy appears to be constrained. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Languages, Spanish, Native Language
(2015). The Role of the Family in Heritage Language Use and Learning: Impact on Heritage Language Policies, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. We analyze the way children and youngsters perceive the role of family in the use and acquisition of the heritage language (HL), through two complementary means: drawings produced by children and students participating in a discussion forum. Our study reveals: (1) the convergence of perceptions that children and adolescents have about family involvement and its roles in the maintenance of the HL, in terms of affective, cognitive, and interactional support; and (2) the affective, cognitive, and interactional scaffolding family provides for HL development. The analysis guides the proposition of several means of fostering the family's engagement in HL education, going beyond traditional roles and encouraging participative and deliberative actions within the curriculum, the programs, and the classroom. [More] Descriptors: Family Role, Heritage Education, Language Usage, Native Language
(2015). Language Diversity and Bilingual Processing, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This special issue on language diversity and bilingual processing is based on papers presented at the "Exploratory Workshop on Speaking, Thinking and Gesturing in Two Languages," at the University of Reading, UK, in September 2012, sponsored by the European Science Foundation (IM/SCH/EW11-145). The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers interested in exploring how language affects cognition both in terms of structuring information for the purpose of communication, and in terms of non-verbal categorization and perception of reality and the world. Research shows that the information speakers select to describe events and how they package that information is to some extent dependent on the language they speak. Because the research to date has largely focused on monolingual speakers, there is a gap in knowledge about the thinking processes of bilinguals and L2 learners. Thus, studying bilinguals allows tracing the developmental trajectory of language and cognition in the human mind, and thus gain important new insights into the correlation between linguistic and sociocultural variables on the one hand and cognitive categories on the other hand, which studies of monolinguals do not reveal (Athanasopoulos 2011). Workshop papers available in ERIC are: EJ1064749–"Development of Cross-Language Lexical Influence," by G. Storms, E. Ameel and B. C. Malt; EJ1064750–"There Is No Prime for Time: The Missing Link between Form and Concept of Progressive Aspect in L2 Production," by J. Gerwien and M. Flecken; EJ1064753–"The Role of Statistical Learning in the Acquisition of Motion Event Construal in a Second Language," by J. Treffers-Daller and A. Calude; and EJ1064754–"Convergence in the Domains of Static Spatial Relations and Events of Putting and Taking," by R. Berthele. [More] Descriptors: Language Processing, Correlation, Sociocultural Patterns, Workshops
(2015). "Invisible" Bilingualism–"Invisible" Language Ideologies: Greek Teachers' Attitudes Towards Immigrant Pupils' Heritage Languages, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper presents data from two studies–a nationwide quantitative research and an ethnographic study–on Greek schoolteachers' attitudes towards immigrant pupils' bilingualism. The quantitative data come from a large-scale questionnaire survey, which aimed at the investigation of the needs and requirements for the implementation of a pilot programme teaching migrant languages in Greek state schools. The findings provide an updated comprehensive view on how Greek teachers perceive their pupils' bilingualism and the inclusion of their heritage languages in the state school. Complementing and enhancing the quantitative data, the analysis of four teachers' semi-structured interviews, which were conducted in the context of the ethnographic study, provides insights into their language ideologies, which underlie their language views and school practices. [More] Descriptors: Immigrants, Teacher Attitudes, Bilingualism, Native Language
(2015). Learner Language and Polylanguaging: How Language Students' Ideologies Relate to Their Written Language Use, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Within the study of language in society, new sociolinguistic notions are increasingly gaining ground, e.g. the notion of polylanguaging. Polylanguaging is defined as "the phenomenon that speakers employ linguistic resources at their disposal which are associated with different 'languages,' including the cases in which the speakers know only few features associated with a given 'language.'" This paper aims to investigate foreign language learners' written language use with a view to the notion of polylanguaging. The participants of the study are 49 Swiss university beginner learners of Danish as a foreign language in Switzerland. The data consist of written learning journals about the participants' experiences with learning Danish through a year and a half. The data collection method permits a direct comparison of the participants' language ideologies with their language use. The paper argues that learner language, understood here as language produced by learners in an institutional setting, is closely related to polylanguaging. The participants draw on several languages when producing learning journals. However, university students and the participants of studies on polylanguaging do generally not use linguistic features associated with different languages for the same reasons. [More] Descriptors: Indo European Languages, Second Language Learning, Foreign Countries, Language Usage
(2015). Associations between Chinese EFL Graduate Students' Beliefs and Language Learning Strategies, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study, using Horwitz's Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory and Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, investigated learners' beliefs about language learning and their choice of strategy categories among 546 graduate students in China. The correlation between learners' beliefs and their strategy categories use was examined. Findings indicated that (1) statistically significant differences existed in different gender and language proficiency level regarding learners' beliefs; (2) statistically significant difference appeared in different gender, major, age range plus proficiency level concerning the use of strategy categories; (3) except for the difficulty of language learning, learners' beliefs about language learning were significantly correlated with the use of the six strategy categories. The overall findings of the study provide suggestions to help foreign language instructors and researchers better understand graduate students' perceived beliefs and strategy use, so that classroom instruction can be as effective and productive as possible. [More] Descriptors: Correlation, Asians, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning
(2015). The Role of Code-Switching in Bilingual Creativity, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study further explores the theme of bilingual creativity with the present focus on code-switching. Specifically, it investigates whether code-switching practice has an impact on creativity. In line with the previous research, selective attention was proposed as a potential cognitive mechanism, which on the one hand would benefit from extensive code-switching, and on the other, facilitate creative performance. One hundred and fifty-seven multilingual college students completed a code-switching attitudes and behaviors questionnaire, which served to select habitual and non-habitual code-switchers. These respective groups were compared on creativity and selective attention tests. Habitual code-switchers demonstrated greater innovative capacity than their non-habitual counterparts. However, these groups revealed no difference in selective attention. Moreover, the relationship between selective attention and innovative capacity was found only among non-habitual code-switchers. Further, code-switching induced by a particular emotional state and by a lack of specific vocabulary in a target language appeared to relate to increase in innovative capacity. The discussion of these results lays foundation for further empirical research investigating the role of bilinguals' code-switching in their creative capacity. [More] Descriptors: Role, Code Switching (Language), Creativity, College Students