This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Janica Nordstrom, Emanuel Bylund, Barbara C. Malt, Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Lasisi Ajayi, Guillaume Thierry, Johannes Gerwien, Monique Flecken, Guanglun Michael Mu, and Panos Athanasopoulos.
(2015). Linguistic Challenges in the Mathematical Register for EFL Learners: Linguistic and Multimodal Strategies to Help Learners Tackle Mathematics Word Problems, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In learning mathematics through English, one of the major challenges facing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners is understanding the language used to present word problems in mathematics texts. Without comprehending such language, learners are not able to carry out the targeted calculations no matter how familiar they are with the mathematical concepts behind. As many researchers have pointed out, distinctive combinations of certain vocabulary and grammatical structures are often found in the mathematical register. It is therefore important for teachers to discover, analyse and provide guidance on how learners can best tackle those linguistic challenges. This paper attempts to achieve this goal by first identifying and classifying, from word problem examples, the potential linguistic challenges at the word, phrase, clause and discourse levels. It then proceeds to suggest specific linguistic and multimodal strategies with good potential to help EFL learners overcome such challenges, with reference to the relevant literature and examples. It concludes by reiterating the importance of mathematics teachers' active engagement with the language used in word problems and suggesting possible collaboration between them and English language teachers in promoting EFL learners' awareness of the language of mathematics. [More] Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Language of Instruction, Mathematics Instruction
(2015). Development of Cross-Language Lexical Influence, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Bilinguals are often not fully monolingual-like in either language. With respect to the lexicon, recent research demonstrates that their naming patterns for common household objects tend to converge on a common pattern for the two languages. The present study investigates the developmental trajectory of naming of common household objects in Dutch/French bilingual and monolingual children. First, we investigated whether bilingual word diversity for a set of household objects is limited by the demands of learning two languages. We found that children lag behind monolingual controls in terms of vocabulary at young ages, but that they catch up later, ending with as diverse a set of names in each language as the monolinguals. Second, we investigated how the convergence in the adult bilingual lexicon manifests itself over the course of development. We found that naming patterns converge with age following a similarity-driven strategy, a pattern also seen for the monolinguals. However, language-specific exceptions to the similarity principle are acknowledged from age 10 onward by monolinguals, but only from age 14 onward in bilinguals. At all ages, bilinguals show more convergence than monolinguals, and the difference is largest for adults. Together our results indicate that acquisition of naming patterns by bilinguals starts off more or less following the early stages of monolinguals, with separate naming patterns in the two languages, but convergence dominates the later developmental path to a larger extent for bilinguals than for monolinguals. [More] Descriptors: Native Language, Second Language Learning, Bilingualism, Monolingualism
(2015). Language Attrition and Reactivation in the Context of Bilingual First Language Acquisition, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 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 reactivation of the passive language facilitated by a brief change in input and social environment during a 10-day trip to Bulgaria. The data are analyzed in terms of proportion of utterances in each language, code-mixing, utterance length, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, choice of language in narrating stories, and parental discourse strategies. The results are discussed with regards to family socialization factors, including the one-parent, one-language model, and with regards to language attrition and language recovery phenomena. Overall, the study offers a renewed perspective on some long-standing challenges and opportunities associated with the acquisition and maintenance of a minority language, highlights the dynamic nature of childhood bilingualism, and demonstrates that continued input in a language that has become passive can be beneficial. [More] Descriptors: Case Studies, Bilingualism, Child Rearing, Linguistic Input
(2015). Flexible Bilingualism through Multimodal Practices: Studying K-12 Community Languages Online, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Community language schools are complementary schools set up and run by minority communities in Australia. They aim to assist in intergenerational language and identity transmission, but previous research has indicated that these schools position their students in monolingual ways that contradicts how bilingual speakers use their language in contemporary society. As a result, it has been proposed to teach these students through bilingual practices. Drawing on findings from research into the learning sciences, this study aims to explore how students construct their participation in a monolingual learning environment when taught online. Two students aged 14-16 taught in a blended mode (every second lesson online and every second lesson in a classroom) video recorded themselves during their online lessons. Data were analysed using multimodal interaction analysis. The results show how student agency increased outside of the learning environment where students repositioned themselves as peripheral learners and drew on scaffolding with humans and technology through bilingual practices to construct new knowledge. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Online Courses, Interaction, Community Schools
(2015). Vocabulary Instruction and Mexican-American Bilingual Students: How Two High School Teachers Integrate Multiple Strategies to Build Word Consciousness in English Language Arts Classrooms, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Despite the significance of vocabulary knowledge to student learning, limited studies have examined English language arts (ELA) teachers' skills and practices that may be effective for building word consciousness in high school Mexican-American bilingual students. The research objective of the present study is to examine how two high school ELA teachers use multiple strategies to build word consciousness in Mexican-American bilingual students. The study was conducted over 16 weeks. The sources of data were classroom observations, classroom videos, interviews, field notes, and teaching artifacts. The findings showed that the teachers integrated a variety of teaching strategies, including word analysis, cognate use, explicit scaffolding, online word search strategies, visual imaging, semantic mapping, and semantic feature analysis to connect instruction to background knowledge of their Mexican-American bilingual students and foster word consciousness in them. The findings suggest that it is crucially important that ELA teachers use multiple teaching strategies to make connections between vocabulary instruction and background knowledge that students bring from home and communities. [More] Descriptors: Vocabulary Development, Mexican Americans, Bilingual Students, Secondary School Teachers
(2015). Children's Agency in Language Choice: A Case Study of Two Japanese-English Bilingual Children in London, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper examines how children exercise their agency vis-à-vis their mother's beliefs and practices of bilingualism, especially code-switching, at home and elsewhere. The data were mainly collected through audio-recordings of family conversations both with and without the presence of the researcher and semi-structured interviews conducted during 19 visits to two families with Japanese-speaking mothers and 12-year-old English-Japanese bilingual children. An analysis of the data reveals that, despite there being a difference in language practices and backgrounds, both children discursively negotiate and construct their bilingual positions at home through their flexible use of the two languages. Furthermore, their language practices are not a passive response to their mothers' beliefs, but an exercise of their agency through contestation, negotiation and redefinition of the mothers' beliefs. In particular, this study has identified two types of agency: (1) construction of the positive self-image and negotiation of the parent-child relationship through the active use of English; and (2) resistance to the mother's monolingual policy through a flexible use of the two languages. The data also provide insight into the situated and multidimensional nature of agency by showing changes in the children's practices depending on the context, such as in conversations with the researcher. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Case Studies, Bilingualism, Japanese
(2015). Second-Language Literacy, Immigration, and Globalization, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Second language literacy development is a significant factor influencing immigrants' opportunities to integrate with the host society. To examine the opportunities that different immigrant groups have had for obtaining both, we selected four published studies that had been originally analyzed through a sociocultural perspective, a prominent framework for understanding contexts of second-language literacy development. Using social boundary theory as an added lens, we could also examine how time, place, and sociopolitical contexts specifically influenced each immigrant group's second-language literacy development and their prospects for gaining social integration with their particular host society. We identified the cultural tools of the different immigrant groups and the degree to which they could use literacy to appropriate the legal materials and resources of the host society, essential for gaining social integration. Specific factors and events within each context functioned to support second-language literacy development, to gain social integration with the host society, or led to exclusion by the dominant majority. Our findings indicated that developing competency in second-language literacy depended on each group's cultural tools and ability to use literacy for self-presentation and social representation within the host society. [More] Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Immigrants, Social Integration, Social Theories
(2015). Coming into an Inheritance: Family Support and Chinese Heritage Language Learning, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The critical role that family plays in Chinese Heritage Language learning (CHLL) has gained increasing attention from psychological, political and sociological scholarships. Guided by Bourdieu's notion of "habitus", our mixed methods sociological study firstly addresses the need for quantitative evidence on the relationship between family support and Chinese Heritage Language (CHL) proficiency through a survey of 230 young Chinese Australians; and then explores the dynamics of family support of CHLL through multiple interviews with five participants. The interview data demonstrate ongoing intergenerational reproduction of CHL through various forms of family inculcation. Learners' transition from resistance to commitment is a focus of the analysis. Extant research struggles to theorise the reasons behind this transition. We offer a Bourdieusian explanation that construes the transition as "habitus realisation". Our study has implications for CHL researchers, Chinese immigrant parents and Chinese teachers. [More] Descriptors: Chinese, Heritage Education, Mixed Methods Research, Family Involvement
(2015). There Is No Prime for Time: The Missing Link between Form and Concept of Progressive Aspect in L2 Production, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The acquisition of linguistic structures that require "perspective-taking" at the level of "message generation" is challenging. We investigate use of "progressive aspect" in L2 event encoding, using a sentence priming paradigm. We focus on Dutch, in which use of progressive aspect is optional. The progressive consists of a prepositional phrase ("aan het," at-the), plus a verbal infinitive. We ask, to what extent L2 speakers, in comparison to native speakers, show priming effects in relation to "form" (prepositional phrase) or "conceptual" (progressive aspect) prime sentences. In native Dutch speakers we find a priming effect for the "progressive prime," compared to a "neutral prime" (aspectually neutral event description). In L2 speakers this effect was absent. For the form prime, no priming effects were obtained in native speakers, rather, we find evidence for a partial blocking effect in L2 speakers. Results suggest that the strength of the link between concept and form of progressive aspect differs in native and L2 speakers. Specific factors contributed to the L2 findings, e.g., level of L2 proficiency and degree of L2 exposure. We conclude that (1) the conceptual basis of grammatical aspect can be primed in native speakers, and (2) in L2 speakers, access to conceptual information is less automatized. [More] Descriptors: Grammar, Second Language Learning, Bilingualism, Sentences
(2015). The Role of Statistical Learning in the Acquisition of Motion Event Construal in a Second Language, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Learning to talk about motion in a second language is very difficult because it involves restructuring deeply entrenched patterns from the first language. In this paper we argue that statistical learning can explain why L2 learners are only partially successful in restructuring their second language grammars. We explore to what extent L2 learners make use of two mechanisms of statistical learning, entrenchment and pre-emption to acquire target-like expressions of motion and retreat from overgeneralisation in this domain. Paying attention to the frequency of existing patterns in the input can help learners to adjust the frequency with which they use path and manner verbs in French but is insufficient to acquire the boundary crossing constraint and learn what not to say. We also look at the role of language proficiency and exposure to French in explaining the findings. [More] Descriptors: Role, Motion, Statistics, French
(2015). Learning a Minoritized Language in a Majority Language Context: Student Agency and the Creation of Micro-Immersion Contexts, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study investigates the self-reported experiences of students participating in a Galician language and culture course. Galician, a language historically spoken in northwestern Spain, has been losing ground with respect to Spanish, particularly in urban areas and among the younger generations. The research specifically focuses on informal linguistic interactions available beyond the classroom that are usually a defining characteristic of language study abroad programs. Student interviews and surveys reveal the kinds of difficulties faced by students, but they also point to ways in which programs in minoritized languages might to some extent compensate for the general lack of immersion provided by the social context. For students of marginalized languages such as Galician, linguistic immersion will never be as easy as it is for majority languages. Program designers and learners will need to pay more attention to the role of student agency in the creation of contexts for micro-immersion as part of the language-learning experience. [More] Descriptors: Language Minorities, Second Language Learning, Interviews, Student Attitudes
(2015). Motion Event Categorisation in a Nativised Variety of South African English, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The present study seeks to expand the current focus on acquisition situations in linguistic relativity research by exploring the effects of nativisation (the process by which a L2 is acquired as a L1) on language-specific cognitive behaviour. Categorisation preferences of goal-oriented motion events were investigated in South African speakers who learnt English as a L1 from caregivers who spoke English as a L2 and Afrikaans as a L1. The aim of the study was to establish whether the categorisation patterns found in the nativised English variety: (1) resemble patterns of L2 speakers of English with Afrikaans as a L1, (2) resemble patterns of L1 English speakers of a non-nativised English variety and (3) do not pattern with either of the above, but instead exhibit a distinct behaviour. It was found that simultaneous, functional bilinguals (Afrikaans and nativised English) patterned with L1 Afrikaans speakers, but the extent to which they did so was modulated by their frequency of use of Afrikaans. Functionally monolingual speakers of nativised English, on the other hand, patterned with L1 speakers of British English. This suggests that bilingualism, rather than nativisation, was a reliable predictor of event categorisation preferences. [More] Descriptors: Motion, Classification, Native Language, English
(2015). Language Non-Selective Syntactic Activation in Early Bilinguals: The Role of Verbal Fluency, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Numerous studies have shown that bilinguals presented with words in one of their languages spontaneously and automatically activate lexical representations from their other language. However, such effects, found in varied experimental contexts, both in behavioural and psychophysiological investigations, have been essentially limited to the lexical-semantic domain. Using brain potentials in a mental decision task in early highly proficient Welsh-English bilinguals and English monolingual controls, a recent study suggests that language non-selective effects exist in the domain of syntax. In this paper, we test whether syntactic access in bilinguals is affected by relative language abilities, as indexed by verbal fluency measures in the bilingual's two languages. Results reveal that non-selective syntax in English sentence comprehension is limited to bilinguals with higher Welsh verbal fluency. This result suggests for the first time directionality in cross-language syntactic activation in early bilinguals. [More] Descriptors: Language Fluency, Bilingualism, Verbal Ability, Language Processing
(2015). A Glimpse into the Effectiveness of L2-Content Cross-Curricular Collaboration in Content-Based Instruction Programmes, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In content-based instruction (CBI) programmes, students learn content subjects through a second language (L2), so that they can incidentally learn the language. To further facilitate students' L2 development, the collaboration between L2 and content subject teachers has been strongly advocated. Previous research on such kind of collaboration mainly focused on how it may be realised, and on identifying potential obstacles, while its effectiveness remains under-explored. This paper reports the findings of a small-scale project conducted in a Hong Kong secondary school in which CBI is practised. Teachers of English, Integrated Humanities and Science collaborated in the design and teaching of several units for Grade 8 students. With data collected from teacher meetings, lesson observations, and students' performance on the pre- and post-tests, this study evaluated "whether" and "how" cross-curricular collaboration contributed to students' L2 learning. The findings show that students in classes where cross-curricular collaboration was practised demonstrated a better understanding of the targeted grammatical items. This could be attributed to enhanced teachers awareness of students' needs, a more suitable curriculum and changes in teachers' pedagogical foci in lessons. This study thus suggests the potentials of cross-curricular teacher collaboration and provides important implications for further enhancing the effectiveness of CBI. [More] Descriptors: Secondary School Teachers, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Teaching Methods
(2015). Content and Language Integrated Learning Next in Asia: Evidence of Learners' Achievement in CLIL Education from a Taiwan Tertiary Degree Programme, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study investigates learners' performance in a Taiwanese tertiary content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programme. Learners' English proficiency was measured immediately after entering the programme and before their industrial placement, i.e. after two years. As in previously reported cases, the learners showed a significant improvement in their receptive linguistic skills. They also performed better than other university students in a national-scale English proficiency test. The findings identify a positive correlation between receptive competence and productive competence in English. The correlation between language competence and content achievement was also examined, with the results exhibiting that entry-level language proficiency can affect learners' initial content achievements, but that this effect is not sustained after the first semester as students' language proficiency continued to improve. In the questionnaire survey, the respondents generally agreed with the claimed benefits of the CLIL approach, but were doubtful about the improvement in their productive linguistic skills, enhanced learning motivation and the use of English for instructing content courses. These doubts were most pronounced among those students with lower level language skills or content knowledge. Interviews with CLIL practitioners were also conducted to provide understanding of how they assess CLIL learners' linguistic and content performance. Implications for CLIL practices in Asian contexts are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Course Content, Teaching Methods, Second Language Learning