37-975 - Challenges to Language Acquisition:
Bilingualism and Language Impairment
Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem
Description: The course compares the process second language acquisition by sequential
bilingual children with and without Specific Language Impairments, and that of
monolingual children with SLI. The discussion will be limited to theoretical issues
focusing on the acquisition of morphology and syntax by the three groups.
Prerequisites: 522/922, 287/987.
Requirements: Reading for each topic
Article Presentation (30%)
Seminar paper (70%)
Outline:
Topics
Introduction
Introduction to second language acquisition and Specific
Language Impairments in Children, the projects
Barriers for first and second language acquisition. When
delay leads to deviance.
SLI in monolingual children - grammatical morphology
SLI in bilingual populations- the reliability of grammatical
morphology
Morpho-syntax
The syntactic abilities of children with SLI - Long
distance relations
Sentence imitation - presentations
Morpho-phonology
Processing and SLI
Non Word Repetition - presentations
Story retelling
Narrative abilities in bilingual children and children
with SLI
Story retelling - presentations
Executive functions
Executive functions in bilinguals - presentations
Executive functions in SLI - presentation
Readings
Badore & Pena 2008
Bialystok (1997).
Rice & Wexler1996.
Paradis (2010)
Bishop et al (2000)
Conti-Ramsden, (2003).
Pearson (2002).
Bialystok (1999).
Office: BS Building (901), Room 415
Office hours: by appointment (03-5317159 or armonls@mail.biu.ac.il)
Course webpage: in http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~armonls/
Articles for the course
(to be found in the course box in the English library)
Reading
Leonard, L. B. (1997) Children with Specific Language Impairment. The MIT Press
Bedore, L.M. & Pena, E.D. (2008). Assessment of Bilingual Children for Identification of
Language Impairment: Current Findings and Implications for Practice. International
Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism, 11,1, 1-29.
Bialystok, E. 1997. The structure of age: in search of barriers to second language
acquisition. Second Language Research 13: 116-137.
Bialystok, E. (1999). Cognitive complexity and attentional control in the bilingual mind.
Child Development, 70, 636-644.
Bishop, D. V. M. Bright, P. James, C. Bishop, S. J. and H. K. J. Van der lely. (2000).
Grammatical SLI: A distinct subtype of developmental language impairment?
Applied Psycholinguistics 21, 159–181
Conti-Ramsden, G. (2003). Processing and linguistic markers in young children with
specific language impairment (SLI). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing
Research, 46, 1029–1037.
Paradis, J. (2010). The interface between bilingual development and specific language
Impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics 31, 227–252
Pearson, B. Z. (2002). Narrative competence in bilingual school children in Miami. In D.
K. Oller & R. E. Eilers (eds.) Language and Literacy Development in Bilingual
Children, pp. 135-174. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Rice, M.L. & Wexler, K. 1996. Toward tense as a clinical marker of specific language
impairment in English-speaking children. JSHR, 39, 1239-1257.
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Presentations (not in the box)
Sentence Repetition
Conti-Ramsden, G., Botting, N., & Faragher, B. (2001). Psycholinguistic markers for
specific language impairment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 6,
741-748.
Gutierrez Clellen, V. F. (2000). Language sample analysis in Spanish-speaking children:
methodological considerations. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in
Schools, 31(1), 88-98.
Redmond, S. M. 2005. Differentiating SLI from ADHD Using Children's Sentence Recall
and Production of Past Tense Morphology. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 19:2,
109-127
Stokes S.F., Wong A.M., Fletcher P., Leonard L.B. 2006. Nonword repetition and
sentence repetition as clinical markers of specific language impairment: the case of
Cantonese. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 49(2):219-36
NWR
Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Working memory and language: An overview. Journal of
Communication Disorders, 36, 189–208.
Chiat, S. (2006). The developmental trajectory of nonword repetition. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 27, 552-556.
Gallon, N., Harris, J. & H. van der Lely (2007). Non-word repetition: An investigation of
phonological complexity in children with Grammatical SLI. Clinical Linguistics &
Phonetics; 21(6): 435–455 ANAT 17.12
Girbau, D., & Schwartz, R. G. (2008). Phonological Working Memory in SpanishEnglish bilingual children with and without Specific Language Impairment. Journal of
Communication Disorders, 41, 2, 124-145.
Narrative abilities
Fiestas, C.E. & Peña, E.D. 2004. Narrative Discourse in Bilingual Children: Language
and Task Effects. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35, 155–
168.
Graybeal, C. 1981. Memory for stories in language impaired children. Applied
Psycholinguistics 2, 269-283.
Guttierez-Clellen, V.F. 2002. Narratives in Two Languages: Assessing Performance of
Bilingual Children. Linguistics and Education, 13, 2, 175-197.
Miranda, A., McCabe, A., and Bliss, L. (1998) Jumping Around and Leaving Things Out:
A Profile of the Narrative Abilities of Children with Specific Language Impairment.
Applied Psycholinguistics 19, 4, 247-267.
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Reilly, J. Losh, M., Bellugi, U. & B. Wulfeck (2004) Frog, Where are you? Narratives in
children with specific language impairment, early focal brain injury and Williams
Syndrome. In B. Wulfeck & J. Reilly (Eds.), Plasticity and development: Language
in atypical children. Special issue, Brain & Language.
Executive Functions
Bialystok, E., & Martin, M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children:
Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science, 7,
325-339.
Prior, A., & MacWhinney, B. (2010). A bilingual advantage in task-switching.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 00(0), 1-10.
Im-Bolter, N., Johnson, J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2006). Processing limitations in children
with specific language impairment: The role of executive function. Child
Development, 6, 1822-1841.
Kohnert, K., & Windsor, J. (2004). The search for common ground: Part II. Nonlinguistic
performance by linguistically diverse learners. Journal of Speech, Language, and
Hearing Research, 47, 891-903.
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