INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON
BILINGUALISM - MALTA
2015
University of Malta, Valletta Campus
23rd – 25th March
ABSTRACTS
International Conference on Bilingualism - Malta 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLENARY SESSION
Björklund Siv
Multiple language acquisition and construction of
identity among majority-language students. Language
immersion education in Finland.
12
Gardner-Chloros Penelope
Code switching – Where next?
13
Schneider Edgar W.
And what is English? Native, second or foreign
language, lingua franca, instrumental code, or what?
14
Sorace Antonella
Enhancing the Scientific and Public Understanding of
Bilingualism
15
Widdowson Henry
Bilingual competence and lingual capability
16
Abdalla Fauzia
Language Dominance And Gesture Production In ArabicEnglish Bilingual Children
18
Anastassiou Fotini
A study of L1 Greek/Albanian children learning English
as an L3
18
Angelovska Tanja
Language Typology, Proficiency And Processing
Capacities In L3 Acquisition
19
Aquilina Thea
Language Used During The Teaching And Learning Of
German As A Foreign Language In Malta.
20
Athirathan Sabaratnam &
Karunanithy Markandu
Achieving Trilingualism in Sri Lanka: Issues and
challenges in teaching Second National Language (2NL)
Tamil
21
Bagdi Robert
Hungarian Language Knowledge along the Eastern part
of the Hungarian-Slovakian language border in 1900
and 1910
22
Baider Fabienne &
Karyolemou Marilena
Linguistic Minorities within Multilingual Societies: an
Endangered Space?
22
Baig Fatima
What Motivates Parents To Choose A German
Immersion School For Their Child?
24
PARALLEL SESSION
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International Conference on Bilingualism - Malta 2015
Balogh Erzsebet
”Everybody likes beer” – Hungarian secondary students'
stereotypes associated with different English accent
variety speakers
25
Beck Christiane
The speaker in a super-diverse environment –
multilingualism and multiculturalism from the
perspective of German speech science
26
Bezzina Anne Marie
Translanguaging In The Teaching Of French As A Foreign
Language In Malta
27
Binks Hanna Louise
Exploring ultimate attainment: Welsh-English bilingual
teenagers’ knowledge of complex structures in Welsh
27
Blank Bencke Diane and Cruz
Talita
Updating Information on L1 and L2 Texts
28
Self-concepts and language attitudes of Croatian
bilingual Erasmus students
29
Bochorishvili Irma
Code switching and Bilingualism: case study of Georgian
migrants living in Greece
29
Borg Barthet Stella
English Does Not Kill: Writing Lives in the Language of
the 'Other'
30
Bosnar-Valkovic Brigita
Code-switching in third language teaching of German
31
Botwinik Irena
Production Of Object Relatives In Bilingual Acquisition:
L1 Russian, L2 Hebrew
31
Brehmer Bernhard
The development of gender systems in bilingual
speakers across the early lifespan: A look at child
heritage speakers of Polish in Germany
33
Breuer Esther
Similarities And Differences In Revising L1 And Fl Papers
33
Briffa Charles
Translation For Bilingual Communication
34
Brincat Joseph M.
When False Friends Get Married. Italianizing English
Words The Sicilian Way To Make Them Maltese
35
Brozba Gabriela
Stroke or trout? STRUT. Issues of non-intelligibility in
Nigerian English
35
Buschfeld Sarah
From Esl To Enl – English As A First Language In
Singapore: Empirical Findings From A Survey On
Language Choice And Use
36
Blažević Nevenka, Vaić
Nikolina
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Buzila Paul
Is Rumañol a New Linguistic Code? A Quantitative
Approach to Studying the Speech of Romanian
immigrants in Spain
38
Byers Emily & Bent Tessa
Individual Differences in Foreign-Accent Perception
38
Camenzuli Denise
Word Order Problems Encountered By Maltese Learners
Of German
39
Camilleri Grima Antoinette &
Sandro Caruana
Translanguaging: A Pedagogical Strategy In The
Teaching Of Italian As A Foreign Language In Malta
40
Campisi Irene Maria
Teaching a second language through movements
41
Carbonara Valentina
Immersion language education in Turkey: a case study
of a kindergarten implementation of an Italian-Turkish
immersion program.
42
Catania Simone
Bilinguism frees your mind: The case of Grammatical
Gender
43
Cedden Gulay & Aydin Ozgur
Online sentence processing in bi-and multilinguals and
the effect on working memory capacity in L1
43
Chireac Silvia-Maria & Devís
Arbona Anna
Developing Intercultural Competence Through Oral Folk
Literature For Students In A Bilingual Context
44
Chroman Tanya
Exploring Spanish Register Among Graduate Students: A
Pilot Study Of Spanish At A University In Southern
California
45
Cook Jadwiga
Working with bilingual children. Remarks on the
methodology of recording and transcribing child’s
speech
46
Cremona George
Maltese German As A Foreign Language (Gfl) Students'
Cultural Representations Of Germany And Its People. A
Comparative Interpretation.
47
Cruz Cardona Jonatan
Resistance to Bilingualism: Language and Identity in
Puerto Rico
48
Cunningham Clare
In what ways do teachers talk of the capacity of
teachers, parents and children in supporting bilingual
children and their home languages in mainstream UK
primary schools?
48
Cutajar Maria
Secondary Students’ Attitudes towards Code-Switching
and their Relevant Lexical Knowledge: A Sociolinguistic
Study
49
Cutajar Sarah
Secondary Students’ Attitudes And Exposure To English
In Malta
50
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DeChicchis Joseph
History,identity,and cooperation: A trinity for language
maintenance
50
DeLouw Robert
Does bi-/multilingualism allow for more stable attitudes
towards yet another language learned?
51
Despagne Colette
Modernity, Coloniality And Discrimination In The Efl
Classroom In Mexico
52
Dubiner Deborah
Family Language Policy Among Ethiopian New
Immigrants In Israel
53
Duek Susanne
Literacy practices in and outside of school: Focus on
immigrant children of parents with no or very short
education, in a bilingual context
53
Eiswirth Mirjam
Towards Disentangling Preference Organisation And
Language Alternation In Bilingual Talk-In-Interaction
55
Ekinci-Kocks Yüksel
The development of vocabulary and vocabulary training
of multilingual children
56
Ellul Marlene
Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: A Case Study of a
local Private School
57
Eynaud Joseph
The Interpreter as Bilingual
58
Faggion Carmen
The influence of English in the anthroponomical neology
among popular classes in Brazil
59
Farrugia Marie-Therese
Implications Of Code-Switching On The Use And
Development Of Mathematical Language In Maltese
Classrooms
59
Fernandez Carla
Electrophysiological correlates of intra-sentential codeswitching in Spansih-Englih bilinguals
60
Ferreira and Andy Ellis
Roberto
Novel word processing in bilingual and monolingual
English speakers
61
Filippi Roberto
Bilingual Children Show An Advantage In Controlling
Verbal Interference During Spoken Language
Comprehension
62
Finardi Kyria
Language policies and internationalization in Brazil: the
role(s) of English as an additional language
62
Frendo Romina
One Subject One Language? To what extent can
curriculum instruction be said to be Bilingual in Maltese
Grade V classrooms?
63
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Fukuda Makiko
Challenges and needs in the language education in an
expatriate school in a bilingual society: case study of
Japanese School of Barcelona
64
Gamage Virajith & Hettige
Anula
Path to the Peace: A study in to the role of Second
National Language in Achieving Social Integration in Sri
Lanka
64
Ganea Alina
Humor and Bilingualism. Bilinguals' Sense and Practice
of Humour
65
Gatt Daniela, Grech Helen and
Dodd Barbara
Early lexical expression in a mixed language
environment: monolingual or bilingual SKILLS?
66
Gaynor Brian
Orthographic transfer effects on developmental word
recognition in young L1 native English speakers learning
Japanese
67
Gordon Claire, Marks Ann,
Jabran Alaa and Maroun
Katrina
“Translanguaging” in EAP Reading Comprehension Tests
68
Grazzi Enrico
Intercultural Telecollaboration And Elf: An ItalianFinnish Project.
69
Grech Helen, Dodd Barbara,
Franklin Sue
The Development and Standardisation of the MalteseEnglish Speech and Language Assessment
70
Grech Sarah
Capturing native listeners’ introspective judgments of
variation in an emerging variety of English
70
Güneşli Habib and EkinciKocks Yüksel
Pedagogical implications of bilingualism
71
Hadjidemetriou Chryso
Language contact and variation in a group of Greek
Cypriot adolescents in North London: The case of
WAS/WERE variation
72
Heimrath Ralf
Bilingualism and Identity in elected German Speaking
Regions
73
Ibraeva A. & Urazbayeva S.
Distance learning within teaching foreign language
73
Isleem Martin
Linguistic Landscape in School Setting: The Case of
Druze in Israel
74
Jańczak Barbara
German-Polish bilingualism: bilingual language
education and language policy – an example of Polish
towns in the German-Polish border region
75
Jongbloed-Faber Lysbeth
Frisians on social media: attitudes, motivations and
behaviour in a bilingual environment
76
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Karpava Sviatlana
Evaluation Of Language Development Of Bilingual
Children In Cyprus
76
Karyolemou Marilena,
Solomou Lisa & Papageorgiou
Elpinki
Mobility Of Identity: European Couples In Cyprus
77
Knight Janine
Codeswitching in a online Task-Based learning (TBL)
spoken interaction event.
79
Kretzer Michael M.
Scope and Variety of Code-Switching at South African
schools
80
Krug M. & Lucas C.
The (Non-)Use Of Definite Articles In Maltese English:
Effects Of Language Contact?
80
Krulatz A. & Dahl A.
Minority Students In Efl Classrooms In Norway: Do
Teachers Feel Prepared?
81
Kularathne S.A & Perera Marie
Policy Vs Practice: A Study Into The Current Status Of
Bilingual Policy In Sri Lanka.
82
Kurbangulova Tatjana &
Yastrebova Maria
Language attitudes and linguistic proficiency in RussianGerman bilingual children: searching for a link
83
Latkowska Jolanta
Looking for conceptual transfer in the bilingual mental
lexicon: issues and concerns
84
Lewińska Joanna
Challenges of teaching in multilingual and multicultural
settings
84
Lindholm Anna
Reading Comprehension and Second Language Learners
85
Lixun Wang
Investigation of Trilingual Education in Hong Kong
Primary Schools
87
Łodej Monika
Correlations Between Reading Comprehension And Rate
In Students Of Transparent L1 And Non-Transparent L2.
88
Machowska-Kosciak
Malgorzata
A Language Socialization Perspective On Language
Learning (English) And Language Maintenance (Polish)
Among Polish Adolescents In Ireland
89
Mallia Joseph
An Intercultural Rhetorical Perspective Of Semitic,
English And Romance Language Influences On Tertiary
Level English Writing In Malta: Understanding And
Resolving Issues.
89
Marten Heiko F.
Functions Of And Attitudes To Linguae Francae In The
Post-Soviet World: English, Russian And German In The
Baltic States
90
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Mazzon Gabriella
Variation In The Expression Of Stance Across Varieties
Of English – A Case Study
91
McLellan James
‘La guerre des langues n’aura pas lieu’*! Evidence from
Southeast Asia against the notion of English in conflict
with other languages
92
Meléndez Olivera Angela
Periphrastic Future Form in Puerto Rican Spanish
92
Milton Josephine
We are supposed to speak in English not in Maltese!”:
The language use of a student teacher teaching English
in Maltese Primary Schools
93
Miros Laura
Crosslinguistic Influence in Subject Use in a RomanianRussian Bilingual Context
94
Miyazaki Yasushi
Politics of translating English-Japanese terminology in
medical discourse: Focusing on developmental
disabilities (disorders) and Hattatsu Shogai
95
Morbiducci Marina
Elf and creativity: the role of idioms in international
students’ interactional exchanges via social networks. A
case study from Sapienza University, Rome
95
Morimoto Keiko
Monitoring and Feedback by Bilingual Speakers
96
Musonda Mwila Chongo
Challenging Assumptions about Literacy Best Practice in
Zambia. Does One Practice Fit All?
97
Necula Gina
The Language Spoken in UTA Gagauzia: Aspects of
Trilingualism and Triculturalism
97
Neves Cristina
(Re)Reading Otherness: Linguistic Landscape of Macau
98
Northeast Katarzyna
Humour and sarcasm in Polish-British code-switching
100
Oh Heesu
Respecting international children’s rights to language
choice; The role of parental input and interaction of
Korean/Japanese simultaneous bilingual children
101
Olmos Lopez Pamela
Language Choice And Identity Construction: The Case Of
Dedications And Acknowledgements In Efl
Undergraduate Dissertations
102
Papapavlou Andreas &
Mavromati Andia
Bilingual and bidialectal language processing: win-win
situation?
103
Paulsrud BethAnne Yoxsimer
Policies and practices: Translanguaging in the CLIL
classroom in relation to the Swedish Language Act
103
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Polonyi, T., Dósa,Z., Kondé,Z.,
Nagy, A., Pántya, J.
Emotions, attitudes and bilingualism
104
Portelli Michelle
Attitudes Towards Code Switching In Malta: A
Sociolinguistic Study
105
Prinz Philip M.
Developing Bilingual/Bimodal Competence in a Natural
Signed Language and Majority Language: Evidence from
Deaf Children Aquiring American Sign Language and
English
106
Rámila Noemi
Resistance On The Walls: The Linguistic Landscape Of A
French-Breton University
107
Razdorskaya Olyesya
Facing The Challenge Of Polycultural Environment
108
Reljic Gabrijela
A Meta-Analysis On The Effectiveness Of Bilingual
Programs In Europe
109
Ritva Takkinen
Language Identity Of Two Hearing Children Living In
Bilingual Environment Using A Sign Language And A
Spoken Language
109
Rodina Yulia
Story-Telling In Minority And Majority Language:
Evidence From Bilingual Norwegian-Russian Children
110
Rydenvald Marie
“It Was Difficult To Choose Because I Have Two
Languages”. Language Use Among Transmigrant
Teenagers In Europe
111
Rymarczyk Jutta
Cross-curricular collaboration between English and
content subject teachers in CLIL-programmes
112
Sağın Şimşek Çiğdem
At the Syntax Pragmatics Interface: Acquisition of Postpredicate constituents by Turkish German Bilinguals
113
Santos A. & Cenoz J.
Communicative Anxiety In Third Language Acquisition
113
Schulte Leonie
Language-mixing and Identity Practices aming GermanAmerican Bilinguals in Berlin
114
Sciriha Lydia
The Textbook Issue in Bilingual Malta - Social and
Educational Perspective
115
Scripnic Gabriela
Biculturalism revisited: Romanian students in UK
115
Shafran Ronit Webman
Requests in English by Bilinguals, Arabic and Hebrew
Native Speakers
116
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Sharples Robert
Multilingual learning in monolingual classrooms:
positioning, identity and agency.
117
Spiteri Damian and Sciberras
Christiana
Bilingualism amongst students at a vocational college in
Malta. Its impact on their training and education.'
118
Stokovac Tarita, Poropat
Jeletic Nada
Variation in late bilinguals’ linguistic development:
evidence from personal narratives
119
Stylianou Natasa
Code switching in an EFL environment
120
Szilvási Zsuzsanna
Supporting of bilingualism in the Hungarian school
education
120
Todorova Mariyana
CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria: The Case
of the Department for Modern Methods of Education at
International University College
121
Vassallo Clare
Bilingual Dialogue: Translators Dilemma in the
Trasnaltion of Contemporary Literature
122
Vassallo Odette
ESL in a Bilingual Context: A learner corpus-based study
122
Vella Lara
An Investigation Of Parents’ And Children’S Linguistic
Practices And Attitudes Towards Language Use In
Society And Schools.
123
Ventura Frank
Language And Achievement In Science In A Bilingual
Context
124
Vidaković Mirna
English As A Nativized Foreign Language In Serbia - A
Look Into Business And Economic Register
124
Walldoff Amanda
Variation in spelling among Arabic mother tongue pupils
in Sweden
125
Walter Mary Ann
Acquiring English In American Kidlit: Portrayals Of
Multilingualism In Western Migration
126
Waniek-Klimczak Ewa
Language Attitudes In Recent Polish Immigrants To The
Uk: An ‘Expert Learner’ Approach.
127
Winkler-Kehoe Margaret
The development of phonological rhythm in GermanSpanish bilinguals : A focus on vowel reduction
127
Wong Y & Leung C
L2 Cantonese pragmatic development of Pakistani preschool children in Hong Kong
128
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Xerri Daniel
Developing Teacher Language Awareness In A Bilingual
Context
129
Yavas Mehmet & Byers Emily
Production of long-lag stops (VOTs) in Spanish-English
early and late bilinguals
130
Yerznkyan Yelena & Chalabyan
Susanna
Bilingualism And The Ways Of Overcoming Interference:
The Armenian Context
131
Zaretsky Yevgen, Lange
Benjamin
The Rise Of The Dad: Not Only Mothers’ Language
Proficiency But Also Fathers’ Educational Level Is
Associated With Children’S German Language Skills
132
Zerafa Esmeralda
Language As A Medium In Arithmetic Word Problems
132
Zombolou Katerina
Parallels between monolinguals, early, and sequential
bilinguals in the acquisition of German Voice
alternations
133
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PLENARY SESSION
ABSTRACTS
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Multiple language acquisition and construction of identity among
majority-language students. Language immersion education in Finland.
Siv Björklund
siv.bjorklund@uwasa.fi
Language immersion is since 1987 a part of the Finnish education system and consists
of early total immersion programs including day care, kindergarten/preschool and
comprehensive school. In line with core features of language immersion (see e.g.
Swain & Johnson, 1997) language immersion is predominantly offered to majority
speakers who get in contact with and learn the minority language and culture.
Consequently, in Finland, immersion has predominantly been offered to Finnish
speaking children who learn Swedish as a L2. National education systems and
sociolinguistic realities have, however, brought about additional characteristics in
Swedish immersion (e.g. multiple language learning, see Björklund & Mård-Miettinen,
2011) that provide ample opportunities to re-examine and refine established
perspectives in immersion research to better meet changing multilingual and
multicultural education settings.
Although it is very unlikely that the extension of an early total immersion program
(ranging from 3-5-years of age to 15 years of age) and the intensity (use of a L2 to
teach a significant proportion of the school curriculum) would have no affect at all on
how originally language majority students’ position themselves as individuals and part
of groups in different contexts, immersion research has paid very little attention to
identity-related issues. In general, studies of identity construction have mostly
focussed on minority and heritage language learners in multilingual and multicultural
classrooms, and almost no priority has been given to studies of identity among
majority speakers in dual-language settings As for immersion research, researchers’
identity-related statements are often defence- or reassurance-based (“at no cost to
the participating students’ native language development or academic achievement”;
Genesee, 2004, p. 571 or “their [students’] sense of identity remains firmly rooted
within the L1 culture and community”; Swain & Johnson, 1997, p. 11). In line with new
definitions of identity as a dynamic process, the research project Dynamics of Identity
Construction in Dual-Language Settings at the University of Vaasa aims to get an
understanding of how the use of several languages, participation in culturally different
settings and experience of content teaching in two languages relate to how student
identity is viewed, manifested and (re)constructed over time in immersion. In my talk,
I will present the project and address identity-related questions in immersion by
discussing students’ perceptions of their linguistic and cultural identity.
References:
Björklund, S. & K. Mård-Miettinen (2011). Integration of multiple languages in
immersion: Swedish immersion in Finland. In D. J. Tedick, D. Christian & T. Williams
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Fortune (eds), Immersion Education: Practices, Policies, Possibilities, (pp. 13-35).
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Genesee, F. (2004). What do we know about bilingual education for majority language
students? In T. K. Bhatia & W. Ritchie (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingualism and
Multiculturalism, (pp. 547-576). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Swain, M. & Johnson, K. (1997). Immersion education: A category within bilingual
education. In R.K. Johnson & M. Swain (eds) Immersion education: International
perspectives, (pp. 1–16). Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
Code-switching – where next?
Penelope Gardner-Chloros
p.gardner-chloros@bbk.ac.uk
Since it was first recognized as a specific mode of speaking some 50 years ago in the
work of John Gumperz (1964), the study of code-switching has ‘come of age’. Its
systematic and functional nature has been established in multiple contexts,
particularly in relation to pragmatic aspects, though grammatical regularities have
proved harder to pin down in a principled manner. In this paper I will propose and try
to justify some new methodological directions for code-switching research.
First, I will argue that code-switching should no longer be treated as a separate and
discrete area of study, nested within the study of bilingualism, but should be more
integrated with research on (a) language contact, and (b) innovation and change in
monolingual speech, providing the missing link in the chain between these two areas
of research (Backus 2005; Auer 2014). Research concerning the speech of 2 nd
generation speakers of immigrant origin provides one suitable source of data to
illustrate the connections between these processes, and examples will be taken from
a recently completed project focusing on young people’s speech in London and Paris
(‘Multicultural London English/Multicultural Paris French’ http://www.mlempf.bbk.ac.uk/Home.html).
Second, I will argue in favour of a more inclusive approach to data in another sense.
Ever since the early work of Labov, sociolinguists have relied overwhelmingly on
spontaneous spoken data, and this reliance has extended to much of the nonlaboratory based research on code-switching. But more recently the contribution of
historical linguists to the study of bilingualism has developed into a rich resource for
sociolinguistics, and has shown that written material, whether historical or
contemporary and whether literary or otherwise, provides valuable insights on
bilingualism and code-switching. Referring to this research, I will argue that the notion
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of genre is more significant than the medium - spoken or written - as such, in
understanding and classifying the functions and patterns within code-switching.
Both arguments lead to the same conclusion: that research on bilingual speech and
code-switching stands to gain by becoming more inclusive, more interdisciplinary and
by drawing on more varied sources of data than heretofore.
References:
Auer, P. 2014 Language mixing and language fusion: when bilingual talk becomes
monolingual. In: J. Besters-Dilger, C. Dermarkar, S. Pfänder & A. Rabus (Hrsg.),
Congruence in Contact-Induced Language Change. Berlin: de Gruyter (= Linguae et
Litterae Bd. 27), S. 294-336.
Backus, A. 2005 Codeswitching and language change: one thing leads to another?
International Journal of Bilingualism 9(3/4), 307–341.
And what is English? Native, second or foreign language, lingua franca,
instrumental code, or what?
Edgar W. Schneider
edgar.schneider@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de
Manfred Görlach once (in 1996, in English World-Wide 17) asked "And is it English?",
discussing a range of text samples which diverge from standard English to varying
extents and thus defy easy classification as varieties of English, mixed codes, broken
forms, or whatever. In a similar vein, I propose that early in the twenty-first century it
is time to ask the same question regarding the status of English and its varieties in the
modern world in bilingual and multilingual contexts. Globalization, with English as its
main vehicle, has contributed to the diffusion of the language into practically every
corner of the world, to the emergence of new "Postcolonial Englishes" notably in Asia
and Africa, to its lingua franca role (ELF) in a wide range of functions and forms, and
to its acquisition and application in novel contexts and forms, sometimes with only
minimal proficiency. Consequently, the functions and properties of English have
increasingly become diversified and blurred.
Traditional classifications distinguish English as a native (ENL), a second (ESL) or a
foreign (EFL) language. I argue that these simple categories do not hold any longer,
and have yielded to a complex and increasingly fuzzy reality. Case studies and text
samples will be adduced to illustrate intermediate cases where English has been
changing its status, usage conditions, and properties. Cases in point, from which
samples will be drawn, include the following:
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






ESL countries becoming ENL, as in Singapore (where substantial proportions of
children grow up with English as an L1 today), and marginally elsewhere;
multilingual ESL countries becoming even more English-dominant, as in South
Africa;
EFL countries moving towards an ESL-like status, as has been shown recently
for the Netherlands, and suggested for some East Asian countries (with special
developments to be observed in China);
an ESL status being established almost "out of the blue" in countries with no
earlier roots of English, as in Namibia and parts of the ASEAN, or, deliberately
reverting from a French colonial background, Rwanda;
conversely, ESL countries becoming EFL due to historical developments or
deliberate language policy decisions, as in Cyprus, Tanzania, or (possibly – with
directions of language policy swinging back and forth) Malaysia;
ELF uses spreading widely, both in professional and in leisure-time
transnational activities; and finally
Instrumental minimal English spreading as an important resource in grassroots
contexts in many countries, with examples quoted mainly from Indonesia.
Enhancing the Scientific and Public Understanding of Bilingualism
Antonella Sorace
antonell@ling.ed.ac.uk
There are two types of “bridges” that can foster the scientific and public
understanding of bilingualism. The first type links different research disciplines in the
effort to address particular research questions. I will illustrate this with examples of
convergent developmental paths among different early and late bilingual groups, such
as child bilinguals, advanced adult second language speakers, and native speakers
experiencing attrition due to long-term use of another language. I will show that an
explanation of these phenomena requires studying the interactions of linguistic and
non-linguistic factors and benefits from cross-disciplinary collaborations. The second
type of bridge connects research to the community with the aim to enable people
from all sectors of society to make decisions informed by facts rather than
misconceptions. I will briefly describe the ways in which the information centre
Bilingualism Matters is successfully addressing this challenge in Scotland and Europe.
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Bilingual competence and lingual capability
Henry Widdowson
Henry.widdowson@univie.ac.at
It is generally assumed that the objective of foreign language teaching is to develop
bilingualism in learners by inducing them to acquire competence in another language,
and that their success in so doing is to be measured by reference to native speaker
norms. This objective has been given official institutional recognition by the Common
European Framework of Reference (CEFR). In this talk I argue that this assumption is
questionable for a number of reasons, that it fails to account for the essential nature
of language use and learning, and can only lead to continual educational failure. I
suggest that a more valid and realistic alternative would be to define learning
objectives in terms of lingual capability rather than bilingual competence.
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PARALLEL SESSION
ABSTRACTS
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Language Dominance and Gesture Production in Arabic-English
Bilingual Children
Fauzia Abdalla
fauziamam@yahoo.com
Gestures of the hands and arms have long been observed to co-occur with spoken
language. These movements appear to play diverse roles including a communicative
function or facilitatory lexical access. Consequently, researchers have proposed that
language proficiency may influence the types and rate of gestures produced by
bilingual speakers. The purpose of this study was to examine whether gestures of
sequential Arabic-English bilingual children varied quantitatively and qualitatively as a
function of language dominance. Fifteen Kuwaiti Arabic-speaking children (mean age:
6-7 years) learning English as a second language were recruited from an elementary
bilingual school. The children viewed a Pink Panther cartoon "In the Pink of the Night"
and then told the story to an unfamiliar listener in two separate video-taped sessions
–one time in English and the other in Arabic. The stories they generated were
transcribed and coded for gestures by a bilingual speaker. Following reliability checks,
the amount of gestures and types in each of their languages (L1 and L2) were analyzed.
As expected a large proportion of gestures accompanied their speech in both
languages. However, the results also revealed a higher rate of gestures in the
children’s dominant language (Arabic) than in their L2 (English). The role of gesture
and language proficiency are further explored.
A study of L1 Greek/Albanian children learning English as an L3.
Fotini Anastassiou
fanastassiou@gmail.com
This research focuses on multilingual children, whose L1 is either Greek or Albanian
and their L3 is English. Following Cenoz’s study (2001) we largely used her
methodology as a basis in order to study the speech production of forty nine trilingual
children. The participants were from nine to twelve years old, attending primary
school and they were all coming from immigrant families but born and raised in
Greece. They were all asked to narrate a picture story in their L3 (English) and their
narrations ultimately had a twofold role; they would be the medium for their
assessment in their L3 proficiency and they would also be analysed as far as
crosslinguistic transfer is concerned. Furthermore, through analyzing the children’s
speech production the aim was to find out if the participants of this study would use
their L1 or their L2 while narrating in their L3 (English) as a supplier as well as the
degree of the influence of Greek on English, since Greek is the country’s official
language and the one used for their everyday communication.
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According to the findings younger children showed more instances of transfer
compared to the older ones. Also, six children out of forty nine used both their L1 and
their L2 while narrating in their L3. The fact that the number of these children was
small is in line with the literature that has been published so far in that it also shows
that speakers rarely employ all of their three languages within the same sentence.
Moreover, forty four out of the forty nine children used only Greek as a supplier
(whether it was their L1 or their L2) while narrating in the target language, their L3.
Therefore, Greek which is the country’s official language dominated these children’s
linguistic repertoire, whereas Albanian (their heritage language) was found to be a
relatively dormant linguistic system in our participants.
References:
Cenoz , J. (2001). The effect of linguistic distance, L2 status and age on cross-linguistic
influence in L3 acquisition. In J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen & U. Jessner (Eds.), Cross-linguistic
Influence in Third Language Acquisition: Psycholinguistic Perspectives (pp. 8-20).
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Language typology, proficiency and processing capacities in L3
acquisition
Tanja Angelovska
tanja.angelovska@sbg.ac.at
This study explores the V2 (verb-second) position, characteristic of L2 German.
Previous studies proved that L2 syntactic transfer had no impact on L3 acquisition
(Bouvy 2000; Dentler 2000). The existing models of morphosyntactic transfer so far
(Cumulative Enhancement Model - CEM, Flynn, Foley and Vinnitskya 2004; L2 status
factor model - Bardel & Falk 2007 and Falk & Bardel 2011; Typological Primacy Model
- TPM, Rothman 2010, 2011; L1 factor- Hermas, 2014) - with the exception of the
Developmental Moderated Transfer, Pienemann, Keßler & Lenzing (2013) - refer to
the initial stages of L3 acquisition. This study checks the predictions made by these
models for L3 acquisition of English (non-V2) across different proficiency levels and for
both native speakers of Romance and Slavic languages (non-V2) with German (V2) as
L2.
The following presuppositions emerge:


The L1 (the L1 factor Hypothesis) or/and the L2 is/are selected for syntactic
transfer (L2 Status Hypothesis)
The typology determines the syntactic transfer in L3, i.e. the syntax of either
the L1 or the L2 is transferred (TPM model)
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
There is neither transfer (i.e. non-facilitative transfer) from the L1 nor from the
L2 (CEM model)
The methodology involves four groups:

L1 Slavic-L2 German- L3 English at initial (group 1) and at later stage (group 2)

L1 Romance- L2 German- L3 English at initial (group 3) and at later stage (group
4)

L3 learners were tested for L2 and L3 proficiency levels. They are at L2
advanced (C1 or C2) level and at various L3 levels (A1 to C2). Written (text
productions) and oral data (spontaneous conversations) were elicited over a
period of six months.
Our evidence shows mixed results giving incentives that the probabilistic processor
generates syntactic predictions based on phonological and semantic information in
the same time and that there is a strong correlation between proficiency and
processing capacities in L3 acquisition.
Language used during the teaching and learning of German as a foreign
language in Malta.
Thea Aquilina
theaaquilina@gmail.com
Throughout the years arguments in favour and against the exclusive use of the target
language (TL) in foreign language teaching have been debated. The main aim of this
study was to investigate the languages used in different situations by the teacher and
the students during the lesson of German as a foreign language in Malta. The second
research question that was investigated in this study was whether the TL was used
more in a native German teacher’s class or whether it was used more in a Maltese
teacher of German’s class. The research was carried out with two classes of male
secondary school students (aged 13 on average) and their respective teachers of
German - one being German and the other being Maltese. The three methods
implemented (questionnaires, teachers’ interviews and lesson observations) led to
triangulated conclusions. Three different types of classroom interactions were taken
into consideration: teacher-student, student-teacher and student-student.
The findings show that German, Maltese and English were used in different situations.
In the two classes observed it was noted that the percentage of lesson time during
which the German language was used, exceeded in the class taught by the Maltese
teacher, however both teachers refrained from the exclusive use of the TL. The
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German teacher resorted to English, given that this is the most familiar second
language to both the teacher and the respective students. The bilingual Maltese
teacher of German switched to Maltese and English. Students in both classes resorted
immediately to Maltese or English (non-native teacher’s class) and English (native
teacher’s class) as soon as their teacher switched to Maltese and English. Students in
both classes communicated with each other mainly in Maltese.
Achieving Trilingualism in Sri Lanka: Issues and challenges in teaching
Second National Language (2NL) Tamil
Sabaratnam Athirathan & Markandu Karunanithy
sabaaathi@gmail.com
mknithy@gmail.com
Sri Lanka as a multi lingual country, therefore, learning each other’s language is
essential to establish national harmony. Prior to the occupation of colonial rulers, the
culture of language learning was fostered by the ancient rulers. During the British era
English was introduced as second language and multilingualism was celebrated in Sri
Lanka. After gaining Independence, several factors started hindering the learning of
the Sinhala and Tamil languages. A recent survey indicates that 90 percent of Sinhala
speaking people and 70 percent of Tamil speaking people are unable to communicate
in the Tamil language and Sinhala language respectively. Sinhala and Tamil as Second
National Language (2NL) were introduced in 1998 as a compulsory subject in the
second grades in Sri Lankan schools expecting to achieve national harmony. The
purpose of this study was to identify the issues and challenges for learning Tamil as a
2NL by Sinhala speaking students. This study was conducted in two educational zones
in the western province of Sri Lanka with a sample of 100 students, 16 principals and
75 teachers from 16 schools in this province. Quantitative and qualitative data were
gathered using questionnaires, focus group interview and observation of the teaching
– learning process in classrooms. The findings that were revealed showed that the
teachers are less qualified, that there is no clear cut policy when it comes to recruiting
qualified teachers, that the task of teaching a 2NL has been assigned to other subject
teachers, that the curriculum is very heavy for a 2NL learner, that text books do not
match the needs of students, that the content of the text books is very heavy and
difficult, that the activities given in the text books are not attractive and that
classrooms are not equipped with modern teaching learning strategies and do not
create a conducive teaching – learning environment inside and outside the classroom.
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Hungarian language knowledge along the Eastern part of the
Hungarian-Slovakian language border in 1900 and 1910
Róbert Bagdi
jacquesbr@freemail.hu
The Hungarian government organised its official censuses after the appeasement
between Austria and Hungary in 1867, although historic roots of censuses date back
to the 18th century. None of the censuses organised in the dual period asked the
citizens about their ethnicity (identity) until the World War I, the state sought
information only about the citizens’ mother language’. Based on this data Hungarians
(Magyars) constituted only 54% in 1910, the state was a multiethnic entity with
several minorities prior to WW I. Slovaks living in the northern counties from Pozsony
(nowadays Bratislava in Slovakia) to Zemplén (nowadays Zemplín in Slovakia) reached
10.7%, and constituted the second biggest minority. Beyond answering the question
regarding ‘mother language’ other spoken languages were also inquired in 1900 and
1910, thus it was possible to outline a bilingual ethnic contact zone, where Hungarian
was spoken/understood by non native Hungarian-speakers, which is illustrated on
maps. Based on the data of primary and secondary languages it is also possible to draw
up the process of language-shift in our research area, which extended to Ung, Zemplén,
Abaúj-Torna and Gömör Counties (NE-Hungary) comprising around 1200 settlements.
As for the results, between 1900 and 1910 the number of citizens with Hungarian
language knowledge was increased. Along the Hungarian-Slovakian language border,
more and more Slovakians mentioned that they can speak Hungarian. County seats,
e.g. Sátoraljaújhely or Ungvár had an influence on surrounding villages. Moreover, the
attraction zone of Sátoraljaújhely was the biggest area, where people changed their
mother language from Slovakian to Hungarian, or many citizens mentioned they can
speak Hungarian language as a second language.
Linguistic Minorities within Multilingual societies: an Endangered Space?
The Armenian and Arab communities of Cyprus
Fabienne Baider & Marilena Karyolemou
helenafab@yahoo.fr
makar@ucy.ac.cy
In recent years, many researchers have discussed the place and role of the indigenous
minorities of Cyprus in relation to the everlasting political conflict between the Greek and
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the Turkish Cypriot communities (Constantinou 2007; Marsh & Strand 2003). Researchers
generally agree to say that the bipolarity generated by this conflict makes it all the more
difficult for minority communities to develop and sustain alternative linguistic and cultural
identities. Diachronically, this situation has affected the minorities’ visibility with disastrous
consequences for their languages: for instance, on the basis of their ‘common’ Muslim faith,
Cypriot Roma (Kourbetshi) have been linguistically almost completely assimilated to the
Turkish speaking community and their language (Kourbetsha) is today only vestigially
present in their speech (Iacovidou 2008, Marsh & Strand 2003, Williams 2000a, 2000b). The
attitudes of the communities to their respective languages have also been deeply affected.
In this paper, we report on a research that took place in 2013/14 in the Armenian and Arab
communities of Cyprus with the aim to explore intra-community and inter-community
language patterns and language practices. More specifically, a total of sixteen interviews
were conducted, ten in the Armenian and six in the Arab community, in order to discover
similarities and differences in the way the members in each community manage their
separate linguistic and cultural identities. The presentation will focus on their relation to the
dominant languages (be it standard Greek or Turkish or their local varieties), and the way
they construct themselves in relation or by opposition to the dominant languages/cultures
within the social and political realm of the Cypriot society. The analysis shows some
noteworthy differences in the way Armenian Cypriots and Arab Cypriot exploit linguistic
resources at hand to convey social meaning.
One of the differences concerns the use of English by some members of the Armenian
Cypriot community as a cultural shield against assimilation, i.e. as a way of preserving
cultural and linguistic borders and resisting assimilation to the dominant Greek culture, as
opposed to the beneficial adherence to dominant linguistic patterns practiced by the Cypriot
Arab community. These differences seem to have important consequences both for their
position in and for their empowerment/disempowerment within the Cypriot society.
References
 B a i d e r F a b i e n n e & H a d j i p a v l o u M a r i a . 2008. “Stéréotypes interethniques, communautés divisées: sources de conflits, d’unité et de résistance”.
Nouvelles Questions Féministes 27 (3): 72-88.
 B a i d e r , F . & K a r y o l e m o u , M . (forthcoming) “Linguistic Unheimlichkeit: the
Armenian and Arab communities of Cyprus”, in: Claire Kramsch & Ulrike Jessner (eds)
Multilingualism: The challenges. Trends in Applied Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
 C o n s t a n t i n o u , C o s t a s . 2007. “Aporias of identity: Bicommunalism, hybridity
and the ‘Cyprus Problem’”. Cooperation and Conflict 42(3): 247-270.
 I a c o v i d o u , K y r i a k i . 2008. “Cultural difference and the politics of recognition.
The case of the Roma of Cyprus”, in: Gavan Titley & Alana Lentin (eds) The politics of
diversity in Europe. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publications. 73-87.
 W i l l i a m s , G . A . 2000. “Dom of the Middle East: An Overview”. Kuri 1(1).
Electronic
publication:
http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/countries/cyprus/
 M a r s h , A d r i a n & S t r a n d , E l i n . 2003. “... Spies, Deserters and Undesirable
Persons... , the Gypsies of Cyprus, 1322-2003”. Kuri 1(8). Electronic publication:
http://www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/countries/cyprus/
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What Motivates Parents to Choose a German Immersion School for
Their Child?
Fatima Baig
fbaig@uni-goettingen.de
Immersion programs have been identified as the vanguard of effective K-12 foreign
language teaching. These programs allow students to develop intercultural sensitivity,
high levels of functional language proficiency, and literacy in at least two languages.
This presentation discusses the implications of a study that undertaken to examine
the motivations of parents who chose to send their children to newly-established
German immersion schools in the United States.
Data for this study comes from sixteen interviews conducted with parents who had
enrolled their child/children in one of these German immersion elementary school in
the U.S. The semi-structured interview questions examined how parents’ educational
goals, language beliefs, program perceptions and expectations impact the educational
decisions they make.
The study revealed that parents are of utmost importance to immersion programs.
Parents are huge supporters of immersion education and very involved in their child’s
schooling. They enrolled their children in these programs for reasons such as their
family language background or a true passion for language learning. Parents appeared
very reflective and knowledgeable of immersion education, child rearing, and their
impact on their children’s education. They had very high expectations but saw
themselves as partners to schools in providing their children with the best education
possible.
Parents are as crucial to immersion programs as immersion teachers and
administrators. These schools cannot survive without parental involvement, and the
support, patronage, and the enthusiasm that these parents bring. Parents want these
kinds of educational experiences for their children and are needed to guarantee
immersion programs flourish and grow. As this study attempts to highlight, parents
can truly make or break a program.
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”Everybody likes beer” – Hungarian secondary students' stereotypes
associated with different English accent variety speakers
Balogh Erzsébet
baloghzs@lit.u-szeged.hu
The general aim of the presentation is to show English language learners' stereotypical
images of speakers of five different non-native English accent varieties in a secondary
school in the south of Hungary. The participants of the study (N=402) were asked to
complete four tasks while listening to five different English accent varieties. The tasks
asked the respondents to attempt to identify the nationality of the speaker, to
evaluate the speaker's personality along nine character traits, to select other
characteristic features they associate with the speaker from a given set of features,
and to provide any further remarks they have regarding the speaker of the particular
variety.
First, the presentation aims to give an outline of the third task the participants
completed; that is, how the task was designed based on two pilot studies, how the
characteristics features were selected for the task, and what students' reaction to the
task was during data collection, for example, how several respondents commented on
the task with the sentence “Everybody likes beer” while they were filling in the
questionnaire.
The main goal of the presentation is to display the results of the study, i.e. to show
what stereotypical images Hungarian secondary school students assign to different
English accent variety speakers with reference to the speaker's age, height, hair length
and color, marital status, preferences in food or drinks, and the clothes he is wearing.
Overall, the results show that Hungarian secondary school students associate different
stereotypes with the different English accent variety speakers, for example, the
German English accent speaker is the only one who is considered to have blond hair.
In addition, according to the participants, beer is not necessarily the most preferred
drink or food of every nation, as the French English speaker is indicated to prefer
cheese, while the Chinese/Japanese/Indian English speaker is claimed to prefer sushi
to beer. In some cases, there are also differences in the stereotypes associated with
the speakers based on two variables, i.e. participants' sex and age.
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The speaker in a super-diverse environment – multilingualism and
multiculturalism from the perspective of German speech science
Christiane Beck
christiane.beck@um.edu.mt
Speech Science deals with the speaking and the study of spoken language. It is
established as a scientific discipline at eight German universities. Being considered the
prototype of human communication, from the perspective of German speech science
the dialogue or conversation is central to the theory of oral communication (Geißner
2000). Both the speaker and listener contribute to the meaning of speaking and
dealing with one another and only as a result of this dialogical process meaning can
be interpreted. Therefore, speech science is seen as an interpretative social science
that is closely linked to the social and historical reality of the interlocutors as well as
to the objectives they pursue.
Even in the context of “rhetorical communication” German speech science
emphasizes the social aspect of communication in the sense of ´making something
common‛. Thus, from this point of view rhetorical communication is based on the
everyday communication and should serve to foster the understanding. Different
questions arise from that, such as: how can a common understanding be achieved?
Which determinants have an impact on the speech situation and thereby affect both
the flow and the result of a conversation? As an answer to the latter question, the
identified factors show the multiple embedding of utterances as situated speech, they
touch the question of adequacy of linguistic forms – two factors which play an
important role not only in speech science but also show its close connection to
rhetoric and linguistics – and allow us to perceive what a speaker has to deal with
when he or she communicates.
On the basis of this outlined background, the proposed paper will discuss the
anthropological concept of “super-diversity” (Vertovec 2007). It was introduced to
(socio)linguistics for the purpose of referring to and discussing the highly complex
linguistic diversity in ethnically heterogeneous urban areas (Blommaert/Rampton
2011). But how can German speech science integrate this concept in its framework?
And which challenges does multilingualism and multiculturalism bear for the speaker
and listener and their common process of understanding?
References:
Blommaert, Jan/Rampton, Ben (2011): Language and Superdiversity. Diversities 13
(2), 1-21.
Geißner, Hellmut (2000): Kommunikationspädagogik. Transformationen der
´Sprech‛Erziehung. St. Ingbert.
Vertovec, Steven (2007): Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial
Studies 29 (6): 1024-54.
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Translanguaging in the Teaching of French as a Foreign Language in
Malta
Anne Marie Bezzina
anne-marie.bezzina@um.edu.mt
The recently developed theory of translanguaging has led to the current situation in
which monolingual and additive bilingualism assumptions are being challenged. For
their communicative needs, speakers access their language repertoire, in which
languages form part of an integrated system. More recent pedagogical practices
consider bilingualism as a strategic asset rather than a source of problematic
interference of the L1 upon the target language. Speakers’ language practices involve
the negotiation of multiple languages for communication, giving rise to multilingual
competence. Competence is the result of repertoire building rather than the total
mastery of each language. Bilinguals hence need to build proficiency by developing
abilities in the different functions served by different languages. There is a risk that
this new understanding may clash with the pedagogical tradition, perhaps particularly
fervent in the teaching of French, that theorizes competence and communication in
terms of monolingual norms and advocates exclusive use of the target language in the
FL classroom. Given that it has been shown that the vast majority of FL teachers use
the L1 to varying degrees, and that the L1 can support the learning of French as a FL,
the need is felt to investigate Maltese teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices in
relation to translanguaging in the French as a FL classroom. Through a questionnaire
distributed to teachers of French as a FL, a better understanding is achieved of the
functions for which the L1 is put to use in Maltese classes of French, of whether
teachers ever received training in language use, whether there are consensus
viewpoints about when to use the L1, and teachers’ attitudes regarding the possibility
of strategic planning of translanguaging practices for the FL classroom.
Exploring ultimate attainment: Welsh-English bilingual teenagers’
knowledge of complex structures in Welsh
Hanna Louise Binks
elp279@bangor.ac.uk
This study explored the question of ‘ultimate attainment’ in bilingual language
acquisition. Previous research has shown that bilinguals acquire morphological
systems slower than monolinguals because they do not receive as much input, on
average, to each language (e.g., Gathercole & Thomas, 2005). However, with
increased exposure to both languages, what gaps exist between monolingual and
bilingual individuals can diminish by adulthood (Oller & Eillers, 2002). When the
language is a minority language, opportunities to receive sufficient amounts of
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exposure to ‘catch-up’ are limited (Thomas, et al. 2014), and may ultimately lead to
incomplete acquisition (Montrul, 2008). This is made harder when the morphological
structures being acquired (e.g. grammatical gender in Welsh) are complex even for
monolingual children to acquire successfully (Gathercole & Thomas, 2009). The
present study assessed teenagers’ expressive and receptive abilities on a range of
complex structures in Welsh, including grammatical gender (highly opaque), the
Welsh answer system (relatively transparent) and plural morphology (somewhere in
between these extremes). They were grouped into two age categories - 13-14 and
16-17 years – and included three distinct bilingual groups: L1 Welsh (both parents
speaking Welsh at home); 2L1 (one parent speaking Welsh, one parent speaking
English); and L2 Welsh (both parents speaking English at home, Welsh learnt at school).
All children attended Welsh-medium schools. Adult controls were also included in the
study. Results revealed that whilst L1 speakers were approaching adult norms on most
tasks, 2L1 and L2 Welsh remained significantly behind their L1 peers and their 2L1/L2
control adults on even the most transparent tasks, highlighting the role of input and
the possibility of incomplete acquisition in the minority language context. The
implications of these findings for theories of bilingual acquisition and for bilingual
education are discussed.
Updating Information on L1 and L2 Texts
Diane Blank Bencke and Talita Cruz
diane.bencke@farroupilha.ifrs.edu.br
The objective of this study was to determine whether Brazilian learners of English and
Spanish as a second language (L2) changed throughout false information contained in
informative texts, through a replication of Oostendorp and Goldman (1998) study.
These authors show in their studies on false news updating process, which hardly, in
reading, the reader replaces the situational model previously constructed. The
participants of this research were 4 students of Technologist in Systems Analysis and
Development of IFRS, English learners; and 4 Spanish (L2) students of Letters
course/Language and Literature Studies - of Unipampa. All participants had similar
reading proficiency in L2 proficiency level in reading. The instruments used in this work
were: Proficiency reading test in English (TOEIC) and IT in Spanish, a reading
questionnaire profile, 6 stories of different newspapers available on the web (2 in
English, 2 in Spanish and 2 in Portuguese) with 3 questions each. The news dealt with
the same subject: the fire at Nightclub Kiss in the city of Santa Maria, a tragedy that
happened in Brazil in 2013. The texts have been adapted to be textually similar and
each text change from 3 piece of information to that which contained false
information. The students were presented the texts in L2 and L1 for the ones that
contained false information, while in the second meeting they were presented the
texts unchanged. Overall, it is noticed that the participants updated information less
often in L2 than in L1. Moreover, it seems that English learners updated information
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less frequently than learners of Spanish. It is assumed that the English language is one
of the determining factors for this results, considering maybe the typological
differences between English and Portuguese, and maybe individual differences on
memory capacity.
Self-concepts and language attitudes of Croatian bilingual Erasmus
students
Nevenka Blažević & Nikolina Vaić
nvaic@fthm.hr
The Republic of Croatia has since 2011 become a full member of the EU-funded
Erasmus student and teacher scholarship programme. This has lead to an increased
interest by Croatian university students in the possibilities offered by this student
exchange programme.
The majority of research in the field of study abroad has investigated possible changes
in the communicative language proficiency of students who have studied abroad. The
second, less-researched, strand examines students’ experiences in the study abroad
context. Specifically, these studies investigate the process of entering and adapting to
new academic, social, and cultural environments and the construction of identity and
changed views toward learning and life. Furthermore, some studies have found that
study abroad impacted both the learners’ sense of self, as well as their perceptions of
the target language, culture and the world in general.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the self-concepts and language attitudes of
Croatian bilingual Erasmus students during and after their study abroad by adopting a
qualitative, in-depth approach. The data collection took place over the course of one
year (October 2013 to November 2014) and includes written narratives, social media
contributions and semi-structured one-on-one interviews during and after the
students' study abroad. This research will serve as a foundation for further and more
extensive research in the area of self-concepts and language attitudes of bilingual
Erasmus students.
Code switching and Bilingualism: case study of Georgian
migrants living in Greece
Irma Bochorishvili
bochorii@tcd.ie
Described by Milroy and Muysken (1995) as ‘perhaps the central issue in bilingualism
research’ that occurs in all bi/multilingual societies to a greater or lesser extent, code
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switching affects everybody who is in contact with two or more languages. There are
numerous factors that make CS more or less frequent when dealing with different
speakers. Among these are speakers’ general characteristics such as their gender, age
etc,. Some others are the overt and covert prestige factors mentioned in Labov (1972),
as well as the power relations that are described in Gal (1979). Apart from the above
mentioned factors, that do not deal with a particular speaker, each speaker’s
competence in a variety s/he chooses to use as well as speakers’ relationships,
attitudes, ideologies, etc., undoubtedly play a significant role in their choice (Milroy
and Gordon, 2003). In addition, another major factor deals with the intentions of each
speaker which, as mentioned in Gardner-Chloros, (2009) play an important role in the
choice of a variety that is more helpful for the specific reason and with the specific
speaker.
Based on a small-scale qualitative study of 21 Georgian migrants living in Greece, I will
present the main factors that caused CS in the above-mentioned speakers’
conversations. I will refer to cases where CS was a result of not knowing or not
remembering a specific word/phrase in a matrix language; switching codes when
referring to everyday expressions that would sound unnatural if translated. Also,
another factor leading Georgian-Greek bilinguals to switch codes was politeness, as
well as the lack of the names of different dishes and their ingredients in a matrix
language; various traditional aspects, such as the Georgian tradition of exchanging
wishes when dining, and the narration of dialogues in a language that took place, for
authenticity purposes.
‘English Does Not Kill’: Writing Lives in the Language of the ‘Other’
Stella Borg Barthet
stella.borg-barthet@um.edu.mt
In the 1950s African writing in European languages raised these questions: Had the
African author writing in English or French betrayed his homeland to become an
assimilé? Or had the writer wrested the blade of language from the colonizer and
submitted it to his own needs and those of his people? This paper argues that writing
practices were often influenced by a double bind between the need to cultivate an art
that would help implement modern economic and political structures and that of
delivering an ‘authentic’ African presence that would earn African writers a place in
the western literary tradition. The paper then goes on to show how these
compromised attitudes to language and culture still resonate in our time.
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Code-switching in third language teaching of German
Brigita Bosnar-Valkovic
bbosval@fthm.hr
The issue of linguistic code-switching phenomena in the more formalised context of
the classroom has not been scientifically studied in the same way as the issue of codeswitching in natural discourse.
Due to this fact the paper presents a personal teacher's experience with individual
examples of linguistic code-switching in third language teaching of German.
By using the qualitative approach the paper attempts to emphasize and explain the
most remarkable features of code-switching used by the teacher in the beginner
foreign language classroom consisting of the third year undergraduate students at the
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Opatija (Croatia). A total of twenty
three domestic Croatian students and six Erasmus exchange students from Spain,
Greece and Romania took part in this study.
Analyzed material reveals trilingualism in the classroom and, accordingly, the
extensive use of code-switching in the teacher's interaction with her students. Since
third language teaching builds on second language learning and is influenced by the
degree of bilingualism already attained by the student, both English (L2) and also
Croatian (L1) as a mother tongue of domestic students is used in our classroom as a
means of instruction, whereas German (L3) is used as third language and is taught as
a subject.
The study aims at identifying the functions of code-switching used by the teacher and
also at describing the reasons for them. It also highlights the beneficial aspect that
code switching may have not only in teacher – learner interaction in the foreign
language classroom, but more genenarrly, in foreign language learning as a whole.
Production of object relatives in bilingual acquisition: L1 Russian, L2
Hebrew
Irena Botwinik, Sharon Armon-Lotem and Efrat Har'el
botwinik@post.tau.ac.il
Despite their complexity, acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) is reported to be
completed at around 6;0 [1]. A fundamental question arises as to whether bilingualism
affects the acquisition of RCs in the two languages, and in what way? Taking into
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account that in sequential bilingualism L2 may develop on the grammatical basis
already available in L1, or that L1's competence may suffer attrition, four hypotheses
are plausible.
1. L2 delayed; L1 on time
2. Both delayed
3. L1 delayed; L2 on time
4. No delay in both languages
25 Russian-Hebrew bilingual children, aged 6 at first testing, participated in a twophase study, with a year’s gap between each phase. Object relatives were elicited as
part of a sentence repetition task with 36 sentences, matched in length and
complexity.
At first sight, our findings seem to support Hypothesis 3, as the success rate of L1 is
lower than L2 (67% vs. 97%). However, an examination of the attested errors suggests
that the correct Hypothesis is 4. We argue that the most prominent error, which is the
use of the nominative operator (kotoriy-masc/kotoraya-fem) instead of the
accusative one (kotorogo-masc/kotoruyu-fem), and which was attested in a third of
the errors on both instances of testing, indicates children's competence in the
derivation of Russian RCs, albeit with sporadic failure to retrieve the correct form of
the operator, using the default one (nominative). Importantly, the nominative error
was significantly more prominent with an animate, masculine relative head (e.g.
'father') (1st testing p< 0.01; 2nd testing p<0.001). In this type of sentence the
accusative form of the operator (kotorogo) differs substantially from its nominative
counterpart (kotoriy), both prosodically (number of syllables) and segmentally.
Plausibly, this finding reflects a performance error, rooted in the speech production
mechanism rather than attrition of L1's competence.
Our study highlights the importance of differentiating speakers' errors, supporting the
view that bilingualism does not delay grammatical development.
References:
[1] Hamburger, H. and S. Crain. 1982. Relative acquisition. In S. Kuczaj (Ed.), Language
development, vol.1: Syntax and semantics. Hillsdale: NJ: Erlbaum, 245-274.
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The development of gender systems in bilingual speakers across the
early lifespan: A look at child heritage speakers of Polish in Germany
Bernhard Brehmer
brehmerb@uni-greifswald.de
Grammatical gender represents a complex category in bilingual language acquisition.
There is an impressive body of research on problems of gender acquisition and
possible restructurings of gender systems by simultaneous L1 and child and adult L2learners. However, little is known about the long-term development of gender
systems in bilinguals across the lifespan.
The proposed paper relies on data from several projects dealing with gender
acquisition by heritage speakers of Polish in Germany and covering different age
groups: young children from age 3;1 to 5;11, teenagers from age 12 to 13 and young
adults with an average age of 22 years. When the data of the three groups is combined,
we gain insight into the development of the gender system in the heritage language
Polish across the early lifespan. The purpose of the paper is to shed light on
developmental changes in the Polish gender system of the bilinguals and on possible
age-related cross-linguistic effects.
Data was gathered in the youngest age group by eliciting gender assignment to given
items. The sample included items where the Polish and German equivalents show the
same gender, but also nouns differing with regard to gender in both languages. Data
for the two older groups comes from a picture story retelling task which was coded
for gender assignment to nouns as marked by adjectives and verb forms. A comparison
of all three data sets shows that cross-linguistic influence from German occurs on the
level of individual items, but is restricted to the earliest phase of acquiring gender in
Polish. The overall system is acquired in a way that is comparable to monolinguals.
However, there is a reduction of the gender system in the plural that persists even in
the oldest age group, where the distinction between virile and non-virile nouns is
given up
Similarities and differences in revising L1 and FL papers
Esther Breuer
ebreuer1@uni-koeln.de
Writing academic texts in the native and – even more – in the foreign language poses
high cognitive demands on students. In order to cope with these demands, writers
should learn to adapt their writing methods flexibly to their tasks. Crucial aspects here
are the methods of revising. In order to analyse these methods, a study was set up, in
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which ten L1 German students wrote academic essays in German and in English. The
production process was keylogged, so that the revising processes could be analysed.
The results show that the participants revised similarly in both L1 and in FL. They
focussed on the same aspects (content, typing mistakes, and language errors that
were not L1 related). At the same time, there are differences in finer grades. These
differences in revision do not seem to be a conscious decision however, but are rather
the result of the higher cognitive demands in FL academic writing and the lower
degree of language knowledge. Additionally, the analysis of the final FL texts showed
that most of the errors that were not corrected were L1 induced. When one looks at
the revisions, however, one sees that hardly any revisions were made in these aspects:
the L1 influence passed more or less unnoticed. For writing pedagogy, this means that
one has to put a higher focus on revision strategies during the training, in order to give
the students the tools to write successfully in L1 and in FL, and to motivate them to
enhance their papers.
Translation for Bilingual Communication
Charles Briffa
charles.briffa@um.edu.mt
The economic forces of modern society together with the rise of globalisation have
set the stage for an exponential increase of social bilingualism in Malta. This study,
therefore, focuses on the communicative perspective of translation that is influenced
by social bilingualism in Malta. Official bilingualism (Maltese and English) is a major
incentive for a large-scale translation activity related to various sociocultural spheres
that include (among others) administration, law, economics, commerce, politics, and
entertainment. This implies a need to understand the use of two languages in this
community and the social relevance of translation related activities for
communication. In the communicative perspective of translation resides the
fundamental idea of sharing which is an essential factor of participative
communication. Translation as communication becomes essentially a social affair that
is contingent on the communicative function, competence, and purpose of language
– factors that determine, or at least influence, meaning. But apart from this
functionalist perspective there is the pragmatic dimension that places translation
within the sphere of social communication that embraces (within the Maltese context)
concepts like complementary translation, code-switching, and auto-translation.
The translator’s bilingual competence sometimes leads to complementarity which can
be seen in public signs/notices, promotional literature, formal documentation, public
communication, and literary translation. Furthermore, in creative writing codeswitching has profound implications in literary interpretation. And an interesting
aspect of bilingualism is that, in addition to complementarity and code-switching, it
has brought about not only the translator but also the bilingual writer and the autotranslator. The author who does not want to become a detached bystander, becomes
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an agent (in the role of an auto-translator) who extends his message to another
language: that is, authors become shapers of their own works in the first and second
languages. Auto-translation and interlingual complementarity imply intracultural
action in which textual goals are the bilingual recipients.
When false friends get married. Italianizing English words the Sicilian
way to make them Maltese
Joseph M. Brincat
joseph.m.brincat@um.edu.mt
In the multilingual context that prevails in Malta, where the Italian heritage is still
strongly felt even though the official languages are Maltese and English, language
contact is unavoidable. Since 1946 half of the school subjects have been taught in
Maltese and the other half in English, whereas Italian is an optional third language in
secondary schools and viewership of Italian television programmes takes about 20%
of the prime-time share.
Nowadays Sicilian and Italian, which in the previous nine centuries enriched the local
vocabulary adding no less than 21,519 words to the 13,293 words of Arabic origin
(making up 52.46% and 32.41% of the entries in Aquilina's Maltese-English Dictionary),
are no longer the main sources of lexical innovation. Exposure to English has brought
in indispensable terminologies but also unprecedented code-switching on a national
scale, with the result that speakers and writers are facing new problems not only in
spelling but also on semantic and morphological levels. The paper will analyse the
strategies that are being resorted to.
Stroke or trout? STRUT. Issues of non-intelligibility in Nigerian English
Gabriela Brozbă
brozba.anydora@gmail.com
Despite the recognition and acceptance of non-native varieties of English as distinct
varieties by a great deal of scholars, the use of local norms in the classroom remains
a highly debatable issue. Native models, as well as didactic materials which reflect
native norms, tend to be used in teaching practices of non-native speakers. Simo
Bobda (2000: 65) asks himself whether “the New Englishes have a place in the ELT
classroom other than that of the uninvited guest to be driven out at all costs”. The
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concept of intelligibility is quite complex and it has been frequently misunderstood.
Smith (1992: 76) operates a three-way distinction between: intelligibility,
comprehensibility and interpretability. In this paper we aim to distinguish between
the three and see them at work in a situation involving users of ENL, ESL and EFL.
Therefore, 14 intelligibility judges (majoring in International Business) have been
involved in an intelligibility experiment for some samples recorded at the RomanianAmerican University in Bucharest. Besides these 14 judges, 10 EFL students who have
formal training in linguistics are used as well in order to double check and substantiate
our results obtained from the linguistically naïve judges. The non-native variety of
English we focus on is Nigerian English.
References
Simo Bobda, A. (2000) Research on New Englishes: A critical review of some findings
so far with focus on Cameroon English. AAA – Arbeiten aus Anglistik und
Amerikanistik 25 (1): 53-70.
Smith, L. E. (1992) Spread of English and issues of intelligibility. In B. B. Kachru (ed.),
The Other Tongue: English across Cultures, 2nd edition, 75-90. Urbana, IL: University of
Illinois Press.
From ESL to ENL – English as a First Language in Singapore:
Empirical Findings from a Survey on Language Choice and Use
Sarah Buschfeld
Sarah.Buschfeld@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de
As observed repeatedly, Singapore English has been changing from its traditional role
as a second-language (L2) variety to a native language (L1) (e.g. Bolton & Ng 2014;
Gupta 1994,
1998; Lim 2007; Lim & Foley 2004; Schneider 2007; Tan 2014). Census data clearly
confirms this observation, as the percentage of five- to nine-year-olds growing up with
English as the most frequently used language at home has risen from 34% in 2000 to
nearly 51% in 2010 (cf., Singapore Department of Statistics 2000, 2010).
This transition from L2 to L1 raises a number of intriguing questions situated at the
interface between World Englishes and First Language Acquisition. However, since
these two areas of research have traditionally been kept apart, this development has
not yet been analyzed in a duly comprehensive and systematic way.
The present paper presents results from a study which is part of a larger research
project, whose aim it is to bridge this gap and bring together the two fields of research,
both in terms of their major findings and methodologies. It draws on a parental
questionnaire study inquiring into bi-/multilingual language acquisition scenarios and
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questions of language dominance in the families of 34 one-and-a-half to eight-yearold Singaporean children of different ethnic backgrounds, with a special focus on the
frequency of use of English in different domains of daily life. The results empirically
corroborate and shed additional light on the observation that English has been gaining
more and more ground as L1 in Singapore in recent years. In addition, the paper at
hand discusses what these findings reveal for the research paradigms of both World
Englishes and First Language Acquisition.
References:
Bolton, Kingsley and Ng, Bee Chin. 2014. “The dynamics of multilingualism in
contemporary Singapore”.
World Englishes 33(3): 307-318.
Census of Population 2000, Statistical Release 2.
<http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/cop2000/cop20
00r2.html> (31 Oct. 2014).
Census
of
Population
2010,
Statistical
Release
1.
<http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/cop2010/censu
s10_stat_release1.html> (31 Oct. 2014).
Gupta, Anthea Fraser. 1994. The Step-Tongue. Children's English in Singapore.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gupta, Anthea Fraser. 1998. “The situation of English in Singapore”. In Joseph A. Foley,
Thiru Kandiah, Bao
Zhiming, Anthea Fraser Gupta, Lubna Alsagoff, Ho Chee Lick, Lionel Wee, Ismail S. Talib
and Wendy
D. Bokhorst-Heng (eds), English in New Cultural Contexts: Reflections from Singapore.
Singapore:
Oxford University Press, 106-126.
Lim, Lisa. 2007. “Mergers and acquisitions: on the ages and origins of Singapore
English particles”. World Englishes 26(4): 446-473.
Lim, Lisa and Foley, Joseph A. 2004. “English in Singapore and Singapore English”. In
Lisa Lim (ed.), Singapore English: A Grammatical Description. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, 1-18.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties Around the World.
Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Tan, Ying-Ying. 2014. “English as a ‘mother tongue’ in Singapore”. World Englishes
33(3): 319-339.
1 Department of English and American Studies, University of Regensburg
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Is Rumañol a New Linguistic Code?
A Quantitative Approach to Studying the Speech of Romanian
immigrants in Spain
Paul Buzila
paul.buzila@lls.unibuc.ro
Romanian immigration in Spain reached its peak towards the end of the 2000’s putting
the Romanians in the first place among the immigrant communities in Spain and thus,
creating the proper environment for language contact between Romanian and
Spanish. This linguistic reality has only recently been studied but conclusions arising
from this research already account for the existence of a new variety of Romanian,
strongly influenced by Spanish and lately referred to as Rumañol.
Our paper represents a quantitative contribution to the topic through which we verify
whether the so-called Rumañol can indeed be considered a new linguistic code. Based
on a corpus obtained through a sociolinguistic survey consisting of interviews with 86
immigrants from six different areas in Spain, our analysis measures the amount of the
different contact phenomena identified in their speech (discourse in L2, code
switching, linguistic interference) and compares it to the total linguistic production
recorded in the corpus. At the same time, it estimates the standardization degree of
these phenomena by analysing the distribution of unique and recurrent forms.
Using these quantitative results, and considering that only those cases of linguistic
interference that are standardised in the local norm can be regarded as characteristics
of the supposedly new variety, the paper reaches the conclusion that Rumañol is not
a new linguistic code, in spite of what previous studies might have suggested.
Individual Differences in Foreign-Accent Perception
Emily Byers and Tessa Bent
elbyers@imail.iu.edu
Speech communication between two native speakers in quiet conditions tends to be
effortless and error-free. However, environmental (e.g., noise), talker (e.g., a foreignaccented speaker), or listener (e.g., second language listener) related factors can
cause decrements in speech understanding. Under suboptimal listening conditions,
substantial individual differences across listeners appear. Many linguistic, perceptual,
and cognitive factors – including working memory, phonological awareness, and
auditory short-term memory – have been proposed as possible factors that contribute
to individual differences in listeners’ speech perception abilities. This study examines
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the influence of selective attention, vocabulary size, and cognitive flexibility on English
listeners’ ability to understand foreign-accented speech in noise. Forty-five
monolingual American English speaking adults were presented with 60 sentences
produced by a late learning Mandarin-English bilingual. The final (target) keyword was
highly predictable from the preceding context in 30 sentences (e.g., “People wear
shoes on their feet”) whereas in the other 30, it was not (e.g., “Mom looked at the
juice”). The sentences were embedded in multi-talker babble at a signal-to-noise ratio
of +6 dB. Selective attention and vocabulary size were significant predictors of
performance in the low-predictability condition while cognitive flexibility did not
predict word recognition in either condition. As response speed is a highly sensitive
measure of processing effort when subjects are near ceiling, our significant correlation
between selective attention speed and perceptual accuracy indicates that people who
are faster at ignoring distractors are also better at perceiving speech that is adversely
affected by phonetic deviations as well as background noise. Larger vocabularies may
also be predictive of speech perception abilities because greater lexical connectivity
facilitates more accurate phonetic pattern processing and word recognition. A
significant correlation between performance in the high and low predictability
conditions indicates that the best perceivers are adept at using both top-down and
bottom-up strategies to decode foreign-accented speech.
Word Order Problems encountered by Maltese Learners of German
Denise Camenzuli
denise.camenzuli@um.edu.mt
Although the German language is usually regarded as a language which has a relatively
flexible word order, words cannot be placed arbitrarily in a sentence. There are word
order rules, which are specific to the German language, and which, at times, pose
difficulties even to German native speakers themselves. This paper summarises the
findings of an empirical study, which was carried out to investigate the word order
mistakes made by Maltese learners of German aged between 15 and 19 years. The
research was based on written exam scripts at three different levels, namely A2, B1
and B2.
The Maltese scenario is particular because Malta is officially termed bilingual. As a
result, the English language is given importance both in schools and in certain cases
even at home. Whatever the social background of the pupils and whatever the school,
English is formally taught at the very early stages. Textbooks for most of the school
subjects are in English, indicating that the Maltese pupils are exposed to the English
language more than their peers in other countries having only one official language.
Given this scenario, should the foreign language be regarded as the L2 or the L3?
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Besides trying to answer this question, the paper highlights the most frequent word
order mistakes made by the Maltese pupils and tries to find their origin. Can they be
attributed to the difficulty of learning a foreign language or are they a result of
negative interference from other languages? And if they occur due to negative
interference, is it interference from the Maltese language or is it from the English
language?
Translanguaging: a Pedagogical Strategy in the Teaching of Italian as a
Foreign Language in Malta
Antoinette Camilleri Grima & Sandro Caruana
antoinette.camilleri-grima@um.edu.mt
sandro.caruana@um.edu.mt
In learning a foreign language (FL) within a classroom setting one of the main sources
of input of the target language (TL) is teacher talk. It is, therefore, axiomatic that
exposure to TL is emphasized, including the use of recordings of native speakers and
the teacher’s own input, even if in the Maltese text teachers are rarely native speakers
of Italian. For many years, this has also been understood to mean that the use of the
learners’ native language (NL) should be banned from the FL classroom. However, in
recent years, the analysis of classroom discourse has unravelled some essential
pedagogical functions of the use of NL in FL teaching (Crease & Blackledge, 2010;
Macaro 2009).
Furthermore, the term‘translanguaging’ (Garcia, 2009) has been introduced in the
international literature with reference to the drawing on all of the linguistic resources
that one has in order to ‘make sense’. In this presentation we will show how Maltese
learners of Italian and their teachers translanguage to fulfill pedagogical needs such
as the assimilation of grammar points, explaining new vocabulary items, shifting from
formal to informal language and classroom management (Gauci & Camilleri Grima,
2013).
References
Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: a
pedagogy for learning and teaching? in, The Modern Language Journal, 94,
i:103-115.
Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century. A Global Perspective. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Gauci, H. & Camilleri Grima, A. (2013). Codeswitching as a tool in teaching Italian in
Camilleri Grima, A. (special ed.), “International Journal of Bilingual Education
and Bilingualism”, 615-631, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
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Macaro, E. (2009) Teacher use of codeswitching in the second language classroom:
Exploring optimal use in Turnbull, M. & Dailey-O, J. (Eds.) First Language Use
in Second and Foreign Language Learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp.
35-49.
Teaching a second language through movements
Irene Campisi
irecamp@outlook.com
What I am going to present are the results of what I firmly think: learning languages
through movements is easier. I have a kind of double experience in this field: my
personal experience as foreign languages student and my experience as a teacher.
During my Erasmus year in Germany I took part in a project called “Europa macht
Schule”: I had the opportunity to get in touch with a class of children, to which I was
supposed to teach something regarding Italy. What I wanted to do, according to their
age, was just playing with them: I wanted to teach them Italian, although in 5 lessons
it is impossible but it was nice to hear them trying to say some words, and to notice
that these words, were used in the right context.
My project, very easy to explain, could be useful to teach a second language to a group
of people not speaking the same language at all. I proposed them a song, “Il coccodrillo
come fa”, in which there are mentioned different animals and also their voices. What
I did was let the children mime the voices of the animals and all the “mimeable” words
in the song. This process was useful because the children could memorize better not
only the sound of the word but also its meaning, because in performing it they were
supposed to use more than one “memory”, they had to remember the word, but also
their body had to remember the movement related to that word.
That is, in my opinion, a really good way to teach a second language, especially if the
students have no common language in their background. Through songs it is possible
to learn also something about the culture, although in second language teaching
students are already immersed in the culture
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Immersion language education in Turkey: a case study of a
kindergarten implementation of an Italian-Turkish immersion program.
Valentina Carbonara
valentina.carbonara@gmail.com
Turkey has a long tradition of bilingual and immersion education, in particular due to
the importance of its minorities in the past. (Karahan 2005). Recently Turkish
educational policies have started to support the importance of learning foreign
languages in early years of education both in public and private schools, permitting
them to set their starting point of a second language instruction at an early age
(Bayyurt, Alptekin 2000). In a commonly studied foreign languages rank in Turkey, the
Italian language is in the fourth place, after English, French and German. Moreover
the number of Italian immersion programs has been increased in the last decade
(Amadori, Campari 2011). In this research we are analyzing the Evrim School case: a
historically important institution which includes kindergarten, primary and secondary
school, offering Italian language education. The Evrim School foreign language
education policy can be considered as an example of micro language planning (Baldauf,
Richard 2006) since the school’s implementation of an Italian immersion program in
kindergarten (ITIMP) in order to develop additive bilingualism and intercultural
understanding in children (Tedick, Christian, Williams Fortune 2011). We described
ITIMP collecting data by means of structured and semi-structured questionnaires to
school managers and parents, interviews with children and teachers, classroom
observations, recordings of teachers’ daily activities and log-keeping. We measured
the impact of ITIMP on the achievements of 5 years old students in receptive
vocabulary knowledge and in oral production in two different groups: the treatment
group was attended ITIMP for two year, the comparison group was enrolled in the
program for one year. Results indicate that the treatment group outperformed the
comparison group in both receptive vocabulary as well as oral production tests.
References:
Amadori G., Campari D. (2012). L’italiano in Turchia. Rilevazioni statistiche
sull’insegnamento della lingua italiana, Istanbul, Consolato Generale d’Italia.
Baldauf Jr., Richard B. (2006) 'Rearticulating the Case for Micro Language Planning in
a Language Ecology Context', Current Issues in Language Planning, 7: 2, 147 — 170.
Bayyurt, Y. and Alptekin, C. (2000). EFL syllabus design for Turkish young learners in
bilingual school contexts. J. Moon & M. Nikolov (Eds.). Research into Teaching English
to Young Learners (ss. 312-322). Pécs: Pécs University Press.
Karahan F. (2005). Bilingualism in Turkey. Proceedings of the 4th International
Symposium on Bilingualism, ed. James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad, and
Jeff MacSwan, 1152-1166. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Tedick, D. J., Christian, D., & Fortune, T. W. (Eds.) (2011). Immersion education:
Practices, policies, possibilities. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, Ltd.
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Bilingualism frees your mind: The case of Grammatical Gender
Simone Catania
simone.catania@hotmail.com
It is argued that bilingualism can effect concepts. In recent years the empirical
research on linguistic relativity has been applied to the study of the grammatical
gender as well. It has been suggested that grammatical gender is used by speakers to
classify reality and affects conceptual gender.
Through cross-linguistic studies it has been shown that native speakers of German or
Spanish with English as L2, describe a bridge as ‘elegant’ in German and ‘strong’ in
Spanish according to the feminine or masculine grammatical gender of their L1. Based
on the L1 comes also the choice to give a male or female voice to inanimate objects.
Bilinguals of Italian and German do not show an influence of grammatical gender and
the conclusion seems to be that when two grammatical genders conflict, they are not
a reliable cue for the speaker. Bilingualism might eliminate a bias effecting
conceptualization and this is why learning and speaking more languages frees people
from the cage created by the first language.
References
Boroditsky, L.; Schmidt, L.; Philipps, W., Sex, Syntax and Semantics, in Gentner, D.;
Goldin-Meadow, S., Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and
thought, Boston, MIT Press, 2003.
Bassetti, B., Bilingualism and thought: Grammatical Gender and Concepts of objects
in Italian-German bilingual children, in “International Journal of Bilingualism”, 11/3
(2007), p.251-273.
Online sentence processing in bi-and multilinguals and the effect on
working memory capacity in L1
Gulay Cedden & Ozgur Aydin
gucedden@metu.edu.tr / ozguraydin66@gmail.com
Aims and Objectives: Existing studies on sentence processing in bi-/multilinguals are
typically centered on the L1 influence on second language (L2) sentence processing.
However, there is almost no evidence of influence in the other direction. The aim of
this study is to find out whether being mono-, bi-, tri- or plurilingual has an effect on
reading times in the native language. We wanted to explore the effect of knowing two
or more languages on on-line word order processing in the L1 and to find out whether
knowing languages can be counted as experience (see Bialystok, 2009) and has
consequently an influence on sentence processing in the native language.
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Working memory is considered to be a specialized memory system that allows a small
amount of information to be simultaneously maintained and processed for a short
period of time during the performance of a task (Baddeley, 1986, 1990; 2003). Related
to the processing of a sentence, this means that the reader has to make out the
structural relations among its words and phrases. The syntactic processing system
reconstructs the structure of the sentence incrementally by assigning the perceived
words to phrases as quickly as possible and by determining the hierarchical relations
among the different phrases, a process often referred to as syntactic structure
building (Fiebach, Schlesewsky, Lohmann, von Cramon, & Friederici, 2005). This is
important evidence for the involvement of working memory during sentence
processing.
To this end, Turkish native speakers reading times (RT) were measured when
processing Turkish canonical SOV sentences, SVO sentences where constituents move
to post-verbal positions, and SVO–ki sentences where post-verbal constituents are
base generated.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A non-cumulative self-paced reading task was used
in order to measure the RTs of a sentence. The area of interest which contained (i) the
critical verb, (ii) the verb of the complement clause and (iii) the argument or adjunct
of the complement clause were measured (32 sentences + 12 filler sentences). All
elements were matched according to their frequency of occurrence and their syllable
structure.
Data and Analysis: Analyses of variance were performed on reading times of the area
of interest.
Findings/Conclusions: One of the main findings in this study was that all three
sentence types were processed significantly slower in the monolingual group than in
the bi- and multilingual groups. We found that non- native languages have a positive
effect on processing the word order in the L1, which might lead to a faster processing
in the three sentence types. The findings were discussed in terms of working memory.
Developing intercultural competence through oral folk literature for
students in a bilingual context
Silvia-Maria Chireac & Anna Devís Arbona
silvia.chireac@uv.es
In the educational context, the goal promoted by school as a complex system is that
every European should know two other languages in addition to his/her own
(Breidbach, 2003; Gogolin, 2002).
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At present, the increasing arrival of immigrant students in Europe, especially in Spain,
has obviously transformed all the schools. A large number of immigrants came to
Spain from all over the world, but especially from Romania (NIS, 2014). In this
immersion context, the students must acquire new (L2) languages (Catalan and
Spanish) and become familiar with their corresponding cultures. This study
investigates the premise that oral folk literature has a considerable potential of
expanding the learning process for Romanian bilingual immigrant students and
therefore, can contribute to developing intercultural competence. It draws on the
research findings of a qualitative study that examined the value of developing the use
of storytelling. The study includes traditional stories from Romanian culture, collected
via in-depth interviews with Romanian people from Moldavia (Romania). Research
data shows that oral folk literature is an effective tool to raise bilingual learners’
interest and curiosity for other countries and cultures, such as Romanian culture, as
well as to facilitate reflection about their own values, practices and beliefs. In an
attempt to respond to the needs of instruction in bilingual education, this study
explores different kinds of folk literature from different cultures which can be found
in the classroom. The themes of the narratives are the same because they belong to
the collective imagination, which is a part of universal folklore (Devís, 2013).
Our objective is to develop teaching materials that provide academic staff with the
resources to guide and support the learning process of students. On the other hand,
we analyzed the themes of oral folk literature pertaining to different cultures and
finally, we tried to assess if the oral folk literature contributes to developing the
bilingual, plurilingual and intercultural competence.
Exploring Spanish register among graduate students: A pilot study of
Spanish at a University in Southern California
Tanya Chroman
tanyachroman@gmail.com
This article expands the study of registers in both conversational and written language
with empirical data collected from different situations through out the daily activities
of two bilingual populations at a university in Southern California. It explores the
importance of register distinction in the university classroom. This is done by studying
the use of formal and informal register at the university between two bilingual
populations through out the tasks they perform on a daily basis. Language samples
used in a normal day were collected and transcribed for analysis. A qualitative analysis
was performed exploring Spanish using characteristics previously studied by Valdés
and Geoffrion-Vinci in 1998: lexical choice, integration versus fragmentation and
detachment versus involvement. The presence of disfluencies was also taken into
account in this study. For this study the characteristics of disfluencies will be explored
and labeled as, ‘real time processing units.’ Results indicated similarities in the use of
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Spanish register used among the two populations studied. A presence of informal
register was found in formal contexts by both bilingual populations. Implications for
curriculum and course development including register topics are discussed. Further
development of these courses can provide bilingual populations with the opportunity
to expand their language repertoire
Working with bilingual children. Remarks on the methodology of
recording and transcribing child’s speech
Jadwiga Cook
jadwiga.cook@gmail.com
The proposed analysis constitutes a part of a larger research project concerning the
expression of spatial relations and movement in Polish-French and Polish-English
bilingual children’s speech (focusing especially on signs of interference or codemixing). Since 2004, when Poland entered the European Union, the number of mixed
couples, and therefore the number of bilingual children living in Poland, has increased
significantly. However, the research concerning this group of young bilinguals is up to
this point almost non-existent.
The focus of the study are the methodological aspects of gathering research material
among Polish-English and Polish-French bilingual children living in Poland, aged from
4 to 7. Its aim will be to describe and answer the methodological problems arising
while working with this group of bilingual children. The aspects described in the paper
will be:
1)
The definition of the term bilingual, which has so far acquired many
different, sometimes contradictory, descriptions;
2)
The speech data collection, especially the process and criteria of the
speakers’ selection and the conducting of the recordings with small children;
3)
Transcribing English, French and Polish child’s speech into the CHAT
format (Mac Whinney 2000). This point seems to be particularly important, as the
development of transcripts, the question of what is transcribed and how has so
far received little attention in research literature, as Christina Davidson (2010 :
115-116) points out.
References:
1. Abdelilah-Bauer, B. (2008), Le défi des enfants bilingues. Grandir et vivre en
parlant plusieurs langues, Paris : La Découverte.
2. Davidson, Ch. (2010), “Transcription matters. Transcribing talk and interaction
to facilitate conversation analysis of the taken-for-granted in young children's
interactions”, Journal of Early Childhood Research, vol. 8:2, 2010, pp. 115-131.
3. De Houwer A. (2009), Bilingual First Language Acquisition, Bristol, Buffalo,
Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
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4. Grosjean, F. (1982/2001), Life with Two Languages. An Introduction to
Bilingualism, 11th Printing, Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.
5. MacWhinney, B. (2000), The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk, 3rd
Edition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
6. Wei, L., Moyer, M. (2008), The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in
Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Maltese German as a Foreign Language (GFL) students' cultural
representations of Germany and its people. A comparative
interpretation
George Cremona
georgeuni@gmail.com
Following a critical constructivist epistemology (Goodman, 2008) as well as a
multimodal framework (Kress, 2010; Norris, 2004, Jewitt, 2009) the paper aims to
answer the research question: Which cultural representations of Germany are held by
first year students in the Maltese German as a Foreign Language (GFL) learning
context? The data has been collected through mixed methods and triangulated
through student questionnaires, student interviews and textbook analysis. Over 86%
of the whole first year GFL student Maltese cohort have participated in the study. The
interactive presentation will compare two sets of student representations of Germany
i.e. student representations collected before the beginning of the first GFL learning
experience and the set of student representations collected at the end of the first GFL
scholastic year. In the paper, I intend to:
1. Present a comprehensive picture of the representations of Germany predominantly
shared by first year GFL learners across the Maltese islands;
2. Identify and interpret a number of pedagogic implications linked to the way these
representations change and/or remain constant throughout the first year of GFL
learning experience.
The points raised should serve to highlight possible reasons indicating why students
(and their parents) in bilingual Malta frequently end up treating German as a Foreign
Language as a very difficult language selected only by rather small percentages of
Foreign Language students in Malta.
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Resistance to Bilingualism: Language and Identity in Puerto Rico
Jonatan Cruz Cardona
jonatan.cruz@upr.edu
This ethnographic case study focuses on Puerto Rico’s Public School Educational Policy
regarding the teaching of the English language. It states that English classes are
mandatory from first grade through twelfth grade, despite the lack of linguistic
competence among students. A great number of Puerto Ricans are Spanish
monolinguals: although they are exposed to English on a daily basis, many are not fully
fluent English speakers. The State holds the students to sky-high expectations, yet the
instruction offered through these English classes is not up to par— students do not
achieve sufficient English fluency and later find themselves resisting and despising the
English language.
Most of the literature regarding this topic are investigations focusing around the San
Juan metropolitan area. This investigation uses participant observation and
interviewing to explore complex relationships between language and identities in a
rural Puerto Rican community. Participants included students and teachers from a K9 school.
The public Education System in Puerto Rico have failed to create and educate a fully
bilingual population, even though there are many bilingual “spots”, such as in
governmental institutions, universities, and professional industries. The reasons for
this language contact phenomena have been the focus of study in many investigations
conducted through the last decades (Clampitt-Dunlap (2000), Lopez, Mazack (2012),
McCroskey, Fayer, & Richmond (1985), Pousada, 2000, 2010, Urciuoli (2013), Zentella
(1990)). There are several variables that affect at different gradients the motivations
that cause students and society to remain monolingual in Spanish or at least having
passive knowledge of English: from the invasion of the United States in 1898, to the
different language policies introduced on the island and the economic crisis of the
public school system.
In what ways do teachers talk of the capacity of teachers, parents and
children in supporting bilingual children and their home languages in
mainstream UK primary schools?
Clare Cunningham
C.Cunningham@yorksj.ac.uk
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A sixth of primary school children in the UK now speak English as an Additional
Language (EAL) according to the school census of 2011. However, a visitor to many of
the schools the children attend would, in all likelihood, observe the continued
dominance of English and either implicit or explicit silencing of other languages.
The study comprised interview data from 32 participants across seven suburban
schools in northern England, and adopted the APPRAISAL framework of analysis (Martin
and White, 2000) to report on how teachers talk about their own and others’ CAPACITY
in managing EAL and home languages. Teachers’ opinions are considered to be underreported in this area (Sook Lee and Oxelson, 2006), particularly in the UK context, and
are of paramount importance in managing the deficit model and children’s own
attitudes towards their home languages.
Findings suggest that teachers express mixed appraisals of CAPACITY about the children
in their care, although there is evidence that the deficit model is visible in the way that
teachers discuss expectations of these pupils. JUDGEMENT of linguistic CAPACITY about
the children’s parents, on the other hand, was more likely to be negative, language
seeming to be viewed here as a barrier between home and school. Broadly speaking,
teachers construed others’ CAPACITY as greater than their own, particularly those who
have been given a particular role of expertise in EAL management. Self-reports on
linguistic CAPACITY were particularly negative but, generally, CAPACITY JUDGEMENTS on
colleagues were more mixed.
The data suggests that teachers may make judgements on capacity that correlate with
broader societal opinion on the place of languages other than English in the public
discourse.
Secondary Students’ Attitudes towards Code-Switching and their
Relevant Lexical Knowledge: A Sociolinguistic Study
Maria Cutajar
mariatwincutajar@hotmail.com
Bolonyai (2012: 258) claims that ‘it is not uncommon for an asymmetrical
sociolinguistic order to promote psycholinguistic imbalance between the L1 and the
L2, for example in terms of speakers’ attitudes towards their languages.’ This is
particularly relevant to the local educational context wherein students attending a
state school are often thought to prefer speaking Maltese as opposed to English while
the opposite linguistic reality is thought to prevail among students attending
Independent schools. In light of this, the present study seeks to explore whether
secondary students from different educational and social backgrounds differ in their
attitudes towards intra-clausal code-switching with Maltese and English base
languages respectively, as defined by Myers-Scotton’s (2002) MLF model. The present
study also seeks to explore whether secondary students’ attitudes towards specific
code-switched utterances, are related to their lexical knowledge of the code-switched
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words in the same utterances. Students’ attitudes towards code-switching were
gathered via self-administered questionnaires and analysed in terms of the
prescriptive versus descriptive approach. Contrastingly, the students’ relevant active
lexical knowledge was tested by means of a translation task adapted from Laufer and
Goldstein (2004) and analysed using an error analysis approach. Moreover, both
students’ attitudes, and their relevant lexical knowledge were also analysed in terms
of sociolinguistic factors such as gender, educational background, main breadwinner’s
occupation, locality and language preference.
Secondary students’ attitudes and exposure to English in Malta
Sarah Cutajar
sarahtwincutajar@hotmail.com
Language attitude studies play an integral role in gauging the perceived strength of a
language. Although the prospect of English acquiring a minority language status on a
global scale is highly remote, the dearth in the frequency of use of English by
youngsters in the local context is understandably a rather disconcerting matter. Baker
(2011) emphasizes the magnitude that the family and education domains assume in
safeguarding the vitality of a language. In view of this, this paper seeks to investigate
secondary students’ attitudes towards English, identify what factors have shaped their
attitudes and explore relationships between such attitudes and the students’ degree
of exposure to English respectively. While the students’ attitudes and exposure were
recorded via self-administered questionnaires, photographs of the schools’ linguistic
landscape were taken to provide a more complete picture of the phenomenon
understudy. The three category conceptual model and Williams’ variations in attitude
model were used as frameworks of analysis in order to measure students’ attitudes
towards the status of English. Furthermore, the study’s findings were in turn
considered in terms of non-linguistic variables such as gender and locality.
A trinity for language maintenance
Joseph DeChicchis
j@kwansei.ac.jp
Multilingualism is the cornerstone of language maintenance, and this paper explores
the functional trinity behind the development of any successful policy for
multilingualism: history, identity, and cooperation. These factors function in a
combination unique to each society, which create unique dynamics of language
attitudes, under which particular patterns of language choice are appropriate.
Moreover, because language is the most important determinant of culture, these
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factors also illuminate our cultural understanding, and they should be fundamental
for any program striving for transcultural competence.
Examples from Mayan, Okinawan, and other minority language education will be
discussed, illustrating the importance of language in accessing cultural history, in
defining oneself, and in interacting with other social groups. Throughout, however,
the focus will be on the application of this functional trinity to language and culture
studies in general. It will be argued that such a focus yields theoretical insight into
both the popularity of Intercultural Communicative Competence (cf. Byram) and the
disappointment expressed by ICC's critics (e.g., Matsuo). Even more importantly, this
focus can guide curricular development, resulting in a better allocation of resources
for successful multilingualism and language maintenance.
Does bi-/multilingualism allow for more stable attitudes towards yet
another language learned?
Robert de Louw
rdelouw@wa.amu.edu.pl
Richards and Schmidt define language attitudes as those “which speakers of different
languages or language varieties have towards each other’s languages […]” (2010: 314).
Measurement of language attitudes is typically performed in one of three ways: by
using direct methods (e.g. interviews), indirect procedures (e.g. the matched guise
technique) (Ó Riagáin 2008) or content analysis (Garrett 2010). These methods can be
used in isolation but, since no method is exhaustive and ”many language attitudes
studies arerelatively small-scale ‘one-off’ studies” (Garrett 2010: 201), Liebscher and
Dailey-O’Cain (2009) and Garrett (2001, 2010) call for a multiple-method approach to
studyinglanguage attitudes to show how methods can complement each other. Such
an approach was adopted for the present study.
The aim of the study was to determine the attitudes of Polish students of Dutch
towards two varieties, Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch. The participants were asked
to complete three ratings, one in each of the three sessions of the study - a
questionnaire and two different extended verbal guise tasks.
With only a few patterns emerging, on the whole, the results, obtained through
computing correlation patterns and other forms of statistical analysis, analyzed both
by participant’s language proficiency level and their gender and tested for consistency,
show that the participants were quite inconsistent in expressing their attitudes. More
importantly, those with more exposure to a variety and/or with more advanced
knowledge of the different languages they speak did not necessarily have a more
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stable attitude, which could suggest bi-/multilingualism may not allow for steady
attitudes by definition.
The findings will be discussed within the framework of the study itself as well as within
the framework of the very nature of attitudes in general and language attitudes in
particular.
History, identity, and cooperation
Modernity, Coloniality and Discrimination in the EFL Classroom in
Mexico
Colette Despagne
colette.despagne@gmail.com
In Mexico, Indigenous people associate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) with
discrimination as the English language represents power. Moreover, ethnic
discrimination is a national phenomenon mostly originated during colonization and
the creation of the Mexican nation state. Though many laws have since been passed
to support the Indigenous population, the phenomenon persists and takes a toll on
them socially (Gall, 2004).
The purpose of this critical ethnographic case study is to analyze how and why
Indigenous students studying at a private university in Puebla, Mexico feel
discriminated against when learning EFL. The theoretical framework focuses on: (a)
postcolonial theories analyzing how Mexico’s colonial legacies (e.g., its hierarchical
distribution of power) influence Indigenous students’ perceptions of English (Mignolo,
2005), and (b) discrimination globally as “the phenomenon seems to become more
global every day which means that it invokes global dimensions with local and national
specificities” (Wieviorka, 2007, p. 18). Global dimensions of this study relate to the
power of English internationally whereas its national specificities involve dynamics of
anti-Indigenous discrimination in Mexico.
Data has been triangulated through multiple data collection techniques (Stake,
2005), and has then been analyzed through Smith’s (1999) decolonization
methodology. Results show that Indigenous students associate English with
modernity, the US, and highly valued knowledge; they also show that this group of
Indigenous students in Mexico feel discriminated against in the EFL classroom because
the university treats them as less intelligent, and their non-Indigenous classmates use
their English proficiency against them as a means of showing (socio-academic)
superiority. As a result, Indigenous students are not invested in learning EFL. Hence,
EFL teachers working in multicultural contexts must be aware of inter-ethnic power
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relations to support the development of all students’ intercultural awareness and EFL
learning (Kramsch, 2001).
Family Language Policy Among Ethiopian New Immigrants in Israel
Deborah Dubiner
ddubiner@gmail.com
Since immigration to Israel in the 90's, the Ethiopian community in Israel has been
facing the difficulties involved in adapting from a non-Western, oral culture to the
mainstream Western, literate Israeli society (Stavans et al. 2009). Twenty years later,
sensitive issues of acceptance and scholastic achievement are still present in the
community's narrative.
Some Ethiopian immigrants maintained the home language mainly for oral
interchanges in their communities and families, while interactions that involve literacy
practices often need to be mediated by younger members of the community. The
home language is at times not maintained, and many families experience what WongFillmore (2000) referred to as "the loss of a family language." Results from her studies
show that the importance of a strong language of communication between parents
and children cannot be overestimated. It is essential for educational purposes,
especially in the Israeli educational system which relies on parental involvement and
support (Stavans et al. 2009), as well as for identity formation and maintenance.
This study reports on 10 interviews carried out with immigrants recently arrived (up
to 2 years in Israel).The interviews were carried out with the help of an interpreter,
recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The purpose of the interviews was to
understand immigrants' individual/family language policy, beliefs, attitudes,
expectations and practices. The findings are discussed in terms of research on heritage
language maintenance,child bilingualism, family language policy and melting pot
policies, conformism/activism, and the role of the sociolinguist.
Literacy practices in and outside of school: Focus on immigrant children
of parents with no or very short education, in a bilingual context
Susanne Duek
susanne.duek@kau.se
In recent years, an increasing number of immigrants with no education arrive in
Europe. Many of these adults have children at school age (The Swedish National
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Agency of Education, Skolverket 2011). In my ongoing PhD study, I investigate the
conditions for literacy development among this particular group of second language
learning children, namely those who grow up in homes where the parents have very
short or no education from their home countries. In those cases the parents learn to
read and write simultaneously with their children.
Many researchers have pointed to the impact of environmental factors on child
literacy development; in particular the impact of the home (see e.g. Barton 1994/2007,
Heath 1983, Street 2000.) Traditional Euro-Western literacy teaching is usually based
on the assumption that a child has a certain tradition of literacy events and literacy
practices already prior to entering school (Liberg 1990). The main aim of my study is
to investigate what happens at the intersection between home and school literacy
practices and what potential effect this may have on children’s literacy development.
With regard to methods, I adopt an ethno-methodological approach in which
everyday life in school as well as in the homes is studied by use of observations and
interviews. The data are analysed with socio-cultural and New Literacy Studies´
perspectives. Provided that my paper is accepted, I would like to present some
tentative findings and discuss several issues related to my project.
References:
Barton (1994/2007) Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Heath, S. B. (1983) Ways with words. Cambridge: Cambrigde University Press
Liberg, C. (1990) Läs – och skrivsvårigheter, en konsekvens av deltagande i traditionell
läs- och skrivundervisning. I: Hene, B. & Wahlén, S. (red.) Barns läsutveckling och
läsning. Rapport från ASLA:s höstsymposium, Stockholm den 15-16 november 1990,
Uppsala
Skolverket (2011) Läroplanen för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet,
www.skolverket.se/forskola-ochskola/grundskoleutbildning/laroplaner/grundskolan/laroplan
Street (2000) Literacy events and literacy practices. Theory and practice in the New
Literacy Studies. I: Martin-Jones M. & Jones K. (eds.) Multilingual literacies.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
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Towards disentangling preference organisation and language
alternation in bilingual talk-in-interaction
Miriam Eiswirth
mirjam.eiswirth@gmail.com
Preference organisation is a well-established concept in CA (Pomerantz 1984; 2008;
Pomerantz & Heritage 2012), and the idea of preference is common in the analysis of
bilingual talk-in-interaction (for examples see Cashman 2005; Wei 1995). In this
context, ‘preference’ can refer to: (1) language alternation as a contextualisation cue,
i.e. as a dispreference marker (Auer 1984; 1995; 1998; Auer & Wei, 2009); (2) the
notion of a “preferred language” that is the most adequate for the interaction; (3)
deviation from the current medium as a dispreferred act (Gafaranga, 2007).
Nevertheless, no overarching concept for the interaction of these terms and processes
has been proposed. This would be useful to differentiate what researchers are
referring to when talking about ‘preference’ in bilingual talk-in-interaction and how
language alternation contributes to the preference organisation as understood in CA.
Gafaranga (2012) has shown that ‘repair’ interacts with conversational structure in
bilingual talk: language alternation can be used as an additional resource when doing
repair and occur at any point in the repair sequence, but it can also be a repairable
(Gafaranga 1999; 2007). I hypothesise that the same holds true for preference
organisation.
In this exploratory pilot study I will analyse where in a preference-organisationrelevant sequence (assessment sequences, making an offer or request, and
responding to an offer or a request) language alternation occurs (or not), and what it
does, and at which other points the interlocutors code-switch. I will take three to six
hours of conversation between two friends who originally met for a German-Spanish
language exchange. One is Mexican, one German, and both are fluent in English (and
Spanish). The high proficiency in two shared languages and the fact that they use both
languages (without using a bilingual medium as such) ensures smooth interaction and
little proficiency-related language alternation when speaking Spanish.
Works cited:
Auer, P. (1995). The pragmatics of code-switching. In L. Milroy & P. Muysken (Eds.),
One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching (pp.
115-135). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Auer, P. (1998). Code-switching in conversation : language, interaction and identity.
New York: Routledge.
Auer, P. & Wei, L. (2009). Handbook of multilingualism and multilingual
communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Cashman, H. R. (2005). Identities at Play: Language Preference and Group Membership
in Bilingual Talk in Interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(3), 301-315.
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Gafaranga, J. (1999). Language choice as a significant aspect of talk organization: The
orderliness of language alternation. Text-Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of
Discourse, 19(2), 201-226.
Gafaranga, J. (2007). Talk in two languages. Basingstoke [England]; New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Gafaranga, J. (2012). Language alternation and conversational repair in bilingual
conversation. International Journal of Bilingualism, 16(4), 501-527.
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: some features of
preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures
of Social Action - Studies in Conversation Analysis (pp. 57-101). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Pomerantz, A. (2008). Preference Organization Revisited: Displaying Speaker's Stance
toward Performing an Action. Conference Papers -- American Sociological Association,
1
Pomerantz, A., & Heritage, J. (2012). Preference. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (Eds.), The
Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 210-228): John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Wei, L. (1995). Code‐switching, preference marking and politeness in bilingual cross‐
generational talk: Examples from a Chinese community in Britain. Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 16(3), 197-214.
The development of vocabulary and vocabulary training of multilingual
children
Yüksel Ekinci-Kocks
yueksel.ekinci-kocks@fh-bielefeld.de
The development of vocabulary and vocabulary training of children in elementary and
primary levels is a research project developed at the Technical University of Dortmund
and FH Bielefeld. In the first phase of the research project (August, 2009- July, 2011),
the researchers, for two years, supported both the native and second language
(German) development of those children, who were native speakers of Turkish
language and who were four years old. In the second phase, the researchers observed
the language development of children at the primary school from September 2011
until February 2014, by examining their speech and writing skills. In doing so, the
researchers concentrated particularly on the development of the first and second
language, combination of L1 and L2-Lexicons as well as the possible vocabulary
practice in multilanguage learning groups. The research project was designed as a
long-term study, where the development of children was frequently controlled and
compared with a comparison group. The project’s goal was to provide knowledge,
which would enable parents to improve the multilanguage skills of their children, and
to set the basis for further research in language education in a family context. To this
end, the research offered assistance to the parents about how to deal with the
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language development of their children, by particularly focusing on the following
themes:
• Learning by playing (playing, singing, using nursery rhymes and dancing, both in
the first and second language)
• Learning by using media
• Learning through cultural awareness
Creating a cultural awareness in vocabulary acquisition is one of the central tenets of
this project, therefore, the research focused on improving vocabulary fields that are
taken from the daily lives of the children and are culturally important to them.
Subsequently, the first results of the research project will be presented.
Bilingual efforts in a local private school: a case study
Marlene Ellul
mellu04@um.edu.mt
Maltese schools are presently catering for an increasing number of foreigners, a good
percentage of whom do not speak English as their mother tongue. As a result these
students find themselves in a situation whereby they have to study subjects in a
language they do not understand, or in which they are not fully proficient. Within
such a context bilingualism becomes not only desirable but also a dire need for the
given students to be able to proceed with their studies and not suffer the
consequences of this linguistic disadvantage. Being bilingual in their mother tongue
and in English would enable them to understand what is being covered in class as well
as engaging in further studying at home thus being on equal par to their peers.
This study strives to analyse what measures are being taken and what tactics are being
employed to cater for these students’ urgent need to become bilingual, ideally as
proficient as their Maltese peers within the same form. To this purpose it explores and
describes the efforts being made within a local private school. This setting is of
particular interest since bilingualism is in the school’s best interest not solely for the
benefit of its students’ academic needs but also in order to ensure that its paying
students are benefitting from the best possible service.
Methodology: participant observation to explore the school’s overall efforts at
attaining bilingualism and administration of a questionnaire among the school’s
teachers to assess teacher’s perception of bilingualism in class.
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The interpreter as bilingual
Joseph Eynaud
joseph.eynaud@um.edu.mt
There is a growing body of literature dealing with the nature and types of bilingualism.
For example, studies by Lambert (1955) and his associates have shown that the
linguistic behaviour of bilinguals is influenced by the order in which they learned the
languages at their command, the relative dominance of their languages, and the
extent to which the language systems merge. A bilingual’s characteristics with respect
to each of these dimensions seem to have implications for the role of the interpreter.
Most bilinguals learn one language first [“mother tongue”], although second-language
learning may take place quite early in childhood. For the interpreter the consequence
is a somewhat greater probability that he will identify with mono-lingual speakers of
his mother tongue than with speakers of other languages.
Of course, all other things are unlikely to be equal. Another matter that must be
considered is linguistic dominance. For the interpreter, linguistic dominance has two
consequences. First, it is generally easier to understand a language than to speak it
with facility. It follows that a bilingual translating to his dominant language may be
expected to meet with more success than when he is translating from it.
The second consequence of linguistic dominance relates to the interpreter’s likely
identification with his clients. The situation is similar to that encountered in the case
of primacy. Dominance, however, must be treated separately from primacy, because
it effects may either reinforce or counteract those of primacy. In general, it is expected
that the greater the linguistic dominance, the more likely an interpreter will identify
with the speakers of the dominant language, rather than with clients speaking his
“other” language.
In this paper I shall examine three aspects of the interpreter’s role, namely:
1. The interpreter as a bilingual.
2. The interpreter as a man in the middle, subject to client expectations that are often
conflicting.
3. The interpreter as a power figure, exercising power as a result of monopolization of
the means of communication.
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The influence of English in the anthroponomical neology among
popular classes in Brazil
Carmen Maria Faggion
carmenfaggion@gmail.com
This work investigates the influence of the English language in the choice of first names
in Brazil, a Portuguese speaking country, and the linguistic and cultural processes that
are involved in the creation of new names. We have chosen to focus on football
players’ names, mainly due to the fact that they are well known because of the media.
Such limit also allows pointing to a possibly defined social class that has cultural values
which are very different from the upper ones and that usually does not speak English.
The theoretical frame of this paper is taken from Guérios (1996), Frege (1998), Brito
(2003), Francipane (2005). Documentation is provided via newspapers and the sites of
some Brazilian football teams. The method consists in the collection of first names,
followed by their analysis and identification of their origin, and by the definition of the
changes these names underwent. The first results show that the English appearance
of the first names is a priority, and both pronunciation and spelling are adapted to the
rules of Portuguese writing, in order to keep the original sounds of the name. So there
are forms like Dêivide, Dionatan, Maicon instead of David, Jonathan and Michael
respectively. The fact that these names have a Portuguese correspondent (Davi,
Jônatas, Miguel) is not taken into account. English surnames are used as first names,
either masculine (Anderson, Wallace, Williams) or feminine (Joyce, Kelly). Misspellings
also occur (Willians, Alber, Welinton), as well as adaptations (Kelli, Kelen, Quele, Quéli).
Apparently in the search of original names that would sound like English, some odd
forms are found: Liédson, Kleberson, Madson. Therefore, neology through loanwords
is confirmed, and the exotic sound of a name is probably seen as a desirable quality
and a distinction for a newborn’s name, among popular classes in Brazil.
Implications of code-switching on the use and development of
mathematical language in Maltese classrooms
Marie Therese Farrugia
marie.t.farrugia@um.edu.mt
Code-switching or mixing between Maltese and English in Maltese mathematics
classrooms is a common occurrence. This generally results because the academic
language for mathematics is English and hence textbooks, soft-ware and examinations
are in English, while on the other hand, for many school children, Maltese is the home
language. Notably, it is often the mathematical terminology that is said in English
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during spoken interaction which may otherwise be uttered in Maltese. Code-switching
may be seen as having pedagogic advantages in that it can increase pupil participation
and engagement and help students understand the mathematical concepts at hand.
In this paper I focus on the benefits of code-switching or mixing with specific reference
to the development of mathematical language. These are: linking the vocabulary with
the written texts; rendering the mathematics terminology ‘significant’ by virtue of it
being in a different language (English), and linking with Maltese versions of the words,
thus building on students’ out-of-school knowledge and experience. On the other
hand, I also highlight disadvantages of code-switching vis-à-vis mathematical language
which include: students not getting enough practice in the use of the English
mathematics register; the passing on of a ‘message’ to students that Maltese is not
suitable or sufficient for the discipline; idiosyncratic corruptions of words in both
English and Maltese. Finally I suggest how the disadvantages may be minimized with
systematic attention to mathematical language in the mathematics classroom.
Electrophysiological correlates of intra-sentential code-switching in
Spanish-English bilinguals: Comparing auditory and visual processing
Carla B. Fernandez, Kaitlyn A. Litcofsky, Janet G. van Hell
carlafg389@gmail.com
Bilinguals often produce sentences that contain two languages, as in "I ironed my
pants para usarlos en la entrevista". This interchangeable use of two languages within
an utterance is called code-switching, and it is one of the hallmarks of bilingualism.
Even though bilinguals report that code-switching in natural discourse is effortless,
behavioral and neurocognitive studies on language switching have found there is a
processing cost when switching between the two languages (e.g., Meuter & Allport,
1999; for a review, see Bobb & Wodniecka, 2013). Specifically, these studies have
found that switching incurs a greater processing cost when switching into the
dominant language (switching from L2 into L1), which is typically attributed to
inhibition of the dominant language while processing the weaker language and the
subsequent release of inhibition upon encountering a dominant language item. This
line of research on language-switching has focused on the analysis of switches
between a series of single, unrelated items which arguably is different from intrasentential code-switches in natural conversation. The present study seeks to address
this issue by studying the comprehension of code-switched sentences, both in
listening and in reading. Although natural code-switching occurs more frequently in
spoken than written communication, very few studies have examined code-switching
in the auditory modality by having bilinguals listen to spoken sentences. We
conducted two Event-Related Potentials (ERP) studies to compare auditory and visual
comprehension of code-switched sentences. Spanish-English bilinguals heard or read
code-switched sentences (switching from L1 to L2 or from L2 to L1) or non-switched
sentences while their brain activity was measured. Results will be discussed in terms
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of cognitive mechanisms involved in language switching, and modality effects in
comprehending code-switched sentences.
Novel word processing in bilingual and monolingual English speakers
Roberto Ferreira and Andy Ellis
rferreira@ucsc.cl
A number of studies have shown that monolinguals usually outperform bilinguals in
their capacity to comprehend and produce words. Since bilinguals divide their time
between two languages and, in most cases, learn one language before the other, it is
not clear whether the differences found in previous studies are simply caused by
frequency of use or order of acquisition. It is also not clear whether both
comprehension and production skills are affected once the above factors are
accounted for. In order to test these hypotheses, we conducted a word learning study
that examined the effect of bilingualism on the comprehension and production of
newly learned words. Twenty-seven Spanish-English bilinguals and 27 English
monolinguals were required to learn 30 novel words (e.g., abrutmon, beelchan), with
either rich or poor meaning over the course of two days. During the learning phase,
all novel words were presented in sentence contexts and received 21 exposures in
total. Performance was assessed via a semantic decision task and a cued recall task. A
mixed-factorial design was used in order to examine between and within subjects
comparisons in the same analysis. The results showed that monolinguals and
bilinguals did not differ regarding their ability to classify newly learned words into
living or non-living things. However, monolingual speakers outperformed bilinguals,
by a substantial margin, when eliciting novel words based on a definition. These
results suggest that the comprehension of novel word meaning is not significantly
affected by bilingualism. However, the production of newly learned words seems to
be harder for bilingual speakers, even when frequency of exposure and order of
acquisition are accounted for. We discuss possible underlying factors that might
explain the dissociation between comprehension and production in bilinguals
compared to monolinguals.
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Bilingual children show an advantage in controlling verbal interference
during spoken language comprehension
Roberto Filippi
roberto.filippi@anglia.ac.uk
Studies measuring inhibitory control in the visual modality have shown a bilingual
advantage in both children and adults. However, there is a lack of developmental
research on inhibitory control in the auditory modality. This study compared the
comprehension of active and passive English sentences in 7–10 years old bilingual and
monolingual children. The task was to identify the agent of a sentence in the presence
of verbal interference. The target sentence was cued by the gender of the speaker.
Children were instructed to focus on the sentence in the target voice and ignore the
distractor sentence. Results indicate that bilinguals are more accurate than
monolinguals in comprehending syntactically complex sentences in the presence of
linguistic noise. This supports previous findings with adult participants (Filippi, Leech,
Thomas, Green & Dick, 2012). We therefore conclude that the bilingual advantage in
interference control begins early in life and is maintained throughout development.
Language policies and internationalization in Brazil: the role(s) of
English as an additional language
Kyria Finardi
kyria.finardi@gmail.com
This paper reviews language policies and internationalization programs in Brazil to
suggest that the role of English as an additional language is two-fold in that country.
A discussion of terms usually linked to the English language is provided in the study
and includes but is not limited to: English as an additional language, English as a
second language, English as a foreign language, English as an international language,
English as a global language, English as a lingua franca and English as a medium of
instruction. The analysis of language policies for primary and secondary education in
Brazil shows that English has the status of any foreign language in that context where
the teaching of a foreign language is mandatory after 5 th grade, but the selection of
the language lies in the school community. The analysis of language policies and
internationalization programs such as the Science without Borders and the English
without Borders programs for higher education in Brazil show that English has the
status of an international language in that context. The analysis of the roles of English
in Brazil suggests that the gap between these two roles can be taken as a possible
explanation for the low uptake of scholarships of the Science without Borders
internationalization program and a caveat for the Brazilian internationalization
agenda. Another implication of this perceived gap is that private courses offering
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English classes abound in that country, creating a social problem once only those who
can afford to pay for these classes can guarantee their right to learn English as an
additional language. Given these divergent results in terms of the roles played by
English as an additional language in Brazil the study suggests an alignment in terms of
language policies across all levels of education.
One subject, one language? To what extent can curriculum instruction
be said to be bilingual in Maltese Grade V classrooms?
Romina Frendo
rominafrendo@gmail.com
At the age of five, all Maltese children start receiving formal education based on a
curriculum delivered through Maltese and English. Indeed, these children receive a
full eleven years of compulsory schooling. The Director General for Quality and
Standards in Education and the Minister of Education and Employment launched The
National Curriculum Framework in December 2013. This National Curriculum
Framework hereafter referred to as the NCF, is the document that outlines the
national minimum conditions for all schools. It also replaces the earlier National
Minimum Curriculum, which had considered “bilingualism as the basis of the
educational system” (NMC 1999:37).
Nonetheless, both professional and lay-people alike have lamented the fact that the
standards of English, in both spoken and written forms have and are still, suffering a
steady decline and this seems to be the case particularly with the younger generations
who receive curriculum instruction in the two languages. Maltese children attend
either state, church or independent institutions and although all schools should be
following the guidelines as specified by the National Minimum Curriculum (1999), not
all schools follow the same recommendations in the same way, as schools adapt these
guidelines to their specific needs and realities.
This paper seeks to analyses the nature of these 'adaptations' to the established
guidelines in order to identify which language is being used as medium of instruction
in each of the three school types. Over 800 primary school students were asked
amongst other questions, whether there was a prevalence of Maltese or English
during the teaching of each of the subjects taught at primary level. The Statistical
Package for Social Sciences was used to evaluate and analyse the responses which
were gathered by means of a structured questionnaire through the use of a cluster
sampling technique.
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Challenges and needs in the language education in an expatriate school
in a bilingual society: case study of Japanese School of Barcelona
Makiko Fukuda
fukudamakiko@gmail.com
This paper explores the language education of the Japanese School of Barcelona
investigating parental attitudes and the school’s policy, to identify the challenges and
the needs they are faced with.
The Japanese school is a full-time school, founded to provide Japanese compulsory
education for the nationals residing temporarily overseas, but most of these schools
offer them an education of local language and/or English, too. In the Japanese School
of Barcelona, Spanish and English classes are also given once or twice per week.
However, the societal bilingualism of Catalonia can bring about some problems to the
school’s education, as they also admit the children who have a Japanese parent. Thus,
the school can be a space where two different interests between sojourners’ families
and inter-marriage families clash. Furthermore, a couple of years ago, the school had
to face pressure from the Catalan government too.
Data has been obtained through semi-structured interviews with the director and
successive sub-directors of the school and with the parents from Japanese families
(N=10) and the parents from inter-marriage families (N=4). The paper finds that: (1)
both Japanese families and the school consider the local language competence as an
effective tool to be familiar with the local life; (2) Japanese families recognize that
their children have very few relations with local population, though they are not
satisfied with the school’s local language education; (3) absence of Catalan in the
school is justified by its limited use, and lack of time, giving priority to Spanish; (4)
inter-marriage families are anxious about their children’s level of Catalan, thus the
secondary treatment of this language is not satisfactory for their current needs; and
(5) there are demands from the Japanese families to give high priority to English
education.
Path to the Peace: A study in to the role of Second National Language
in Achieving Social Integration in Sri Lanka
Virajith Gamage & Anula Hettige
kgcvirajith@yahoo.com
kgcvirajith@yahoo.com
Sri Lanka has experienced thirty years of civil war. One of the main reasons for the
conflict was the language barrier that prevents mutual understanding among the main
ethnic groups: the Sinhala and the Tamils. The ability to use each other’s language is
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important in establishing sustainable peace and harmony in a pluralistic, multilingual
society like Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan education authorities introduced the teaching of
Second National Language (2NL) in to grades (6 – 9) curriculum in 1997. The objective
behind this introduction was to equip students with the required language skills for
both Tamil & Sinhala. The present study was undertaken with a view of conducting a
survey of the issues and challenges of the teaching 2NL Sinhala in Tamil medium
schools in the Batticaloa district. The present paper is based on part of the data
gathered for the survey. The methodology adopted was a mixed method, because the
research objectives need mixing the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative
paradigms to understand the issues at a deeper level. The qualitative part involves the
content analysis of existing literature, 2NL text books. The quantitative part involves
the observation of 2NL class rooms according to the observation schedule. During the
data analysis stages, data was mixed in order to achieve the research objectives. The
findings revealed the absence of an established national policy on Second Language.
Lack of qualified 2NL teachers and uninteresting text books badly affect the teaching
learning process. The curriculum used is not effective in strengthening students with
the language skills required for communication in 2NL. Therefore the curriculum
should be revised, attractive text books should be prepared, and teacher training as
well as further research are recommended.
Humor and Bilingualism. Bilinguals' Sense and Practice of Humour
Alina Ganea
Alina.Ganea@ugal.ro
Against the generally acknowledged assumption that bilinguals possess
communicative skills similar to monolinguals, which enables them to express
themselves efficiently at all discourse levels, this study aims at proving that certain
discourse practices are difficultly manageable by bilinguals for the simple reason that
they do not have an equal and perfect command of the two languages (François
Grosjean, 2013: 22). The interference of the cultural aspect may render even more
difficult the bilinguals' understanding and use of such discourse productions as irony,
humour, or any other forms of allusions which require the knowledge of cultural
conventions shared within a community ( cf. Aneta Pavlenko (2006: 155). More
precisely, our study is based on empirical data gathered after interviewing foreign
students enrolled in Dunărea de Jos University of Galaţi (DJUG) during the academic
year 2014-2015 with the purpose of delineating attitudes towards, perception and use
of humour. In this respect, two separate categories of subjects are interviewed:
students coming from the Republic of Moldova who have a very good command of
both Romanian and Russian, and foreign students attending a preparatory year in
DJUG in order to learn Romanian before admission to a university study programme
in Romania. The latter category is expected to reach, at the end of the preparatory
year, a B2 level attesting the level of independent speaker of Romanian. The findings
of the survey are supposed to reflect the difficulties bilinguals experience when
dealing with humour and to which extent the level of the second language mastery,
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namely Romanian in our study, determines bilinguals' mastership in the use and
practice of humour.
Early Lexical Expression in a mixed language environment Monolingual
or Bilingual Skills?
Daniela Gatt, Helen Grech and Barbara Dodd
daniela.gatt@um.edu.mt
helen.grech@um.edu.mt
This study aimed to document early lexical expression in 60 children aged 1;0 to 2;6
years whose language input at home was predominantly Maltese, accompanied by
regular exposure to English lexical mixing. Bilingualism and language contact were
present at a societal level. The study attempted to determine whether the pattern of
vocabulary growth across the target age range reflected monolingual or bilingual
skills. Caregiver report and language sampling yielded measures of the children’s total
expressive vocabulary size, together with counts of Maltese and English words and
translation equivalents produced. Both Maltese and English words were identified in
the children’s expressive vocabularies, satisfying the criterion for a basic level of
bilingualism. Translation equivalent proportions reported across daily settings were
higher than those observed during language sampling, suggesting sensitive use of
equivalents in response to contextual demands. Participants also seemed to
introduce new equivalents that corresponded to words previously available in their
lexicons in only one language, according to the needs of the communicative context.
These findings suggested the presence of a double lexical system that indicated a
more refined bilingual status, although insufficient contextual data made this a
tentative proposition. Limited direct exposure to English was considered unlikely to
support the participants’ bilingual development beyond the lexical domain. While
highlighting a potential dissociation in bilingual performance across linguistic levels,
these findings suggest that the children’s bilingual lexical system might have
facilitated their sequential bilingual development once systematic exposure to
integral English was introduced through schooling. While documenting lexical
development in children exposed to an under-researched language-learning context,
this study adds to the limited evidence on lexical production in young children
exposed to substantial lexical mixing.
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Orthographic transfer effects on developmental word recognition in
young L1 native English speakers learning Japanese
Brian Gaynor
bgaynor@mmm.muroran-it.ac.jp
This paper will present the interim findings of a longitudinal study examining the effect
of orthographic transfer in developmental word recognition on young L1 English
native speakers learning Japanese. The study focuses on foreign native English
speaking school students attending public elementary schools in northern Japan. The
study considers whether or not word recognition strategies are developmental and
whether or not L1 orthographic interference diminishes as learners gain L2 proficiency.
Recent studies demonstrate that such cross-linguistic orthographic effects may vary
according to a learner’s L2 reading experience, and suggest L2 word recognition may
be developmental (Koda, 1999). A clear L1 orthographic effect on L2 word recognition
often surfaces in the early stages of L2 reading acquisition, with the effect diminishing
as proficiency improves (Akamatsu, 2002).
However, it remains unclear how a learner develops L2 word recognition strategies in
relation to L1 orthographic features and L2 experience. Furthermore, it is difficult to
draw uniform conclusions from previous studies because they have focused
extensively on English as a second language (ESL) and on Indo-European languages,
with little attention paid to languages such as Japanese. Accordingly, the present study
examines the developmental word recognition of L1 English children in their L2,
Japanese based on the findings from a combination of lexical comprehension tests and
contextualized reading tests. Initial results suggest that L1 students lack automatic
lexical access (automaticity), which impairs their ability to make cognitive capacity
available for higher level processing, and, thereby, contributes to poor reading
comprehension in L2 Japanese.
References
Akamatsu, N. (2002). A similarity in word-recognition procedures amongst second
language readers with different first language backgrounds. Applied Psycholinguistics,
23, 117–133.
Koda, K. (1999). Development of L2 intraword orthographic sensitivity and decoding
skills. Modern Language Journal, 83, 51–64.
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“Translanguaging” in EAP Reading Comprehension Tests
Claire Gordon, Ann Marks, Alaa Jabran and Katrina Maroun
claire_gor@yahoo.com and annma@openu.ac.il
Translanguaging relates to the flexibility with which multilinguals use their languages
for different purposes. In institutions of higher education, policy dictates the degree
to which multilingual students are permitted to utilize the full extent of their
multilingual competence when performing academic tasks.
In the Open University of Israel (OU), where Hebrew is the language of instruction,
students must pass an exam in reading English for academic purposes (EAP) in order
to get a degree. The English department allows students to answer questions in either
English or Hebrew. Due to the sizable Arabic speaking population at the OU for whom
Hebrew is a second language and English a third, it was decided to allow students the
option of answering in Arabic. As Shohamy (2011) claims, allowing multilingual
students to use their full linguistic repertoire when performing academic tasks enables
them to demonstrate their true abilities. A study therefore, was conducted to examine
translanguaging of Arabic speaking students when responding to EAP comprehension
questions on exit exams at the Basic and Advanced levels. In addition to examining the
effect of language choice on performance, data was also analyzed to determine
whether language choice was related to:
1. the level of information required by the comprehension question – explicit vs
implicit
2. students’ EAP reading ability
A phone interview on a smaller sample was conducted to ascertain students’
rationale for their language choices on the exam.
Initial results indicate that students used Arabic less than anticipated. Students
preferred English when information was explicit in the text. The most common use of
Arabic was translating questions and supporting answers and Hebrew was used
minimally. Basic level students exhibited more variety in patterns of language choice
than Advanced level students. Students’ rationale for language choice will be reported
and implications for testing in multicultural contexts discussed.
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Intercultural Telecollaboration and ELF: an Italian-Finnish project.
Enrico Grazzi
enrico.grazzi@uniroma3.it
The purpose of this talk is to present a European project called “Intercultural
Telecollaboration: Italy-Finland”, which is being carried out in the school year
2014/2015. The aim of this study is to enhance the intercultural competence (Byram
2008) of distally located high-school students of English by means of network-based
language practice.
The framework of this study is that English as a lingua franca (ELF) and
Telecollaboration share common ground and can be pulled into a research area
concerning the dynamic process of Web-mediated interaction and second language
learning. On one hand, the rise of ELF is an interesting sociolinguistic phenomenon
that largely depends on the success of online communication (Jenkins 2007; Seidlhofer
2011); while, on the other hand, Telecollaboration represents one of the greatest uses
of Web applications thus far focused on the improvement of foreign language learning
in multicultural and multilingual settings (Belz 2002). In September 2014, a group of
about thirty Italian and Finnish high-school students volunteered to use ELF as a
contact language to discuss a variety of cultural themes and get to know more about
each other's countries and lifestyles. They were randomly paired up at the beginning
of the project to form Italian-Finnish teams. As a community of practice (CoP),
participants have normally used a wiki to interact asynchronously and share texts,
pictures, videos, audio files, and links to relevant Web pages. They have also been
trained and encouraged to provide reciprocal language feedback to improve the
intelligibility of their texts and make their communication more effective. This way
they have contributed to the creation of a zone of proximal development (ZPD)
(Lantolf and Thorne 2006) where the issue of language awareness could be addressed.
A few examples of the students' interaction will be presented and commented on.
References
Belz, J.A. 2002, “Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study” in
Language Learning & Technology. January 2002, Vol. 6, Num. 1, 60/81.
Byram, M. 2008, From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural
Citizenship, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Jenkins
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The Development and Standardisation of the Maltese-English Speech
and Language Assessment
Helen Grech, Barbara Dodd & Sue Franklin
helen.grech@um.edu.mt
Speech language pathologists in Malta are often referred Maltese-English bilingual
children for assessment and diagnosis of speech and language disorders. To date,
these practitioners are using informal assessment or protocols standardised on
monolingual, English-speaking populations. Such tests are considered inappropriate
for Maltese bilingual children since they do not take into consideration the linguistic
or cultural context in which these children are being brought up. Besides, crosslinguistic data are emerging whereby differences in rate and patterns of acquisition of
monolingual and bilingual children are reported. An innovative Maltese-English
speech and language assessment protocol which, is bilingual in nature, was developed
and standardised. Children were tested in Maltese and/or English depending on their
language (or language mix) exposure. A novel feature of this assessment battery was
that for all of the items, children were able to respond in either language, reflecting
the reality of language mixing in a bilingual population. Trends of speech and language
development for monolingual and bilingual children aged between 2;0-6;0 years are
reported. Sub-tests were analysed for reliability and validity. This assessment battery
gives clinicians a more objective view of the discrepancy between typical development,
delay and deviancy for children acquiring speech and language in the Maltese context.
The research findings are novel and have both theoretical and clinical implications.
Capturing native listeners’ introspective judgments of variation in an
emerging variety of English.
Sarah Grech
sarah.grech@um.edu.mt
A native listener typically readily recognises a native speaker, often within the first few
seconds of speech, and such immediate reactions could provide clues to underlying
patterns of variation in languages or dialects. However, it is not always easy to
measure or capture such instinctive listener reactions using the usual scales including
Likert-type scales, particularly where the language or variety in question is often
perceived as substandard, or deviant. This issue was addressed by designing a
perception task in which native listeners of Maltese English (MaltE) were asked to
judge how identifiable native speakers are, using Magnitude Estimation as a way of
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measuring a more instinctive, as opposed to a more carefully considered – and
potentially biased - judgment.
28 native naïve MaltE listeners were randomly selected from among the university of
Malta student population and were asked to judge 10 speakers of MaltE in relation to
one other speaker, the “Modulus”, according to how identifiably MaltE they sounded.
The speech patterns of the 10 speakers contained pronunciation characteristics of
both widely noted (such as substitution of the dental fricatives by their stop
counterparts) as well as less studied (rhythmic) aspects of variation in MaltE. It was
predicted that the speakers with higher frequency of use of typically MaltE features
would also obtain a high judgment score from the listeners in terms of their being
“typical” of MaltE. In spite of the anticipated difficulties that working with a relatively
unfamiliar measuring instrument such as ME might present, findings suggest that ME
can usefully capture introspective native listener judgments which also correlate
strongly with certain specific phonetic and phonological patterns of variation.
References:
Bard, E.G., Robertson, D., and Sorace, A. (1996). Magnitude estimation of linguistic
acceptability.
Language
72(1):
32-68.
Retrieved
from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41679
Sorace, A. (2010). Using Magnitude estimation in developmental linguistics research.
In E. Blom & S. Unsworth (Eds.) Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition
Research, 57-72. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Schneider, Edgar. (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties around the world. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Sumner, M. (2011). The role of variation in the perception of accented speech.
Cognition, 119, 131-136.
Sciriha, L. (2001). Trilingualism in Malta: social and educational perspectives.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 4 (1), 23-37.
Thusat, J., Anderson, E., Davis, S., Ferris, M., Javed, A., Laughlin, A., ... Wrubel, J. (2009).
Maltese English and the nativization phase of the Dynamic Model. English Today, 25(2),
25-32. doi:10.1017/S0266078409000157
Pedagogical implications of bilingualism
Habib Güneşli
Yüksel Ekinci-Kocks
habib.guenesli@tu-dortmund.de
yueksel.ekinci@fh-bielefeld.de
Multilingualism is a global reality. The present study analyzes how far lived
multilingualism of pupils gets recognized as reality of life by their teachers in daily
practice at schools in the Germanspeaking region. In this regard empirical data
concerning the practice of multilingualism in scholar and lessons related context had
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in Germany been collected. Therefore, the present study is meant to serve as an
inventory for the current school and lesson situation, which teachers face regarding
multilingualism. In this connection, missing instructional and supportive offers for
students during their tertiary education, and the currently persistent instructional and
supportive need in their current position as teachers will be ascertained. The insights
of the present study should also serve as support and assistance of German and
subject teaching in linguistic divers studying groups. This study also analyzes native
language classes
Language contact and variation in a group of Greek Cypriot adolescents
in North London: The case of WAS/WERE variation
Chryso Hadjidemetriou
chryso.hadjidemetriou@english.su.se
This paper reports work-in-progress on issues of language contact and variation in a
group of Greek Cypriot adolescents in North London. The project is based on empirical
data collected in the Greek supplementary school in the borough of Enfield in North
London. The area was chosen due to its large concentration of Greek Cypriots in the
borough and the large number of students attending one of the Greek supplementary
schools. Ethnographic fieldwork and observation within the Greek supplementary
school has been ongoing since September 2011. Twenty-eight adolescents attending
a supplementary Greek school in Enfield aged between14-18 year old were
interviewed as part of a larger project examining issues of language contact, language
variation and change, and the role of the community language (i.e. Cypriot Greek) in
identity-construction. The majority of the adolescents were born in London to Greek
Cypriot parents who in turn were either born or migrated to the UK at some point in
their adult life.
This presentation focuses on the use of WAS in standard WERE contexts of positive
polarity. Cheshire and Fox (2009: 1) found that ‘in inner London, variation in
adolescent speech is strongly influenced by ethnicity, resulting in a lower overall
frequency of was levelling, and in negative contexts, a missed pattern of levelling to
both wasn’t and weren’t’. Preliminary results from the Greek-Cypriot adolescents
show a lower frequency in usage of WAS in standard WERE contexts of positive polarity.
The analysis compares the results from the Greek-Cypriot study with the London
English project data and also takes into consideration the friendship networks, social
integration, and heritage identity positioning.
Reference:
Cheshire J. and Fox, S. (2009) Was/were variation: A perspective from London. In
Language Variation 21: pp. 1-38
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Bilingualism and Identity in elected German Speaking Regions
Ralph Heimrath
ralf.heimrath@um.edu.mt
The German language area covers the countries Germany, Austria and a part of
Switzerland as well as a lot of language islands around the world. Excluding the
languages of immigrants, special social groups, language use in the areas neighbouring
other countries and the foreign languages learnt in schools, there are regions inside
and bordering the German speaking area where we have bilingualism for quite some
time.
The paper focuses on some regions in this area which are characterized by bilingualism
and sometimes by other signs of culture. It gives overviews of the languages spoken
and how the inhabitants use them.
Distance learning within teaching foreign language
Anar Ibraeva & Salima Urazbayeva
anar9393@mail.ru
urazbayevasalima64@gmail.com
Kazakhstan’s modern education system requires new forms and approaches, as well
as modern technologies in foreign language teaching. In the fourth direction of the
annual Address of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
to the People of Kazakhstan “Socio-Economic Modernization as Main Vector of
Development of Kazakhstan” the President urged all people of Kazakhstan to actively
develop information technology and improve computer literacy.
Qualitative growth of human capital in Kazakhstan is one of the most important tasks
of the twenty-first century. In the seventh direction of the President’s Annual Address
in the course of modernization of education system he suggested: to embed advanced
techniques and technologies in learning process.
The introduction of information and communication technologies in the educational
and research processes is a prerequisite for implementation of Education
Development Program in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020. The global
economic crisis has increased the need for specialists who own a foreign language at
a high professional level.
At present of economic development of Kazakhstan’s society the knowledge of a
foreign language is an important criterion for evaluating the young specialists’
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professionalism who in the process of professional activities should work with the
information, available to the world community, as well as to be able to communicate
with international colleagues in a professional and common level.
Under current conditions in non-linguistic universities the status of foreign languages
in higher education is changing. Not only the acquisition of specialized knowledge
becomes important, but also the successful mastery of a foreign language, the
purpose and content of foreign language teaching are focused on specialty profile.
Linguistic Landscape in School Setting: The Case of Druze in Israel
Martin Isleem
martin.isleem@bucknell.edu
This study investigates the linguistic space marks in the Druze public school setting in
the Mount Carmel area in Israel - the largest of Druze towns. Druze in Israel consists
of 127,000 residents (about 1.7% of Israel’s total population and about 8.1% of the
Palestinian minority in Israel). They share most cultural traits with the PalestinianIsraeli minority and are native speakers of Palestinian Arabic.
A close examination of the linguistic landscape of the school setting reveals that the
linguistic capital of Arabic- Druzes’ first language is exceptionally decreasing when
compared to that of the Hebrew language. In fact, the linguistic landscape of the
educational system acts to empower the status of Hebrew instead of playing a major
role in maintaining Arabic in the Druze linguistic market of this area. The question
raised is the following: To what extent will these linguistic developments reflect
hidden educational agendas of the State of Israel toward the Druze?
The results of this study confirm Isleem's (2013) findings regarding the predominance
of Hebrew in the Druze linguistic market in the Mount Carmel area. Hebrew, the
majority and national language of Israel, is found to have greater significance than
Arabic. The predominance of Hebrew in this particular area is strongly due to its
location, language contact, economic reasons and solidarity.
These findings raise major questions deserving of further study, including whether or
not the relatively high capital of Hebrew in the linguistic market in the Mount Carmel
area is predictive of what will happen in other fields, as in the educational system or
inside residences. Another question raised by these findings concerns the extent to
which the linguistic behaviour observed in the Druze school setting in the Mount
Carmel area will affect the maintenance of Arabic among the younger generations.
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German-Polish bilingualism: bilingual language education and language
policy – an example of Polish towns in the German-Polish border
region
Barbara Jańczak
bjanczak@europa-uni.de
In the time of globalization (cf. Lenz/Schwenken 2003: 147) the bi- or even
multilingualism of individuals is quite a common phenomenon (cf. Shin 2013: 24f.). On
account of the four EU freedoms, national borders, particularly in the Schengen Area,
are becoming more and more blurred, often leading to the cross-border hybridization
(cf. Mezzadra, Neilson 2013: 61). These processes call for inhabitants’ openness
towards the neighbor’s language. That is also the case of the German-Polish border.
The linguistic diffusion processes are particularly well evidenced in the so-called “twin
cities”, where free movement of people is an everyday practice and where the
linguistic landscape is very colorful.
The aim of this paper is to present partial results of my research project (the
sociolinguistic component) which is being conducted on the Polish side of the GermanPolish border. The inhabitants, but also the local politicians, of the German-Polish
border region are facing difficult decisions considering the bilingual education of the
children, given the dominant role of English as a lingua franca and the asymmetric
situation of the German-Polish language contact.
The analysis is focused on the institutional level of German-Polish language acquisition
and demonstrates the language policies of eight Polish border towns or villages as well
as educational institutions towards bilingual education. The research questions are:
1. What is the role of the city administration of Polish border towns in supporting the
bilingual education and intercultural communication of the inhabitants?
2. Do children and adolescents profit from the border location in terms of bilingual
language education?
3. What do public and private educational institutions offer in terms of bilingual
(German – Polish) teaching?
References
Lenz, I., Schwenken, H., 2003, “Feminist and Migrant Networking in a Globalizing
World – Migration, Gender and Globalisation”, in: Lenz I., Lutz H., MorokvasicMüller M. et al. (red.), Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries. Gender on the
Move. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 147-178.
Mezzadra, S., Neilson, B., 2013: Border as Method, or, the multiplication of labor.
Durham: Duke University Press.
Shin, S. J., 2013, Bilingualism in Schools and Society. Language, Identity and Policy.
London: Routledge.
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Frisians on social media: attitudes, motivations and behaviour in a
bilingual environment
Lysbeth Jongbloed-Faber
jongbloed@fryske-akademy.nl
For minority languages, Internet and social networking sites are seen as both a threat
and an opportunity. While only a few languages dominate the Internet, unlimited
opportunities have become available to preserve and distribute written and audio
(visual) content and to connect minority language speakers all over the world.
The youngest generations, the digital natives, spend many hours a day online.
Previous research has shown that this generation is of significant importance for the
preservation of a language: the attitudes which people develop towards a minority
language during their teenage years can be decisive for their language choices later in
life (Morris, 2010, Ó Riagáin, Williams, and Moreno, 2008 and Cunliffe, Morris, and
Prys 2013). As a result, we may conclude that social media can play an important role
in the survival of a language into the 22nd century. However, which languages are
used on social media in bilingual communities remains a largely unexplored area of
research (Cunliffe, Morris, and Prys 2013).
A study among 2,000 Frisian teenagers in 2013 and early 2014 shows that half of the
teenagers use the Frisian language on social media. However, the attitudes towards
Frisian and the language use in various online and offline situations differ significantly,
also within the homogenous group of Frisian-speaking teenagers. Therefore, a new
study was set up among Frisians of all ages to get more insight in the factors that
determine language choice.
In the presentation, the results of both studies will be shared: which attitudes prevail,
what is the language use of Frisians on social media and which factors influence their
language choice. The aim is to present a more detailed explanation for when and why
people in bilingual regions choose to use the minority or majority language on social
media.
Evaluation of Language Development of Bilingual Children in Cyprus
Sviatlana Karpava
skarpava@uclan.ac.uk
28 simultaneous bilingual children (Russian–Cypriot Greek), born in Cyprus (father CG
and mother Russian) participated in the study. Their age ranges from 4;6 to 11;3, and
they attend pre-primary and primary school (1st–4th grades). These children can be
described as bilingual because they know and use two languages Russian and Cypriot
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Greek (CG); bi(dia)lectal (Grohmann and Leivada, 2011; Rowe and Grohmann, 2013)
as they operate two varieties in Cyprus Standard Modern Greek (SMG) and CG;
trilingual (Russian, CG, SMG) or multilingual as some of their parents, besides Russian
use either other varieties of Russian or other languages, such as Ukranian, Belarussian,
Georgian, Kazakh as well as English or other European languages, at home with their
children and/or among themselves.
The participants were tested on a large battery of tests: the Developmental Verbal IQ
Test (DVIQ), slightly adapted to CG and Russian from Stavrakaki and Tsimpli’s (2000)
SMG original, the Russian Proficiency Test for Multilingual Children (RPTMC) (Gagarina
et al., 2010), and several tests on executive functions: digit span test, word span test,
fluency test, Raven’s matrices.
Overall, the results show that these children tend to be balanced bilinguals. Bilingual
children have better comprehension in both languages than production. It is possible
that certain morphosyntactic structures are yet to come on-line (Kohnert et al., 2009)
for production despite excellent receptive morphosyntactic skills.
The results of the fluency (concept and phonemic) test showed that both in Russian
and Greek the production of semantic fluency overrates phonemic fluency. The results
of the proficiency and executive functions tests showed that such variables as shifting,
inhibition, and working memory are crucial while examining bilingual population. The
research is going to be extended to the bilingual and multilingual SLI population in
order to prepare a diagnostic tool for multilingual TD and SLI population.
Mobility of identity: European couples in Cyprus
Marilena Karyolemou, Lisa Solomou & Elpiniki Papageorgiou
makar@ucy.ac.cy
solomou.lisa@yahoo.com
bg04ep2@ucy.ac.cy
In the last few decades, there has been a lot of discussion concerning the issue of
identity and of identity formation in the context of the European Union. Mobility is
said to be dynamically influencing people’s perception about themselves as a part of
a wider social and political entity, therefore mobility is a key priority for EU. According
to recent research (PIONEUR, 2003: 5), 37.4% of European women and 21.8% of
European men permanently move into another European country in order to live with
their partner. Gaspar (2004) considers that these couples – the free movers – create
an internal social space made of cultural and social references and practices inspired
by their separate languages and cultures, giving rise to a kind of new European
lifestyle.
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This paper reports on a research conducted1 among sixteen (16) European families
living in Cyprus: (a) eight (8) families with one parent from Cyprus, the other being a
free-mover (group 1); (b) eight (8) families where parents are free movers from the
same European country who have chosen to permanently live in Cyprus (group 2).
1 The EuroFaLPo research project was conducted in 2010-2014 and financed by the
University of Cyprus Internal Grants.
Using questionnaires and individual semi-structured interviews, the research aim was
to examine if language and educational family policies, cultural practices as well as
recurring mobility patterns within the European space, used in these mixed families,
may be said to activate a process of multiple identification for parents and children
that might suggest a move away from national identification patterns towards the
formation of a new identity more closely related to EU, which functions as an
overarching kind of identity.
For each family, we have taken into account:
(a) socio-demographic and cultural factors including the socio-demographic
characteristics of the parents (age, education, profession, country of origin, mother
tongue, foreign language competence), mobility motive, mobility history etc., naming
practices (names of children, nicknames, pet names etc.), social network in relation to
the country of origin and host country, education choices and cultural commitment,
in order to define family type.
(b) the family language policy as defined by Spolsky (2004), that is the sum of
sociolinguistic practices, language ideologies and the management of language
resources as well as mobility patterns in relation to the country of origin (or eventually
other EU countries), in order to describe the family lifestyle.
The analysis of the results shows a certain number of notable differences between the
two groups. Among them, patterns of intra-family multilingualism/multiculturalism
are more pronounced in the case of mixed couples (Group 1) than in couples with a
common language/culture (Group 2). In the latter the pre-eminence of English in intrafamily communication and as an educational choice is obvious, even when English is
not the native language of any of the parents. We also observe fluidity in identification
patterns, especially within the first group of families that results from a non-conflicting
relation to the respective mother countries, but there is no clear identification with a
European space or ideal, whatsoever.
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Codeswitching in an online Task-Based learning (TBL) spoken
interaction event.
Janine Knight
janine@uic.es
Task based Language Teaching (TBLT), is an influential and widely used pedagogical
approach in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), for inducing spoken interaction. The
popularity of TBLT approaches in face-to-face contexts has migrated to online and
distance contexts. Classical tasks, such as information gap tasks, are often
incorporated into language courses so that time spent in the target language (TL) is
guaranteed. For online language courses, guaranteed time spent in the TL is crucial as
it is the only outcome that is possible to evaluate. Other incidental or beyond task
evidence of learner’s language abilities is not possible to witness as in the case of faceto-face contexts. Therefore ‘recourse to L1’ or code-switching may be perceived by
teachers as competing with time spent practicing in the TL. However, if the language
of thought for all but the most advanced L2 user is innevitably in their L1 (Macaro, E
2006) plurilingual practices during task completion are inevitable.
This study describes how learners use codeswitching (inferred and explicit) in an
online TBLT event. It is based on peer-to-peer spoken interaction audio recordings in
a Task-Based Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication event in an English as
a Second Language online course. Results stem from a previous study on learner
agency during an online TBLT event that understands code-switching as an expression
of bilingual agency (Garcia, 2009).
Results support previous research in face-to-face contexts suggesting that
codeswitching occurs not in the topic of the task but in the 1) task management
(Macaro, 1997) and 2) when discussing unknown language words (Knight, 1996).
Findings highlight tensions between plurilingual practices in a milieu where unilingual
outcomes are expected, raising questions regarding how to maintain time spent in the
target language online whilst supporting learner’s agency during task processes.
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Scope and Variety of Code-Switching at South African schools:
Comparison between three metropolitan areas and two districts in
Gauteng province
Michael M. Kretzer
Michael.m.kretzer@zeu.uni-giessen.de
This paper researches the scope and variety of code-switching between English and
Afrikaans on the one side and the African Languages on the other side. Within this
paper the three metropolitan areas Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Pretoria are
compared with the two districts Sedibeng and West Rand. The main focus is on the
usage of Sesotho sa Leboa (Sepedi), Sesotho, Setswana and isiZulu.
Differences between the metropolitan areas and the districts regarding the use of
indigenous languages were discernible. Furthermore these differences exist between
the metropolitan areas and between the districts and within each territorial entity.
The linguistic setting influenced the individual language usage of African languages of
educators, as well as the language attitude(s) of the involved educators (and parents).
Field research was done between June and September 2014 in Gauteng, whereby over
1,000 questionnaires were collected from the 130 involved public primary and
secondary schools. The only limitation, due to practical reasons, was to select schools
with a minimum of ten educators. The general response rate of over 80 per cent was
successful. As indicated the use of Sesotho sa Leboa (Sepedi), Sesotho, Setswana or
isiZulu within a lesson (oral and written) and with the communication to the parents
differed greatly.
Further quantitative research in Limpopo in 2015 will give additional information
about the real daily language usage and appearance of specifically Sesotho sa Leboa
(Sepedi), Sepedi, Tshivenda and Xitsonga in schools.
The (non-)use of definite articles in Maltese English: effects of language
contact?
Manfred Krug & Chris Lucas
manfred.krug@uni-bamberg.de
cl39@soas.ac.uk
One striking respect in which Maltese English (MaltE) differs from norm-providing
varieties such as British English (BrE) concerns definite article omission. We investigate
this phenomenon, drawing data from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the
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Maltese component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-Malta; Hilbert and Krug
2010).
Items for which optional article omission is attested in MaltE fall into two classes. The
first includes items such as cabinet and government, where article omission in
referential contexts also occurs in standard BrE (e.g. My lords, government is not
prepared… [BNC JSJ 78]), but is far more frequent in MaltE (e.g. proposals that Cabinet
should be discussing [ICE-Malta ed_M_059]). The second class involves nouns which
obligatorily take an article in standard BrE, e.g. rector and receptionist.
We argue that this kind of article omission in BrE results from a particular in-group
treating a ‘sortal’ noun (in the sense of Löbner 2011) as a proper name (e.g.
government => ‘the current British government’; cf. parallel uses of conference and
college). But since MaltE allows articleless uses of sortal nouns, such as receptionist,
also in reference to contextually identifiable human beings, it must be treating such
nouns as ‘individual’ rather than as names per se.
Since individual nouns in BrE require the article (e.g. the sun, the pope), this amounts
to a significant reanalysis within MaltE, and one which cannot be the result of direct
transfer from Maltese, where such nouns obligatorily take the article. In fact, unlike
BrE, Maltese typically requires the article also with abstract nouns, e.g. il-ħajja ‘(the)
life’. Thus, to the extent that bilingual speakers are aware of this discrepancy and seek
to avoid transfer of Maltese patterns of article use into English, the prevalence of
article omission in MaltE could be, in origin, the result of hypercorrection.
Minority Students in EFL Classrooms in Norway: Do teachers feel
prepared?
Anna Maria Krulatz
anna.m.krulatz@hist.no
Similar to other European countries, Norway has experienced a continuous increase
in its immigrant and refugee populations in the last ten years (Statistics Norway, 2014).
One of the implications of this change in the demographics is the ever-growing
presence of minority language students in Norwegian classrooms, which now
averages 15% of the student population (Statistics Norway, 2014). These students are
faced with a paramount task of maintaining their home language, developing
academic language proficiency in Norwegian and at the same time adding English as a
foreign language to their linguistic repertoire. While extensive work is being done to
support these students’ mother tongue and Norwegian language development,
English is often treated as a separate subject not related to the development of
minority students’ multilingual competence. This is contrary to the European Council’s
recognition of the crucial role foreign language teachers fulfill in supporting
multilingualism (Council of Europe, 2005). Previous research suggests that teachers
need appropriate training and instruction in issues pertaining to language acquisition
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and multilingualism to successfully work with students of diverse language and
cultural background (e.g. Webster and Valeo, 2011; Faez, 2012). The present study
uses a survey method to explore Norwegian EFL teachers’ level of preparedness to
work with minority language students. The survey was administered on line and sent
to English language teachers in five major cities in Norway: Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim,
Stavanger and Tromsø. The findings shed light on the degree of professional training,
perceptions about knowledge, skills and resources needed to successfully work with
minority language students in the EFL classroom, and the perceived level of
preparedness to support the development of the students’ multilingual competence.
Implications for teacher training programs and in-service professional development
are discussed.
Policy VS Practice: A study into the current status of Bilingual policy in
Sri Lanka
S.A.Kularathne and Marie Perera
kularathne1960@gmail.com
mperera12@gmail.com
This abstract focuses on one significant aspect of an ongoing study on Bilingual
education in Sri Lanka .The focus is on the current status of Bilingual education (BE)
policy in Sri Lanka. A strong policy frame work is indispensable in realizing the goals of
bilingual education. The objectives of Bilingual education as stated in the
recommendations of the National Education Commission Sri Lanka (2003) is to enable
the learner to achieve adequate second language proficiency necessary for higher
education and career advancements. Further, BE was also expected to be spread to
all schools to enable all learners to achieve adequate second language proficiency.
However, this objective has not been achieved. Therefore, there is a need to examine
the discrepancy between policy and practice. For this purpose the nature of
instructional materials, duties and responsibilities assigned to key stake holders and
the power decentralized to institutions to decide macro level policies were
investigated into in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data gathering
instruments were used in collecting data. Quantitative instruments included
questionnaires administered to a stratified sample of Bilingual teachers and the
teachers of second language teaching and unstructured interviews were held with
selected key stake holders. Three cabinet papers and 10 circulars on bilingual
education issued from 2000 to 2010 were the macro level policy documents analyzed.
The findings revealed that there are .no clear micro level policies ensuring a
partnership among stakeholders in bilingual education .A partnership determined by
a clear vision leading to a bilingual frame work is a strong necessity. Existing policy
documents should be amended accommodating pedagogical, socio political economic
and cultural needs of the day. Some of the key informants were unaware of the
expected objectives of the BE and there should be awareness raising among them.
References:
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National Education Commission.(2003)Proposals for a National Policy Framework on
General Education in Sri Lanka.
Language attitudes and linguistic proficiency in Russian-German
bilingual children: searching for a link
Tatjana Kurbangulova & Maria Yastrebova
tatjana.kurbangulova@uni-greifswald.de
maria.yastrebova@uni-leipzig.de
Previous research on heritage speakers has either concentrated on extralinguistic
factors that impact on language maintenance in a rather general way (e.g. age of
onset), or on the role of parental input for proficiency in the heritage language. The
focus of our study is to combine these two perspectives by looking at qualitative data
on language attitudes of children and parents and data on the linguistic performance
of the bilingual children in Russian. For this purpose, we conducted a case study on
two children (12 years of age) who grew up in Germany with Russian as a heritage
language.
Our main research question is to explore whether the attitudes that the children and
their parents reveal towards Russian (and German) can be directly correlated to their
level of proficiency in the heritage language. Data on language attitudes was elicited
in an interview with both children and parents regarding their language preferences.
The proficiency of the children in Russian was tested by using a test battery that
included tasks concerning different types of linguistic proficiency such as reading and
listening comprehension, speaking, writing, lexical and grammatical knowledge. The
two children show very different attitudes towards their heritage language and differ
with regard to their performance in Russian. However, not all types of competence
are affected to the same degree. While receptive domains of proficiency in Russian
show no differences between the two children, the productive skills differ greatly,
although both children are exposed to an equal amount of input in Russian. Thus, the
recent study confirms observations that input might be an important factor for
maintenance of heritage languages, but other factors play an equal important role in
this respect, as in for example, language attitudes and motivation.
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Looking for conceptual transfer in the bilingual mental lexicon: issues
and concerns
Jolanta Latkowska
jolanta.latkowska@us.edu.pl
The paper examines the notion of conceptual transfer within the framework of current
psycholinguistic research into bilingual memory and multi-competence. Conceptual
transfer, as defined by Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008) and Pavlenko (2009, 2011), relates
to the effects of language-mediated conceptual representations, and of the resultant
patterns of thought on an L2 learner’s (bilingual’s) use of the L1 and L2. Conceptual
transfer is deemed to occur when speakers of different L1s verbally categorize the
same referents differently when using the same L2 (Jarvis and Pavlenko 2008). There
should also be consistency in the way an L2 user refers to specific denotata in both L1
and L2, despite conceptual contrasts between the corresponding domains in both
languages (Jarvis 2007).
This view of conceptual transfer is fraught with considerable methodological and
theoretical difficulties since in order to ascertain the occurrence of cross-linguistic
conceptual transfer it is first necessary to refer to the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
and find out whether and to what extent language(s) influence(s) the conceptual
domain. The second issue worthy of consideration is the relationship between
conceptual representations and language in acts of verbalization, which has been the
focus of the Thinking for Speaking Hypothesis and von Stuterheim’s Conceptualization
Paradigm. A related question is whether linguistic tasks shed light on the underlying
non-linguistic categories and processes.
The present paper discusses these concerns, based on research into verbal
categorization and film retellings by Polish-English bilinguals (Latkowska 2013). It
additionally highlights the need for a re-examination of the notion of conceptual
transfer.
Challenges of teaching in multilingual and multicultural settings
Joanna Lewińska
joanna.lewinska.net@gmail.com
Due to globalisation and internationalisation of higher education there are more and
more students coming to universities from diverse social, cultural and linguistic
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backgrounds. As a result, teaching in multilingual and multicultural settings is
challenging for foreign language teachers as they have to meet the needs of
linguistically, socially and culturally diverse students. Teachers are expected to create
the optimal learning conditions which will stimulate students’ linguistic, cognitive and
cultural growth. Teachers are also supposed to provide favourable conditions in which
students will develop plurilingual skills, understand new ways of non-verbal
communication, learn basic cultural differences and adopt new values. Thus, foreign
language teachers working in multilingual and multicultural settings have to be
didactically qualified, linguistically competent and culturally experienced, furthermore,
they have to:
 understand new educational paradigms,

possess quite extensive knowledge concerning multilingual teaching and

learn culturally appropriate teaching techniques which are suitable for
students coming from different backgrounds.
In the first part of my presentation, I would like to present differences between
traditional language education programs and multilingual education. In addition, I will
discuss the requirements which teachers of English are supposed to meet while
teaching in a multilingual context. Later on, I would like to analyse the results of the
questionnaire whose purpose was to find out didactic, linguistic and cultural
challenges which teachers of English have to face in multilingual settings. The
presentation of the didactic recommendations for teachers of English working in a
multilingual environment will finish my presentation.
References
Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Cenoz, J. (2009). Towards Multilingual Education. Basque Educational Research from
an International Perspective. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century. A Global Perspective.
Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Reading Comprehension and Second Language Learners
Anna Lindholm
anna.lindholm@kau.se
Reading comprehension is always something accurate in discussions about school
success and L2 students´ ability to understand both the content and the language of
the subject teached, regardless of the students´ age. Explicit teaching in literacy skills
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is something that second language learners often need due to a short stay in the
country or a prior short school attendance. A considerable number of reading
instruction studies report that more proficient.
L2 readers differ from less proficient L2 readers in how they use strategies (e.g.
Andersen 1991; Block 1992; Ikeda & Takeuchi 2006). There is also research that
indicates that reading comprehension strategies can be taught and that teaching them
enhances comprehension (Carrell, Pharis & Liberto 1989; Fung, Wilkinson & Moore
2003; Ikeda & Takeuchi 2006; Salataci & Akyel 2002).
In my PhD study I want to examine second language learners´ reading comprehension
and reading comprehension skills in grade 4. In the school where the study will be
made, 95% of the children have other first languages than Swedish. All teachers at
that school are working with reading comprehension according to the model
Reciprocal Teaching (Palinscar & Brown1984).
The main research questions for the thesis are:
 Which reading comprehension strategies are used (in three different subjects)
in grade 4 and how are the reading strategies implemented in the classroom?
 How can the second language learners benefit from the work with reading
strategies?
 Why are reading strategies important for in particular second language
learners?
A combination of methods will be used in the three different studies that I´m planning
to do:




observations in two classes in three different subjects in grade 4.
interviews with the teachers and with some of the pupils to find out about how
they reflect on
reading comprehension and reading strategies.
reading comprehension test and language proficiency test.
References
Andersen, N. J. (1991). Individual differences in strategy use in second language
reading and
testing. Modern Language Journal, 75(3), 460-472.
Block, E. (1992). See how they read: Comprehension monitoring of L1 and L2 readers.
TESOL Quarterly, 26(2), 319-343.
Carrell, P. L., Pharis, B. G. & Liberto, J. C. (1989). Metacognitive strategy training for
ESL
reading. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 463-494.
Fung, I. Y., Wilkinson, I. A. & Moore, D. (2003). L1-assisted reciprocal teaching to
improve
ESL students´comprehension of English expository texts. Language and Instruction, 13,
1-31.
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Ikeda, M., & Takeuchi, O. (2003). Can strategy instruction help EFL learners to improve
their reading ability?: An empirical study. JACET Bulletin, 37, 49-60.
Ikeda, M., & Takeuchi, O. (2006). Clarifying the differences in learning EFL reading
strategies: An analysis of portfolios. System, 34, 384-398.
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension- fostering
and
comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 2, 117-175.
Salataci, R. & Akyel, A. (2002). Possible effects of strategy instruction on L1 and L2
reading.
Reading in a Foreign Language, 14, 1-17.
Investigation of Trilingual Education in Hong Kong Primary Schools
Wang Lixun
lixun@ied.edu.hk
In Hong Kong, three principal languages co-exist: Cantonese, English and Putonghua.
For more than two decades, among policy-makers and educators, there has been a
substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages.
Since the political transition in 1997, the Hong Kong government has made a series of
language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three
languages, and a “biliterate and trilingual” policy has been adopted, with the aim of
enabling Hong Kong residents to become biliterate in written Chinese and English, and
trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and spoken English. The policy is now guiding the
curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. However, currently, Hong Kong
primary schools do not have an agreed approach or method for the implementation
of trilingual education, and there is an urgent need to explore current successful or
unsuccessful models. After a comprehensive historical review of the development of
language education in Hong Kong schools, this study aims to find out how the
‘biliterate’ and ‘trilingual’ language policy is currently implemented in Hong Kong
primary schools. A large scale questionnaire survey were carried out among Hong
Kong primary school principals on how trilingual education was implemented in the
schools. The findings suggest that, from school to school, the implementation of
trilingual education varied significantly, and the effectiveness of the trilingual
education models varied as well. It is hoped that this study will help us to gain a better
understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong, and the study could lead to some
insightful and theoretical contributions to multilingual education in general.
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Correlations between reading comprehension and rate in students of
transparent L1 and non-transparent L2
Monika Łodej
mklodej@gmail.com
Geva (2006) observed that transfer of language skills between L1 and L2 might be bidirectional. The typological differences (orthographic depth and transparency)
influence the process of learning to read across languages (Perfetti & Dunlap in Koda,
2007: 18) and can account for positive and negative transfer of language skills.
The present study investigated reading comprehension and reading rate of twelve
year old Polish (N=15) EFL learners in relation to these findings. The dependent
variables of reading comprehension and reading rate were manipulated in relation to
transparent L1 (Polish) and non-transparent L2 (English). Each student read three
stories in Polish as L1 and then three stories in English as L2. After reading each text,
a gapped summary was given to the student for completion. To calculate the reading
rate the students were presented with a narrative text in Polish L1 and in English L2
then asked to read them aloud as quickly and accurately as possible for one minute.
The tests revealed that there was no significant correlation between reading
comprehension in English and Polish (r = 0.266, p>0.05). However, students
comprehended English texts better than Polish texts. Reading rate for English words
revealed a strong significant correlation with reading rate for Polish words (r = 0.720,
p<0.01**).
The results of this study may have implications for classroom teachers of English as a
second language. The tests revealed that the students comprehended English texts
better than Polish. This might be indicative of the lack of transfer of test taking
strategies between the languages. Since the students read English texts (L2) slower
than Polish texts (L1) this might result from applying the same reading strategy
(grapheme-to-phoneme matching) while reading in transparent L1 and nontransparent (L2) and be indicative of negative transfer from L1 to L2.
References
Geva E. (2006). Learning to read in a second language: Research, implications, and
recommendations for services. In R. E. Tremblay, R. G. Barr, Peters RDeV, (Eds.),
Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development [online]. Montreal, Quebec: Centre of
Excellence for Early Childhood Development (pp. 1-12). Retrived January 1, 2009,
fromhttp://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/GevaANGxp.pdf.
Koda, K. (2007). Reading and Language Learning: Crosslinguistic Constraints on Second
Language Reading Development. Language Learning, 57, 1-44.
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A language socialization perspective on language learning (English) and
language maintenance (Polish) among Polish adolescents in Ireland
Malgorzata Machowska-Kosciak
machowsm@tcd.ie
This paper investigates first and second language socialisation processes among four
bilingual adolescent Polish immigrant children attending different post-primary
schools in Ireland. The focus is on how these children engage with issues of conflicting
identities and competing language learning (English) and language maintenance
(Polish) goals as they grow up in a bilingual environment, and try to find their place in
a new country and society. It examines how current socialisation goals and processes
are reconciled with the maintenance of connections to their personal past, their family
in Ireland, their extended family in Poland and their ethnic heritage more generally.
We set out the theoretical background, methodology, and final results from the study
involving such students and their families, two of whom also attend weekend Polish
schools in addition to mainstream secondary schools. The results of the study are
analyses in terms of culturally responsive pedagogy, describing how different
educational contexts develop immigrant students’ bilingualism and the construction
of new knowledge and identities, and help to integrate home language and culture
with the host culture’s language and values. The dual focus on linguistic forms and
sociocultural contexts allows to integrate the analysis of micro and macro levels of
investigation, insofar as the examination of naturalistic interactions among individuals
provides empirically grounded access to broader issues of sociocultural reproduction
and transformation in Irish society. Examination of the information collected revealed
that in some educational contexts, the Polish students’ experience in Ireland is
facilitated by a weak form of bilingual education experience. Language Socialisation
experience is enhanced there by maintaining a lived connection to the Polish language,
culture and native traditions in and through a school context (Polish Weekend
Schools).
An intercultural rhetorical perspective of Semitic,
English and Romance language influences on tertiary level English
writing in Malta: understanding and resolving issues.
Joseph Mallia
joseph.g.mallia@um.edu.mt
Romance language, Arabic and English-speaking cultures have different modes of
textual organization and other conventions for written discourse. The close linguistic
and socio-cultural affinities all three language families have with Malta may result in
a varying degree of influence on Maltese (L1) academics when writing English for
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academic purposes (EAP). In particular, while the ‘linguistic drift’ of the Maltese
variety of English may be perceived as either negative (e.g. less intelligible) or positive
(e.g. marker of social identity), in an EAP context it is invariably seen to be an issue.
EAP demands fairly consistent conventions of written discourse worldwide in order to
appeal to as wide an international audience as possible. Therefore culture-based
rhetorical and textual features familiar to L1 academics via Maltese, Italian and the
Maltese variety of English may be diverse from those necessary for English academic
writing traditions, values, expectations and associated writing skills. An understanding
of these may help predict, analyse and rectify such deviations in EAP in Maltese
academic institutions.
Functions of and Attitudes to Linguae Francae in the post-Soviet World:
English, Russian and German in the Baltic States
Heiko F. Marten
heiko.marten@tlu.ee
The Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) have experienced considerable changes
regarding the functions of languages in society since re-gaining independence in
1990/91. The dominance of Russian has been replaced by strong policies favoring the
titular languages (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian). Russian is today in competition with
English as the main lingua franca of the region.
In this light, this paper summarizes the results of a research project funded by the
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and conducted by the Departments of
German of six universities in the Baltic States. The project has since 2011 investigated
attitudes towards and perceived functions of languages in Baltic societies and reasons
for choices in foreign language learning at school or at university. Based on
approximately 3000 questionnaires filled in mostly by high school and university
students, the paper sheds light on questions such as:
-
Which functions are assigned to which languages of wider communication in
society?
How are languages of wider communication and their speakers evaluated with
regard to beauty, sympathy, economic success and other factors?
What are the main reasons for choosing particular foreign languages in
education?
What are perceptions of existing foreign language lessons and how do they
correspond to the needs of (potential) learners?
Results show that the titular languages, English and Russian all have clear functions in
Baltic societies today. Next to these major languages, German is on a stable fourth
position in education and with regard to its perceived importance in society, ahead of
languages such as French, Polish or Scandinavian languages.
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Variation in the expression of stance across varieties of English – a case
study
Gabriella Mazzon
gabriella.mazzon@uibk.ac.at
The expression of stance is one of the crucial aspects in the development of several
language forms, which over time tend to undergo not only grammaticisation, but also
pragmaticisation, i.e. they tend to be used precisely with the aim of adding to the
meta-communicative level that goes beyond the conveying of a content.
Variational pragmatics is among the youngest branches of pragmatics, and it studies
the different pragmatic values of items across varieties, or the different realisations of
the same pragmatic function across varieties through different forms. Studies on
stance-taking, and on pragmatically sensitive items in general, has recently started to
include both native and non-native varieties of English, also thanks to the increased
availability of computerised material (Müller 2005; Baumgarten/House 2010).
The paper aims at being a contribution to such studies, focussing on the parenthetical
construction I’m afraid across web texts in different Englishes (the GloWbE corpus will
be used); starting from the observation that this discourse marker (showing a range
of stance-expressing functions and a complex pragmaticalisation path, cp. Mazzon
2012) appears with widely diverging frequencies across the corpus, the study attempts
to map this diversified scenario and to draw conclusions concerning the prevalence,
in different varieties of English, of different pragmatic strategies.
References:
Primary Source:
GloWbE = Corpus of global web-based English, Brigham Young University.
http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/
Selected Secondary Sources:
Baumgarten, Nicole / House, Juliane, 2010. “I think and I don’t know in English as
lingua franca and native English discourse”, Journal of Pragmatics. 42(5), pp.11841200.
Mazzon, Gabriella, 2012. “I’m afraid I’ll have to stop now… Your time is up, I’m afraid.
Corpus studies and the development of attitudinal markers” in C. Suhr / I. Taavitsainen
(eds.),
Developing
Corpus
Methodology
for
Historical
Pragmatics,
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/11/mazzon/
Simone Müller, 2005. Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native English Discourse.
Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
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‘La guerre des langues n’aura pas lieu’*! Evidence from Southeast Asia
against the notion of English in conflict with other languages
James McLellan
James.mcLellan@ubd.ebu.bn
Languages are often portrayed as being in conflict, especially in Europe. Where more
than one language is used within the same text or spoken utterance, this may be
perceived as the outcome of tension or conflict between the languages involved.
This paper contends that the highly multilingual contexts of Southeast Asia, in
particular Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, offer a wealth of evidence for coexistence
rather than conflict, both between languages and between varieties.
Evidence for this contention is drawn from research studies of code-mixed language
use in the print media and in online social media, using textual corpus analysis
methods, both manual and mechanical. The findings show frequent use of Malay lexis
in English-language newspaper headlines and report texts, and corresponding
influence of English on texts in the Malay-language media.
The theoretical framework for analysis of these texts is that of englishization of Malay
and of nativization of English. These are seen as two sides of the same coin, and the
paper offers evidence for and against notions of fragmentation of English and
potential loss of international intelligibility.
The discussion section asks whether “code-switching” needs to be redefined, perhaps
as “translanguaging”, “code-meshing” or “language alternation”.
* “The language war will not take place”: allusion to Calvet, L-J (1987), “La guerre des langues”, and to
Giraudoux, J. (1935), “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu”.
Periphrastic Future Form in Puerto Rican Spanish
Angela Meléndez Olivera
angela.melendez1@upr.edu
The present study focuses on preferences regarding the expression of the future form
in Puerto Rican Spanish. It specifically examines the influence of degree of bilingualism
and several pragmatic factors on the preferences of Puerto Ricans. Unlike English,
Spanish has a morphological future tense.
However, Spanish speakers can also convey the future by means of an analytic form
(ir + a + verb). This periphrastic future is similar to the English future tense form. Due
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to its particular linguistic-contact situation, Puerto Rico has virtually no Spanish
monolingual speakers. Therefore, participants in this study include both highproficiency Spanish-English bilinguals and low-proficiency Spanish-English bilinguals.
The inclusion of these two groups allows an analysis of the influence of their L2
proficiency level on their future tense preferences. Three contextual variables —(1)
formality, (2) proximity, and (3) chronological precision— are controlled in order to
examine their influence on participants’ preference of one future structure over the
other. The first variable entails formality of the situation (a work meeting or a
conference versus a family reunion or a get-together) and formality of the interlocutor
(a boss or the governor versus a sibling or a best friend). Proximity relates to the
expression of a near (later today, tomorrow, or in two weeks) or distant (next
semester or next year) future. Chronological precision implies the specificity of the
future point in time (three weeks from now or next Monday versus in the future or
next year). Participants were exposed to different combinations of these variables in
a questionnaire in which they read short contextual backgrounds and selected a
sentence in the morphological future or the periphrastic future alternatives.
Preliminary results suggest that L2 proficiency level is a more determinant factor than
pragmatic factors with respect to Puerto Ricans’ preference for the periphrastic future.
“We are supposed to speak in English not in Maltese!”: The language
use of a student teacher teaching English in Maltese Primary Schools
Josephine Milton
Josephine.milton@um.edu.mt
In this paper I present data pertaining to the bilingual language use of a student
teacher during English lessons in Maltese primary school classes. The case study was
undertaken as part of a larger study, however, for the purpose of this paper I will focus
only on one student teacher. The impetus for the study came about because I was
interested in finding out how English and Maltese, as the official languages of Malta,
were used by student teachers while teaching primary school pupils. Classroom
observations during the professional practice placement were held to find out when
Maltese, as the L1, was drawn on during English lessons. I also held interviews to
obtain feedback as to when and why the first language was used during the lessons.
In the primary school classrooms observed, Maltese was drawn on mainly to ensure
understanding and learning, for procedural issues, to address classroom management
issues and to establish a friendly atmosphere during English lessons. Both languages
were used to mediate learning and to negotiate meaning and understanding. The
language use of the student teacher is explored through the lens of teacher identity
as constructed through lived experiences, knowledge about language, and beliefs
about language use and teaching, as well as the context.
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Crosslinguistic Influence in Subject Use in a Romanian-Russian Bilingual
Context
Laura Mihaela Miroș
laura.m.miros@gmail.com
A significant number of recent studies have shown that domains which involve
syntactic choices which might be affected by discourse-information structure are
vulnerable even in the case of successful simultaneous bilinguals (Müller and Hulk
2001, Serratrice et al. 2004). The aim of the present study is to investigate possible
effects of crosslinguistic influence on subject use in Romanian by Russian-Romanian
simultaneous bilinguals. Romanian is a pro-drop language while Russian is, according
to some linguists, a partial pro-drop language (Barbosa 2010). According to other
linguists, however, subject omission in Russian is constrained by discourse factors
(Franks 1995).
The participants are 10 Russian-Romanian bilinguals, age range 5;3 – 7;9. They were
all born in Romania, in Lipovan (Russian speaking communities). Russian is the
language their family uses at home. Romanian is the language of the community and
of instruction.
Our analysis relies on a corpus of 20 transcribed audio recorded narratives. Each child
was asked to tell the story Frog Goes to Dinner once in Russian and once in Romanian.
Our data was compared to a similar corpus of narratives by Romanian monolinguals.
The results show that there is interference with respect to the acquisition of the
subject; the bilingual children used significantly more overt subjects in Romanian than
their monolingual counterparts.
References:
Barbosa, P., (2010). "Partial pro-drop as null NP anaphora." Universidade do Minho
Franks, S., (1995). Parameters of Slavic Morphosyntax, USA: Oxford University Press.
Müller, N., Hulk, A., (2001). Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition:
Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4, 121.
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., Paoli, S., (2004). Crosslinguistic influence at the syntaxpragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English-Italian bilingual and monolingual
acquisition.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7 (3), 183-205, Cambridge University Press
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Politics of translating English-Japanese terminology in medical
discourse: Focusing on developmental disabilities (disorders) and
Hattatsu Shogai
Yasushi Miyazaki
egv06129@kwansei.ac.jp
One of the critical issues in Japanese medical discourse is Hattatsu Shogai. A Japanese
law entitled Hattatsu Shogaisha Shienho (“The Persons with Developmental
Disabilities Support Act”, Japan, 2004 law No. 167) contains the key phrase Hattatsu
Shogai, which is sometimes translated as “Developmental Disabilities” or
“Developmental Disorders”; however, review of the literature reveals that those two
English phrases and the Japanese term Hattatsu Shogai have quite different meanings.
In fact, The Persons with Developmental Disabilities Support Act defines Hattatsu
Shogai as “Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, other kinds of developmental disorders,
learning disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other disorders of
brain dysfunction that appear usually at an earlier age” (Japan, 2004, Article 2). This
definition is narrower than that of the English terms. Moreover, scholars and
professionals need to communicate with shared vocabulary in English, as English is
the lingua franca. In such context, the meaning of Hattatsu Shogai, for instance,
should be shared across different languages in a careful dialogue process.
This presentation first shows some examples of English-to-Japanese and Japaneseto-English translations of Hattatsu Shogai from media outlets and academic papers.
Secondly, the author discusses the political factors that have crafted the Japanese
definition of Hattatsu Shogai. Third, applying the framework of knowledge
translation (Straus, Tetroe, & Graham, 2009), the author discusses the ideal model
for crafting internationally accessible terminology in medicine.
Elf and creativity: the role of idioms in international students’
interactional exchanges via social networks. A case study.
Marina Morbiducci
marina.morbiducci@uniroma1.it
One of the paths we might wish to track down in ELF research is represented by
language creativity. As “ELF users too are seen to be languagers”, these speakers “are
now the ones shaping the language, rather than those for whom it is an L1” (Seidlhofer,
2011): “In using English for international and intercultural communication, people
from different lingua-cultural backgrounds appropriate the resources of the language
and exploit its virtual meaning potential as required in different contexts and purposes”
(Guido and Seidlhofer, 2014). Since there is no reasons why we should obliterate the
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linguistic natural resource of creativity in ELF exchanges, the “appropriated” use of
idioms and metaphors in the ELF usage present scenario appears to be one extremely
prolific and profitable ground of investigation even for more localized contexts.
Drawing on previous contributions in this specialized discourse domain of idiomaticity
and metaphorization (Pitzl 2009, 2012; Franceschi 2013), we suggest observing the
relevant phenomena as realized in local academic settings.
It will be reported about the outcome of an on-going survey carried over at ISO Dept.,
Sapienza University, Rome, where, in two tailor-made questionnaires distributed to a
large group of students, specific questions were asked regarding their view and use of
idioms and metaphors in English written texts or conversational exchanges via social
networks with their peers living either in European or Asian countries. Results, so far,
confirmed that even when grammar competence and correctness fail, effective
communication and language creativity might take place. Far from becoming an
inhibiting factor, the use of idiomatic expressions or figurative language, even newly
forged, seems to enhance the intrinsic linguistic potentialities encapsulating
endonormative processes of development (Kohn, 2014), and may show “the speakers’
ability to use the underlying resources of the language, not just the conventional
encodings”, that is, “capability beyond competence” (Widdowson, 2003, 2014).
Monitoring and Feedback by Bilingual Speakers
Keiko Morimoto
mori81@hotmail.com
The purpose of this study is to compare how bilingual speakers monitor and give
themselves feedback with monolingual speakers when they utter (new) sentences.
To do this study, bilingual speakers (English & Spanish and English & Arabic) were
selected and their spontaneous speech was recorded. In this study, simultaneous
bilingual people were chosen. They had acquired two languages simultaneously as a
result of their families or social bilingualism.
Consider the Tree diagrams, EXCEL VBA, MACRO and C++ language to see how
bilingual speakers monitor and give feedback to their utterances. The findings show
that both types of bilingual speakers find the shortest way possible to produce
sentences. Both groups of bilingual speakers monitor and give feedback to their
utterances. They correct themselves and continue to speak to make new sentences
at the same points for both languages, even though they speak languages which
have different word orders and structures. The finding also show that they code
switch languages from English to Spanish and Spanish to English or from English to
Arabic and from Arabic to English at the same points as monolingual speakers to
make new sentences while they are speaking and code switching.
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Challenging Assumptions about Literacy Best Practice in Zambia. Does
One Practice Fit All?
Chongo Musonda Mwila
mwilabavin5@gmail.com
In this paper, I have presented a challenge to the widely held and subscribed-to view
that presupposes that Standard British English and American English are the only
Englishes. I have also attempted to challenge the over-simplistic treatment of
language
issues
in
Africa
from
some
authors’
perspectives.
The paper investigates other Englishes in an African context, in general, and Zambia in
particular, with a view to hopefully provide evidence for consideration of certain
factors when issues of competence arise. This perspective is critical in determining the
extent to which world Englishes are likely to compete with British Standard English in
a globalised context (Phillipson, 1992; Barrett, 1994; Kashina, 1994; Pennycook, 1994,
1998; Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas, 1995; Musau, 1999; Alexander, 2000; Heugh,
2000; Bauldauf and Kaplan, 2004, Alidou, 2009; Prah, 2009).
The paper is an investigation into the emergence of what is commonly referred to as
Zam-English (Zambian English) in Zambia today - Kashina (1994:23). It is premised on
the ‘international-ness’ of English and the theories that suggest that ‘one practice fits
all’. The existence of World Englishes might be as a result of speakers of other
languages who acquire a certain amount of competence in English but their mother
tongues or tribal languages are likely to permeate. This is quite often seen as a lack of
capacity in English. However, this and other variant forms of English may be socially
and academically accepted in those contexts.
This paper does not suggest in any way that Zambians generally have failed to attain
a near native competence in their learning of English. The paper simply reveals a much
more sensible and pragmatic approach to language issues in the real context of a
particular African country where English remains relevant and significant in relation to
the indigenous languages of the society.
The Language Spoken in UTA Gagauzia. Aspects of Trilingualism and
Triculturalism
Gina Necula
Gina.Necula@ugal.ro
Speaking and reading about globalization we can find pros and cons depending on the
point of view we chose to defend. When speaking about linguistic globalization, we
have to admit that there are more pros than cons because it automatically generated
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multilingualism and cultural openness, which always means progress and flexibility.
But not always multilingualism has been generated by the need to acquiring additional
languages in order to be able to communicate worldwide. Sometimes it is about
communicating at home with friends and neighbors as it happens with the community
of speakers in Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (Gagauz Yeri). The official
languages in UTAG are three: Gagauz (Turkish language), Russian (Slavic language) and
Romanian (Romance language), but Bulgarian or Ukrainian is also likely to be heard
among common speakers. This state of facts is not unique in the world but the
uniqueness of this community of speakers is that they actually speak a mix of these
three languages without being aware of. They learn Gagauz because old people still
speak it and they preserve traditions and customs, they learn Romanian because
UTAG is part of The Republic of Moldova and Romanian is the state language, but the
real lingua franca is Russian. Therefore most of the speakers make use of a very
original `language` which is in fact a Russian-Romanian-Gagauz mixture. Our attempt
here is analyzing to what extend these languages mix and how meaning is achieved
under these circumstances.
(Re)Reading Otherness: Linguistic Landscape of Macau
Ana Cristina Neves
Cristina.neves@web.de
Linguistic landscape is a relatively recent interdisciplinary field, in which the work of
Landy and Bourhis (1997) represented a milestone. In what concerns specifically the
special administrative regions of China, we came across two papers, namely Lu and
Julien (2001) in the case of Hong Kong and Moody (2008) in Macau; nevertheless, the
topic is approached indirectly.
With circa 19.000 inhabitants per square kilometre, Macau represents one of the most
densely populated cities worldwide. The Basic Law reflects the central government’s
policy of “one country, two systems”, assigning the status of official languages to both
Cantonese and Portuguese. However, the growing presence of English cannot be
neglected.
The main aim of this paper is to shed light on the coexistence of these three languages
in such a limited geographical area under the described circumstances. The object of
study of this paper focused on three pedestrian areas and their surroundings in Macau.
An analysis of the 667 tokens collected from 494 pictures was carried out. The types
of signage were broken up into types of business and categorized according to the
number of languages displayed. In a second phase, the content of the message itself
was analysed.
The results show an areal picture of changing patterns according to the pedestrian
areas. In some of them, other languages have started setting presence. Quantitatively,
Cantonese is, as expected, the most displayed language. With respect to the type of
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business, preference is given to Portuguese and Cantonese in signs from
governmental institutions, law firms and medical offices. The English presence, in
relatively small businesses, stems mainly from a transliteration process.
References:
Backhaus, Peter (2006) Multilingualism in Tokyo: A look into the linguistic landscape.
In Durk Gorter (ed.), Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism (pp. 5266). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Ben-Rafael, E., E. Shohamy, M. H. Amara, and N. Trumper-Hecht (2006). Linguistic
landscape as a symbolic construction of the public space: the case of Israel,
International Journal of Multilingualism, 3 (1): 52–66.
Ben-Rafael, Elizer (2009) A sociological approach to the study of linguistic landscapes.
In Elana Shohamy and Durk Gorter (eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery
(pp. 40-54). New York: Routledge.
Bolton, Kingsley (2012) World Englishes and linguistic landscapes. World Englishes, 31:
30-33.
Cenoz, J., Gorter, D. (2006). Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages.
International Journal of Multilingualism, 3 (1): 67-80
Gade, Daniel W. (2003). Language, identity and the scriptorial landscape in Québec
and Catalonia. The Geographical Review, 93 (4): 429–448.
Gorter, Durk (2006). Introduction: The study of linguistic landscape as a new approach
to multilingualism. In Durk Gorter (ed.), Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to
Multilingualism (pp. 1-6). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gorter, Durk; Aiestaran, Jokin; and Cenoz, Jasone (2012). Studying Minority Languages
in the Linguistic Landscape. In Durk Gorter, Heiko F. Marten, and Luk Van Mensel (eds.),
Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape (pp. 1-15). Hampshire: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Goodman, K. (1986). Language Learning: How does it happen?, What’s Whole in
Whole language? (pp. 16-23). Berkeley, CA: RDR Books.
Huebner, Thom (2006) Bangkok’s linguistic landscapes: Environmental print,
codemixing, and language change. In Durk Gorter (ed.), Linguistic Landscape: A New
Approach to Multilingualism (pp. 31-51). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Huebner, Thom (2009) A framework for the linguistic analysis of linguistic landscapes.
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(pp. 70-87). New York: Routledge.
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Hult, Francis M. (2009) Language ecology and linguistic landscape analysis. In Elana
Shohamy and Durk Gorter (eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery (pp. 88104). New York: Routledge.
Jaworski, Adam and Thurlow, Crispin (eds.) (2010) Semiotic Landscapes: Language,
Image, Space. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Landry, Rodrigue; Richard Y. Bourhis (1997). Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic
Vitality An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16 (1): 23–49.
Lu, Dan; Julien, Richard (2001). The delivery of EAP courses within the changing
linguistic landscape of Hong Kong: A time for reassessment. RELC Journal, 32 (1): 32106.
Moody, Andrew (2008). Macau English: status, functions and forms. English Today 95,
24 (3): 3-15.
Rosenbaum, Y., Nadel, E., Cooper, R.L. and Fishman, J. (1977). English on Keren
Kayemet Street. In J.A. Fishman, R.L. Cooper and A.W. Conrad (eds) The Spread of
English (pp. 179-196). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Sayer, Peter (2010) Using the linguistic landscape as a pedagogical resource. ELT
Journal, 64 (2): 143-154.
Shohamy, Elana; and Gorter, Durk (eds.) (2009) Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the
Scenery. New York: Routledge.
Spolsky, Bernard. 2009. Managing public linguistic space. In: Bernard, Spolsky. 2009.
Language Management. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 65-89.
Humour and sarcasm in Polish-British code-switching
Katarzyna Northeast
notes0007@yahoo.com
In Poland, studies on bilingualism is a relatively new approach in linguistics. Before
the 1990’s scholars concentrated on the language of bilingual Polish emigrants.
However, recently research has started to extend and focus on bilingualism from
different points of view: i.e theoretical (Lipińska 2003), psychological (Kurcz 2007),
etc. Polish-British bilingualism and biculturalism has also become a very important
issue in humanities due to the increasing number of Polish emigrants in the UK since
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2004. Therefore, one can find many new approaches to this subject in Polish and
English linguistics. One of the topics which still requires research is code-switching (CS).
The aim of my research is to describe one of the sociolinguistic aspects of CS. Namely,
I deal with the function of humour and sarcasm in CS. Using the method of participant
observation in two bilingual families, I study situations when a dialogue takes place in
one language and a switch to the other suddenly occurs. The main objective of the
research is to show how the comic effect occurs in Polish-British switching. The sub
target is to present differences between Polish and British humour which manifests
itself during code-switching. This intermediate objective should be obtained by
comparing the results of D. Brzozowska’s (2000) research with the semantic context
of CS in bilingual speech.
This study is a part of my extended research of Polish-British CS. I hope to show that
research on CS should be very important in Polish studies of bilingualism as it exposes
not only sociolinguistic factors but also differences between languages and cultures.
References:
Brzozowska, D., 2000, O dowcipach polskich i angielskich. Aspekty językowo
kulturowe, Opole.
Kurcz I., 2007, Psychologiczne aspekty dwujęzyczności, Gdańsk.
Lipińska E., 2003, Język ojczysty, język obcy, język drugi : wstęp do badań
dwujęzyczności, Kraków.
Respecting international children’s rights to language choice; The role
of parental input and interaction of Korean/Japanese simultaneous
bilingual children
Heesu Oh
heesu5195@yahoo.co.jp
Home is an important place for international children to acquire a home-language.
Many researchers in the field of bilingualism have emphasized the importance of
home-language to international children as a means of developing identity and
maintaining a strong tie with family, culture and community. However, earlier
longitudinal observation of Korean/Japanese simultaneous bilingual children in Japan,
showed that such children were stronger in and preferred to use the societal language,
Japanese, rather than their home language, Korean, even when their parents were
using Korean language at home. It became clear through interviews of those bilingual
children that they used Japanese in the home even though they knew how to and have
to use Korean.
Seeking a possible solution to this problem, this study observed the conversation of
two separate mothers with their 6 year old Korean/Japanese simultaneous bilingual
children longitudinally, investigating how the mothers input Korean language and how
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the children output that language. The results reveal that those bilingual children used
the home language voluntarily when it was input naturally by their mother in the
conversation, without needing conscious instillation by the parent. Even when the
children had been speaking in Japanese, they code-switched to Korean when Korean
words were inputted by their mother. The present study provides useful support for
international families adopting the strategy of simply interacting with children in the
home language rather than forcing them to use it.
Language Choice and Identity Construction: the Case of Dedications
and Acknowledgements in EFL Undergraduate Dissertations
Pamela Olmos Lopez
b.olmoslopez@lancaster.ac.uk
Acknowledgments/dedications are the most personal academic genre which give the
writer credit and help to project their scholarly persona (Hyland, 2004). This study
reports on the language choices made by Mexican EFL students when writing their
undergraduate dissertation dedications/acknowledgements. The study comprises a
corpus of 30 dissertation dedications/acknowledgements written by non-native
speakers of English. A descriptive approach is used to identify language choice and the
functions of acknowledgements/dedications following the framework provided by
Hyland (2012) for the acknowledgements’ functions and by Ivanic (1998) for identity
construction. The results showed English as the preferred language to write the
acknowledgements whereas a variety in language use was found in dedications. These
choices seem to be aligned with the functions of the genre and with the identities –
professional and social– constructed by the students. The presentation will discuss the
functions of acknowledgments/dedications and how these functions influence the
thinking behind the particular language choices used. I close the presentation with
some remarks on identity construction in EFL Mexican undergraduate dissertation
acknowledgments/dedications shedding more light on the complex construction of
identity in bilingual writers.
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Bilingual and bidialectal language processing: win-win situation?
Andreas Papapavlou & Andia Mavromati
ndreasp@ucy.ac.cy
In the last fifty years or so, much research has been carried out in the areas of
bilingualism and multilingualism, but far less on bidialectism, which is otherwise
referred to as bidialectalism. Issues normally discussed in such areas are related to
language competence in two languages, language transfer and interference, lexical
access, verbal fluency, code-switching, code mixing, ethnic identity, biculturalism or
multiculturalism and how these matters influence bilingual and bidialectal education.
In recent publications, the setting in Cyprus has been termed as diglossic, bidialectal,
or a case of dialect continuum between the standard language (Demotic Greek or
Standard Modern Greek) and Cypriot Greek or Cypriot dialect (Papapavlou, A. 2001,
2004, 2010; Karyolemou, M. 2002, 2004; Papapavlou, A. & Pavlou, P. 2005;
Yiakoumetti, A. 2006; Tsiplakou et al. 2006; Ioannidou, E. 2009, 2012; Yiakoumetti &
Mina, 2013).No attempt will be made, at present, to define or redefine the perception
that various researchers, academic scholars and writers hold on this issue, as it is
highly politicized, ethnocentric (from Hellenocentric to Cypriocentric) and emotionally
charged. Rather, the matter will be addressed by presenting current practice in the
use of Cypriot Greek by its native speakers, who must use two codes in their everyday conversation (and in writing) in order to achieve effective communication. Thus,
in this presentation, the term bidialectal is strictly adopted on linguistic grounds.
By examining the specific bidialectal setting in Cyprus and in other countries with a
similar setting, the present study attempts to answer questions such as: (a) How is
bilingualism similar to bidialectism? (b) In what way are they different? (c) What can
these comparisons bring to light in the understanding of both phenomena and (d) can
the knowledge and insights to be gained from the present research be transferred,
reflected (and thus be exploited) in bidialectal language programs?
Policies and practices: Translanguaging in the CLIL classroom in relation
to the Swedish Language Act
BethAnne Yoxsimer Paulsrud
byp@du.se
Despite having no official status in Sweden, English was the only foreign language to
be specifically addressed in the policy reports that eventually led to the present official
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Language Act, as the increasing presence of English in certain domains was seen as
potentially problematic. According to national policy, Swedish should maintain the
role as the principal language in Sweden; and other languages should be prevented
from dominating any one domain, such as education. In educational settings, the
chosen medium of instruction may be both political and ideological, and this also
applies to immersion programmes, such as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated
Learning). In light of this, the present study aims to examine English-medium CLIL in
the Swedish context in relation to the Language Act and its preceding reports.
In order to understand the roles of English and Swedish in CLIL programmes, research
was conducted in two upper secondary schools, investigating how macro policies may
become reality in the micro actions of the classroom. Methods included observations
and interviews. The concept of translanguaging was key to the exploration of real
language practice in the schools. The data was analysed to explore the functions of
translanguaging in the lessons; and language policy and ideology were both
considered.
The results indicate that translanguaging gives students the use of all linguistic
resources and addresses previous concerns about Swedish domain loss. The process
of translanguaging aligns with the official Language Act in upholding the position of
Swedish as a principal language in CLIL classes, while also supporting students’
language development in English. The languages are not limited to certain roles (e.g.
instruction or classroom management), but can each maintain the status of a language
for learning. Thus, translanguaging may offer the means to move beyond real or
perceived language hierarchy roles.
Emotions, attitudes and bilingualism
Polonyi, T., Dósa,Z., Kondé,Z., Nagy, A., Pántya, J.
tundepolonyi@gmail.com
The aim of the present research was to study the socio-cognitive and emotional
dynamics of bilingualism: a series of investigations were planned to answer questions
regarding the emotional characteristics of the national and cultural identity of
bilinguals living in minority situation (Hungarian students from Romania).
We used a classical technique of explicit attitude measurement. Cultural
ethnocentrism which refers to the extent of evaluating individuals, groups and
contexts from one’s own cultural point of view, was measured by the Generalized
Ethnocentrism Scale (Neuliep &Mc Croskey, 1997). In order to examine the relative
importance of cultural conventions and tradition in one’s own value priority, we used
the shortened version of the Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2001). In
addition, different aspects of national identity were measured by the scales of
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Patriotism, sentimental attachment toward culture developed by Meier-Pesti and
Kirchler (2003).
In a within-subject design, the questionnaires were administered two times within a
half year interval. The language of the filling was manipulated across the time of data
collection: half of the subjects met the same questionnaires on both occasions, the
other half received them in a different language. The order of the language was
counter-balanced across subjects.
At present, the results after the first administration of the scales show that the
language of a questionnaire offers implicitly a reference frame that amplifies
(ethnocentrism) or attenuate (patriotism) the values of national self-esteem. Overall,
the results of the study can be interpreted as a kind of co-relation between the
subjective self-evaluation (i.e. explicit attitude toward ourselves) and the emotional
context of self-evaluation and show a linguistic effect on national self-characterization.
Attitudes towards code switching in Malta: a Sociolinguistic study
Michelle Portelli
mportelli.mail@gmail.com
Code switching is a phenomenon encountered daily in Malta – a bilingual society.
Whether on television, on radio, whilst shopping, or simply out on the streets, one is
sure to meet someone who code switches.
I strove to discover how people in Malta feel about code switching, studying the
phenomenon by employing three varying methods of data collection.
This study was aimed at finding out the attitudes of Maltese people towards code
switching and at discovering whether the respondents' residential locality, their level
of education and their socio-economic group affect their positive or negative attitude
towards this linguistic phenomenon.
Does a stereotype exist? Is code switching viewed negatively or positively? Do people
hold strong attitudes towards this phenomenon? Is it desirable? I asked these
questions amongst others, to discover whether code switching is perceived as the
mark of an elite group, or merely an indicator of lack of linguistic competence, on an
Island which is linguistically diverse, despite its size.
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Developing Bilingual/Bimodal Competence in a Natural Signed
Language ad Majority Language: evidence from deaf Children Acquiring
American Sign Language (ASL) and English
Philip Prinz
pm@sfsu.edu
There is preliminary evidence of two primary subgroups of bilingual Deaf 1 children
developing competence in both a natural signed language and a majority language:
one subgroup exhibiting significant gains in both languages; and anther subgroup
evidencing pronounced delays in one or both languages (Mason, Rowley, Marshall,
Atkinson, Herman, Woll & Morgan, 2010 - British Sign Language and British English;
Quinto-Pozoz, D., Forber-Pratt, A.J., & Singleton, J.L., 2011; Prinz, 2012 - American Sign
Language and American English). As a follow-up to this research, we conducted an
investigation targeting 30 deaf Children (8-14 years), all of whom were learning
American Sign Language (ASL) and written English. As identified by the student's
teachers, 25 of the Deaf children evidenced typical and 5 atypical ASL and written
English abilities. Performance on tests of non-verbal IQ and motor ability ruled out the
presence of significant co-occurring conditions. We addressed the Deaf children's ASL
abilities using a norm referenced test of ASL across three linguistic domains:
phonology and lexicon, morphology and syntax; and sub-tests from two standardised
tests of English literacy (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement 4th Edition,
Woodcock, Mc Grew, & Mather, 2013 and the Test of Written Language (TOWL-4),
Hammill & Larsen, 2009). The results demonstrated a significant correlation between
the ASL and written English composite scores in both the teacher -identified typical
and atypical subgroups. We describe specific patterns of accurate linguistic
production and errors in ASL and English, and discuss the students' profiles in both the
typical and atypical subgroups. Finally, we address theoretical and practical
implications for assessing and providing bilingual education in a natural signed
language and a majority language.
References
Hammill, D., D., & Larsen, S.C. (2009). Test of written language , 4th edition (TOWL-4).
Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Mason, K., Rowley, K., Marshall, C.R. Atkinson, J.R., Herman, R., Woll, B., & Morgan, G.
(2010). Identifying specific language impairment in Deaf children acquiring British Sign
Language: Implications for theory and practice, British Journal for Developmental
Psychology, 28, 33-49.
1
"Deaf" with an uppercase "D" refers to Deaf culture and the Deaf community - and proficient in a
natural sign languag
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Prinz, P.M. (2012). The case of SLI in Deaf children developing proficiency in American
Sign Language (ASL). Research presentation at the SLI International Conference,
Warsaw, Poland.
Quinto-Pozos, D., Forber-Pratt, A.J., & Singleton, J.L. (2011). Do Developmental
Communication Disorders Exist in the Signed Modality? Perspectives From
Professionals. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Vol. 42, 423-443.
Woodcock, R.W., Mc Grew, K.S., & Mather , N, (2013). Woodcock-Johnson PsychoEducational Battery III. Rolling Meadows, Illinois: Houghton Mifflin Ha
Resistance on the Walls: the Linguistic Landscape of a French-Breton
University
Noemi Rámila
noemi_ramila@yahoo.es
Globalisation and the new economy have changed the value of languages in general
and the status of English in particular (Blommaert 2010). One of the consequences is
the increasing amount of students of English all over the world, not only at school but
at university as well. In Europe, the Barcelona Objective established the onset of a
multilingual Europe, which, in turn, seems to have helped the development of English
(Truchot 2008). However, in some countries such as France, laws have been issued in
order to protect the national language, having a direct effect on the linguistic
landscape.
Moreover, in France, where the national language is French, regional languages have
a special status and for example, in Brittany, Breton can be learned in specific Breton
schools and at some universities. The present study was carried out at a university in
the bilingual region of French Brittany. The objective was to analyse the linguistic
landscape of the department of LEA (Applied Foreign Languages), where students
have to take two foreign languages as a subject, English being compulsory. The results
show that the space is divided into three levels: the institutional, the academic and
the personal. In this scenario, tensions arise among the levels, in spaces that are
neither completely public nor private. Moreover, resistance on the part of some actors
is visible in various forms such as graffiti. This particular linguistic landscape reflects,
on the one hand the multilingual atmosphere of the department, but on the other the
linguistic and identity conflicts of the area (Bulot 2001; Ben-Rafael et al 2006; Cenoz
and Gorter 2006; Shohamy and Gorter 2009).
References:
BEN-RAFAEL, E., SHOHAMY, E., HASAN AMARA, M. & TRUMPER-HECHT, N.
(2006): “Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public
space: The case of Israel”. En D. GORTER (Ed.), Linguistic Landscape: A New
Approach
to Multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 7-31.
BLOMMAERT, J. (2010): The sociolinguistics of globalization. New York: Cambridge
Univ. Press.
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BULOT, T (2001). L’essence sociolinguistique des territoires urbains : un
aménagement
linguistique de la ville ? Cahiers de
sociolinguistique 6, 5-11
CENOZ, J. and GORTER, D. (2006): “Linguistic Landscapes and Minority Languages”
En J. Cenoz and D. Gorter (2006) en Linguistic Landscapes: A New
Approach to Multilingualism, 67-80.
HANAUER, D. (2009): “Science and the linguistic landscape: A genre analysis of
representational Wall space in a microbiology laboratory”. En: E.
Shohamy & D. Gurter (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery, New York:
Routledge, 287-301.
SHOHAMY, E.; y GORTER, D. (2009): Linguistic landscape: expanding the scenery.
Routledge: Oxon.
TRUCHOT, C (2008). Europe: l'enjeu linguistique. Paris: La Documentation française
Facing the challenge of Polycultural Environment
Olyesya Razdorskaya
razdorski@yandex.ru
The structure of the linguistic, ethnic and cultural environment of modern Russian
universities is marked by the interconnection of several components, such as the
polycultural contingent of students, the social and cultural environment and the crosscultural character of the educational process. The educational environment of the
Kursk State Medical University is also of polycultural character. We teach Russian
students, students from the CIS states, such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,
Armenia, Azerbaijan (they are taught in Russian) and students from India, Sri Lanka,
Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria (they are taught in English). Russian students study English
(EMP), it is a compulsory subject in Russian universities. Bilingual students from the
CIS states don’t study English at university. Their wish to communicate with foreign
English speaking students and their socialization become one of the factors of their
motivation to study English.
Multicultural education is an opportunity of creative self-actualization in the
polycultural world in conditions of keeping the interconnection with the native culture.
The dialogue is always the basis of polycultural linguistic education. It promotes
studying culture by means of the reflection of ethnic and cultural components.
For optimizing the process of teaching bilingual students English we were using the
methods of comparative linguistics. The fact that the teacher doesn’t know the native
languages of the students (Turkmen, Tajik) creates some difficulties in the educational
process. We were making typological comparison of English and the native languages
of the students in order to see if there are any phonetic or grammatical similarities. In
the process of this comparative analysis the students get the idea of the common
features of the different languages, and also learn to adopt a tolerant attitude towards
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the cultures belonging to the respective languages. Tolerance includes the knowledge
of other cultures, respect and sincere interest in it, the mutual enrichment of cultures
based on international principles.
A Meta-Analysis on the Effectiveness of Bilingual Programs
in Europe
Gabrijela Reljik
gabrijela.reljic@uni.lu
The effectiveness of bilingual programs for promoting academic achievement of
language-minority in the United States has been examined in six meta-analyses. The
present meta-analytic study investigates this topic for the first time in the European
context. Thorough literature searches uncovered 101 European studies, with only
seven meeting the inclusion criteria. Two studies were excluded from further
analyses. Results from the random-effects model of the five remaining studies indicate
a small positive effect (g = 0.23; 95% CI [0.10, 0.36])for bilingual over submersion
programs on reading of language-minority children. Thus, this meta-analysis supports
bilingual education—that is, including the home language of language-minority
children—in school instruction. However, the generalizability of the results is limited
by the small number of studies on this topic. More published studies on bilingual
education in Europe are needed as well as closer attention to the size of the effects.
Language Identity of two hearing children living in bilingual
environment using a sign language and a spoken language
Takkinen Ritva
ritva.a.takkinen@jyu.fi
Most of the deaf children are born to hearing parents who often also have hearing
children. Hearing siblings normally acquire sign language in communication with the
deaf child, if the family has started learning sign language and using it with their deaf
child. This paper presents how the two youngest hearing siblings of seven deaf
children born to hearing parents acquire both a sign language and a spoken language.
The aim is to study 1) how the hearing siblings have experienced the bilingual language
environment and acquired the two languages, and 2) what kind of language identity
they have acquired.
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The data is collected using an ethnographic interview and analysed by content analysis.
The data is a part of a larger research project on how the sign language has spread
first in the big nuclear family and then to the extended family.
The results show that the children started to sign first and later to speak. Both
languages developed evenly: they used spoken language with parents and the hearing
siblings and sign language with the deaf children. The youngest children used both
languages actively and achieved good skills in both languages. Their language identity
also became bilingual, so that they felt comfortable using whichever language. Sign
language is nowadays used in personal settings when meeting the deaf siblings and
other deaf people.
In conclusion, the large language community in both languages in the family has given
the hearing children a balanced possibility to acquire both languages and a bilingual
identity. They have become “the most deaf from the hearing siblings” as one of their
deaf siblings characterised them.
Story-telling in minority and majority language: Evidence from bilingual
Norwegian-Russian children
Yulia Rodina
yulia.rodina@iln.uio.no
There is a considerable body of evidence showing that bilinguals’ narrative abilities
reveal both language-general and language-specific capacity (e.g. Gagarina &
Bohnacker IASCL 2014). The evidence, however, is largely based on the comparison of
bilingual and monolingual speakers; fewer studies make systematic comparison of
children’s narratives in majority and minority language.
This paper presents the results of the pilot study comparing narrative production of
seven Norwegian-Russian children acquiring Russian as their minority language from
birth (age range 4;6-6;7, M age = 5;5) and of Norwegian and Russian age-matched
monolinguals. Oral narratives were elicited by using the Multilingual Assessment Tool
for Narratives (Gagarina et al. 2012).
The preliminary results seem to support the language-independence hypothesis, since
bilinguals score similarly at the level of story structure in both of their languages: 5,5
out of 17 in Russian and 6,5 out of 17 in Norwegian. However, these scores are
somewhat lower than those of Russian and Norwegian monolinguals who appear to
be a close match: 7,8 and 8,0 respectively. However a different pattern is observed at
the micro-structural level where bilinguals score significantly lower in Russian, their
minority language, than in Norwegian across seven measures (MLU in words, type
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token ratio of verbs and nouns, number of sentences, number of words, verbs and
nouns). They also score significantly lower than Russian monolinguals. In Norwegian,
the majority language, these bilingual children score similarly to monolinguals across
all measures. The discrepancy between the minority and majority language is also
observed through the analysis of children’s grammatical errors.
Taken into account the linguistic exposure of these bilingual children, the observed
discrepancy can be attributed to language dominance effects. To investigate this
further more evidence will be obtained from studying a larger group of bilingual
children.
“It was difficult to choose because I have two languages”. Language
use among transmigrant teenagers in Europe
Marie Rydenvald
marie.rydenvald@svenska.gu.se
This paper draws on a sociolinguistic study concerning language use as it is reported
among contemporary transmigrants’ children, also referred to as Third Culture Kids
(TCK). TCK stands for children who are growing up in a mobile, globalized and
plurilingual environment. The TCK’s in this study have Swedish, a small but strong
working language within EU, as their only or one of their L1’s. This paper aims at
describing the heterogeneous and homogenous patterns of language use in different
private and public domains that shape and frame their multilingualism.
Questionnaire data on their perception of language use and language preference was
collected from 126 teenagers aged 15-19, from seven countries in the central and
southern part of Europe. They all attend some form of Swedish education. The data
was analysed by means of linguistic profiling, which is a tool for describing
heterogeneous linguistic contexts.
According to the results, different social domains have an impact on the informants’
language use. In general terms the domain of the family is dominated by the parents’
L1’s, the domain of social life with friends by a multilingual practice and the domain
of the school by the language of instruction.
Furthermore, the results show that the informants’ language use can be described in
terms of interaction between layers of patterns. For example, the informants report
that in the home domain 85% of the mothers and 80% of the fathers use their L1 in
spoken communication. However, a linguistic profiling based on variables of language
use in the family shows that only in 21% of the families all individuals communicate in
one and the same language.
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Thus, on a surface level, the informant group shows a homogenous pattern of
language use. However, the method of linguistic profiling reveals the underlying
individual patterns to be heterogeneous.
Cross-curricular collaboration between English and content subject
teachers in CLIL-programmes
Jutta Rymarczyk
rymarczy@ph-heidelberg.de
In Germany, secondary school teachers are usually educated to teach two subjects.
Because of this, it is often tacitly assumed that a learner group is taught English and a
CLIL-subject by the same teacher in German CLIL-programmes. While this personal
union is the perfect situation (Rymarczyk 2003: 48ff.; 69ff.), it is not found too often
due to various circumstances, one of them being that more than one subject is taught
in English in some grades, but only few secondary school English teachers are
educated to teach three subjects. Hence, some questions arise from this situation:



To which degree is collaboration between English and content subject teachers
in Germany needed?
What is this collaboration like?
Do issues like organizational factors and teachers' contrasting beliefs
complicate the collaboration?
Finally, the data from Germany is compared to data from Hong Kong, where teachers
are educated to teach only one subject (Lo 2014). If Lo’s results (ibid.) and the results
of our study on the German situation show considerable similarities, further support
of current placement modalities (only teachers with English + content subject for CLILprogrammes) being maintained in countries like Germany, where teachers are
educated to teach two subjects might be challenged.
This study provides insight for school leaders, teacher educators, and teachers.
References:
Lo, Yuen Yi (2014 ). Collaboration Between L2 and Content Subject Teachers in CBI:
Contrasting Beliefs and Attitudes. In: RELC Journal 2014 45: 181-196. Online:
http://rel.sagepub.com/content/45/2/181.
Rymarczyk, Jutta (2003). Kunst auf Englisch. Ein Plädoyer für die Erweiterung des
bilingualen Sachfachkanons. München: Langenscheidt-Longman.
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At the syntax-pragmatics interface: Acquisition of post-predicate
constituents by Turkish-German bilinguals
Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek
sagin@metu.edu.tr
This study aims to examine one aspect of word order that is realized at the syntaxpragmatics interface in Turkish. In particular, the study aims to examine the
acquisition of the post-predicate constituents in Turkish by Turkish-German bilinguals.
The choice of the post-predicate constituents in Turkish is determined by the fact that
the use of post-predicate constituents in Turkish requires the activation of both
syntactic and pragmatic knowledge and thus, an interface phenomenon in the Turkish
language acquisition. Though Turkish follows the OV pattern as a typical characteristic
of Turkic languages, some constituents are often positioned after the predicate
depending on the pragmatic intentions of the speakers. German, on the other hand,
follows VO in main clauses. While research on Turkish L1 acquisition reveal that even
at early ages Turkish children show sensitivity both to the syntactic and the pragmatic
constraints of the Turkish language, not much is known about the acquisition and the
use of Turkish post-predicate constituents in bilingual contexts. Thus, the present
study aims to examine the acquisition of these constituents in Turkish-German
bilingual context and to question whether Turkish-German bilinguals acquire the
syntactic and the pragmatic constraints of the Turkish language or whether due to the
language contact phenomenon it is possible to expect increased use of VO or VS
patterns in Turkish-German bilinguals’ Turkish. To this end, spoken and written data
have been collected from Turkish-German bilinguals between the ages 7-15 and from
Turkish monolinguals as baseline data. The results show that while between the ages
7-12 the bilinguals’ use of VO or VS patterns increase due to their contact with the
German language, between 12 and 15, probably due to the Turkish instruction they
receive at school, the bilinguals follow the syntactic and the pragmatic constraints of
the Turkish language.
Communicative anxiety in third language acquisition
Alaitz Santos & Jasone Cenoz
alaitz.santos@ehu.es
This paper reports a study on the communicative anxiety of university students from
the Basque Country in a third language (English). The paper aims at I) getting to know
the form of communicative anxiety of university students in a third language in an
exploratory way; and II) analyzing the factors that influence communicative anxiety.
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The participants in this study were 217 students with different degrees of bilingualism
in Basque and Spanish. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were used to collect
the data. Participants completed a background questionnaire and a questionnaire of
communicative anxiety. In addition, focus group discussions and interviews were also
used with the objective of enhancing the data.
The results indicate that anxiety is an important factor in third language learning and
also show an interaction between some factors as the age and the level of competence.
Language-mixing and Identity Practices among German-American
Bilinguals in Berlin
Leonie Schulte
leonie.schulte@some.ox.ac.uk
Located within a growing area of sociolinguistic research seeking to re-conceptualize
urban multilingual practices, this study focuses on language-mixing among GermanAmerican bilinguals in Berlin. As current research has demonstrated, communication
in multilingual contexts is regarded as a fluid process, emergent from contexts of
interaction and subject to the local knowledge of local groups (Pennycook and Otsuji:
2009; Cheshire et al.: 2008).The fluidity of multilingual discourse allows speakers to
produce, resist and redefine previously fixed relationships based in culture, ethnicity,
and nationality. While the fluidity of discourse provides performative space, it also
becomes the vehicle through which new relationships of fixity are constructed.
My study therefore concentrates on how German-American bilinguals negotiate
between fixed concepts in their environment through the fluidity of their discourse.
This study is specifically concerned with the ways in which language attitudes among
German-American bilinguals are formed and how these regulate their mixing
behaviour over time.
My field work involves current students and alumni from a German-American highschool in Berlin that is known for its language-mixing environment. Through
questionnaires and recorded interviews focussing on mixing awareness and context,
autobiographical accounts, and the evaluation of mixing samples, I will examine how
mixing is socially evaluated within the community, and how bilinguals perceive of their
own linguistic behaviour. Data collected from alumni participants furthermore allows
me to determine how these attitudes towards and relationships with language change
after leaving school.
While attitudes towards mixing heavily influence degree and style of mixing –
especially in public - among current high school students, former students develop a
more selective mixing behaviour based on their workplace, university, and friend
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groups, and have developed a more positive attitude towards varieties of mixing
based mainly in their experience of other urban environments. This paper will not only
allow me to present the results of my fieldwork, but also discuss the relevance of
language attitudes in the performance of urban bilingual identities.
References
CHESHIRE, J., 2011. Contact, the feature pool and the speech community : The
emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of sociolinguistics, .
OTSUJI, E., 2010. Metrolingualism: Fixity, Fluidity and Language in Flux. International
journal of multilingualism, (3), pp. 240-254.
OTSUJI, E. and PENNYCOOK, A., 2011. Social Inclusion and Metrolingual
Practices. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, (4), pp. 413426.
PENNYCOOK, A., 2014. Metrolingual multitasking and spatial repertoires: ‘Pizza mo
two minutes coming’. JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, 18(2), pp. 161.
WOOLARD, K., 2011. Is there linguistic life after high school? Longitudinal changes in
the bilingual repertoire in metropolitan Barcelona. Language in Society, 40(5), pp.
617-648.
The Textbook Issue in Bilingual Malta – Social and Educational
Perspectives
Lydia Sciriha
lydia.sciriha@um.edu.mt
For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate as to whether English-base
textbooks should be translated into Maltese at both primary and secondary levels of
education. It is claimed that since the overwhelming majority of Maltese students are
native speakers of the indigenous language, textbooks at primary level should be in
Maltese to ensure that students first grasp concepts before introducing an extra layer
of difficulty which is that of language interpretation.
This paper presents the findings of a large-scale scientifically-representative survey
conducted in 2012 on this subject. The results show that though many Maltese
support the replacement of English textbooks with Maltese ones, they are also aware
of the importance of English and the need to reinforce this second official language in
other ways.
Biculturalism revisited: Romanian students in UK
Gabriela Scripnic
Gabriela.Scripnic@ugal.ro
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European Union cultural policies (among which the Bologna declaration) have allowed
for the creation of an education area in which students and graduates are likely to
pursue their studies in a different country as the one where they started their
academic education. This policy encourages multiculturalism not only on university
campuses, but also within the host society itself. This papers deals with a social and
cultural phenomenon that has gradually increased over the past ten years: Romanian
highschool graduates choosing to apply for a university programme in the United
Kingdom. Biculturalism is not therefore approached at the level of society which may
foster two distinct cultures politically recognized, but at the level of individuals: the
students under focus acquire a bicultural identity which is normally granted with
positive effects on individuals. In this paper, we take into account a series of interviews
given by Romanians studying in UK for the magazine Iqool in order to point out how
they assume or not their bicultural identity. The inquiry is mainly directed towards
identifying students’ perception regarding social aspects (such as university systems,
degree of difficulty of studies, job opportunity) based on knowledge stemming from
two different societies. Moreover, the study brings to the fore the issue of diversity
tolerance through the perspective offered from within the academic environment.
The general theoretical framework is provided by studies in bilingual and bicultural
identities (eg. Kanno, 2003; Berry et alii, 2006).
Requests in English by Bilinguals, Arabic and Hebrew Native Speakers
Ronit Webman Shafran
ronit.shafran@gmail.com
Numerous studies of L1 speech acts across languages and cultures over the last three
decades (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Ruiz de Zarobe & Ruiz de Zarobe, 2012) have
revealed cross- linguistic differences in speech acts realization patterns. Given the
widely-attested influence of this variability on L2 speech production (Gass & Neu,
1996) and the disconcerting finding that lexically and grammatically fluent second
language speakers still lack sufficient pragmatic competence (Bardove-Harlig &
Hartford, 1990), language teaching programs must be designed to provide learners
with the pragmatic competence needed for cross-linguistic communication inherent
in the uniqueness of bilingual pragmatics.
The current study investigated the production of requests in English by two bilingual
college students populations trained to be English teachers in Israel: Arabic and
Hebrew native speakers with high levels of English proficiency. Specifically it assessed
the request strategies and patterns employed, in what ways these patterns/strategies
differed between the two groups and whether they varied with respect to the relative
status/power of speaker and hearer. Data was collected by way of DCT (Discourse
Completion Task), developed by Blum-Kulka (1982) and adapted to our purposes.
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The findings showed a greater influence of the relative status/power of the speaker
and addressee on request forms in the L2 English of Arabic speakers compared to the
L2 English of Hebrew speakers, and a general tendency to favor direct requests by the
former. These tendencies are consistent with findings in request studies in L1 Arabic
(Abuarrah et al., 2013) and L1 Hebrew (Blum-Kulka & Olshtein, 1984) and are traceable
to values and norms in the native cultures (Umar, 2004).
References:
Abuarrah S., Lochtman, K. & Lutjerhams, M. (2013). Cross Cultural Pragmatics
Requests’ Use of Strategy and Level of Directness in Palestinian Arabic and
British English. An-Najah University Journal for Research (Humanities), 27,
1109-1144.
Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Hartford, B. S. (1990). Congruence in native and nonnative
conversations: Status balance in the academic advising session. Language
Learning, 40, 467–501.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1982). Learning to say what you mean in a second language: a study
of the speech act performance of Hebrew second language learners. Applied
Linguistics III/1:29-59.
Blum- Kulka, S. & E. Olshtain. (1984) Requests and apologies: a cross-cultural study of
speech act realization patterns. Applied Linguistics, 5, 196-213.
Gass, S. & Neu, J. (Eds.) (1996). Speech Acts Across Cultures. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Umar, A.M. (2004). Request strategies as used by advanced Arab learners of English
as a foreign language. Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Education & Social
Sciences & Humanities. 16, 41-86.
Ruiz de Zarobe, L., Ruiz de Zarobe, Y. (2012). Speech Acts and Politeness across
Languages and Cultures. Bern: Peter Lang.
Multilingual learning in monolingual classrooms: positioning, identity
and agency
Robert Sharples
ed12rs@leeds.ac.uk
This paper explores how young migrant multilinguals are positioned, and position
themselves, within the officially monolingual environment of their South London
school. It begins by asking what ‘identity options’ (Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004: 2)
or ‘subject positions’ (Fairclough 1995: 27) are routinely made available in the school’s
discourses around multilingualism. It then explores the ways that these young
multilinguals negotiate, contest and play with these positionings: I argue that they
display great agency and creativity, often drawing on resources that are go unnoticed
by the school.
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The young participants in this study, which forms part of my doctoral research, are a
diverse group. They differ in their prior education, their reasons for migration and
their access to social, economic and cultural capital in this country. Most speak several
languages, but all are grouped together in the ‘International’ class (for pupils who
speak ‘English as an Additional Language’). This creates a situation in which
multilinguals are simultaneously positioned as ‘foreign’, ‘lacking’ in skills and
knowledge and in need of special protection, and in which the sharing of different
languages, cultures and experiences is tacitly facilitated. In this paper I will show how
officially ‘English-only’ classrooms are better seen as multilingual contact zones
(Canagarajah 2013), leading to lessons-within-lessons as these young multilinguals
draw on the resources of their peers to construct learning opportunities that may not
involve the teacher. They display a keen awareness of the constraints and affordances
of the setting and generate new subject positions for themselves to occupy. These are
processes of affiliation and identity-formation, I argue, in which the participants’
migration histories and multilingualism are both a challenge to the monolingual
‘international’ classroom and its prerequisite.
References
Canagarajah, A. Suresh (2013). Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and
Cosmopolitan Relations. Abingdon: Routledge.
Fairclough, Norman (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language.
London: Longman.
Pavlenko, Aneta and Adrian Blackledge (2004). Introduction: New Theoretical
Approaches to the Study of Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. In:
Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge (eds). Negotiation of Identities in
Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 1-33.
Bilingualism amongst students at a vocational college in Malta. Its
impact on their training and education
Damian Spiteri & Christiana Sciberras
damianspiteri@yahoo.co.uk
sciberraschristiana@gmail.com
Students who are following a course of studies at one of the more basic levels, the
foundation level, at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST),
generally communicate in Maltese. However, lectures, printed lecture notes and
handouts, books and other material, are mainly presented to them in English. Likewise,
English is the main medium of communication used during assignments, tests and
class presentations.
Not all students are balanced bilinguals. Some students have evident difficulties when
asked to communicate in English, although many of them have a high level of spoken
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Maltese. Others speak better English than Maltese. This reflects that many of the
students come from a mainly Maltese speaking home and school background,
although a minority come from a mainly English speaking background. To address the
particular linguistic challenges that these students face, MCAST offers all students
reading for basic courses lectures in English and Maltese. In so doing, it thereby
prepares them for Malta’s bi-lingual labor market context.
This study appraises the students’ perceived competence in the use of the two
languages and the perceived ease at which they express themselves in either language
(i) in class (at MCAST) and (ii) during their work placement. The study will thereby
explore their perceived self-efficacy as related to their linguistic performance both
within academic and work-based settings. The methodology adopted will be that of
class based discussion and ongoing observation which will be undertaken by the
authors both when the students are in class (during their lectures in Health and Social
Care (with DS,) and English (with CS), and when they are on placement.
Variation in late bilinguals’ linguistic development: evidence from
personal narratives
Tarita Stokovac & Nada Poropat Jeletic
nadaporopat@gmail.com
It has been widely acknowledged that second language learners’ autobiographical
narratives offer a valuable insight into the idiosyncrasies of learners’ experiences, the
dynamics of identity construction and the processes and factors affecting L2
acquisition. Drawing on the insights from (auto) biographical and person-in -context
approaches to SLA, this paper seeks to explore variation in second language
proficiency among speakers who acquired a minority language in adulthood and relate
it to individual histories of language acquisition.
The authors will present the findings of an ongoing research study of five adult
Croatian women who moved in their twenties to the Croatian Istria County, a
geographically unique peninsula that has been historically populated by the Italian
national community. Along with the standard, official varieties of Croatian and Italian,
a number of regional idioms and dialects are spoken in the region, among which is
Istro-Venetian, a dialect of the Italian language. The participants in the study married
bilingual speakers of Croatian and Istro-Venetian and have been exposed to the IstroVenetian dialect both in the family and the larger social context for over 20 years. All
of them picked up the Istro-Venetian dialect achieving different levels of L2 proficiency,
ranging from minimal to near-native.
Independent ratings of L2 oral proficiency were based on the participants'
performance in a recorded ten-minute speech in the Istro-Venetian dialect. Personal
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narratives were collected through semi-structured interviews during which
participants were invited to reflect on their pre- and post- migratory language learning
experiences and on the processes and factors affecting their L2 acquisition. The
content analysis showed that the variation in proficiency levels achieved by the
participants was strongly affected by four major factors: motivation, agency, identity,
and in-group and out-group attitudes. However, despite similar initial conditions,
individual developmental trajectories reveal a complex interplay of the four factors
attributing to the proficiency of each participant. Implications of the abovementioned
findings will be discussed.
Code switching in an EFL environment
Natasa Stylianou
natasasty@hotmail.com
When referring to Bilingualism, code switching seems to be an important issue as it is
connected to: (a) the use of L1 while teaching the L2; (b) the native teacher or the nonnative teacher in an EFL classroom environment; (c) along with the importance of the
Critical Period Hypothesis concerning language acquisition.
The use of L1 in the classroom largely depends on the teacher and whether he or she
is native or non-native, and, consequently, whether code switching will arise or not.
On the other hand, many classrooms, nowadays, tend to be multicultural and
multilingual as well, so there might be confusion in some EFL environments as to which
of the two languages is actually the L1, and moreover among how many languages
code switching occurs.
Acquiring a second language is largely connected to the Critical Period Hypothesis
(CPH), and whether children are able to learn a language to the extent they can learn
their mother tongue, before the age of puberty. When referring to two languages and
the ease of switching from one to another, the reference to the CPH becomes even
more important.
The present paper seeks to provide initial theoretical answers based on recent
research and the literature review of code switching and to identify the factors
facilitating or inhibiting it. The paper focuses on whether code switching in an EFL
classroom environment occurs because of the difficulties learners have when
communicating in one language or the other; whether having a native teacher helps
students or not, and how code switching is influenced by several factors such as the
speakers’ age.
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Supporting of bilingualism in the Hungarian school education
Zsuzsanna Szilvási
zsuszil@t-online.hu
The historical Hungary was a multicultural and multilingual state where many
nationalities lived together. So, bilingualism was a natural occurence both in the
community and in the case of individuals.
Nowadays, it is less characteristic: many persons of the national-ethnic minorities
have lost their mother tongue and have become monolingual (of Hungarian). The
school (the educational and language policy) theoretically supports the bilingualism with its aims, with providing foreign language teaching with early beginning.
Nevertheless, language teaching and learning in the schools is not too successful. It is
shown by the facts of the Eurobarometer survey. According to the latest survey only
35% of the Hungarians are able to speak at least one foreign language.
In my paper I would like to present what are or could be its reasons and what kind of
improvements had to be done to help people with effectiveness of language learning
and to extend bilingualism among the population.
CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria: The Case of the
Department for Modern Methods of Education at International
University College
Mariyana Todorova
mariyana.todorova@vumk.eu
The focus of this paper is the Content and Language Integrated Learning approach
(CLIL) implemented in classes of tourism and entrepreneurship taught in English to
high school students at a high school in Bulgaria affiliated with the Department for
Modern Methods of Education at International University College, Bulgaria. In
addition to the basic concepts of the approach and a comparison with other examples
of bilingual education in the country, the report presents some results of interviews
with present students and former graduates of the school who intend to or already
study in English taught programmes both abroad and in Bulgaria. The teaching
practice at the school has been presented as a successful unique model for effective
bilingual education.
In the second part of the report, the importance of teacher training courses has been
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discussed. The Department for Modern Methods of Education is a comparatively new
department developing innovative methodology and training programmes on a
variety of aspects of contemporary education for high school teachers, managers of
educational institutions and university lecturers. The report outlines two of the
programmes at the Department suitable for CLIL teachers, namely 1) A Masterclass
for teachers teaching a curricular subject in a foreign language (in-service teacher
training) and 2) CLIL in English as a discipline on the one-year postgraduate teacher
training programme for newly-qualified teachers. In conclusion the report has
analyzed the teachers’ and trainees’ comments and opinions on the challenges of CLIL
approach and also its efficient strategies for bilingual education.
Stream - Bilingualism and Translation
Clare E. Vassallo
clare.vassallo@um.edu.mt
This paper proposes to focus on two related issues. On the one hand, a number of
contemporary short stories and novels written in Maltese are adopting strategies in
their dialogues which incorporate instances of code-switching. The desire for
authentic sounding dialogue among fictional characters requires a mixing of Maltese
and English as the two are generally spoken in Malta, and this has given rise to some
contemporary Maltese fiction becoming less monolithically monolingual. This
linguistic feature has become a trend recognized in many contemporary literatures of
Europe and is discussed at some length by Grutman and Delabastita as an instance of
multilingualism breaking through the myth of monolingualism and nationalism.
The second issue, intricately connected to the trend towards code-switching in the
novel and short story is the problem that the translator faces in having to retain the
two languages in the translation in order to convey the same effect. This issue
becomes more complicated when the second language used in Maltese novels, usually
English, is also the target language into which the text is being translated. Some
strategies to deal with this particular translation issue will be discussed.
This paper follows from a recently published article in Textus: English Studies in Italy,
volume XXVI (2013), No. 3 (September-December), C. Vassallo.
ESL in a Bilingual Context: A learner corpus-based study
Odette Vassallo
odette.vassallo@um.edu.mt
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The presentation will briefly outline the compilation of the Corpus of Learner English
in Malta (CLEM). CLEM (v.2.0, 2014) is a 933,063-word collection of written language
essays representing two national benchmark examinations. In a country where English
has official status, such high stakes examinations are considered to be indicative of
learners’ proficiency levels in English. The purpose of the learner corpus is twofold: (1)
to determine what Maltese learners of English achieve by the end of their compulsory
schooling and at pre-tertiary level, and (2) to identify types of learner errors. A smallscale study involving data from CLEM (v.2.0, 2014) will be presented. It is part of a
project that seeks to categorise dominant linguistic features of L2 learners’ use of
English, with a special focus on lexis and grammar in writing.
The study attempts to describe lexical-grammatical features as they emerge from the
different levels analysed. It aims at establishing whether specific linguistic ‘criterial
features’ (Hawkins and Filipović, 2012) can be identified in learner data. The
vagueness of level descriptors which are widely adopted to assess proficiency levels is
rather problematic, especially in the absence of a national baseline for comparing
proficiency levels of English in the Maltese bilingual context. Preliminary results from
the study will be considered and discussed in view of further investigations.
References
Hawkins, J.A. and Filipović, L. (2012). Criterial Features in L2 English
Specifying the Reference Levels of the Common European Framework. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
An investigation of parents’ and children’s linguistic practices and
attitudes towards language use in society and schools.
Lara Vella
l.vella@lancaster.ac.uk
The main aim of this qualitative study, which forms part of larger two-phase,
sequential mixed-methods study, is to investigating the relationship between parents’
and their children’s attitudes towards the use of Maltese and English, in Malta. The
family is viewed as an important sociolinguistic domain where attitudes towards
languages are formed and communicated through language socialisation processes.
Interviews were carried out with parents and their children (aged 8-15) within the
home domain, to investigate the attitudes towards languages, together with how
identity is mediated through language use and how in turn these are shaped by
ideology. Similarities and differences between parents’ and their children’s metadiscursive comments were analysed. The role of schools will also be considered,
particularly in the way explicit and implicit language attitudes help to form such
language attitudes and ideologies.
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The main conclusion is that language attitudes are in constant flux, depending on a
number of factors such as age, education, social mobility and profession. Identity and
language are deeply intertwined, as identity is expressed via language and language is
used to mark identity. The data reveals that in general, both Maltese and English are
viewed positively for various reasons, with English being mostly valued for linguistic
capital and Maltese linked to identity. However, certain generalisations do not hold,
particularly for those participants who consider English to be their first language. The
study also illustrates how children’s attitudes do not necessarily mirror their parents’
beliefs. Children actively construct their own views on linguistic capital, ideologies and
identity, particularly in cases where the language used at school does not match the
language used at home.
Language and achievement in Science in a bilingual context
Frank Ventura
frank.j.ventura@um.edu.mt
In the absence of systematic research evidence to inform Maltese educators on which
language – Maltese, English or a mix of both - to use in the teaching and assessment
of subjects such as Science, Mathematics and other subjects, it may be worthwhile to
revisit the results of a small scale research study which addressed some of the issues
involved. The research was carried out in June 1984 and involved 31 Integrated
Science teachers and 284 Form 1 students from 13 classes in six State Secondary
schools. The teachers were asked about the language they use for explaining science
and whether they thought that their students would obtain better results if the
examination questions were set to be set in Maltese rather than English. The students
were administered a test at the end of Form 1 covering all the science topics studied
in that year. Two versions of the test were prepared – a Maltese and an English version.
Great attention was given to the translation and formatting of items so as to make the
tests as equivalent as possible. Test papers were distributed randomly. Interesting
results were obtained when analysed by achievement in Science and by gender. The
implications of these results will be discussed.
English as a Nativized Foreign Language in Serbia - A look into Business
and Economic Register
Ms Mirna Vidaković
vidakovicm@ef.uns.ac.rs
The emergence of English as a global language has resulted in the change of its status
as a foreign or second language. English has started affecting a vast number of other
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languages, i.e. it is gradually becoming an integral part of a number of mother tongues.
This phenomenon has led to the introduction of a new term – English as the Nativized
Foreign Language.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of English on Serbian language,
especially in the field of business and economics. After a brief theoretical introduction
concerning the currentsituation regarding the use of English in the Serbian language
system and implications it has on educational practices and the language policy, this
paper will provide concrete examples of this phenomenon based on a corpus that
comprises a variety of texts in Serbian, including newspapers and magazines dealing
with business and economics, scientific journals and books. The analysis will be carried
out at all linguistic levels, from phonological and ortographic to pragmatic. The paper
will also present the attitudes of linguists, students and professionals in the field of
economics towards the use of English in Serbian.
Variation in spelling among Arabic mother tongue pupils in Sweden
Amanda Walldoff
amanda.walldoff@orient.su.se
In Sweden, children who have a caretaker with another L1 than Swedish, and use this
other language for everyday communication, are entitled to mother tongue tuition
(MTT).
The basic motivation for the MTT is two-fold:
1. To support linguistic/cognitive development (Cummins, 1979).
2. To strengthen a bicultural identity.
In the academic year of 2013/2014, 26 180 pupils in grades 1-9 in Sweden participated
in Arabic MTT. The target variety of the MTT is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), a
variety shown in research not to be the actual L1 of Arab children (Ibrahim & AharonPeretz, 2005; Saiegh-Haddad, 2011).
In a qualitative study, 22 pupils in grade 8 completed a translation task from Swedish
to MSA. The responses revealed a high degree of variation among the participants.
Many pupils had a purely phonological approach towards spelling with even short,
high frequency words such as personal pronouns being spelled irregularly.
The results are discussed in relation to previous research on spelling in Arabic (Azzam,
1993; Abu-Rabia & Taha, 2006), and the conditions for the MTT (Hyltenstam &
Tuomela, 1994) with focus on the unspecific content of the syllabus and the limited
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time allocated to the MTT; approximately 1 h/week according to Skolverket [the
Swedish National Agency for Education] (2008).
References
Abu-Rabia, S., & Taha, H., 2006: Phonological errors predominate in Arabic spelling
across grades 1-9. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol. 35, No. 2, 167-187.
Azzam, R., 1993: The nature of Arabic reading and spelling errors of young children.
Reading and Writing, Vol. 5, Issue 4, 355-385.
Cummins, J., 1979: Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of
bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49, 222–251.
Hyltenstam, K., & Tuomela, V., 1996: Hemspråksundervisningen. In Hyltenstam, K.,
(Ed.), Tvåspråkighet med förhinder? Invandrar- och minoritetsundervisningen i Sverige.
Lund: Studentlitteratur. (In Swedish)
Ibrahim, R., & Aharon-Peretz, J., 2005: Is Literary Arabic a Second Language for Native
Arab Speakers? Evidence from a Semantic Priming Study. Journal of Psycholinguistic
Research, Vol. 34, No. 1, 51-70.
Saiegh-Haddad, E., 2011: Literacy Reflexes of Arabic Diglossia. In Leikin, M., Schwartz,
M. & Tobin, Y., (Eds.), Current Issues in Bilingualism. Cognitive and Socio-linguistic
Perspectives. (Vol. 5). 43-56. Springer Science+Buisiness Media.
Skolverket, 2008: Med annat modersmål – elever i grundskolan och skolans
verksamhet. Rapport 321. (In Swedish).
Acquiring English in American Kidlit: Portrayals of Multilingualism in
Western Migration
Mary Ann Walter
walter.maryann1@gmail.com
Attitudes towards multilingualism and multilingual speakers are shaped not only
through direct experience, but through imaginative encounters with print and other
media. In this study, I investigate attitudes toward multilingualism displayed in U.S.published historical fiction aimed at young readers in the 1980s. I address both the
implicit and explicit attitudes of the authors of such works, and the effects such
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attitudes might have on the books’ audience and the language policies they might
advocate, both as young readers and later in adulthood.
Taking two popular books as case studies (Shaw 1986, Shefelman 1983) I show that
despite expertise in the relevant time period (mid-nineteenth century in the American
west), the authors are unable to imagine a setting in which English is not the dominant
language or in which acquiring English is not an immediate priority for immigrants to
the United States. Such a stance is ahistorical and ignores the persistence and high
status of non-English languages and institutions in the American west well into the
20th century. Specifically, German-speaking communities with German-medium public
schools flourished in rural Texas for approximately a century, and Swedish (and other
Scandinavian languages) were employed in the upper Midwest even at university level.
Both language groups also supported a vibrant non-English press, with hundreds of
newspapers simultaneously in print nationwide.
I argue that recastings of history like those observed in these novels lead to unrealistic
expectations for readers regarding the path and time course of migrants’ linguistic
integration. Such misunderstandings may lead to unnecessary pessimism for readers
regarding immigrant communities, and to misplaced support for language policies
such as those of the “English First” movement.
Language attitudes in recent Polish immigrants to the UK: an ‘expert
learner’ approach.
Ewa Waniek-Klimczak
ewaklim@uni.lodz.pl
The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 created an unprecedented
opportunity for young Poles to look for new educational and professional
development across Europe. The United Kingdom has become a frequent choice due
to historical reasons and the readiness of the UK to accept Poles for employment. The
study reported here explores the experience of immigration among young Poles with
the minimum of a BA degree in English obtained in Poland; concentrating on language
experience and language attitudes, the study aims to investigate the acculturation
patterns in the group of participants who can be treated as ‘expert learners’, i.e.
successful advanced students and users of English of Polish ethnic origin. Their
‘language stories’ and attitudes towards English and Polish are presented on the basis
of the data collected in a course of structured interviews conducted via Skype in
English. The results are discussed against the background of earlier studies conducted
among earlier Polish immigrants to the UK and the USA in similar groups, showing that
although the participants seem to adopt the acculturation strategy of adaptation, it is
the assimilatory tendency that corresponds to the most proficient, target-like use of
English. This finding is interpreted in terms of the social context for immigration within
the EU, with the linguistic and economic status shown not to determine language
attitudes.
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The development of phonological rhythm in German-Spanish
bilinguals : A focus on vowel reduction
Margaret Winkler-Kehoe & Conxita Lleó
margaret.winkler-kehoe@unige.ch
The spectral and temporal qualities of stressed and unstressed syllables contribute to
our sense of the rhythm of speech. One way in which the difference between stressed
and unstressed syllables is maximized is through the centralization of vowels, that is,
through vowel reduction. In stress-timed languages, such as English and German,
unstressed syllables contain reduced vowels, whereas in syllable-timed languages
such as Spanish and Italian, unstressed syllables contain non-reduced vowels.
In this study, we consider the situation of German-Spanish bilingual children faced
with acquiring reduced syllables in German and non-reduced ones in Spanish, and
examine whether bilingual input influences the development of unstressed syllables
and ultimately the development of phonological rhythm in these two languages. The
empirical data-base consists of the productions of four bilingual German-Spanish
children recorded longitudinally from the onset of words through to 5 years who were
then compared to four monolingual German and Spanish children. Phonetic
transcription and acoustic measures were employed to measure the vowel quality and
length of unstressed syllables in two- to four-syllable words extracted from the database at ages 2;0, 3;0 and 5;0 years. Results indicated that bilingual children were only
mildly disadvantaged in the acquisition of reduced syllables as compared to
monolingual children. There were no significant differences in the realization of
reduced syllables between German monolingual and bilingual children in word-final
position, but there were some differences in non-final position at the earlier age
period, an effect which may relate to the increased markedness (i.e., difficulty) of nonfinal unstressed syllables. Bilingual children produced non-reduced syllables in Spanish
in a similar way to their monolingual counterparts. Thus, there was no evidence of
transfer of reduced syllables from German into Spanish. The vowel reduction findings
suggest that cross-linguistic rhythmic differences in monolingual and bilinguals
systems are evident by the second year of life.
L2 Cantonese pragmatic development of Pakistani pre-school children
in Hong Kong
Yuen-fan Lornita Wong & Cheung-shing Sam Leung
lyfwong@ied.edu.hk
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samleung@vtc.edu.hk
Works by Berman & Slobin (1994), Ninio &Snow (1996) and Blum-Kulka & Snow
(2002), Rose (2000 &2009) and Achiba (2003) have suggested that the study of
pragmatic development, for example, request forms used by children will provide
important information on the discourse abilities of children. Many of the previous
studies were done in English speaking contexts where English was learnt by the target
children as L1 or L2. Not much research on L2 Cantonese pragmatic development of
preschool children has been conducted.
In this presentation, we reported some significant findings of a cross-sectional and
longitudinal study of L2 Cantonese request development of 90 Pakistani children (aged
3-5 and 30 in each group) who studied in mainstream kindergartens in Hong
Kong*. Data were collected through role play between the researcher and the target
children. The L2 Cantonese pragmatic development of the Pakistani participants were
observed by comparing data collected in times 1 and 2; with a time gap of six
months. Data were coded and analyzed by making reference to Blum-Kulka and her
associates in the Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP). Results
showed that (i) less than 5% of the youngest group (aged 3) could speak very little
Cantonese when they first entered Cantonese medium kindergartens in Hong Kong;
(ii) a variety of request strategies emerged from these children after six months (data
in time 2), and their pattern of development of Cantonese request strategies was very
similar to that of the older Pakistani children (aged 4 in time 1) and Cantonesespeaking peers (aged 3 in time 1); and (iii) social variables such as familiarity and
imposition have influenced the use of request forms by the participants. These
findings will be further discussed in relation to works on pragmatics and second
language development of young children.
* We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council
for funding the project (“Development of Cantonese request strategies by Hong Kong
Pakistani preschoolers”, Ref. No.: 844512)
Developing Teacher Language Awareness in a Bilingual Context
Daniel Xerri
daniel.xerri@um.edu.mt
This paper investigates the contribution that professional development can make to
L2 teachers’ language awareness. Based on a mixed methods study conducted in the
primary and secondary school contexts in Malta, this paper demonstrates that
professional development plays a pivotal role in maximizing teachers’ ability to
capitalize on their knowledge of language systems for a more effective pedagogy. A
sound understanding of the English language, how it works and how students learn it
and use it, enables teachers to exploit their pedagogical knowledge, skills and
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strategies more competently. This paper explores teachers’ beliefs and attitudes in
relation to language awareness. The paper first illustrates how tailor-made training
enabled a large group of teachers to consolidate their language awareness in order to
overcome the challenges of teaching English to students of varying abilities. It
demonstrates how training can be designed in such a way that teachers are provided
with a deeper understanding of language systems for the purpose of effective
teaching. Enhanced language awareness facilitates the task of identifying and
adequately addressing the main learning problems that bilingual students might have
with the four skills, and with grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The paper then
examines how there might be a disjuncture between L2 teachers’ conceptions of their
language awareness and its actual level of development. The aim here is to show that
in addition to metalinguistic knowledge, training needs to develop the beliefs and
attitudes of teachers operating in a bilingual context.
Production of long-lag stops (VOTs) in Spanish-English early and
late bilinguals
Mehmet Yavas & Emily Byers
elbyers@imail.iu.edu
The extent to which bilinguals possess two distinct phonological systems, and how
these phonological systems interact with one another at the phonetic level, is a topic
that continues to be very much in debate. Contemporary research in bilingualism is
divided along four basic hypotheses concerning the relationship between a speaker’s
first and second language: a) the L1 may display a unidirectional influence on the L2,
b) the L2 may operate independently of the L1 (in the case of second-language
dominance), c) the L1 and L2 may reciprocally affect one another resulting in a
bidirectional relationship, or d) there may be an unclear relationship between the L1
and L2 in bilingual speech production.
Voice onset timing (VOT) is a phonetic measure that has been well-examined in
bilingual disciplines. There are claims that bilingual VOTs change between
monolingual and code-switched utterances (Toribio et al., 2005). The notion of a
bidirectional influence, however, has been previously refuted (Antoniou et al, 2011;
Hazan & Boulakia, 2007), though many of these studies have examined bilinguals who
are dominant in one language. Our study examines the presence of a bidirectional
language effect on VOTs in Spanish-English code-switched sentences in bilinguals who
use both languages daily in Miami, Florida. 18 early sequential and 18 late sequential
Spanish-English bilinguals were presented with a reading task consisting of sentences
in the following conditions: Spanish-only sentences, English-only sentences, SpanishEnglish bilingual code-switched sentences and English-Spanish bilingual codeswitched sentences.
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Pairwise comparisons of VOT values across the four environments indicate significant
differences within early and late bilingual groups between English -> Spanish and
Spanish <-English code switched sentences indicating a bidirectional influence of the
base language on the out-of-context language’s VOTs. Between groups results show
significant differences in the VOT values of each segment with early bilinguals
producing more native-like VOTs than late bilinguals.
Bilingualism and the Ways of Overcoming Interference: the Armenian
Context
Yelena Yerznkyan & Susanna Chalabyan
yerznkyan@ysu.am
The ability to learn effectively is becoming increasingly important in our globalized world, and
overcoming possible errors due to language transfer is thus assuming a great role in second
language acquisition.
The paper sums up the results of a recent project looking into the levels of achievement of
EFL/ESL learners in Armenia. The research has been initiated to study the literacy acquisition
of English as the second/foreign language where Armenian is the first language and the
language of instruction.
Proceeding from the assumption that a better understanding of literacy development can
make the process more effective and that transfer is an important factor in second language
acquisition, a large-scale research has been undertaken to have a closer insight into the
problem, to reveal how two language systems interact during the process of second language
acquisition, to detect the cases of L1 transfer in different levels: phonetic, lexical,
morphological, syntactic, discourse, to see how students show developmental sequences
typical of L1 and the target language (L2) in different skills with the aim of future beneficial
implications of the results on the way English is learnt and taught in the Armenian classroom.
The case study focused on all the four activities: reading, listening, writing, speaking.
To extract the most favourable data some qualitative and quantitative techniques have been
used: observations, field notes and ethnographic records, face-to-face data gathering, taperecording as well as surveys in the form of questionnaires and standardized tests and
interviews.
By implementing contrastive error analysis, comparative study of data obtained, as well as
observations of pragmatic factors reflecting situationally conditioned language features the
research should eventually help to find particular solutions to teaching difficulties related to
AL1 – EL2 language transfer and prevent possible mistakes resulting from interference in the
speech of bilingual speakers.
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The rise of the dad: Not only mothers’ language proficiency but also
fathers’ educational level is associated with children’s German
language skills
Yevgen Zaretsky & Benjamin Lange
Yevgen.Zaretsky@kgu.de
In our previous studies on monolingual and bilingualpreschool children acquiring
German, fathers’ educational level emerged as one of the most important factors
associated with the (a) classification of children as needing or not needing additional
educational support in acquiring German, (b) changes in this classification between
two test sessions, and (c) changes in the classification of children as needing or not
needing medical help in acquiring German.
Here, additional analyses on this factor were carried out on the basis of two large
samples: (a) 200 bilingual and 17 monolingual 4-year-old German children, (b) 449
bilingual and 286 monolingual 5-6-year-old German children. German skills of these
children were assessed using age appropriate tests on grammar, articulation,
vocabulary, phonological short-term memory and speech comprehension.
Mothers’ German skills correlated higher with children’s German skills than those of
the fathers. Significant associations were found between high educational level and
low frequency of language disorders in the family, low probability of need for medical
or educational help, preference for German at home, better German skills of parents,
better German skills of children subjectively estimated by parents and daycare centre
teachers, earlier contact to the German language, more frequent attendance of day
nurseries, and more contacts to German children. Both a linear regression and a
classification tree demonstrated that for 5-6-year-old children mothers’ educational
level and German skills remained more important for the prediction of children’s
German skills than those of the fathers'. In most subtests, correlations between
educational level of the mothers and language skills were higher than those of the
fathers in the sample of 4-year-old children. However, they became numerically lower
than those of the fathers in the sample of 5-6-year-old children, especially for
immigrants.
Language as a medium in Arithmetic Word Problems
Esmeralda Zerafa
esmeralda.zerafa@hotmail.com
In Malta arithmetic word problems are normally presented in English without
questioning whether this has any effect on the performance of those students whose
first language is Maltese. This presentation reports the results of a research project
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which explored whether the language in which an arithmetic word problem is
presented, that is, Maltese or English, has any effect on the ability of young children
to solve such problems. The study was carried out with 30 children in Grade 3 (aged
8 to 9) in three sectors of the Maltese education system: Church, State and
Independent. The subjects had mixed preferences with regard to Maltese and English.
A short informal interview with each of the pupils allowed us to establish their first
preferred language and this was later confirmed through an unstructured interview
with the class teacher and a questionnaire about pupils’ language proficiency. The
participants were then asked to recall and solve two multi-levelled sets of word
problems and to complete a sheet of addition and subtraction computations. The
results of the computation sheets were compared to those on the sets of problems to
conjecture whether language had an impact on children's performance.
Additionally, the results obtained by the participants in the problems presented in
their first language were compared to their results in the problems given in their
second language. The data gathered indicated that the pupils found word problems
more challenging than non-verbal computations presumably due to the language
component. Moreover, it seemed that when they were presented with the problems
in their first language they understood them better and were better able to choose
the correct operation. Pupils who were not proficient in the second language sought
to translate the problems to their first language before working them out and this
sometimes lead to mathematical and linguistic misinterpretations.
Parallels between monolinguals, early, and sequential bilinguals in the
acquisition of German Voice alternations
Katerina Zombolou
katerina.zombolou@ifla.uni-stuttgart.de
Monolingual children (L1) are expected to acquire language faster than bilingual
children (e.g. Tomasello 2004), as the latter are exposed to less input from each
language. Early bilinguals (exposure to both languages from birth on, 2L1) also differ
from sequential bilinguals (exposure to the second language after age 6-8, L2), in that
L2 children are expected to be disadvantaged in comparison to both L1s or 2L1s
because language exposure takes place after 4;0 (Meisel 2007’s critical period).
Moreover, 2L1s are found to have an advantage when compared to late L2s with
respect to vocabulary, phonology and morpho-syntax (Gradient age effect, e.g. Jia
2003; see Paradis, 2007). This suggests the following hierarchy: L1 > 2L1 > L2.
We investigate how L1s, 2L1s and early L2s behave with respect to structures that
were argued to be acquired late in life anyway. We studied the German Voice
alternations (reflexives/reciprocals, anticausatives and passives) of one early L2 child
aged (L1-Greek & German onset at age 5;3) in a six-months longitudinal study (aged
6;9-7;3). We compared then these data to one L1-German child aged 0;10-4;3
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(Caroline corpus, Nederstigt 2004) as well to one 2L1 child aged 0;0-5;3 (Zombolou &
Alexiadou 2012).
We found that all three children show the same development after the first two years
exposure to the language: anticausatives and passives are absent; reflexives are
formed without the pronoun sich 'oneself'. We conclude that L1s, 2L1s and early L2s
show no difference in patterns nor in rates of acquisition in their early stages of
development. This suggests that early acquisition is related to the nature of the
structures to be acquired, especially when morpho-syntactic complexity may delay
acquisition, regardless of input frequency and/or onset.
By 3;5-4;0, both L1 and 2L1 children acquire the German Voice alternations. It remains
to see in the future whether the early L2 child will acquire the structures in question
after altogether 3-4 years German input.
References
Jia, G. & Fuse, A. 2007. Acquisition of English grammatical morphology by native
Mandarin-speaking children and adolescents: Age-related differences. Journal of
Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 50, 1280-1299.
Meisel, J. M. 2007. The weaker language in early child bilingualism: Acquiring a first
language as a second language? Applied Psycholinguistics, 28 (3), 495–514.
Paradis, J. 2007. Second language acquisition in childhood. In E. Hoff & M. Shatz (Eds.),
Handbook of Language Development (pp. 387-405). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Tomasello, M. 2004. Lunchtime Debate: Where does language come from? 29th
Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, M.A.
Zombolou, K. and A. Alexiadou. 2012. Early Voice Acquisition of Heritage Greek in
Germany. Paper presented at the Conference “Formal Approaches to Heritage
Language”. April 21-22, 2012, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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