BILINGUALISM OVER THE LIFESPAN
Antonella Sorace
University of Edinburgh
This course focuses on how children and adults learn more than one language and
why bilingualism is important at all stages in life. The first part (27-30 April) explores
what it means to grow up with two languages: how children use sounds, words, and
sentences in two languages, what input they need to hear, what is easy and what is
less easy to learn, and the cognitive effects of bilingualism beyond language. The
second part (4-8 May) looks at learning a second language as an adult: how adults
learn both in the classroom and outside the classroom, to what extent they benefit (or
not) from instruction and error correction, and how the native language and the
second language influence each other and change over time.
ANTONELLA SORACE – SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Antonella Sorace is Professor of Developmental Linguistics at the University of
Edinburgh. She is a world leading authority in the field of bilingual language
development across the lifespan, where she brings together methods from linguistics,
experimental psychology, and cognitive science. She is also committed to
disseminating the findings of research on bilingualism in different sectors of society.
She is the founding director of the information and public engagement centre
Bilingualism Matters (http://www.bilingualism-matters.ppls.ed.ac.uk) which has 16
branches all over Europe and in the US.
BILINGUALISM OVER THE LIFESPAN – PART 1:
GROWING UP WITH TWO LANGUAGES
MONDAY 27 APRIL
10.10-11.00
Introduction; contrasting bilingual and monolingual children; “dominance”; input and
age effects.
11.00-11.50
Separation of the two languages ; learning sounds and words
14.00-14.50
Learning two grammars: more evidence for language separation
14.50-15.40
Some selective effects of one language on the other
TUESDAY 28 APRIL
11.50-12.40
Interfaces; linguistic and processing constraints
12.40-13.30
Bilingual speech production; code-switching and code-mixing
14.30-15.20
Lexical selection; evidence from bimodal bilingualism
15.20-16.10
Effects of early bilingualism: (1): metalinguistic abilities; literacy
WEDNESDAY 29 APRIL
11.50-12.40
Effects of early bilingualism (2): “Theory of Mind”
12.40-13.00
Effects of early bilingualism (3): attention and executive functions
THURSDAY 30 APRIL
10.10-11.00
Group discussion
11.00-11.50
Group discussion
BILINGUALISM OVER THE LIFESPAN – PART 2:
ADULT SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
MONDAY 4 MAY
10.10-11.00
Introduction; how difficult is it to become bilinguals later in life? Critical and
sensitive periods for language learning.
11.00-11.50
Learning L2: interaction, instruction, error correction, implicit and explicit feedback
TUESDAY 5 MAY - WEDNESDAY 6 MAY:
NO CLASS
THURSDAY 7 MAY
14.00-14.50
L2 learning mechanisms
14.50-15.40
Using a second language: L2 processing
FRIDAY 8 MAY
8.30-9.20
Final states: how far can adult L2 learners go?
9.20-10.10
Transfer and attrition: L1 and L2 affecting each other
10.10-11.50
Discussion
REFERENCES FOR PART 1: GROWING UP WITH TWO LANGUAGES
BOOKS
Bialystok, E. 2003. Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy and Cognition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
De Groot, A. 2011. Language and Cognition in Bilinguals and Multilinguals. Hove: Psychology Press.
De Houwer, A. 2009. Bilingual First Language Acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Guasti, M.T. 2004. Language Acquisition: the Growth of Grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Grosjean, F. 2010. Bilingual: Life and Reality. Harvard University Press.
ARTICLES
Bialystok, E. 2002. Acquisition of literacy in bilingual children: a framework for research.
Language Learning 52: 159-199.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F., Green, D. and Gollan, T. 2009. Bilingual minds. Psychological Science in
the Public Interest 10: 89–129.
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J.F. 2009. Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual: Infants’ language
experience influences the development of a word-learning heuristic. Developmental
Science 12, 815–823.
Costa, A. and Santesteban, M. 2004. Lexical access in bilingual speech production: evidence
from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of
Memory and Language 50: 491-511.
De Houwer, A. 2007. Parental language input patterns and children’s bilingual use. Applied
Psycholinguistics 28: 411-424.
Döpke, S. 1998. Competing language structures: the acquisition of verb placement by
bilingual German-English children. Journal of Child Language 25: 555-584.
Emmorey, K., ,Luk, G., Pyers, J. and Bialystok, E. 2008. The source of enhanced cognitive
control in bilinguals: evidence from bimodal bilinguals. Psychological Science 19: 12011206.
Grosjean, F. 1998. Studying bilinguals: methodological and conceptual issues. Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition 1: 131-149.
Kovács, A. 2009. Early bilingualism enhances mechanisms of false-belief reasoning.
Developmental Science 12: 48-54.
Müller, N. and Hulk, A. 2001. Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition:
Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4: 1-53
(includes 10 peer commentaries and a response by the authors).
Nicoladis, E. 1998, First clues to the existence of two input languages: pragmatic and lexical
differentiation in a bilingual child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1: 105-116.
Paradis, J. and Genesee, F. 1997. On continuity and the emergence of functional categories in
bilingual first language acquisition. Language Acquisition 6: 91-124.
Petitto, L-A, Katerelos, M., Levy, B.G., Gauna, K., Tétreault, K, and Ferraro, V. 2001. Bilingual
signed and spoken language acquisition from birth: implications for the mechanisms
underlying early bilingual language acquisition. Journal of Child Language 28: 453-496.
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A. and Paoli, S. 2004. Subjects and objects in Italian-English bilingual
and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7: 183-206.
Sorace, A. 2007. The more, the merrier: facts and beliefs about the bilingual mind. In S. Della
Sala (ed.) Tall Tales about the Mind and the Brain: Separating Fact from Fiction, 193-203.
Oxford: Oxford University Press (ms. downloadable from
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~antonell/generalpublic.html).
Sorace, A. 2011. Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches
to Bilinguaiism 1: 1-33 (includes peer commentaries).
Sorace, A. and Serratrice, L. 2009. Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language
development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism 13: 92125.
Sorace, A., Serratrice, L. Filiaci, F. and Baldo, M. 2009. Discourse conditions on subject
pronoun realization: testing the linguistic intuitions of older bilingual children.
Lingua 119: 460-477.
Unsworth, S. 2003. Testing Hulk & Müller (2000) on crosslinguistic influence: Root Infinitives
in a bilingual German/English child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 6: 143-158.
Unsworth, S. 2013. Amount of exposure as a proxy for dominance in bilingual language acquisition.
to appear in Silva-Corvalán, Carmen and Treffers-Daller, Jeanine (Eds.). Language
dominance in bilinguals: Issues of measurement and operationalization. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Werker, J. and Byers-Heinlein, K. 2008. Bilingualism in infancy: first steps in perception and
comprehension. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12: 144-151.
REFERENCES FOR PART 2: ADULT SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
BOOKS
Doughty, C. and Long, M. (Eds.) (2003). The handbook of second language acquisition. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York:
Taylor and Francis.
Herschensohn, J. and Young-Scholten, M. (eds.) (2013). The Cambridge Handbook of Second
Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
ARTICLES
Birdsong, D. (2005). Why not fossilization. In Z-H Hahn & T. Odlin (Eds.), Studies of fossilization in
second language acquisition (pp. 173-188). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Birdsong, D. (2006). Age and second language acquisition and processing: A selective overview.
Language Learning, 56, 9-49.
Clahsen, H. and Felser, C. (2006a). How native-like is non-native language processing? In Trends in
Cognitive Science, 10, 564-570.
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006b). Grammatical processing in language learners.[followed by peer
commentaries and a response by the authors.] Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 3-126.
Costa, A., Pickering, M. and Sorace. A. (2008). Alignment in second language dialogue. Language and
Cognitive Processes, 528-556.
Dörnyei, Z. & Skehan, P. (2003). Individual differences in second language learning. In C. Doughty &
M. Long (Eds.) The handbook of second language acquisition (pp 589-630). Oxford:
Blackwell.
Doughty, C. (2003). Instructed SLA: Constraints, compensation, and enhancement. In C. Doughty &
M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 256-310). Oxford:
Blackwell.
Ellis, N. (2006). Cognitive perspectives on SLA: The Associative-Cognitive CREED. AILA Review,
19, 100-121.
Ellis, R., Loewen, S., & Erlam, R. (2006). Implicit and explicit corrective feedback and the acquisition
of L2 grammar. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 339-368.
Flores, C. (2012). Differential effects of language attrition in the domains of verb placement
and object expression. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 550-567.
Foucart, A. and Frenck-Mestre, C. (2013). Language processing. In J. Herschensohn & M. YoungScholten (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 394-416).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gass, S. (2003). Input and interaction. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second
language acquisition (pp. 224-255). Oxford: Blackwell.
Hopp, H. (2009). Ultimate attainment in L2 inflection: performance similarities between non-native
and native speakers. Lingua, 120, 901-931.
Long, M. (2003). Stabilization and fossilization. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of
second language acquisition (pp. 487-536). Oxford: Blackwell.
Marinis, T. (2003). Psycholinguistic techniques in second language acquisition research. Second
Language Research, 19, 144-161.
McDonough, K., & Mackey, A. (2006). Responses to recasts: Repetitions, production, and linguistic
development. Language Learning, 56, 693-720.
Schwartz, B. (1998). The second language instinct. Lingua, 106, 133-160.
Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, R. (2013). Generative approaches and the poverty of the stimulus. In J.
Herschensohn & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of second language
acquisition (pp. 137-158). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shin, J-A., & Christianson, K. (2011). Structural priming and second language learning. Language
Learning, 62, 931-964.
Silva, R., & Clahsen, H. (2008). Morphologically complex words in L1 and L2 processing: evidence
from masked priming experiments in English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11,
245-260.
Sorace, A. (2003). Near-nativeness. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second
language acquisition (pp. 130-152). Oxford: Blackwell.
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.
Sorace, A. (2011). Pinning down the concept of "interface" in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to
Bilingualism, 1, 1-33.
Sorace, A. (2012). Pinning down the concept of "interface" in bilingualism: a reply to peer
commentaries. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2, 209-217.
Sorace, A. and Filiaci, F. (2006). Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second
Language Research, 22, 339-368.
Tsimpli, T. Sorace, A., Heycock, C. and Filiaci, F. (2004). First language attrition and syntactic
subjects: a study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of
Bilingualism 8: 257-277.