Modulators Of Cross Language Influences In Learning And Processing

This book presents the latest research in various areas of cross-linguistic influence (CLI), providing educators with insights into how previously learned languages influence the learning of an additional language at different levels, such as phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, vocabulary, pragmatics, writing style and learning context. While the majority of the chapters have English as the target language, one investigates the acquisition of French. The L1s of the learners include Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Galician, Georgian, German, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. Each chapter ends with a reflection on possible pedagogical implications of the findings and offers recommendations on how to make the most of cross-linguistic influence in the classroom.

This collection of 33 papers represents the most current thinking andresearch on the study of cognitive processing in bilingual individuals. Thecontributors include well-known figures in the field and promising newscholars, representing four continents and work in dozens of languages.Instead of the social, political, or educational implications ofbilingualism, the focus is on how bilingual people (mostly adults) thinkand process language.

This book presents the latest research in various areas of cross-linguistic influence (CLI), providing educators with insights into how previously learned languages influence the learning of an additional language at different levels, such as phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, vocabulary, pragmatics, writing style and learning context. While the majority of the chapters have English as the target language, one investigates the acquisition of French. The L1s of the learners include Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Galician, Georgian, German, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. Each chapter ends with a reflection on possible pedagogical implications of the findings and offers recommendations on how to make the most of cross-linguistic influence in the classroom.

There is ample evidence that bilingual children?s morphosyntactic systems can influence each other. Despite the vast number of studies on such cross-linguistic influence it is unknown whether the languages of bilingual children can influence each other during real-time sentence processing (online). The central aim of this thesis is, therefore, to investigate whether cross-linguistic influence occurs online in bilingual children using a self-paced listening and eye-tracking experiment. This thesis also investigates whether surface overlap and language dominance - factors that have been argued to predict cross-linguistic influence in children?s speech production and offline comprehension - are related to cross-linguistic influence online. Furthermore, this thesis examines how online cross-linguistic influence develops into adulthood.00The results of this thesis show that the languages of bilingual children and adults influence each other during real-time sentence processing. The amount of influence is modified by surface overlap and language dominance. First, online cross-linguistic influence was found to be more pronounced in situations in which the word order of children?s languages partially overlapped rather than completely. Second, the more dominant children were in the language not in use, the stronger cross-linguistic influence became. Our results suggest that bilingual children?s languages are both activated during sentence processing. As a consequence, children have to inhibit the non-target language. This inhibition is visible in children?s sentence processing speed and their online sentence interpretation. In order to account for these findings, we propose a model on cross-linguistic influence in sentence processing (CLISP).0.

A cogent, freshly written synthesis of new and classic work on crosslinguistic influence, or language transfer, this book is an authoritative account of transfer in second-language learning and its consequences for language and thought. It covers transfer in both production and comprehension, and discusses the distinction between semantic and conceptual transfer, lateral transfer, and reverse transfer. The book is ideal as a text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in bilingualism, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and cognitive psychology, and will also be of interest to researchers in these areas.

Lexicalization patterns(LPs) differ from one language to another. This study investigates the influence of L1 LPs on the processing of L2 words in sentential contexts by Persian learners of English. The focus was on cases where two different senses of a polysemous word in Persian are realized by two independent words in English. The participants were presented with two types of anomalous sentences: test sentences in which one of the two English words was used in a context where the other word was appropriate and control sentences in which the same word was used in a context where neither of the two words was appropriate. The participants were asked to judge, as quickly and accurately as possible, whether the final word could complete the sentence meaningfully or whether the final word was semantically unacceptable. The participants' reaction times for correct No responses and their error rates were recorded. A main effect of sentence type and an interaction between sentence type and proficiency level were obtained in the analysis of both RTs and errors. The findings of this study have implications for L2 vocabulary teaching and learning.

Research has consistently identified two factors which affect how previously learned languages may influence the learning of a third: typological closeness and second language (L2) status. Although typology seems to play a more influential role in the acquisition of lexis in a third language (L3) (e.g., Rossi, 2006), the influence of L2 status has been observed in the acquisition of phonology (e.g., Williams & Hammarberg, 1998). However, these two factors are often confounded with each other, and with other variables such as proficiency. The aim of this study was to control for these variables and investigate the relative influences of L2 status and typology on lexis (lexical inventions) and phonology (aspiration) in L3 production. The research question addressed was: Which is a stronger predictor of the source language for lexical and phonological influence in L3 acquisition: L2 status or typology? Two groups of L3-Spanish learners, 11 with English-L1 and French-L2, and 11 with French-L1 and English-L2 were recorded reading word lists and describing pictures in their L3. Paired samples t -test examined the frequency of French- and English-influenced instances of lexical inventions, as well as the presence or absence of aspiration in the word-initial voiceless stops /p t k/. Findings indicate that French, the typologically closer language to Spanish, had the greatest influence on lexical production, while L2 status had a more marked effect on L3 pronunciation than typology. The results suggest that the two factors investigated may affect different areas of language in different ways.