Bilingualism Flashcards
1
Q
bilingualism background
A
- At least 50% of world population speaks at least 2 languages
- ~20% of Canadians
- ~30% of Vancouverites
2
Q
Types of bilinguals
A
- “Simultaneous”/”crib” bilinguals: learn 2 languages from birth
- “Sequential” bilinguals: learn 1 language first, then a 2nd
3
Q
myths of bilingualism
A
- bilingual confusion
- bilingual delay
4
Q
myths: bilingual confusion
A
- do infants/children confuse their 2 languages?
- code-mixing seen as evidence of confusion
- evidence against: kids have ability to discriminate between languages; adjust languages depending on who they’re speaking with
5
Q
code-mixing/switching
A
- mixing words from 2 languages within a sentence/conversation (ex. Papa, sing me une chanson!)
- Reasons: Modeling adult behaviour, filling lexical gaps (ie. When you don’t know the word), emphasis/humour
- However, both children and adults do it, and people don’t accuse adults of being confused
- Even kids who code-mix follow grammatical rules
6
Q
infants’ ability to discriminate between languages
A
- At birth, infants can discriminate between different languages (even if they haven’t been exposed to them)
- Study: both monolingual and bilingual infants listen to English enough to habituate to it, then show dishabituation when Tagalog is played
- Bilingual infants may even pay more attention to perceptual components
- – Evidence from visual speech -> before 6 months, both monolingual and bilingual babies can discriminate between visual English and visual French (showed by habituation/dishabituation)
- — By 8 months, only bilingual babies could discriminate (even if they didn’t speak English or French)
7
Q
infants’ ability to adjust their language
A
At 1-2 years, bilingual babies will adjust languages to the person they are speaking with (even if it’s their less dominant language)
8
Q
myths: bilingual delay
A
- Common fear for parents
- Bilingual adults -> slower in word-retrieval tasks and show more tip-of-the-tongues
- However, evidence of vocabulary delay depends on how you measure – ex. are you testing them in English, Spanish, or both? (ie. a vocab of 50 words in Spanish and 50 words in English is technically better than a 90-word English vocab)
- Nowadays, we measure “conceptual” vocabulary rather than just labels (ie. Does the child understand the concept of dog, even if they only have a label for it in English?)
9
Q
Difficulties in studying bilingualism
A
- Possible confounds: SES, education
- Ex. In Canada, bilinguals tend to be better educated -> higher SES
- Ex. In the US, bilinguals tend to have lower education -> lower SES
- Different types of bilingual exposure (ie. 50/50, 80/20, etc); language dominance
- How similar/different are the languages?
- Difficult measurements: language input, vocab, etc
10
Q
Bilingual differences
A
- Bilinguals approach learning language differently
- Respond to specific language environment
- ex. Mutual exclusivity; learning similar-sounding words
11
Q
Bilingual differences: Mutual exclusivity
A
- Notion that 1 concept = 1 label
- Not true for bilinguals/multilinguals -> bilinguals use a bit of mutual exclusivity; trilinguals do not
- Bilinguals who know 2 words for one concept (ie. Dog/perro) use less mutual exclusivity
12
Q
Bilingual differences: learning similar-sounding words
A
- Difficult for all infants
- Monolinguals take until 17 months to learn similar-sounding words; bilinguals take until 20 months
- But, monolingual infants only succeeded in task when speaker was monolingual; and bilingual infants succeeded when speaker was bilingual -> shows that they respond in line with their environment; not truly a delay
13
Q
bilingual advantages
A
- knowing more than 1 language
- non-linguistic benefits (ie. executive function, perspective-taking, creativity)
14
Q
non-linguistic benefits: executive function
A
- Better effortful control and inhibition
- Ex. Simon Task – bilinguals respond faster to both congruent and incongruent trials
- Ex. Card Sorting Task – kids have difficulty forgetting the first rule they learned and switching to the next rule -> bilinguals are better able to ignore/inhibit the old rule to learn the new rule
15
Q
non-linguistic benefits: perspective-taking
A
- Children under 4-5 years struggle to take perspective of others (ex. Crayon box task; Sally-Ann task)
- Generally, bilingual children do better on these tasks -> may be better at taking perspective of others
16
Q
why are there bilingual advantages?
A
- Switching between languages -> better perspective taking
- Simple exposure to multiple languages is enough to accrue benefits
- Early enrichment (language not necessarily the only thing that could provide advantages – similar early musical enrichment shows similar advantages)
17
Q
study: benefit of exposure to multiple languages, even without production
A
- babies who can’t produce speech still show benefits
- In experimental task, children in monolingual families who had exposure to other languages (ie. Through hearing people in the community) showed similar levels of advantages as bilinguals
18
Q
parent input
A
- “one-parent one-language”
- parental language mixing
19
Q
one-parent one-language
A
- ie. mom only speaks English to the child, dad only speaks French to the child
- Idea: to help children keep their 2 languages separate
- Not necessary, and may not be advantageous for learning minority language -> reduces potential input for that language
- Ex. Study: children of 1 English-speaking parent and 1 Spanish-speaking parent showed reduced Spanish vocab
- “Both parent both-languages” may lead to more balanced bilingualism
20
Q
involuntary one-parent one-language: strategies to encourage language development
A
- If you live in a “one-parent one-language” household because only one parent is bilingual, strategies exist to encourage use of minority language
- ex. increasing quality and quantity of exposure
- ex. Minimal grasp strategy -> parent of minority language pretends they don’t understand majority language to encourage child to speak to them in minority language
21
Q
parental language mixing
A
- Mixed findings:
- Some studies find correlation between code mixing and smaller vocabulary
- Other studies find no relationship between code mixing and language development
22
Q
bilingual schooling: programs
A
- different programs, different goals
- One-way immersion (ex. French Immersion)
- Two-way immersion (ex. English-Spanish programs in the US; taught by a 50/50 mix of both native English and minority language speakers; for both native English and native Spanish speakers)
- Developmental bilingual education (ex. For students who come to school knowing only their heritage language -> maintain heritage language while teaching them English; ie. for native Spanish speakers only)
- Transitional bilingual education (ex. Starting off with education in heritage language, and reducing it over time until education is fully in English)
23
Q
bilingual schooling: outcomes
A
- Better reading/math achievement scores
- Proficiency in minority language: general good; better with higher % of instruction in that language
24
Q
early language exposure
A
- some say critical period ranges from 5-15; many agree that earlier is better, but that it’s never too late
- due to genetics and environment
- biological changes during first 2 decades of life eventually result in reduced capacity for language learning
- more language-rich environment early in life
- simultaneous bilinguals have better accents, vocab, and grammatical proficiency
25
Q
bilinguals and language difficulties, delays, and disorders
A
- bilinguals not more likely to have language difficulties, delays, or disorders
- children with language impairments, Down syndrome, and autism are not more likely to experience additional language challenges compared to monolingual kids with those impairments
