W12: Bilingualism, learning a new language, digital language Flashcards
What is bilingualism?
Being fluent/competent in two languages
Is it normal to speak more than one language?
Yes - it is actually more common to speak more than one langauge
Being able to only speak one language is considered strange within most other countries
Explain asymmetry in terms of fluency
Fluency is usually asymmetric - if you speak 2 languages you are often better in one
How long does it take young children to pick up a new language?
They can pick it up within 6 months but it is really hard work
What are some examples of initial language mixing when picking up a new language?
- Morphology (e.g. ‘essing’ ess = eat in german but the ‘ing’ is an English ending)
- Word order (e.g. the dog of my friend - ‘my friends dog)
- Code-switching: within and between language utterances - switching between two languages in one utterance
Most initial language mixing errors disappear with age - which one may still be common within many communities?
Code-switching
Why do people code-switch?
May be a momentary error that may occur during stress etc
To fit in with others - self-identifying as part of a community
To speak in secret from listeners
To convey a thought in the most appropriate way
Lexical gaps - word doesn’t exist in one of the languages
Becoming bilingual is not easy and maintaining bilingualism requires…
Effort!
What are the arguments towards the costs of bilingualism?
- There is no obvious processing cost
- Interference: immigrant children with improving second language show reduced speed of access to first language
- High first language proficiency = high second language proficiency (initial delay but catch up)
What are the benefits of being bilingual?
Better metalinguistic awareness
More cognitive flexibility
More verbal fluency
Explain a study showing the benefits of being bilingual
‘I am going to call this frog ‘plane’ okay?’
Monolingual: ‘no!’
Bilingual: were more accepting - they see words as more of just arbitrary symbols of something else but the words do not change the thing.
What is the separate lexicon model of bilingual language processing?
Repetition priming is bigger and longer-lasting within languages than between languages
Bird (stimulus) - Bird is quick
Bird (stimulus) - wasal is slower as different languages
What is the shared lexicon model of bilingual language processing?
Words from each language are directly connected
Semantic priming produces facilitation between languages
Which bilingual language processing model has more evidence?
The shared lexicon view
How might there be a bit of both separate and shared lexicons in bilingual language processing?
May have separate stores for abstract words - choose either language depending on the situation
Common stores for common and concrete words
What is forward translation?
Conceptual mediation = accessing word meaning to translate it
Semantic factors have a large effect
L1-L2
What is backwards translation?
Word association - using direct links between items in lexicon
No effects of semantic factors
L2-L1
What is the contrastive hypothesis for learning a new language?
The learner will have the most difficulty where the first and second language differ
What are the methods of teaching a second language (5)?
Traditional Direct Audiolingual Immersion Submersion
What is the traditional method of teaching a second language?
Direct L1-L2 translation and grammar instruction
‘this is how you say X’
What is the direct method of teaching a second language?
All teaching is in the second language with a focus on conversation
What is the audiolingual method of teaching a second language?
Emphasis on speaking and listening more than reading and writing