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Anderson, R. T. “Phonological Acquisition in Preschoolers Learning a Second Language via Immersion: A Longitudinal Study.” Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, April/May 2004. 18(3): 183-210.
Anderson’s article deals with the phonological development in first and second languages (L1 and L2 respectively) that has not been extensively studied in young children who are acquiring a second language via immersion. Anderson justifies this study by referring to the increasing number of children who are acquiring a second language in this context, and the fact that such children make up a part of the clinical caseload of many speech-language pathologists. Much of the article is focused on longitudinal data on the development of both L1 and L2 phonologies. Five preschoolers who were acquiring English as a L2 and who spoke different L1s participated in the study. Both within child (across languages) and between child comparisons were made to discern possible patterns of use and to identify factors that may impact phonological skill in the L1 and L2. Results of the investigation suggest that children who are learning a L2 utilize their knowledge of the L1 to aid them in acquiring the phonological system of the L2. At the same time, they appear to maintain, at least as measured via perceptual analysis of their speech, distinct phonological systems. This article is very technological and difficult to understand if one is not familiar with the terminology of the field, but provides a much greater detail on one facet of second language acquisition.
Ariza, Eileen N. “Overcoming Resistance to Second-Language Learning.” The Clearing House, March/April 1999. 72(4): 211-13.
This article includes tips on how to address resistance to second-language learning. A sample of the tips includes: knowing one’s students, adapting to the students and allowing students to experience success. The experience of a teacher who taught Spanish as a second language in a K-12 bilingual school in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico is discussed. Thought the article is not from a linguistics point of view, it provides an non-scientific educator viewpoint on the success and limitations of second language acquisition.
Baker W. and P. Trofimovich. “Interaction of Native- and Second-Language Vowel System(s) in Early and Late Bilinguals.” Language and Speech, March 2005. 48(1): 1-27.
The objective of this study was to determine how bilinguals’ age at the time of language acquisition influenced the organization of their phonetic system(s). The productions of six English and five Korean vowels by English and Korean monolinguals were compared to the productions of the same vowels by early and late Korean-English bilinguals varying in amount of exposure to their second language. Results indicated that bilinguals’ age profoundly influenced both the degree and the direction of the interaction between the phonetic systems of their native (L1) and second (L2) languages. In particular, early bilinguals manifested a bidirectional L1-L2 influence and produced distinct acoustic realizations of L1 and L2 vowels. Late bilinguals, however, showed evidence of a unidirectional influence of the L1 on the L2 and produced L2 vowels that were “colored” by acoustic properties of their L1. The article’s conclusions have huge implications on the ability of a person to acquiring a second language, given age constraints, and use the results of a relatively easy to understand study to back up its assertions.
Bayley, Robert. “Second-Language Acquisition and Variationist Linguistics.” American Speech, Fall 2000. 75(3): 288-91.
The article contends that second language acquisition includes internalizing invariant target language patterns, yet research also suggests immigrant speakers will acquire variable patterns in the target language. The article calls for more research, with consideration paid to the fact that most immigrants are in lower socioeconomic classes, so native speakers they encounter are most likely to use vernacular dialects. The article is an interesting look at the socioeconomic factors that affect language acquisition in late bilinguals.
Birdsong, David and Michelle Milis. “On the evidence for maturational constraints in second-language acquisition.” Journal of Memory and Language, Febuary 2001. 44(2): 235-50.
The article discusses issues related to second language acquisition, focusing specifically on the role of age in the learning of a second language. Topics discussed include experiments concerning the learning of language just before the end of a critical learning age period, and results indicating degrees of language acquisition for late learners. The article is salient to the topic, interesting to read, and provides someone less familiar with the field of linguistics with background on the controversy. The studies add to those in need of background knowledge.
Francis, Norbert. “Maturational Constraints in Language One and Language Two: A Second Look at the Research on Critical Periods.” Bilingual Research Journal, Fall 1999. 23(4): 423-50.
This article analyzes research discussing the relationship between age and language acquisition. Topics include bilingual education, language policy and development. The article also presents statistical information concerning the maturational constraints on second language acquisition, and is a must-read to provide background information on the research available concerning second language acquisition.
Hoff, E. and C. Tian. “Socioeconomic Status and Cultural Influences on Language.” Journal of Communication Disorders, July/August 2005. 38(4): 271-8.
Two studies track connections from the variables of socioeconomic status (SES) and culture to properties of the interactions children experience and to the rate of children’s language development. The first study is an investigation of the relations among family SES, properties of maternal child-directed speech, and child vocabulary growth in a sample of 2-year-olds in the United States. The second study is an investigation of the relations among maternal education, maternal “language teaching practices,” and child vocabulary and grammatical development in a sample of 2-4-year-olds in China. Together these findings reveal some of the ways in which the social and cultural contexts in which children live affect the course of their language development. The article provides a viewpoint on the effectiveness of one type of language acquisition (maternal language teaching practices), and also has great implications on the effectiveness and possibility of bilingualism in lower socioeconomic public systems.
Marsh, Herbert, Kit-Tai Hau, and Chit-Kwong Kong. “Late Immersion and Language of Instruction in Hong Kong High Schools: Achievement Growth in Language and Nonlanguage Subjects.” Harvard Educational Review, Fall 2000. 70(3):302-6.
The research in the article is presented describing the positive and negative impacts on Hong Kong high school children of using Chinese as the main language and English as a second language. The implications of the study are important considering late-immersion programs in U.S. public high schools as a solution to the language issue in the U.S., though the cultural differences in Chinese and U.S. will have to be taken into account.
Mayberry, R. I. and E. Lock. “Age Constraints on First Versus Second Language Acquisition: Evidence for Linguistic Plasticity and Epigenesis.” Brain and Language, December 2003. 87(3): 369-384.
This article deals with the controversy over age restrain in the acquisition of a second language. To test the hypothesis, the English grammatical abilities of deaf and hearing adults who either did or did not have linguistic experience (spoken or signed) during early childhood were investigated with two tasks, timed grammatical judgment and untimed sentence to picture matching. Findings showed that adults who acquired a language in early life performed at near-native levels on a second language regardless of whether they were hearing or deaf or whether the early language was spoken or signed. By contrast, deaf adults who experienced little or no accessible language in early life performed poorly. These results indicate that the onset of language acquisition in early human development dramatically alters the capacity to learn language throughout life, independent of the sensory-motor form of the early experience. The article is well-written, easy to understand, and provides the reader with quantitative and qualitative data to back up its supposition. The article is an important read for those especially interested in the age aspect of second language acquisition.
McLaughlin J., L. Osterhout, A. Kim. “Neural Correlates of Second-Language Word Learning: Minimal Instruction Produces Rapid Change.” Nature Neuroscience, July 2004. 7(7): 703-4.
The article contends that adult second-language (L2) learning is often claimed to be slow and laborious compared to native language (L1) acquisition, but little is known about the rate of L2 word learning. According to the study reported in the articles adult second-language learners’ brain activity, as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs), discriminated between L2 words and L2 “pseudowords” (word-like letter strings) after just 14 hours of classroom instruction. This occurred even while the learners performed at chance levels when making overt L2 word-nonword judgments, indicating that the early acquisition of some aspects of a new language may be overlooked by current behavioral assessments. This article and study are important reads for those interested in the age restraint controversy, and are also important considering foreign language programs in high schools and colleges.
Montague, Nicole S., and Elsa Meza-Zaragosa. “Elicited Response in the Pre-Kindergarten Setting with a Dual Language Program: Good or Bad Idea?” Bilingual Research Journal, Spring-Summer 1999. 23(2/3): 289-97.
Elicited response is a common teaching technique teachers use with young bilingual students to encourage development of a second language. The article determines that this practice needs close analysis for its social influence, conditions, and variables on second language acquisition. The article is also important because it deals with dual language programs that begin early in life.
Moreno, E. M. and M. Kutas. “Processing Semantic Anomalies in Two Languages: An Electrophysiological Exploration in both Languages of Spanish-English Bilinguals.” Cognitive Brain Research, February 2005. 22(2): 205-220.
The article deals with the generally accepted concept that the latency of the brain response to semantic anomalies (N400 effect) has been found to be longer in a bilingual’s second language (L2) than in their first language (L1) and/or to that seen in monolinguals. One explanation of this phenomenon has been explained in terms of late exposure to L2, although the article contends that age of exposure and language proficiency are often highly correlated. The article specifically examines the relative contributions of these factors not only in L2 but also in L1 in a group of Spanish-English bilinguals for whom age of exposure and language proficiency were not highly correlated by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to semantically congruous/ incongruous words completing written sentences. The overall results of the study find that vocabulary proficiency and age of exposure are both important in determining the timing of semantic integration effects during written sentence processing–with vocabulary proficiency predicting the timing of semantic analysis in L1 and both age of exposure and language proficiency, although highly correlated, making additional small but uncorrelated contributions to the speed of semantic analysis/integration in L2. Thus, the results of the article have a major contribution to make when evaluating the effectiveness of public school language systems. While the article is dense, long, and complicated, the results and implications are highly important.
Navarra J., N. Sebastian-Galles, S. Soto-Faraco. “The Perception of Second Language Sounds in Early Bilinguals: New Evidence from an Implicit Measure.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, October 2005. 31(5): 912.
Previous studies have suggested that nonnative (L2) linguistic sounds are accommodated to native language (L1) phonemic categories. However, this conclusion may be compromised by the use of explicit discrimination tests. The study in this article provides an implicit measure of L2 phoneme discrimination in early bilinguals (Catalan and Spanish). While the study is complex and difficult to understand, especially to those less familiar with linguistics, the present findings provide implicit evidence that even proficient bilinguals categorize L2 sounds according to their L1 representations, which is in contrasts somewhat to other current research and provides another viewpoint concerning some of the controversy about second language acquisition.
Perani, D. “The Neural Basis of Language Talent in Bilinguals.” Trends in Cognitive Science, May 2005. 9(5): 211-13.
In a recent paper, Chee et al. report differences in the patterns of brain activation and deactivation in bilinguals with different levels of proficiency in their second language. The research addressed the issue of the neural basis of phonological working memory (PWM), which is crucial in language acquisition, in subjects who were under comparable social pressure to be bilinguals. Drawing on the results of the previous study, Perani concludes that a more readily available working memory system might correlate with the attainment of superior proficiency in a second language. The article also has implications for language acquisition in lower socioeconomic settings. As a work that examines the pure talent aspect of language acquisition, it is succinct and relatively easy to understand.
Perani, D. et. al. “The Role of Age of Acquisition and Language Usage in Early, High-Proficient Bilinguals: An fMRI Study During Verbal Fluency.” Human Brain Mapping, 23 April 2003. 19(3): 170-182.
This comprehensive study assessed the effects of age of acquisition and language exposure on the cerebral correlates of lexical retrieval in high-proficient, early-acquisition bilinguals. Functional MRI was used to study Spanish-Catalan bilinguals who acquired either Spanish or Catalan as a first language in the first years of life. Subjects were exposed to the second language at 3 years of age, and have used both languages in daily life since then. Subjects had a comparable level of proficiency in the comprehension of both languages. Overall, the results of the study indicate that, during a production task, both age of acquisition and language exposure affect the pattern of brain activation in bilinguals, even if both languages are acquired early and with a comparable level of proficiency. Again, this article provides a slightly different viewpoint about the age restraint concerning second language acquisition, and has great impacts on how foreign languages should be treated in public school systems.
Plunkett, K. and V. Marchman. “U-shaped Learning and Frequency Effects in a Multi- Layered Perception: Implications for Child Language Acquisition.” Cognition, January 1991. 38(1):43-102.
This highly technical article is not recommended to anyone without a background in linguistics, and only its conclusion is relevant to the subject concerned. The conclusion discusses the results from all simulations in light of behavioral data on children’s acquisition of the past tense and the validity of drawing conclusions about the acquisition of language from models of this sort.
Reiterer S., et. al. “Characteristic Functional Networks in High- Versus Low-Proficiency Second Language Speakers Detected also during Native Language Processing: An Explorative EEG Coherence Study in 6 Frequency Bands.” Cognitive Brain Research, October 2005. 25(2): 566-78.
This article concerns an EEG coherence study performed with a twofold objective: first, to scrutinize the theoretical concept of “cortical efficiency” in connection with second language (L2) acquisition and, second, to detect cooperations between cortical areas in specific frequency bands indicative for highly proficient L2 processing. Four groups were set up, of high- and low- proficiency bilinguals in German and English. Since the same group differences were observed during L1 and L2 processing, the study concludes that high-proficiency group might have profited from a more generic advantage in language or text processing strategy. This strategic advantage was most evident at alpha1 frequencies, possibly related to a specific way of processing internal mental states (top-down processing). The article is highly technology, though it is useful because it provides another viewpoint on the ability of bilinguals to utilize their talents given the time they acquired language, and the degree to which they acquired it.
Sakai, K.L. “Language Acquisition and Brain Development”. Science, 4 November 2005. 310 (5749):815-9.
Recent advances in functional neuroimaging have substantially contributed to systems-level analyses of brain development. In this article, Sakai reviews the current understanding of how the “final state” of language acquisition is represented in the mature brain and summarizes new findings on cortical plasticity for second language acquisition, focusing particularly on the function of the grammar center. The portion of the article that discusses cortical plasticity is particularly salient to the topic of second language acquisition in the public school system.
Thomas, Wayne P. and Virginia P. Collier. “Two Languages are Better than One”. Educational Leadership, December 1997. 55(4): 23-7
This article asserts that dual language programs assist native and nonnative speakers of English to speak two languages proficiently and narrow the equity gap among students. The article further contends that such programs help students achieve more in school and in life. Some of the factors that contribute to the success of two-way programs include the promotion of positive interdependence among peers, establishment of parent-school partnerships and curricular separation of the two languages of instruction. Moreover, dual language programs can also be utilized as dynamic models for school reform. The article is in overwhelming support of dual-language programs in U.S. schools, and cites evidence that is not usually thought of when one thinks of the benefits of a dual-language program
Winsler A. “When Learning a Second Language does not Mean Losing the First: Bilingual Language Development in Low-Income, Spanish-speaking Children Attending Bilingual Preschool.” Child Development, March/April 1999. 70(2): 349-62.
This article discusses two investigations which explored the bilingual language development outcomes of comparable groups of low-income, Spanish-speaking, Mexican American children who either did or did not attended a bilingual (Spanish/English) preschool. The first study is a replication of a study by Rodriguez, Diaz, Duran, and Espinosa, involving a new sample of 26 children who attended bilingual preschool for one year and 20 control children who remained at home. The second study represents a 1-year, longitudinal follow-up of Rodriguez et al.’s, sample of children during and after the children spent another year at home or in the preschool. The article concludes form these two studies that children who attended bilingual preschool, compared to those who remained at home, showed significant and parallel gains in Spanish language development as well as significant and greater increases in English language proficiency over time. The article also calls for more systematic research to be conducted in this area to inform policy and practice in the early education and development of language-minority children. The article is particularly salient to the issue of socioeconomic status and culture, though it also is important in viewing foreign languages in public school systems and the potential benefits for the children who attend them.
