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Language therapy and bilingual aphasia: Clinical implications of psycholinguistic and neuroimaging research
Abstract
Given the increasing number of bilinguals around the world, bilingual aphasia has become a hot topic in the field of clinical and theoretical research in communication sciences. The aim of this article is to provide data-driven cues for intervention with bilingual aphasia. First, the impact of a number of factors considered to influence second language processing will be discussed with reference to neurolinguistic and neuroimaging data. The discussion will then move to bilingual aphasia. Specifically, we shall describe the recovery patterns following bilingual aphasia, and discuss the issues of pathological mixing and switching. The literature and clinical evidence will provide the framework for a discussion of data-driven cues for intervention with bilingual aphasia.
... A wide array of standardized tests are currently available to assess monolingual individuals in English and other extensively studied languages like Spanish (Kasambira Fannin, 2024;Martínez-Ferreiro et al., 2024). These tests are designed to evaluate various linguistic abilities, cognitive functions, and academic skills; however, there remains a need to develop assessments for understudied languages because more than 50% of the global population speaks more than one language (Ansaldo et al., 2008;Ivanova & Hallowell, 2013). For countries such as the United States, where English is the most prevalent language, immigration patterns have generated a need for assessments in additional languages, such as Greek (Babatsouli, 2024), Urdu (Roepke & Alvi, 2024), Turkish (Saban-Dülger & Özcebe, 2024), Pidgin-Hawai Creole (Schwartz, 2024), Mandarin (Yang & Resendiz, 2024), Farsi (Namazi & Salehomoum, 2024), Bahamian Creole (Moss & Timler, 2024), and Anguillan Eastern Caribbean English (Franklin et al., 2024). ...
... Other African languages have been similarly understudied, which limits the specificity of evaluation. For brain-injured patients who speak Shona and English, it is essential to develop an assessment of language production and comprehension to differentiate deficits in each language (Ansaldo et al., 2008;Paradis, 1987). ...
... Tools that accurately assess the impact of brain damage on the different languages of a bilingual speaker are fundamental for accurate diagnosis and therapeutic intervention (Narayanan & Ramsdell, 2022). However, quantifying language recovery in bilingual speakers after brain injury may be challenging because of differences in language acquisition (Amberber, 2011;Ansaldo et al., 2008;McCann et al., 2012;Paradis, 2004); Amberber and Cohen (2012); Venkatesh et al. (2012);Diéguez-Vide et al. (2012); Grosjean (1984), language proficiency (Green, 1998;Grosjean, 1998;Higby et al., 2013;Paradis, 2004), or language use (Gil & Goral, 2004;Grosjean, 1998;Lorenzen & Murray, 2008;Manuel-Dupont et al., 1992;M. Muñoz & Marquardt, 2003. ...
... The fact that most societies are linguistically diverse has resulted in multilingualism being the norm and not the exception for most individuals when communicating. In fact, more than 50% of the world's population can be characterized as bilingual (Ansaldo et al., 2008;De Bot, 1992). The terms bilingual and multilingual as used in this lecture refer to individuals who regularly speak or utilize two or more different languages or dialects in their daily communication (Fabbro, 2001;Grosjean, 1994Grosjean, , 1998. ...
... Different ages of language acquisition can sometimes result in different linguistic profi les in multilingual speakers. Simultaneous multilinguals learn more than one language during infancy, whereas successive multilinguals learn their languages at different points in time (Ansaldo et al., 2008). Age of acquisition and profi ciency are generally correlated; the earlier the age at which a language is acquired, the higher the profi ciency will usually be later on. ...
... If patients who learned the Ln via formal instruction suffer brain damage in regions subserving the networks involved in explicit memory, this should predominantly affect those languages rather than the naturally acquired L1 (Ansaldo et al., 2008). However, if the individuals had obtained a full command of their languages in an informal environment, damage to explicit memory networks should leave the languages largely intact. ...
... The world's linguistic opulence, reflected in more than 7,000 languages, inheres in every nook and cranny of contemporary society. Not only that, it has been estimated that the majority of the world population speaks more than one language (Fabbro, 2001;Grosjean & Miller, 1994), and with the rapid rise in human mobility due to migration and globalization, this number will only keep growing (Ansaldo, Marcotte, Scherer, & Raboyeau, 2008). The resulting expansion of multilingual families (Soler & Roberts, 2019;Wei, 2012) may prompt questions from parents on how to best foster children's multilingual development (Grosjean, 2009). ...
... This void in the scholarly realms should be adequately addressed, because for many children language learning is a complex experience, due to the multiplicity of the languages in their environment. This is particularly pertinent to contemporary society, since it has been estimated that the majority of the world population speaks more than one language (Fabbro, 2001); and with the rapid rise in human mobility due to migration and globalisation, this number will not dwindle (Ansaldo et al., 2008). The resulting expansion of multilingual families engenders queries among parents about how to foster children's multilingual development (Grosjean, 2009). ...
... Fang (2006) contends that the particular linguistic features that render science texts more abstract and denser can often lead to difficulties in understanding, especially for students whose first language is not English. Moreover, the number of such students is growing in line with increasing migration and mobility, and approximately 50% of the global population are now believed to use two or more languages or dialects in their lives (Ansaldo et al., 2008). This provides a strong justification for focusing on the learning of mathematics among non-native English-speaking students (Barwell, et al., 2007;Rhodes & Feder, 2014). ...
This review was particularly relevant as it took place at a time when the number of Saudi students in the United Kingdom (UK) and most other developed countries had increased dramatically. Such growth called for an understanding of the language difficulties these students were likely to face in coping with the discursive features of mathematics courses. This review responded to this need and provided important information for educators. Existing knowledge was accessed to determine the relationship between language and mathematical learning and helping non-native English-speaking students. A specific detailed methodology was used to select the chosen studies including four criteria: topic, research base, reliability and validity, and research question. Their findings would enable stakeholders and mathematics teachers to anticipate the language problems for these mathematics students. The study suggested strategies for mathematics teachers that support non-native English-speaking students and made several recommendations for mathematics teachers to improve the experience for such students. It is clear that all students who are non-native English speakers need support to participate in mathematical conversations, and the strategies provided will help to enrich the mathematical learning experience for these students.
... The term "bilingual" refers to people who use two or more languages or dialects in their everyday lives (Grosjean, 1992;Grosjean & Miller, 1994). Aphasia studies in bilingual speakers show different patterns of impairment and recovery for the two languages (Ansaldo et al., 2008;Weekes, 2010). Bilingual people with aphasia (PWA) do not demonstrate the same language disruptions with the same degree of severity in both languages. ...
Aim: The current multiple case study investigates whether Turkish-German bilinguals with aphasia extend to binding constructions and whether pronoun variables show selectivity in bilingual people with aphasia (PWA). These constructions involve referential dependencies, which are difficult for PWAs to compute. Methods: Three Turkish-German bilingual people with aphasia participated in this study and received an offline Picture Verification Task. It is predicted that bilingual PWA would perform worse with pronouns than reflexives or show similar levels of impairment in both pronoun and reflexive conditions in the conditions that involved anaphoric elements with referential antecedents for both languages. On the other hand, it is predicted that they would perform much better in pronouns than in reflexives if the antecedent is quantificational, as they would tend to reject the bound interpretation of pronouns according to the quantificational asymmetry phenomenon. Results: Each subject's performance was analyzed individually to see if there were any differences between the PWAs' bilingual profiles. The results align with the literature findings that there is a selectivity in PWAs regarding the binding of referential elements to their antecedents. Conclusion: The onset of bilingualism and premorbid language imbalance influences the different impairment patterns observed in Turkish-speaking bilingual PWA.
... Third (iii) , the study of predictive processing in non-native reading is of crucial relevance since more than half of the global population is bilingual (Ansaldo et al., 2008). The role of anticipation in bilingual individuals is attracting growing interest in second language acquisition studies, and large-scale data-driven approaches might shed light on a complex picture currently characterized by little consensus. ...
... The relatively recent push for the adoption of a monolingual society in human history is due to the creation of the Western nation-state (Bell, 2013;Zentella, 1995), which assumes that a unified nation should speak one language. However, bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm in societies around the globe, with some estimates showing that more than 60 percent of the world's population is multilingual (e.g., Ansaldo et al., 2008;de Bot, 1992;Romaine, 1994;Silva-Corvalán, 2014). Bell (2013) suggests that large-scale bilingualism can result from sociopolitical constructs such as immigration or the imposition of new borders around a speaker group. ...
Bilingualism and the study of speech sounds are two of the largest areas of inquiry in linguistics. This Handbook sits at the intersection of these fields, providing a comprehensive overview of the most recent, cutting-edge work on the sound systems of adult and child bilinguals. Bringing together contributions from an international team of world-leading experts, it covers all aspects of the speech perception, production and processing of bilingual individuals, as well as surveying cross-linguistic influences on the phonetics and phonology of bilingualism. The thirty-five chapters are divided into thematic areas covering the theoretical foundations and methodological approaches employed to investigate bilingual speech, overviews of major findings and developments in child and adult bilingual phonology and phonetics, descriptions of the major areas of research within the speech perception, production and processing of the bilingual individual, and examinations of various predictors of cross-linguistic influence and variables affecting the outcomes of bilingual speech.
... 34 While there is no clear consensus on the variables contributing to CLT, factors such as: pre-and post-morbid language proficiency, structural similarities between languages, word type (cognate/noncognate) and cognitive control have been proposed in post-stroke literature. 33,35,36 Given these findings, this case-study aims to further elucidate whether similar cross-language effects can occur in a patient with bilingual LvPPA and explore the potential role of neurostimulation in facilitating these effects (see below). ...
Background
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a language-based dementia, causing progressive decline of language functions. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can augment effects of speech-and language therapy (SLT). However, this has not been investigated in bilingual patients with PPA.
Objective
We evaluated the case of Mr. G., a French (native language, L1)/Dutch (second language, L2)-speaking 59-year-old male, with logopenic PPA, associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology. We aimed to characterize his patterns of language decline and evaluate the effects of tDCS applied to the right posterolateral cerebellum on his language abilities and executive control circuits.
Methods
In a within-subject controlled design, Mr. G received 9 sessions of sham and anodal tDCS combined with semantic and phonological SLT in L2. Changes were evaluated with an oral naming task in L2, the Boston Naming Task and subtests of the Bilingual Aphasia Test in in L2 and L1, the Stroop Test and Attention Network Test, before and after each phase of stimulation (sham/tDCS) and at 2-month follow-up.
Results
After anodal tDCS, but not after sham, results improved significantly on oral naming in L2, with generalization to untrained tasks and cross-language transfer (CLT) to L1: picture naming in both languages, syntactic comprehension and repetition in L2, and response times in the incongruent condition of the Attention Network Test, indicating increased inhibitory control.
Conclusions
Our preliminary results are the first to indicate that tDCS applied to the cerebellum may be a valuable tool to enhance the effects of SLT in bilingual patients with logopenic PPA.
... Traditionally, the aim of language assessment for BWAs has been to measure impaired and preserved communication abilities in both languages (Ansaldo et al., 2008). General procedures typically include the administration of bilingual language questionnaires to characterize prestroke language abilities and estimate language proficiency followed by specific language testing, which may include a combination of formal (i.e., published behavioral assessments) and informal (i.e., unstandardized) approaches (Goral & Norvik, 2021). ...
Purpose
The current study delineated a clinical and theoretical framework that clinicians and researchers can use to guide the assessment of bilingual aphasia at morphosyntactic, lexical–semantic, and phonological levels of language processing.
Method
This tutorial outlines cross-linguistic and multicultural considerations that should be addressed in evaluating bilingual adults with aphasia (BWAs).
Results
At the morphosyntactic level, we presented three features that should be taken into account when evaluating linguistic symptoms in languages considering whether they are typologically similar or dissimilar: word order, pro(noun)-drop, and morphological inflections of verbs. We suggest that clinicians need to conduct additional error analyses that reflect typological differences in syntactic templates, argument-deletion phenomena, and morphological inflections to better understand linguistic characteristics of impairments arising from the interactions of the two languages that may differ in many ways. At the lexical–semantic level, we addressed three cross-linguistic features that may impact naming performance in BWAs: cognates, lexical frequency, and semantic typicality. The presence of cognates between the two languages can lead to differential interpretations of naming performance. In addition, the same lexical items may exhibit varying lexical frequency and typicality across languages due to cultural and linguistic differences. We suggest that clinicians should thoroughly prepare the testing items considering the linguistic distance. Finally, we emphasized differences in segmental and suprasegmental features of phonology that could contribute to cross-linguistic phenomena during assessment of two or more languages.
Conclusions
This cross-linguistic assessment framework contributes to a better understanding of linguistic impairments and communication difficulties experienced by BWAs. This framework can be utilized in current clinical practice to facilitate culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment and treatment approaches for BWAs.
... The majority of the world's population speaks more than one language (Ansaldo et al., 2008). Among such multilingual speakers, code-switching is a commonly observed phenomenon. ...
In this work, we use language modeling to investigate the factors that influence code-switching. Code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between one language variety (the primary language) and another (the secondary language), and is widely observed in multilingual contexts. Recent work has shown that code-switching is often correlated with areas of high information load in the primary language, but it is unclear whether high primary language load only makes the secondary language relatively easier to produce at code-switching points (speaker-driven code-switching), or whether code-switching is additionally used by speakers to signal the need for greater attention on the part of listeners (audience-driven code-switching). In this paper, we use bilingual Chinese-English online forum posts and transcripts of spontaneous Chinese-English speech to replicate prior findings that high primary language (Chinese) information load is correlated with switches to the secondary language (English). We then demonstrate that the information load of the English productions is even higher than that of meaning equivalent Chinese alternatives, and these are therefore not easier to produce, providing evidence of audience-driven influences in code-switching at the level of the communication channel, not just at the sociolinguistic level, in both writing and speech.
... Some authors claim that bilingual treatment is the ideal option for MPWA as individuals are used to communicating in a multilingual environment (Edmonds & Kiran, 2006;Galvez & Hinckley, 2003). On the contrary, some researchers are dubitative regarding bilingual treatment, citing concerns about preventing the recovery of one language or resulting in increased code-switching and code-mixing (Ansaldo et al., 2008). Although more research is undoubtedly required, targeting cognates in language therapy, and focusing on the weaker language are crucial factors to enhance therapy effects in MPWA (Ansaldo & Saidi, 2014;Faroqi-Shah et al., 2010;Marte et al., 2023). ...
... Consequently, this prevents the larger audience of researchers in the field of linguistic aphasiology from appraising the reliability of the test (Ali et al., 2021). The effectiveness of rehabilitation intervention ultimately depends upon fair diagnosis reached through a reliable bilingual aphasia test (Ansaldo et al., 2008). Hence, considering the high prevalence of aphasic disorder in the local bilingual population in Pakistan (Riaz et al., 2020), the inaccessibility of language assessment tools for Urdu speaking patients with aphasia, and the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the BAT to Urdu is a pressing issue. ...
Aphasia is an acquired neural disorder of communication, which is characterised by the symptoms on all levels of language dysfunction. The efficacy of treatment for these language impairments depends upon administering a reliable language assessment test to diagnose aphasia. Most of the aphasia batteries that researchers have developed and validated are in the English language (e.g., Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE), and Western Aphasia Battery (WAB). The only option left for clinicians to assess bilingual aphasia in Urdu speaking patients is to use the adapted version of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT). However, the test has not been standardised and normed on Urdu speaking adult individuals with aphasia. Therefore, there is a need for a standardised assessment test for diagnosing Urdu speaking patients. This study aims at adapting a test based on the BAT which is a structural and cultural adaptation to the idiosyncrasies of the Urdu language. A discussion, with Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs), linguists and clinicians from two clinical settings of Lahore, was conducted to identify the linguistic and socio-cultural issues on adapting the test. The test was adapted in Urdu utilising the exhaustive equivalence criteria mentioned in the BAT principles, after which it was administered to a sample of 60 participants to identify disparities because of transcription errors or ambiguity in pictorial or linguistic structures and unexpected socio-cultural adversity. The participants' responses to test items failing to meet a predetermined threshold criterion were investigated and reviewed and the transcription errors found were only human errors that were resolved easily, but more complex or ambiguous items were retranslated and readapted. The standardisation process of the BAT-Urdu involved administering Part-B of the final draft of the test to the control group comprising 60 native, bilingual speakers of the Urdu language, non-brain damaged and non-psychotic, in a clinical setting. This sample was stratified by age and sex, (30 males and 30 females of which 20 participants were between age 50 and 59, another 20 participants were between age 60 and 69 and the final 20 were over 70 years of age). Thus, the first step of the BAT-Urdu standardisation involved an acceptability study, wherein all items of the test must achieve unanimous acceptance by the control group, setting the threshold criterion at 100%. The stimuli of the BAT-Urdu are in black and white, and all items reached the threshold criterion, i.e., according to the participants of the control group, all items of the test are easy to understand and unambiguous.
... In 2010, the National Stroke Foundation's clinical guidelines for stroke management suggested that individuals suspected of having aphasia should undergo a formal assessment by a speech-language pathologist to confirm or exclude the presence of aphasia 6 . The effectiveness of treatment intervention depends upon the administration of a valid and reliable test 7 . Most extensively developed and validated aphasia assessment tools are available in the English language, such as the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination and Western Aphasia Battery. ...
... In 2010, the National Stroke Foundation's clinical guidelines for stroke management suggested that individuals suspected of having aphasia should undergo a formal assessment by a speech-language pathologist to confirm or exclude the presence of aphasia 6 . The effectiveness of treatment intervention depends upon the administration of a valid and reliable test 7 . Most extensively developed and validated aphasia assessment tools are available in the English language, such as the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination and Western Aphasia Battery. ...
... Although underrepresented in psychological research (E. Kidd & Garcia, 2022), most children worldwide are raised with more than one native language (Ansaldo et al., 2008;Ellajosyula et al., 2020;Giovannoli et al., 2020;Grosjean, 2010Grosjean, , 2013. Bilingual experience is, therefore, a very relevant form of diversity for most individuals and understanding the psychological impact of such experience on development is central to a more representative science of early human development. ...
Bilingual environments provide a commonplace example of increased complexity and uncertainty. Learning multiple languages entails mastery of a larger and more variable range of sounds, words, syntactic structures, pragmatic conventions, and more complex mapping of linguistic information to objects in the world. Recent research suggests that bilingual learners demonstrate fundamental variation in how they explore and learn from their environment, which may derive from this increased complexity. In particular, the increased complexity and variability of bilingual environments may broaden the focus of learners’ attention, laying a different attentional foundation for learning. In this review, we introduce a novel framework, with accompanying empirical evidence, for understanding how early learners may adapt to a more complex environment, drawing on bilingualism as an example. Three adaptations, each relevant to the demands of abstracting structure from a complex environment, are introduced. Each adaptation is discussed in the context of empirical evidence attesting to shifts in basic psychological processes in bilingual learners. This evidence converges on the notion that bilingual learners may explore their environment more broadly. Downstream consequences of broader sampling for perception and learning are discussed. Finally, recommendations for future research to expand the scientific narrative on the impact of diverse environments on learning are provided.
... When treatment in each language is not feasible, CLG can be maximized by engaging in translation activities either during the session or at home with assistance from caregivers. We recommend mixed-language anomia treatment where both languages are trained within the same treatment session (Ansaldo et al., 2008;Centeno, 2005;Faroqi-Shah et al., 2010). The efficacy of mixed-language therapy has been demonstrated in bilingual children (Ebert et al., 2014). ...
Purpose
The present meta-analysis investigated the efficacy of anomia treatment in bilingual and multilingual persons with aphasia (BPWAs) by assessing the magnitudes of six anomia treatment outcomes. Three of the treatment outcomes pertained to the “trained language”: improvement of trained words (treatment effect [TE]), within-language generalization of semantically related untrained words (WLG-Related), and within-language generalization of unrelated words (WLG-Unrelated). Three treatment outcomes were for the “untrained language”: improvement of translations of the trained words (cross-language generalization of trained words [CLG-Tx]), cross-language generalization of semantically related untrained words (CLG-Related), and cross-language generalization of unrelated untrained words (CLG-Unrelated). This study also examined participant- and treatment-related predictors of these treatment outcomes.
Method
This study is registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under the number CRD42023418147. Nine electronic databases were searched to identify word retrieval treatment studies of poststroke BPWAs of at least 6 months postonset. Pre- and posttreatment single-word naming scores were extracted for each eligible participant and used to calculate effect sizes (within-case Cohen's d) of the six treatment outcomes. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to assess weighted mean effect sizes of the treatment outcomes across studies. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the effects of participant-related variables (pretreatment single-word naming and comprehension representing poststroke lexical processing abilities) and treatment-related variables (type, language, and duration). The methodological quality of eligible studies and the risk of bias in this meta-analysis were assessed.
Results
A total of 17 published studies with 39 BPWAs were included in the meta-analysis. The methodological quality of the included studies ranged from fair (n = 4) to good (n = 13). Anomia treatment produced a medium effect size for TE (M = 8.36) and marginally small effect sizes for WLG-Related (M = 1.63), WLG-Unrelated (M = 0.68), and CLG-Tx (M = 1.56). Effect sizes were nonsignificant for CLG-Related and CLG-Unrelated. TE was significantly larger than the other five types of treatment outcomes. TE and WLG-Related effect sizes were larger for BPWAs with milder comprehension or naming impairments and for treatments of longer duration. WLG-Unrelated was larger when BPWAs received phonological treatment than semantic and mixed treatments. The overall risk of bias in the meta-analysis was low with a potential risk of bias present in the study identification process.
Conclusions
Current anomia treatment practices for bilingual speakers are efficacious in improving trained items but produce marginally small within-language generalization and cross-language generalization to translations of the trained items. These results highlight the need to provide treatment in each language of BPWAs and/or investigate other approaches to promote cross-language generalization. Furthermore, anomia treatment outcomes are influenced by BPWAs' poststroke single-word naming and comprehension abilities as well as treatment duration and the provision of phonological treatment.
Supplemental Material
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25595712
... Further evidence for the presence of control impairments comes from reports of pathological code-switching (Abutalebi et al., 2000;Ansaldo et al., 2010;Calabria et al., 2014;Fabbro, 2000;Kong et al., 2014;Leemann et al., 2007;Mariën et al., 2017). Language switching is considered "pathological" when it occurs in pragmatically inappropriate contexts (Ansaldo et al., 2008). In these cases, BWA may switch to a language not shared with their interlocutor, or to a language in which they are not proficient. ...
... Over half of the world's population uses at least two languages regularly (Ansaldo et al., 2008). Despite this common occurrence, automatic speech recognition (ASR) models don't work well with speech that includes code-switching: when a speaker alternates between two or more languages or varieties within utterances (Myers-Scotton, 2017). ...
... 19 Ingurune eleaniztunetan, gainera, aintzat hartzekoa da hiztun elebidunengan hizkuntza guztiak ebaluatzea guztiz beharrezkoa dela, urradurak ez baitie hizkuntza guztiei berdin eragiten, eta berreskuratzea ere bi hizkuntzetan modu eta maila ezberdinean gerta baitaiteke (Paradis, 2004;Verreyt, De Letter, Hemelsoet, Santens, & Duyck, 2013), batik bat tipologikoki distantzia handia duten hizkuntzen kasuan (Ansaldo, Marcotte, Scherer, & Raboyeau, 2008;Faroqi-Shah, Frymark, Mullen, & Wang, 2010;Goral, Rosas, Conner, Maul, & Obler, 2012 33 Ahozko hizkuntzaren garapenaren nahasteak hainbat izen izan ditu denboran zehar, gaur egun ingelesez "Developmental Language Disorder" izena emateko akordiora iritsi da 57 adituz osatutako taldea (Bishop et al., 2017). Euskaraz "Adierazpen Hizkuntzaren Arazo Espezifikoa" bezala ezagutzen da eta hizkuntzaren jabetzean eman daitekeen nahasteari egiten dio erreferentzia. ...
... Many researchers have systematically explored the answers to these questions. Among the recent evidences, experts emphasize the use of both the languages while treating persons with aphasia in order to utilize the available strategies, (e.g.: Ansaldo et al. 2008;Centeno 2005). Croft (2011) did a study on five Bengali-English bilingual persons with aphasia and found that generalization followed L1 to L2. ...
Word finding difficulty (Anomia) is a persistent problem with aphasia even after a significant recovery in domains of comprehension and expression. Majority of the studies that have focused on treating anomia have used either phonological of semantic cueing strategies, presently orthographic cueing has also been shown to have positive effects in word retrieval. There is a dearth of studies done using orthographic cueing in bilingual aphasia. The present study focuses on using self-generated orthographic cueing to overcome anomia in a person with aphasia. Study addressed the following questions: Does orthographic cueing improve word retrieval in aphasia? Does orthographic cueing in L2 lead to cross-linguistic generalization for naming in L1? Participant was a 56 year male (MX), bilingual with L1-Kannada L2-English. Background testing was done to evaluate his present language abilities & the test results revealed that MX had naming difficulties especially on word fluency task of WAB. Hence lexical naming was taken up for treatment. This is an experimental research, single subject, baseline and post-therapy testing. A group of untreated items served as experimental control. Treatment was provided only in L2 and assessed for cross linguistic generalization post treatment. A conversation sample of pre and post treatment session was recorded & analyzed using POWERS to quantify the improvement in word retrieval.
... Multilingualism is the ability to switch between two or more languages at the same or about the same level of proficiency [1]. A significant portion of the global population possesses this skill, with estimates suggesting that over half of individuals are bilingual [2], and globalization brings an increasingly multilingual workforce to workplaces. Furthermore, individuals raised as multilingual pledge virtually no effort into acquiring language skills and face no monetary opportunity costs when learning a second language [3,4]. ...
At least half of the world population is bilingual, but lifetime financial gains from early exposure to multiple languages are largely unknown. In this study, we analyze individual earnings of bilinguals in the US using 15 years of Census data and an augmented wage model, accounting for cognitive, manual, and interpersonal skills derived from O*NET job task descriptors via sparse principal component method. Using unconditional quantile regression, we find evidence that language skills mostly benefit individuals at the lower end of the earnings distribution. While our analysis does not establish causality, it underscores the potential of early language acquisition to mitigate income inequality by enhancing the employment prospects of low-income individuals. We also highlight the favorable cost-benefit ratio of language acquisition in childhood, when learners face no monetary opportunity costs and can achieve greater levels of fluency.
... Nearly half of the world's population is estimated to be bilingual or multilingual (Ansaldo et al., 2008). A bilingual person is an individual who uses two or more languages with a certain extent of proficiency. ...
... Language may arguably be the most important faculty of humankind and more than half of the world population is thought to be bilingual/multilingual (Ansaldo et al., 2008). It is also shown that multilinguals/bilinguals process the linguistic material differently than monolingual individuals (Palomar-García et al., 2015;Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2002). ...
To examine the neural dynamics of interlingual homophone (ILHP) word processing, we created a word list consisting of Turkish control and Turkish/English ILHP words and asked native Turkish speakers to perform one of the following tasks while their prefrontal activity was recorded with fNIRS: passive listening; word recognition; word memorisation. We found that left DLPFC was active during all tasks. The right DLPFC activity was increased during ILHP word recognition task possibly due to domain-general control networks for conflict monitoring, while the left DLPFC activity was increased for ILHP word memorisation task possibly due to the working memory related processes. These findings suggest that ILHP processing induce a competition between languages in the brain, supporting the BIA+ model and that right DLPFC could be part of the task/decision system of BIA+ model. Lastly, current findings suggest that task requirements can modulate the location and the magnitude of the brain activity.
... Bilingualism generally refers to the ability to actively use more than one language or dialect daily [1]. Bilinguals are becoming increasingly common throughout the world [2]. ...
Research on the benefits of bilingualism for executive functions has produced conflicting findings. This review systematically summarizes the findings of 27 studies from 23 articles on this topic from the last decade, with participants’ ages ranging from 18 to 60. We extracted data on participants’ backgrounds and the results of different task paradigms. We found no significant bilingual advantage in executive functions in healthy adults between 18 and 60 years of age, although the conflicting results make it challenging to draw a decisive conclusion.
... Learning a second language is required to communicate with the international community. This is a testament to the growing importance of learning a second language [1]. Memorizing words and ability to remember them play an important role in learning a new language. ...
Background and Objective The role of night sleep in learning and consolidating memory has been mentioned and researched in many studies. Different tools have been used to determine the effect of sleep. However, this kind of research in the Iranian population is limited. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the role of sleep in immediate and late learning of new words of second language in a number of English language learners.Methods Forty Persian males aged 18–35 years old participated in our study in two groups. The first group completed learning steps at 8–10 AM and repeated the test after 12 hours. The second group performed the initial stages of learning at 8–10 PM and repeated the test next morning. Everyone completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Persian version for evaluating their sleep habits during last month and the effect of their sleep habits on achieved task scores.Results Comparison of the number of recalled words (NRW) between the two groups showed a significant difference (p-value < 0.001) with better performance in night group. The NRW during the second stage was positively influenced by better subjective sleep quality, lower sleep latency, higher sleep efficiency, and more sleep duration significantly (p-value < 0.05). There was no significant relationship of NRW with sleep disorders, sleep medications, or daytime dysfunction.Conclusions Adequate night sleep could improve late learning of second language in our research subjects. Sleep quality, latency in falling asleep, and subjective sleep quality might play a role in this learning process.
... The somewhat unexpected findings on switching costs in trilinguals elicited a number of explanations. Goral (2012: 723) refers to the review of issues pertaining to switching abilities in bilingual and multilingual speakers by Ansaldo et al. (2008), who suggest that multilinguals may have stronger switching skills by virtue of having to switch between three and more languages, resulting in smaller switching costs in all of their languages. Another neurolinguist, Festman (2012: 209) suggested that the active use of three languages involves the inhibition of two currently unused languages, in order for the third, the current language of production, to be ready for use. ...
... It should be noted that the manner of acquisition and age of acquisition are closely related. Individuals who learn an L2 in adulthood tend to learn it in formal settings such as through an educational institution, while those who learn L1 and L2 simultaneously tend to learn both languages naturalistically (Ansaldo et al., 2008). In other words, reported di erences in how late bilinguals process the L1 and L2 may actually be due to di erences in the manner of acquisition of each language. ...
Background
Language treatment for bilinguals with aphasia has been shown to result in gains in both the treated language and the untreated language (i.e., cross-language generalization). However, cross-language generalization is not consistently found. This inconsistency may be due to several factors, such as the age of acquisition of, and proficiency in, each language. One often-overlooked factor that may influence whether cross-language generalization occurs is the manner in which bilinguals learned their second language (L2): in a formal educational context (explicitly) or naturalistically through exposure to the language (implicitly). Prior research suggests that implicit L2 learning results in greater overlap in the representation of the first language (L1) and L2 in the brain, particularly for grammar, compared to explicit learning. In contrast, lexical processing in L1 and L2 is proposed to rely more on shared brain regions regardless of the manner of L2 acquisition. Greater overlap should provide a greater likelihood of cross-language generalization effects from treatment.
Aims
The goal of this study was to determine how the manner of acquisition of L2 may affect cross-language generalization following treatment in L2 separately targeting the lexicon (object naming) and grammar (sentence construction).
Methods & Procedures
Two Spanish-English bilinguals with aphasia each completed two treatment phases in English of 2-4 weeks each, in succession, with one week between them: semantic feature analysis (SFA) targeting object naming, and Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) targeting verb retrieval and sentence construction. Pre- and post-treatment assessments and weekly probes were completed for each phase. Participant P1 learned English explicitly in an educational setting, while participant P2 learned English implicitly.
Outcomes & Results
As predicted, P2 showed cross-language generalization after verb/grammar treatment (VNeST) whereas P1 did not. However, contrary to the prediction that both participants should show cross-language generalization after noun treatment (SFA), only P1 showed cross-language generalization of object naming.
Conclusions
Cross-language generalization was observed for both participants but for different aspects of language. The findings suggest that naturalistic second language learning may lead to stronger links between languages in the grammatical system, whereas formal second language learning may lead to stronger links between languages in the lexical-semantic system. Future research should further explore the effects of manner of acquisition as a predictor of language co-activation and cross-language treatment generalization in bilinguals with aphasia.
... Many of the newborns in the 21 st century are or will be bi-/multilingual (DeHouwer, 2021, p. 4). Available data place the number of people knowing and using at least two languages worldwide at around 60% (e.g., Ansaldo et al., 2008;DeHouwer, 2021;EuroStat, 2016;Romaine, 1995). This number soars when looking at certain countries or territories and especially when numbers include knowledge of non-native languages. ...
... About 60% of the world's populationthe majorityis bilingual or multilingual (Ansaldo et al. 2008). For this population, language behavior and linguistic effects can take an especially complex form. ...
This monograph aims to introduce researchers to the fascinating world of linguistics and to show how to conduct meaningful language research in marketing, exploring the way language influences behavior and how language can express thoughts, emotions, and mental states in marketing contexts. Ann Kronrod, who holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and conducts linguistic research in marketing, familiarizes the reader with fundamental concepts and prominent theories in linguistics, reviews the currently available research in marketing that examines language questions, lays out a guide to conducting compelling language research in marketing, and offers exciting future directions for developing new perspectives on language within marketing research. This monograph can be used as a basic guide for beginning researchers who are interested to conduct language research in marketing, or as a summary for more seasoned researchers who already acquired linguistics education and would like to get up to date on recent streams in the research of language in marketing.
... About 60% of the world's populationthe majorityis bilingual or multilingual (Ansaldo et al. 2008). For this population, language behavior and linguistic effects can take an especially complex form. ...
This manuscript aims to introduce researchers to the fascinating world of linguistics and to show how to conduct meaningful language research in marketing, exploring the way language influences behavior and how language can express thoughts, emotions, and mental states in marketing contexts. Ann Kronrod, who holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and conducts linguistic research in marketing, familiarizes the reader with fundamental concepts and prominent theories in linguistics, reviews the currently available research in marketing that examines language questions, lays out a guide to conducting compelling language research in marketing, and offers exciting future directions for developing new perspectives on language within marketing research. This manuscript can be used as a basic guide for beginning researchers who are interested to conduct language research in marketing, or as a summary for more seasoned researchers who already acquired linguistics education and would like to get up to date on recent streams in the research of language in marketing. My goal is to show you how language influences behavior in marketing, and how language can express thoughts, emotions, and mental states. I will review and summarize research on language in marketing and accompany my review with illustrations and examples. Research of language in marketing is developing, and has lately become a permanent topic in marketing research and teaching. Having earned my Ph.D. in psycho-linguistics, I am excited to share my extensive knowledge of linguistics and show you how it can be used in research of language in marketing. This manuscript consists of four parts: Part I will cover the basics of linguistics in simple terms and introduce readers to the most prominent linguistic theories, building a knowledge foundation that can help practitioners, researchers and students develop new ideas in marketing. Part II will provide a comprehensive review of current research of language in marketing, identifying theoretical contributions, methodological approaches, and practical implications. Part III will overview the most common methods in linguistic inquiry and lay out a step-by-step pathway to developing language research in marketing, starting from a marketing problem, raising new research questions, evolving into a new theory that can identify behavior and explain it, and materializing into a methodological approach that yields meaningful conclusions. Part IV will summarize the manuscript and outline suggestions for future research of language in marketing. It is my hope that readers will enjoy new discoveries while reading this manuscript and that the text will spur novel linguistic research contributions in the field of marketing. Part I-Linguistics and Language Research
... Researchers have estimated that at least half of the people in the world speak more than one language (Ansaldo et al., 2008;Ellajosyula et al., 2020;Giovannoli et al., 2020;Grosjean, 2010Grosjean, , 2013. For example, some nations (approx. ...
Aims and objectives
The aim of this manuscript is to provide an overview of the population and languages studied and the methods and practices surrounding the definition of bilingualism in children below age 3.
Methodology
A quantitative descriptive scoping review
Data and analysis
From 530 articles, we identified 127 papers (167 studies) that met our predefined criteria, of which 144 studies defined their bilingual population.
Findings/conclusions
The samples investigated were predominantly western in geographical origin and languages. Percent exposure was the most common method to measure bilingualism among infants and young children, with 20% and 25% the most used cutoffs as the minimum requirement for children’s second language. We also analyzed the predictive value of these cutoffs on the likelihood that studies reported a significant difference between monolinguals and bilinguals. The stricter the inclusion requirement for bilinguals was, the higher the odds of a study to report a difference between monolingual and bilingual children. We conclude that a lack of uniformity of definition in the field may be one factor that predicts whether or not significant differences are reported.
Originality
This scoping review provides developmental researchers with a unique overview of the different practices used in the field to characterize bilingual and monolingual infants/toddlers. The reported results can be used as preliminary evidence for the field to report and carefully formulate how to categorize monolinguals and bilingual infants.
Significance/implications
As globalization continues to foster migration and intercultural exchange, it is essential for developmental researchers to diversify their samples and language groups. We highly encourage researchers to carefully document the definitions and rationale for all their language groups and to consider analyzing the impact of bilingualism both from a categorical and continuous approach.
This study examined gender and grade-level differences in English literacy and mathematics competency among multilingual learners enrolled in the English Language Development (ELD) program across five schools in a suburban district in Maryland, USA. Additionally, it explored the relationship between English literacy and mathematics competency within this group of learners. Using a quantitative design with 176 learners, the study revealed that the multilingual learners in the suburban school district in Maryland, USA, are still in the process of developing foundational skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening while also facing ongoing struggles in key areas of mathematics, such as functions, modeling, reasoning, and statistics. Gender differences in English proficiency were not significant across grade levels. Thus, both male and female learners exhibit similar language development. However, a gender gap in mathematics competency emerged in Grade 9, with male learners outperforming their female counterparts. This gap diminished by Grades 10 and 11, where no significant gender-based differences in math proficiency were found. Interestingly, proficiency in English plays a crucial role in enhancing multilingual learners' understanding of mathematical concepts, a relationship that is particularly evident in the 10th grade but not at the 9th or 11th-grade levels. All these findings underscore the evolving nature of language and math skills development in multilingual learners and suggest that gender and language proficiency may have varying impacts at different stages of academic growth.
Billions of people throughout the world are bilingual and can understand semantic concepts in multiple languages. However, there is little agreement about how the brains of bilinguals represent semantic information from different languages. Some theories suggest that bilingual speakers' brains contain separate representations for semantic information from different languages, while others suggest that different languages evoke the same semantic representations in the brain. To determine how the brains of bilinguals represent semantic information from different languages, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record brain responses while participants who are fluent in both English and Chinese read several hours of natural narratives in each language. We then used this data to specifically and comprehensively compare semantic representations between the two languages. We show that while semantic representations are largely shared between languages, these representations undergo fine-grained shifts between languages. These shifts systematically alter how different concept categories are represented in each language. Our results suggest that for bilinguals, semantic brain representations are shared across languages but modulated by each language. These results reconcile competing theories of bilingual language processing.
Bilingualism and multilingualism have long fascinated linguists, educators, and researchers due to their potential effects on cognitive, linguistic, and educational development. This study, part of two, explores how growing up in a bilingual or multilingual environment impacts foreign language learning abilities, focusing on university students in Beirut, Lebanon. The investigation sheds light on whether being born into such language-rich contexts confers advantages in acquiring additional languages, specifically English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This research follows a quantitative, deductive, and positivist approach. A sample of 153 Lebanese university students pursuing different majors was selected conveniently based on the participant's willingness to participate. The research tool is a questionnaire constituting four sections that include knowledge questions addressing different sets of attitudinal statements characterizing the students' and their parents' status, home habits, background, and practices of the English language; the attitude of students toward the English language along the three dimensions of Towers-Perrin-ISR model; the family's attachment to books, and demographics of the participants and their parents. Questions and statements were dyadic, multiple choice, four-level, and five-level Likert scales. Collected data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 26.0 package. Data analysis used descriptive, factor, and linear regression analyses. However, this paper, part 1 of 2, provides the theoretical background necessary to carry out the quantitative part. In this paper, the introduction and the literature review include an in-depth exposition of bilingualism in Lebanon, the status of English Journal for the Study of English Linguistics 2 language teaching, the Towers Perrin-ISR model, and related empirical review of schooling, parents' and teachers' roles, and bilingualism in tertiary education. Findings contribute to both theoretical and practical domains. Theoretically, the study offers insights into the relationship between early language exposure and subsequent language acquisition. The outcomes inform EFL teaching methods, curriculum design, and language policy initiatives in multilingual societies like Lebanon.
The neural mechanisms underlying language processing in English and Spanish bilinguals remain a topic of intense investigation. No neuroimaging meta-analyses about English and Spanish bilinguals’ language processing, nevertheless, appeared in the past. In this meta-analysis, Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) technique was used to synthesize findings from 13 neuroimaging studies of total 231 Spanish-English or English-Spanish bilinguals. Results showed that there existed 6 peaks in 4 activated brain regions during Spanish processing and 13 peaks in 11 activated brain regions during English processing. In addition, results revealed two distinct peaks of two brain regions commonly activated during language processing across both languages: right insula and left precentral gyrus which may become potential markers for individuals who are bilingual in both English and Spanish. In addition, we found no significant difference in activation between English and Spanish, indicating that these two languages may engage similar neural pathways during language processing.
In our increasingly multilingual modern world, understanding how languages beyond the first are acquired and processed at a brain level is essential to design evidence-based teaching, clinical interventions and language policy. Written by a team of world-leading experts in a wide range of disciplines within cognitive science, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the study of third (and more) language acquisition and processing. It features 30 approachable chapters covering topics such as multilingual language acquisition, education, language maintenance and language loss, multilingual code-switching, ageing in the multilingual brain, and many more. Each chapter provides an accessible overview of the state of the art in its topic, while offering comprehensive access to the specialized literature, through carefully curated citations. It also serves as a methodological resource for researchers in the field, offering chapters on methods such as case studies, corpora, artificial language systems or statistical modelling of multilingual data.
The occurrence of code mixing phenomenon was unavoidable, moreover in the bilingual society such as Indonesia, where the speakers communicate by in other (foreign) languages besides their national or local languages. There is no exception to Molita Lin, an Indonesian beauty vlogger who produces and uploads videos about beauty-related topics, such as cosmetics, skincare products, body care routines, and make-up tutorials to the YouTube platform. Since she has the ability to speak in English, Molita Lin significantly uses English terms while explaining something in her videos. Therefore, this study was aimed to provide an important opportunity to advance the understanding the types of code mixing as well as the reasons of the occurrences of code mixing in one of Molita Lin’s YouTube video entitled “SKINCARE UNTUK PEMULA ANTI RIBET | Day Night” by using documentation method as the method of data collection. and then the data were analyzed descriptively and qualitatively by applying theories proposed by Hoffman regarding types and the reasons of code mixing. As an outcome, this study concluded that in the Molita Lin’s video transcribe, there are three types of code mixing and only four out of seven reasons of code mixing that can be observed.
The main goal of the field of augmented cognition is to research and develop adaptive systems capable of extending the information management capacity of individuals through computing technologies. Augmented cognition research and development is therefore focused on accelerating the production of novel concepts in human-system integration and includes the study of methods for addressing cognitive bottlenecks (e.g., limitations in attention, memory, learning, comprehension, visualization abilities, and decision making) via technologies that assess the user’s cognitive status in real time. A computational interaction employing such novel system concepts monitors the state of the user, through behavioral, psychophysiological, and neurophysiological data acquired from the user in real time, and then adapts or augments the computational interface to significantly improve their performance on the task at hand.
The International Conference on Augmented Cognition (AC), an affiliated conference of the HCI International (HCII) conference, arrived at its 16th edition and encouraged papers from academics, researchers, industry, and professionals, on a broad range of theoretical and applied issues related to augmented cognition and its applications.
The field of augmented cognition has matured over the years to solve enduring issues such as portable, wearable neurosensing technologies and data fusion strategies in operational environments. These innovations coupled with better understanding of brain and behavior, improved measures of brain state change, and improved artificial intelligence algorithms have helped expand the augmented cognition focus areas to rehabilitation, brain-computer interfaces, and training and education. The burgeoning field of human-machine interfaces such as drones and autonomous agents are also benefitting from augmented cognition research.
This volume of the HCII 2022 proceedings is dedicated to this year’s edition of the AC conference and focuses on topics related to understanding human cognition and behavior, brain activity measurement and electroencephalography, human and machine learning, and augmented cognition in extended reality.
Papers of this one volume are included for publication after a minimum of two single-blind reviews from the members of the AC Program Board or, in some cases, from members of the Program Boards of other affiliated conferences. We would like to thank all of them for their invaluable contribution, support, and efforts.
This article firstly introduces an emerging field of bilingual aphasia and discusses the theoretical framework and the significance of bilingual aphasia research. It then provides a review of existing research, focusing on recovery patterns, cross-linguistic transfer effects, and modulating factors in the rehabilitation of bilingual aphasia. It concludes with identification of areas for future research to advance knowledge in bilingual aphasia.
Objective
The objective of the present study was to examine the neurocognitive profiles associated with limited English proficiency (LEP).
Method
A brief neuropsychological battery including measures with high (HVM) and low verbal mediation (LVM) was administered to 80 university students: 40 native speakers of English (NSEs) and 40 with LEP.
Results
Consistent with previous research, individuals with LEP performed more poorly on HVM measures and equivalent to NSEs on LVM measures—with some notable exceptions.
Conclusions
Low scores on HVM tests should not be interpreted as evidence of acquired cognitive impairment in individuals with LEP, because these measures may systematically underestimate cognitive ability in this population. These findings have important clinical and educational implications.
The handwritten recognition (HWR) is a complex task with variety of challenges associated with natural language, variety in the styles of writing, variety and nuances of alphabets etc. The core research in handwritten recognition focuses around Latin alphabet and corresponding languages. However, differences between the languages using Latin as their main script are still major: from changed letter frequencies to additional letters. Additionally, handwriting practices and styles are not developed consistently within the same language; for example - cursive vs print calligraphy. As a result of globalization estimated 50% of world’s population speaks second language [1]. Researching characteristics of non-native handwriting has been done by various educational and second language research purposes but remains largely unaddressed in the context of augmented cognition using online handwritten recognition. We researched differences and similarities of online handwriting between native and non-native speakers of English, Georgian, Chinese and Korean speakers. We have also examined related research for Arabic, Italian and Malay handwritings. As a result, we have identified key characteristics of non-native speakers’ distinguishing from the native ones. In addition, we have identified differences based on writers’ individual maturity with the second language.KeywordsHandwritten recognitionDynamic handwritingNatural language processing
Meander (a linguist): 1 have a theory that everybody's eyes are colour-less. Simplon (a psychologist): But, Meander, everybody's eyes look brown, bIue or green to me. Meander: That's because they are actually wearing contact lenses to color their eyes. Simplon: But, Meander, t know that I don't wear contact lenses, and when I look in the mirror my eyes look blue to me. Meander: Ah: but then, there's a lot we don't know about mirrors. The other papers in this conference have devoted a good deal of attention to the question of whether linguistic theory is an explanation or a description, and whether it can in principle aspire to be either. Such discussions are often hampered by a lack of clarity as to what the subject matter actually is. In the present paper I shall sketch the nature of linguistic data and how it interacts with linguistic descriptions, whch under ordinary usage 'would be termed "theories." It is my philosophically naive position that, properly managed, linguistic theory can have aU the properties that we ordinarily demand of an "explanation." However, I leave the question as to Bever, T.G. (1974). The ascent of the specious or there's a lot we don't know about mirrors. In D. Cohen (Ed.), Explaining linguistic phenomena (173200).
This article presents an approach to a variety of syndromes and patterns of language disorders in the different languages of bilingual speakers and polyglots. The approach is based on the systemic-dynamic approach of Vygotsky and Luria in which the concept of extracortical organization of mental functions is especially important. This framework demands that in neuropsychological analysis, all the variables and dynamics of the process of bilingual development (language anamnesis) have to be taken into consideration, along with details of the neurological syndrome. Special attention is paid to the circumstances and manner of second language acquisition.
We report on the neuropsychological and neurolinguistic features of a bilingual patient, E.M., who presented with an uncommon pattern of aphasic deficit consequent to subcortical lesions mainly involving the left basal ganglia. Not only are reports of bilingual subcortical aphasia rare, but E.M.'s deficit is particularly uncommon for it concerns the most used mother tongue (Venetian) much more than a less practiced second language (standard Italian). In this patient, the linguistic deficit in mother tongue production has been observed in spontaneous speech and in cross language translation tasks, where an asymmetrical paradoxical performance has been revealed. Indeed, unlike neurologically intact subjects, E.M. has more difficulties when translating into her mother tongue than into her second language. Although E.M.'s mother tongue is prevalently an oral language, the asymmetrical translation pattern is similar in written and oral translation tasks, thus ruling out the possibility that the deficit simply reflects differences between written and oral language codes. Finally, another remarkable feature of E.M.'s impairment is its stability over almost 5 years from the stroke. We propose that this unusual type of recovery in E.M. is related to the higher degree of automatization of the first language with respect to the second one. This proposal fits with the role of basal ganglia in automatized motor and cognitive performance.
The cortical organization of language in bilinguals remains disputed. We studied 24 right-handed fluent bilinguals: 15 exposed to both Mandarin and English before the age of 6 years; and nine exposed to Mandarin in early childhood but English only after the age of 12 years. Blood oxygen level-dependent contrast functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed while subjects performed cued word generation in each language. Fixation was the control task. In both languages, activations were present in the prefrontal, temporal, and parietal regions, and the supplementary motor area. Activations in the prefrontal region were compared by (1) locating peak activations and (2) counting the number of voxels that exceeded a statistical threshold. Although there were differences in the magnitude of activation between the pair of languages, no subject showed significant differences in peak-location or hemispheric asymmetry of activations in the prefrontal language areas. Early and late bilinguals showed a similar pattern of overlapping activations. There are no significant differences in the cortical areas activated for both Mandarin and English at the single word level, irrespective of age of acquisition of either language.
There are more than 26 million Americans with neurologic disorders who may require a speech and language rehabilitative program. These patients can present with voice, speech, language, cognitive, or swallowing symptomatology. The nature and severity of these communication disorders often define the neurologic syndrome or the status of the central or peripheral nervous system. Appropriate assessment of these communication impairments allows for planning of the rehabilitative program and offers insight into the clinical prognosis. Although neurologic diseases may result in some amount of permanent speech, voice, language, cognitive, or swallowing impairment, most investigations of patient treatment efficacy and clinical outcome report positive functional improvement with appropriate rehabilitation management.
This chapter focuses on aphasia and bilingualism. Recovery is said to be antagonistic when one language regresses as the other progresses. Recovery is said to be successive when one language does not begin to reappear until another has been restored. Successive recovery may also be a part of a selective restitution pattern. The chapter presents a case study of a patient who first recovered from his Bulgarian mother tongue and then from German and Russian, but recovered from neither French nor English. Recovery is said to be selective when the patient does not regain one or more of his languages. It has also been observed that sometimes the language preferentially recovered is neither the mother tongue nor the most fluent language but the language of the patient's milieu, that is, the language spoken by the hospital staff. However, no single characteristic of the language preferentially restituted seems to be the determining factor of its recovery.
The neural systems underlying translation and language switching were investigated using PET. Proficient German–English adult bilinguals were scanned whilst either translating or reading visually presented words in German (L1), English (L2) or alternating L1/L2. We refer to alternating L1/L2 as `switching'. The results revealed contrasting patterns of activation for translation and switching, suggesting at least partially independent mechanisms. Translation, but not switching, increased activity in the anterior cingulate and subcortical structures whilst decreasing activation in several other temporal and parietal language areas associated with the meaning of words. Translation also increased activation in regions associated with articulation (the anterior insula, cerebellum and supplementary motor area) arguably because the reading response to the stimulus must be inhibited whilst a response in a different language is activated. In contrast, switching the input language resulted in activation of Broca's area and the supramarginal gyri, areas associated with phonological recoding. The results are discussed in terms of the cognitive control of language processes.
Preface 1. Neurolinguistics 2. The brain 3. How we know what we know about brain organization for language 4. Aphasia: classification of the syndromes 5. Aphasia: what underlies the syndromes 6. Childhood aphasia and other language disorders 7. Right-brain-damage 8. Dementia 9. Disorders of the written word: dyslexia and dysgraphia 10. Bilingualism 11. Language organisation 12. The future of neurolinguistic study Glossary Notes and further reading Index.
Bilingualism in Development is an examination of the language and cognitive development of bilingual children focusing primarily on the preschool years. It begins by defining the territory for what is included in bilingualism and how language proficiency can be conceptualized. Using these constraints, the discussion proceeds to review the research relevant to various aspects of children's development and assesses the role that bilingualism has in each. The areas covered include language acquisition, metalinguistic ability, literacy skill, and problem-solving ability. In each case, the performance of bilingual children is compared to that of similar monolinguals, and differences are interpreted in terms of a theoretical framework for cognitive development and processing. The studies show that bilingualism significantly accelerates children's ability to selectively attend to relevant information and inhibit attention to misleading information or competing responses. This conclusion is used as the basis for examining a set of related issues regarding the education and social circumstances of bilingual children.
Few areas of linguistics are surrounded by as many misconceptions as is bilingualism. Most people think that bilingualism is a rare phenomenon found only in such countries as Canada, Switzerland and Belgium and that bilinguals have equal speaking and writing fluency in their languages, have accentless speech and can interpret and translate without any prior training. The real ity is in fact quite different: bilingualism is present in practically every country of the world, in all classes of society and in all age groups; in fact, it has been estimated that half the world's population is bilingual. As for bilinguals themselves, the majority acquired their languages at various times during their lives and are rarely equally fluent in them; many speak one of their languages less well than the other (and often with an accent) and many can only read or write one of the languages they speak. Furthermore, few bilinguals are proficient interpreters and translators. In this entry we will describe the many facets of the bilingual individual. We will concentrate on the adult and will focus on the stable bilingual, that is the person who is no longer in the process of acquiring a second or third language. We will first describe the bilingual person in terms of language knowledge and use. We will then examine the bilingual's linguistic behavior when communicating with monolinguals and with other bilinguals. We will continue by discussing a certain number of issues in the psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics of bilingualism, and we will end with a brief overview of the attitudes, behaviors and personality of the bilingual individual.
Functional imaging methods show differences in the pattern of cerebral activation associated with the subject's native language (L1) compared with a second language (L2). In a recent PET investigation on bilingualism we showed that auditory processing of stories in L1 (Italian) engages the temporal lobes and temporoparietal cortex more extensively than L2 (English). However, in that study the Italian subjects learned L2 late and attained a fair, but not an excellent command of this language (low proficiency, late acquisition bilinguals). Thus, the different patterns of activation could be ascribed either to age of acquisition or to proficiency level. In the current study we use a similar paradigm to evaluate the effect of early and late acquisition of L2 in highly proficient bilinguals. We studied a group of Italian-English bilinguals who acquired L2 after the age of 10 years (high proficiency, late acquisition bilinguals) and a group of Spanish-Catalan bilinguals who acquired L2 before the age of 4 years (high proficiency, early acquisition bilinguals). The differing cortical responses we had observed when low proficiency volunteers listened to stories in L1 and L2 were not found in either of the high proficiency groups in this study. Several brain areas, similar to those observed for L1 in low proficiency bilinguals, were activated by L2. These findings suggest that, at least for pairs of L1 and L2 languages that are fairly close, attained proficiency is more important than age of acquisition as a determinant of the cortical representation of L2.
We have yet to explain the variety of recovery patterns in bilingual aphasics despite the practical and theoretical importance of doing so. I consider the reasons for this state of affairs and identify what is needed in order to achieve a causal understanding. Theoretically, I distinguish the issue of the representation of a linguistic system from its control and explore the neuroanatomical bases of representation and control. Methodologically, I argue for the importance of neuroimaging studies (PET, fMRI) to complement psycholinguistic and neuropsychological data and propose a number of psycholinguistic and neuroimaging studies aimed at clarifying the causal basis of recovery patterns. A final section briefly considers the implications for rehabilitation.
Three bilingual patients with ischemic or tumoral brain lesions localized in the left thalamus have been submitted to a thorough neurolinguistic analysis by means of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT). They all presented with language impairments which included reduced verbal fluency; phonemic, semantic and verbal paraphasias; grammatical errors (e.g. omission and addition of free grammatical morphemes); greater disruption of comprehension as opposed to repetition; and disorders of written language. In all patients, the most disrupted linguistic levels concerned morphology and syntax, more in L2 than in L1. One patient also presented with several mixing phenomena and major difficulties in translating sentences.
Neuropsychological results are increasingly cited in cognitive theories although their methodology has been severely criticised. The book argues for an eclectic approach but particularly stresses the use of single-case studies. A range of potential artifacts exists when inferences are made from such studies to the organisation of normal function – for example, resource differences among tasks, premorbid individual differences, and reorganisation of function. The use of “strong” and “classical” dissociations minimises potential artifacts. The theoretical convergence between findings from fields where cognitive neuropsychology is well developed and those from the normal literature strongly suggests that the potential artifacts are not critical. The fields examined in detail in this respect are short-term memory, reading, writing, the organisation of input and output speech systems, and visual perception. Functional dissociation data suggest that not only are input systems organised modularly, but so are central systems. This conclusion is supported by findings on impairment of knowledge, visual attention, supervisory functions, memory, and consciousness.
In the field of multilinguism, 'switching' defines a mechanism operating automatically when speakers shift among different languages. While the neural basis of this mechanism is unknown, recent studies of polyglot aphasia have suggested a possible role of subcortical structures. We report a case of subcortical polyglot aphasia which provides further evidence for a role of the basal ganglia in the switching mechanism. A polyglot female (Armenian-English-Italian), after a subcortical infarction in the language dominant hemisphere, developed a non-fluent aphasia characterized by pathological mixing among these languages in oral production tasks. This case confirms that damage to subcortical structures may result in different types of dysfunction in the mechanisms implicated in the selection of languages.
In an experimental study of language switching and selection, bilinguals named numerals in either their first or second language unpredictably. Response latencies (RTs) on switch trials (where the response language changed from the previous trial) were slower than on nonswitch trials. As predicted, the language-switching cost was consistently larger when switching to the dominant L₁ from the weaker L₂ than vice versa such that, on switch trials, L₁ responses were slower than in L₂. This "paradoxical" asymmetry in the cost of switching languages is explained in terms of differences in relative strength of the bilingual's two languages and the involuntary persistence of the previous language set across an intended switch of language. Naming in the weaker language, L₂, requires active inhibition or suppression of the stronger competitor language, L₁; the inhibition persists into the following (switch) trial in the form of "negative priming" of the L₁ lexicon as a whole. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
FUNCTIONAL magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess inter-subject variability in the cortical representation of language comprehension processes. Moderately fluent French-English bilinguals were scanned while they listened to stories in their first language (L1 = French) or in a second language (L2 = English) acquired at school after the age of seven. In all subjects, listening to L1 always activated a similar set of areas in the left temporal lobe, clustered along the left superior temporal sulcus. Listening to L2, however, activated a highly variable network of left and right temporal and frontal areas, sometimes restricted only to right-hemispheric regions. These results support the hypothesis that first language acquisition relies on a dedicated left-hemispheric cerebral network, while late second language acquisition is not necessarily associated with a reproducible biological substrate. The postulated contribution of the right hemisphere to L2 comprehension1 is found to hold only on average, individual subjects varying from complete right lateralization to standard left lateralization for L2.
WE used positron emission tomography to study brain activity in adults while they were listening to stories in their native language, in a second language acquired after the age of seven, and in a third unknown language. Several areas, similar to those previously observed in monolinguals, were activated by the native but not by the second language. Both the second and the unknown language yielded distinct left-hemispheric activations in areas specialized for phonological processing, which were not engaged by a backward speech control task. These results indicate that some brain areas are shaped by early exposure to the maternal language, and are not necessarily activated by the processing of a second language to which they have been exposed for a limited time later in life.
(C) Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
The study of language choice and code-switching can illuminate the ways in which, through language, social institutions with ethnolinguistically diverse staff and clients exercise symbolic domination. Using the example of French-language minority education in Ontario (Canada), this article examines the ways in which ethnic and institutional relations of power overlap or crosscut, forming constraints which have paradoxical effects. In an analysis of two classrooms, it is shown how an ideology of institutional monolingualism is supported or undermined by program structure, curriculum content, and the social organization of turn-taking, and how individuals use language choices and code-switching to collaborate with or resist these arrangements. The effect of these processes is to contain paradoxes and to produce new relations of power within the school. (Symbolic domination, choice of language, code-switching, French/English language contact, social institutions, Canada)
This paper aims to foster discussion of the means by which bilinguals control their two language systems. It proposes an inhibitory control (IC) model that embodies the principle that there are multiple levels of control. In the model a language task schema (modulated by a higher level of control) “reactively” inhibits potential competitors for production at the lemma level by virtue of their language tags. The IC model is used to expand the explanation of the effect of category blocking in translation proposed by Kroll and Stewart (1994), and predictions of the model are tested against other data. Its relationship to other proposals and models is considered and future directions proposed.
Despite an impressive psycholinguistic effort to explore the way in which two or more languages are represented and controlled, controversy surrounds both issues. We argue that problems of representation and control are intimately connected and we propose that data from functional neuroimaging may advance a resolution. Neuroimaging data, we argue, support the notion that the neural representation of a second language converges with the representation of that language learned as a first language and that language production in bilinguals is a dynamic process involving cortical and subcortical structures that make use of inhibition to resolve lexical competition and to select the intended language.
The current experiment was designed to investigate the nature of cognitive control in within- and between-language switching in bilingual participants. To examine the neural substrate of language switching we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as subjects named pictures in one language only or switched between languages. Participants were also asked to name (only in English) a separate set of pictures as either the actions or the objects depicted or to switch between these two types of responses on each subsequent picture. Picture naming compared to rest revealed activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which extended down into Broca's area in the left hemisphere. There were no differences in the activation pattern for each language. English and Spanish both activated overlapping areas of the brain. Similarly, there was no difference in activation for naming actions or objects in English. However, there was increased intensity of activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for switching between languages relative to no-switching, an effect which was not observed for naming of actions or objects in English. We suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex serves to attenuate interference that results from having to actively enhance and suppress two languages in alternation. These results are consistent with the view that switching between languages involves increased general executive processing. Finally, our results are consistent with the view that different languages are represented in overlapping areas of the brain in early bilinguals.
A group of 40 bilingual or polygot adult aphasics in Haifa, Israel, were tested and retested after three months speech therapy conducted in Hebrew. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of therapy given in Hebrew on the patient's home language. The Wepman and Jones Language Modality Test of Aphasia (L.M.T.A.) was adapted and translated into Hebrew. A home language questionnaire was also devised in order to compare results before and after therapy both in Hebrew and in the patient's home language. The correlation coefficient between the results on the L.M.T.A. and the patient's home language were significantly high. The results suggest that therapy in Hebrew had a positive effect on the patient's skill in communication in his home language.
This paper proposes a framework for examining the way in which bilinguals control the use of their two languages. In so doing it seeks to extend current functional descriptions of language production and to provide a single scheme in which both normal and pathological performance can be understood. Within the overall framework a specific model is developed. It is compatible with current findings, makes predictions about the performance of normal as well as brain-damaged bilinguals, and explains some previously puzzling findings.
Language performance in a sample of 30 Catalan-Spanish bilingual aphasics was studied using three nominal tasks (naming, pointing, and translation). We compared performance between the two languages before and after therapy and also compared the improvements made in each language. Therapy was carried out in only one language, namely Catalan. Significant differences between the two languages were initially seen in the naming and translation tasks while after treatment significant differences were observed in the naming and pointing tasks. Analysis of covariance was carried out to control the influence of the initial performance on improvements. Performance in the naming task improved more in the treated language (Catalan) than in the nontreated language. We conclude that both differential impairment and recovery of languages in bilingual aphasics is seen not only in rare cases but also in studies of larger samples.
Perecman (1984) Brain and Language, 23, 43-63, proposes that language mixing (and especially utterance level mixing) in polyglot aphasics reflects a linguistic deficit and that spontaneous translation indicates a prelinguistic processing deficit. It is argued in this comment that both language mixing (including utterance-level mixing) and spontaneous translation are also found in normal polyglots, and that they may not therefore always be reflecting language deficit in aphasics. Only a good assessment of the patient's language and speech before and after the injury will determine if these behaviors do indeed reflect deficits.
The purpose of this short paper is to show that naming, apparently so simple a process, is in fact a complex psychological function that can be disturbed in a variety of ways by cortical lesions. Among the factors which predispose to anomia are defective phonematic perception or articulatory control, impaired visual perception and—most important of all—disorganization of the central processes of word choice. Fuller neuropsychological analysis of disorders of naming will enable us to understand more adequately the nature of the syndrome of amnesic aphasia.RésuméLe but de cette brève présentation est de montrer que la dénomination, en apparence un processus très simple, est en fait une fonction psychologique complexe qui peut être perturbée de façon variée par les lésions corticales. Parmi les facteurs qui prédisposent à l'anomie on retient un déficit de la perception phonémique ou du contrôle articulatoire, une perception visuelle troublée et le plus important de tous la désorganisation des processus centraux du choix des mots. Une analyse neuropsychologique plus complète des troubles de la dénomination nous permettra de mieux comprendre la nature du syndrome de l'aphasie amnésique.ZusammenfassungDie Absicht dieser kurzen Abhandlung ist es zu zeigen, dass die Benennung, anscheinend ein einfacher Vorgang, tatsächlich eine komplexe psychologische Funktion ist, die durch verschiedene Arten von Gehirnschäden gestört werden kann. Zu den Faktoren, die für Anomalie empfänglich machen, gehören mangelhaftes Wahrnehmungsvermögen von Lauten oder an Artikulierungskrontrolle, geschädigte visuelle Perzeption, und, das Allerwichtigste, Verwirrung bei dem zentralen prozess der Wortwahl. Vollere neuro-psychologische Analysen der Störungen bei Namensbezeichnungen werden es uns ermoglichen, hinreichender die Natur des Syndroms der amnestischen Aphasie zu verstehen.
The lateral frontal cortex is involved in various aspects of executive processing within short- and long-term memory. It is argued that the different parts of the lateral frontal cortex make distinct contributions to memory that differ in terms of the level of executive processing that is carried out in interaction with posterior cortical systems. According to this hypothesis, the mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex (areas 46 and 9) is a specialized system for the monitoring and manipulation of information within working memory, whereas the mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex (areas 47/12 and 45) is involved in the active retrieval of information from the posterior cortical association areas. Data are presented which support this two-level hypothesis that posits two distinct levels of interaction of the lateral frontal cortex with posterior cortical association areas. Functional activation studies with normal human subjects have demonstrated specific activity within the mid-dorsolateral region of the frontal cortex during the performance of tasks requiring monitoring of self-generated and externally generated sequences of responses. In the monkey, lesions restricted to this region of the frontal cortex yield a severe impairment in performance of the above tasks, this impairment appearing against a background of normal performance on several basic mnemonic tasks. By contrast, a more severe impairment follows damage to the mid-ventrolateral frontal region and functional activation studies have demonstrated specific changes in activity in this region in relation to the active retrieval of information from memory.
Functional imaging methods show differences in the pattern of cerebral activation associated with the subject's native language (L1) compared with a second language (L2). In a recent PET investigation on bilingualism we showed that auditory processing of stories in L1 (Italian) engages the temporal lobes and temporoparietal cortex more extensively than L2 (English). However, in that study the Italian subjects learned L2 late and attained a fair, but not an excellent command of this language (low proficiency, late acquisition bilinguals). Thus, the different patterns of activation could be ascribed either to age of acquisition or to proficiency level. In the current study we use a similar paradigm to evaluate the effect of early and late acquisition of L2 in highly proficient bilinguals. We studied a group of Italian-English bilinguals who acquired L2 after the age of 10 years (high proficiency, late acquisition bilinguals) and a group of Spanish-Catalan bilinguals who acquired L2 before the age of 4 years (high proficiency, early acquisition bilinguals). The differing cortical responses we had observed when low proficiency volunteers listened to stories in L1 and L2 were not found in either of the high proficiency groups in this study. Several brain areas, similar to those observed for L1 in low proficiency bilinguals, were activated by L2. These findings suggest that, at least for pairs of L1 and L2 languages that are fairly close, attained proficiency is more important than age of acquisition as a determinant of the cortical representation of L2.
Previous research has found differences in the speed and accuracy of responses involving concrete cognate nouns and non-cognate nouns in a range of written and "on-line" tasks using neurologically unimpaired, bilingual adults. The present study investigated whether cognateness affects verbal confrontation naming performance in balanced French/English bilinguals (N = 15 aphasic and 15 non-aphasic subjects). Subjects met selection criteria for equal proficiency, regular use, and early acquisition of both languages. Results of a picture naming test show that cognate pictures were more often correctly named in both languages than were non-cognates. Some error types and self-correction behaviors also varied with cognate status. There were similarities between the results of this study and those of previous studies of monolingual naming. Some error types and self-correction strategies appear to be unique to bilingual speakers. Theoretical questions and treatment applications arising from these findings are outlined.
Conversational discourse samples were obtained from four aphasic and four neurologically normal Hispanic bilinguals in monolingual English, monolingual Spanish, and bilingual contexts to identify codeswitching patterns. Analysis of the samples based on the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993a) revealed consistent matching of the language context by the aphasic and normal subjects. The aphasic subjects demonstrated a greater frequency of MLF constituents and codeswitching patterns not evident in the speech samples of the normal subjects. Results suggest an increased dependence on both languages for communication following neurological impairment.