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I work with families in which caregivers are monolingual. Children are exposed to one language at home and then exposed to English school. I am curious to know how this impacts communication development, especially when at times cultural values and norms can be contradictory. I am also curious to see if there is a difference between caregivers that are first generation in the United States compared to caregivers who may 2nd or 3rd generation born in the United states, who are bilingual and dominate both English and their native or cultural language.
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Most people absorb what they can from any cultural input. Regarding exposure to an L2, the autistic individual will certainly benefit to a wider range of vocabulary and thought, just like anyone else. Of course, her|his learning curve will be different than a non-autistic person.
When one speaks about cultural values and norms in the context of childhood in the USA, several significant indicators can be identified, as below:
a.To start, what is commonly known as "ethnic" language identity in the USA usually refers to a language other than English. With this in mind, most "ethnic" language speakers identify on a communal and shared basis more than monolingual, English-only counterparts.
Because "contradictions" bring variety to life, they are a positive element. All cultures largely share values, such as integrity, morality and personal responsibility, to a predominant extent. Food, fashion and religious beliefs largely lie outside the realm of shared values.
b.As a general observation, first generation, bilingual or multilingual caregiver will be part of her|his country of birth, whereas a second or third generation bilingual or multilingual person will generally not be literate in their heritage language. Accordingly, a person whose grandparents are from a different language family (or even the same language, in a different country), will not think the same as a first generation immigrant. Even an immigrant from the UK to the USA thinks somewhat differently about the US constitution than one born in the USA from second generation parents.
If a caregiver is US born, but has learned one or more other languages and lived in a non-English speaking country, she or he will share some values predominant in the L2 or L3. Note that this type of learning when it occurs at the post-secondary level is formal and appears stilted to the native speaker under most circumstances.
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Sociolinguistics
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Hello Azia -- my own doctoral research refers to this factor in bilingualism - below is a link where you can download my dissertation. I conducted research using native speakers of five languages (Japanese, Russian, Navajo, Spanish, and English) and it gives strong evidence of neurolinguistic interference of the native language structure into second (and third, etc.,) language acquisition.
The other document I am attaching is a longer paper that offers information on bilingualism and interference by using an experimental approach - with native speakers of Arabic learning English.
I work as an independent reseacher in the MENA region - I live in Eastern Türkiye. My emali is skmetheny@gmail.com if you would like to contact me with any other questions.
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Sociolinguistics
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both
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Hello all. I hope you are always in good health.
In the maintenance and shift of language, in the current era. What factors are most influential in language maintenance or language shift?
Generally, language maintenance and language shift involve attitudes, bilingualism, number of speakers, regional concentration, genealogy, etc.
Share your experience here. :)
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The factors are diverse and include political, social, demographic, economic, cultural, linguistic, psychological and institutional support factors. They are demonstrated in this article
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Dear Colleagues,
How many people in the USA who speak two or more languages represent ethnic minorities? I am looking for numbers and sources to cite.
Thank you!
Monika
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Hi,
I am a PhD student, my research area is Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Bilingualism. What journals would people suggest to publish in?
Thanks,
Tomasz
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Dear Tomasz:
At first you should find suitable journals with similar scopes as your manuscript. I recommend using "scientific journal ranking" website. In this website you can categorize the journals based on your desired field and find the properties of each journal including citation scores, Q categories, etc. Then you can evaluate each journal website (aims and scope section) to see whether the journal is optimal for you or not. Also, you can gain extra information about indexing, open access status and review times. Then your can submit your article.
Hope this was useful.
Regards
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Dear Colleagues,
Has anyone used a composite score based on the LEAP-Q?
I work with bilingual data and I would like to apply a LEAP-Q composite score. However, I have not found any studies that would apply an aggregate score for LEAP-Q results.
Thank you,
Monika
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LEAP-Q is great for assessment of each of the multilingual’s languages, but w/out composite score.
Potential alternative instrument to consider for dominance score:
Bilingual Language Profile, BLP (Birdsong, Gertken, & Amengual, 2012)
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I intended to analyze the role of bilingualism in translation, answering the question whether translation is an innate skill or it can be acquired. In particular, I was thinking of focusing on Harris' Natural Translation theory, extending its scope to written translation performed by adults - how feasible would this be? Any feedback or even advice on gaps in the research is appreciated.
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Hi, Translation has never been an innate skill. In order to translate one needs a high level of profeciency in linguistic systems especially at the semantic and pragmatic level. These levels are consolidated through learning. The more the translator is a genuine , effecient and profecient multilingual not a semi-multilingual he can succeed approximately in his/her translation.
Thanks
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Bilingualism has been torn in disagreements for its complex ways. As educators, we need to put emphasis on it and create rooms where our students could learn language fruitfully.
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I think,
1.At first we must obtain the average mastery of the 2nd language of the class by giving a general test to the class thoroughly.
2.Consider both the age and level of the class at all.
3.let the students speak parts of what they don't know in the second language, through implications, their first language, even drawings in which the teacher provides for them on the wall, and so on,...
4.speak about the importance of communication and bilingualism in the classroom with students, however, they would be encouraged in bilingual speaking and communication.
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I have a research about Monolingualism, bilingualism and multilingualism in Kurdish speech communities, causes and consequences, so I have to prepare a questionnaire form and I need some questions about cognitive ability of being bilingual and multilingual. Thanks for your help!
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Go have a look for Brief-2 for executive functions, DP-3 contains a cognitive subscale, and a questionnaire for language exposure info is contained in Armon-Lotem, Meir & de Jong (2015) Multilingual matters in the chapter by Gatt.
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Has T. Skutnabb-Kangas written new information on bilingualism? Is she still researching the subject?
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Should check out her Website for the latest.
Cheers,
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Whereas there are many academics and researches on the lack of language proficiency towards teaching the Deaf learners, I would like to know if there has been anything said about the good use command of sign language and its impact on Deaf learners' academic achievements.
Deaf bilingualism and its impact on the development of language and academic achievement of Deaf learners. These will help me to understand the correlation between lack of language proficiency and the adequate knowledge by the teachers of the Deaf and HH.
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Sign language in any country for deaf usually make same sign for one word thatswhy it is going to b good impact for deaf ,therefore deaf people use those signs with deaf people who live in different areas.
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“There is no insertions of just bound morpheme from other language" De Houwer (1990).
Redlinger and Park (1980) report instances of morphological mixing by German/English bilingual 'pfeifting' = whistling.
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Ali Alasmari, Good Luck.
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Grateful for tips on published official estimates, research papers, etc. which attempt to estimate what proportion of the world's bilinguals are mono-literate. Many thanks if anyone has anything.  
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Following.
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Is anyone researching L1/L2 writing explicitly? In particular among bilingual children in primary and secondary schools who learned the second language after 3 years of age? Thanks a million for your thoughts or advice on futher links.
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Where i get information about bilingual advocacy for ethnic minority elders? Especially the funding aspect?
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Following.
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I have been looking for a meta-analysis on the predictors of childhood second language acquisition/proficiency (or simultaneous or sequential bilingualism, whatever you want to call it), and haven't really found anything. Does anyone know of such a meta-analysis?
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According to the results of your project is there big difference among monolingual and bilingual adults?
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I Agree with Steven Samuel
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The learning of the mother tongue language is deemed important in Singapore as a means of transmitting one's culture and values.
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yes it has great impact on our cultural values and normative orders
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I am doing a research on artificial (non-native) bilingualism, i.e. when a child is brought up a foreign language in a monolingual family environment, providing the language taught is not a mother tongue of any of the parents.
I would like to apply a sociolinguistic model in my research, such as the model of horizontal and vertical multilingualism, the model of social networks, or the model of ethnolinguistic vitality. The problem is that within this kind of bilingualism, it is difficult to determine sociological variables such as the number of speakers, the territory where it is used, the institutional support and so on.
Is it possible to apply any of these sociolinguistic models to this type of bilingualism? What kind of approach would be appropriate to study artificial bilingualism?
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Thank you very much, Manuel! The article is worth reading, indeed...It helped me a lot.
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Can an individual have more ‘natural talent’ to learn only a certain second language or type of languages, yet being unable to learn others? Besides motivation, identification and/or exposure what other factors may enhance or hinder foreign language learning success?
As I would like to use the arriving responses for a study, please specify if you agree your response to be used anonymously or with your name in it. Thank you very much!
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Language acquisition is a multi-factorial, multi-dimensional and multi-stratal phenomenon. If you focus on one aspect, the approach is at the expense of excluding other aspects. A big question as is asked entails a vast reply, the whole scholars in the universe are trying to answer just a portion of what is considered as the most complicated faculty of human species_language. Don't dismay. Btw, plasticity is sth that belongs to pre-puberty. After puberty it is claimed that the plasticity vanishes. Man is stuck in a hard shell rather than a flexible all-absorbing ability. They can master lexico-grammar and also discoursal aspects yet for people after puberty acquiring native-like pronunciation is claimed to be very hard, out of reach or impossible. Notions and factors such as the individual psychology, neurology, physiology, internal motivation; social , cultural, historical factors; power distribution; class, age, gender, ethnicity; natural vs classroom environment, authenticity real life example vs artificial classroom exposure, learning styles and learning strategies; input, intake, and output and still a longer list of factors all have an impact on SLA. We are all on the route to know just part of the system or mechanism , yet there is no conclusive answer. We can easily pose a very short question such as "What is the treatment for cancer?" but the answer is neither conclusive, nor utterable. It involves a huge pile of information concerning numerous factors inspected through various perspectives, "signifying nothing." Yet, as human beings we try to quench our curiosity. In this activity, we are fortunate enough to have a collective curiosity; that is, all the thinkers in applied linguistics collectively try to find a way to better understand SLA. From antiquity, Plato, and Aristotle , to F Saussure, Chomsky, Hymes, Halliday, Gass, Ellis, and many other important scholars they have tried to grasp some aspect of SLA and expand human knowledge on the quest for language learning /acquisition. ... you see, this is not yet finished.
Best wishes. Dr Babak Majidzadeh (PhD)
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In my research, I aim to explore the use of languages in the bilingual classroom. As educators must arranged differently the two languages in the curriculum, it is important to ask, How do teachers use languages in dual language school in California ?
If strictly separated or by using the languages flexibly, how does this language arrangement is interrelated to a educators’ vision of bilingualism? (related in what the educators want to emphasize)
As Ofelia Garcia says “As we have affirmed throughout this book, the changes brought about by modern-day globalization and technology have changed our conceptualizations of bilingualism, from the linear types of the past, to the more recursive and dynamic types of the present. And yet linear bilingual education types continue to exist alongside more dynamic types, sometimes even in the same school. No one type is better than the other. The advantages of one type over the other are always related to the lens through which one looks and the goals, aspirations, and wishes of parents and children, as well as the educational resources that are available.”p.135
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The use of languages in question should follow an additive approach rather than a subtraction one. Preserving the pupils' first language beside the learning of L2 - that is, language maintenance, is essential.
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Investigating caregiver emotional reaction to patients, I will use questionnaires validated in english.
One part of my sample will be french canadians, who use to be bilingual with the english and must in fact be to fill in the english questionnaires.
How to evaluate this bilingualism? Is it ok to rely on what the caregiver says, or should we "test" the bilingualism? In this case, which tool would you advise?
Thanks a lot for your answers 
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Hi Laurent Michaud , have you decided what measure to use to measure the degree of bilingualism?
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Hello,
I find this project very interesting. I was wandering if you had an article about the project, or even an article dealing with some of the topics in your book from 2008. I am a Swedish researcher working in FRance, and I work on child bilingualism and child second language acquisition
Thank you very much in advance
Maria Kihlstedt
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The term Translanguaging is borrowed from Colin Baker’s (2001) English translation
(initially translinguifying) of Cen Williams’ (1994) term trawsieithu. William created the Welsh term to describe a bilingual phenomenon he observed in schools in Wales. A pedagogical practice in which Welsh students receive information through the medium of one language (e. g., English) and give information through the medium of a different language (e. g., Welsh). The practice occurs between the student and the teacher or vice versa. Williams argued that it assists to maximise the learner’s bilingual ability in learning. At the point, Williams made it very clear that Translanguaging is not an object but a practice and a process. It serves as a linguistic practice that involves different languages and language varieties. But more importantly, it is a process of knowledge construction the students make use of but goes beyond individual languages (1996). It concerns effective communications, semantic function rather than form, cognitive activity, as well as language production (Lewis et al. 2012a, Lewis et al. 2012b).
But equally important in Williams’ original conceptualization is the idea that Translanguaging is not simply a process that goes between languages (cf. code switching, crossing), but beyond languages, i. e., transcending. So it challenges the conventional understanding of language boundaries between the culturally and politically labelled languages (e. g., English, Chinese). With its emphasis on meaning
making and knowledge construction, it also challenges the boundaries between language and other cognitive systems as separately encapsulated systems or modules (cf. the Modularity of Mind hypothesis; e. g., Fodor 1983). It is these two aspects of the concept of Translanguaging that have been developed further in recent years and it is also these aspects that are particularly relevant to the present discussion of New Chinglish.
Baker, Colin. 2001. Foundations of bilingual bducation and bilingualism, 3rd edn. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Lewis, Gwyn, Bryn Jones & Colin Baker. 2012a. Translanguaging: Developing its conceptualization and contextualisation. Educational Research and Evaluation 18(7). 655–670.
Lewis, Gwyn, Bryn Jones & Colin Baker. 2012b. Translanguaging: Origins and development from
school to street and beyond. Educational Research and Evaluation 18(7). 641–654.
Williams, Cen. 1994. Arfarniad o Ddulliau Dysgu ac Addysgu yng Nghyd-destun Addysg
Uwchradd Ddwyieithog, [An evaluation of teaching and learning methods in the context of
bilingual secondary education]. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis (University of Wales,
Bangor).
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I am currently wrapping up a chapter on 'Working memory as language aptitude: the Phonological/Executive Model', in which I develop the argument based on previous research that phonological WM (PWM) is a language acquisition device that subserves L2 knowledge of vocabulary, formulaic sequences (formula), and morpho-syntactic constructions; while executive WM is a language processing device that regulates and coordinates attentional resources during L2 comprehension and production activities (esp. online and offline processes during the four sub-skills of L2 listening, speaking, reading, and writing) (more can be seen in Wen, 2015, 2016)..
Meanwhile, I also argue that it is better to implement separate WM span tasks for PWM and EWM, such that, the simple (storage-only) version of memory span tasks (e.g., the digit span, nonword span etc.), while complex (storage plus processing) span tasks (e.g., reading span task, operation span task...) should be used to measure EWM (Wen, 2012 & 2014).
These are old stuff, I am also arguing that future EWM tests should focus on more fine-grained (secondary) mechanisms and executive functions of WM. In this case, following Miyake & Friedman (2012), EWM can be demarcated into information updating, task switching, and inhibitory control. I wonder, if anyone can give me more insights, if we want to adopt well-established tasks to measure each of these executive functions in a second language/bilingualism contexts. In other words, what might be the most well-established tasks? The recent paper by Indrarathne & Kormos (2018) has provided a nice reference and a good example. Still, I wish to check if there are other key references that I can refer to (esp from cognitive psychology or psycholinguistics). For now, I am arguing for adopting the 'Running memory span' task (Bunting et al., 2006) or the 'Keep track task' for measuring updating; Task switching numbers (Linck et al., 2013) or the 'Plus minus task' for measuring task switching; Antisacade or the Stroop task for measuring inhibitory control. How would these sound (advantages and disadvantages?).
Shall be very grateful if anyone can offer me some insights or refer me to some key references (I've got some in my own repertoire of references provided in other projects, which is available for all to download), but still wish to hear more for my consideration.
Thanks in advance for your input!
Edward
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Dear all,
Many great thanks to you all for the nice answers or for the interest in this question as followers. I am glad to say that I have finished the chapter on 'Working memory as language aptitude', and it will be published in our forthcoming volume on 'Language aptitude: Advancing theory, testing, research and practice” which hopefully will be published around March 2019 (do keep an eye on that project.
That said, I am now co-authoring with Alan Juffs from Pittsburgh on a new chapter on "Measuring working memory" to be included in an edited volume "The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Testing". So, the answers to this question posted here are still very much welcomed!
Thanks,
Edward
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Anyone could help me with bibliography on multiple inteligence assesment in foreign language education? I am wirting my dissertation and I don´t seem to be able to find much information about it. Thanks a lot.
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Great topic! We were discussing this exact issue in our department yesterday. I'll keep following you to see how your dissertation research progresses!
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I have a diglossic situation, in which the main different between L and H seems to be in the realm of grammar (also vocabulary, but less so). Can you recommend any specific literature on that, especially contemporary theories? I have already covered most of the general literature on diglossia.
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Depending on the the grammatical structures you'd like to focus on, the answers will vary. However, here is a good resource on dimensions of register:
Dimensions of Register Variation: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison by Douglas Biber https://goo.gl/LaVxip
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My friend told me that she had to read such study during her masters degree, but she can not recall the name and author. Something about bilinguality and bipolarity, how brain changes when using two and more languges. I want to find it because of personal interest. I speak several languages and I want to learn more about this topic. I tried to find something, but I found only things which relate more to psychiatry and treatment of mental diseases and disorders. What study could it be?
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Dear Colleagues,
In neuroscientific research there seems to be no uniform distinction between early language acquisition versus late language learning. Operationally, individuals exposed to two languages within the initial three to six (or seven) years of life are referred to as early (or simultaneous) bilinguals. Individuals exposed to L2 after ages three to six/seven are classified as late (or sequential) bilinguals (e.g., Berens et al. 2013; Hull & Vaid 2007; Kovelman et al. 2008). The lack of uniformity in distinguishing between early and late bilingualism makes it quite challenging to make generalization across studies, especially in the clinical context.
Based on functional and structural neurolinguistic studies on brain development, when do you think the cutoff for early and late should be? 
I realize that language acquisition is fluid and different language aspects mature at a different point (e.g., phonology versus syntax). The purpose of introducing the cutoff would be to (1) analyze existing clinical studies, (2) introduce more uniformity in the bilingual terminology in future clinical neuroscientific studies.  
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Monika
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Dear Monika, 
I completely understand (and partly share) your frustration. The distinction between 'early' versus 'late' L2 learners and the (somewhat different !) distinction between 'simultaneous' and 'sequential 'bilinguals are linked to the concept of 'critical periods' or 'sensitive periods' in language acquisition (Penfield/Roberts; Lenneberg, 1967).
These days, most proponents of the critical period hypothesis (CPH) in L2 acquisition would likely agree that the relevant 'window of opportunity' (which might allow you to reach native-like proficiency) strongly depends on the linguistic domain (early for phonology, later for syntax; potentially absent for lexical and conceptual semantics). From this perspective, clinical studies of the kind mentioned in your question would definitely have to specify which domain they are interested in. But even within such domains, there are subdomains (e.g., segmental vs. supra-segmental phonology, logical versus conceptual semantics, etc) that may have distinct temporal dynamics and distinct windows of opportunity. And even within such subdomains (e.g., within "inflectional morphosyntax"), acquisition of one particular feature or structure may typically happen earlier than another one (and be dramatically influenced by the similarities and differences between L1 and L2).
Crucially, however, more recently researchers in the field of neuro-bilingualism have questioned whether the concept of a 'critical period' makes much sense at all for second language acquisition (SLA). While hardly anyone doubts that, as a rule of thumb, 'the earlier, the better in SLA', whether there are CPs and clear cut-off points for larger linguistic domains such as phonology or syntax is very controversial. If not, then using dichotomies such as 'early' vs 'late' in studies (e.g. using ANOVAs) seems highly questionable, and instead one might want to use models dealing with continuous variables (regressions, mixed models, etc.). My own research (primarily using event-related brain potentials, ERPs) in various linguistic domains (and clearly focusing more on L2 than L1 acquisition) has led me to doubt the usefulness of clear cut-off points. Based on inspiring discussions with other colleagues around the world (often working in other fields of L1 or L2 acquisition), my impression is that many researchers in the field are losing confidence in traditional cut-off points (which, at least sometimes, seem to be based on questionable assumptions). 
In sum, I'm afraid there is no simple answer to your question, but you might have to  prepare for an approach that does not rely on easy-to-handle cut-off points ...
I've not included references in my answer above. If you need a starting point, perhaps have a look at my RG website or this debate: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_think_that_there_is_a_critical_period_for_language_acquisition_or_not
(My reply to that question has an article attached to it.)
I hope this helps. Given how controversial the field is, I'm sure there are other researchers who would be able to provide you with a more encouraging perspective re cut-off point .... :-)
Cheers, Karsten
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Dear Colleagues,
I am wondering whether it is possible to come up with a VERY simplified (yet reasonable) classification of the world's languages based on linguistic distance. Such a classification would be helpful for non-linguistic researchers who conduct studies on clinical bi- and multilingual populations. Currently, linguistic distance is typically not accounted for in such studies. 
Since most clinical neuroscientific research has beed conducted on European languages, I was thinking of a 3 step distance: (1) close, (2) moderate and (4) distant using German as an example. Here is a sample description for a non-linguist researcher:
"There are a few major language families in the world, including, e.g., the Indo-European language family (the largest, about 50% of the world's languages) and the Austronesian (about 5%). For example, German and Tongan are linguistically distant because they belong to separate major language families. German and Spanish are moderately close. They both belong to the Indo-European language family but they have separate sub-branches of language families: German is a Germanic language and Spanish is a Romance language. Finally, German and English are close because they are both Indo-European and they both belong to the Germanic family."
The description is merely a draft and I realize that it has numerous oversimplifications (which may not seem acceptable). Yet, I am posting it here and I am kindly asking for your feedback. 
Alternatively, perhaps there is an existing source that is readily available and non-linguist friendly.
Thank you!
Pleasant regards,
Monika
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Linguistic relatedness is defined by shared ancestry, not by synchronically measured distance. Of course (some) distance metrics may be correlated with the degree of relatedness, since the older the last common ancestor of languages A and B, the more independent innovations are likely to have accumulated in either lineage over time, increasing the difference between them -- although it has to be kept in mind that the rate at which innovations arise and get fixed is anything but uniform. There is, however, no simple algorithm for computing the structure of the family tree, given just the measured distances.
Note, by the way, that:
  1. The Indo-European family contains perhaps about 6% of the world's languages. The exact figure may be debated but it certainly isn't anywhere close to 50%.
  2. The Austronesian family is about three times larger than Indo-European (about 1200 languages, i.e. about 17% of the world's total). There are actually quite a few families larger than Indo-European, and if by "major" you mean "containing more than ca. 100 members", there are about a dozen "major language families" in this sense.
  3. Families are defined by the current state of our knowledge about language relatedness. If A, B and C (say, English, Tongan and Quechua) are assigned to three different families, this is because we can't state anything sensible abouit their hypothetical common ancestor and we can't even demonstrate that they are genetically related in the first place (given what we know at present).
Every method has its limit of reasonable application. Even for "unrelated" languages measurements of "distance" (no matter how defined) are certain to yield some values, which will however be random noise, not genetic information. They will not tell us whether English is more closely related to Tongan or to Quechua, or whether Quechua and Tongan cluster together to the exclusion of English. 
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Hi, my question is regarding mixed anova. 
Basically, I would like to find out if language ability (bilingualism, multilingualism) and physical activity (low, moderate, high) affects flanker task reaction times (incongruent, congruent). 
My IVs are Language ability and PA
My DV is Flanker task reaction time 
Am I right to think that:
1) a 2x2x3 mixed ANOVA (flanker rt x language ability x pa - with flanker as within subjects and language ability and pa as between subjects) is appropriate ?
I think my confusion stems from reading assumption #2 "Your within-subjects factor (i.e., within-subjects independent variable) should consist of at least two categorical, "related groups" or "matched pairs" from
Basically, I'm unsure if my flanker reaction times are categorical although I do get congruent and incongruent scores from the participants.
2) since I have 2 between subjects and one within, is the mixed anova appropriate? My independent variables are BOTH between subjects and the dependent variable is within subject. 
2a) Or, would it be more appropriate to run a separate independent t-test with language group (bilingual and multilingual) and flanker task reaction times (incongruent and congruent) AND a separate one-way ANOVA with pa group (low, moderate, high) and flanker task rts?
Any help is much appreciated and thank you so much in advance!
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Hi Adele Tan,
for a mixed Anova, you'd need at least
(1) one categorical within-subject independent variable and
(2) one categorical between-subject independent variable.
In your design, it seems like both 'language ability' and 'PA group' are categorical between-subject IVs, (language ability with 3 levels, and PA group with 2 levels), right?
The type of flanker condition is your categorical within-subject INDEPENDENT VARIABLE with 2 levels (incongruent versus congruent).
Response time is your DEPENDENT variable.
So, yes, you have a 3 x 2 x 2 mixed design, where the first two IVs are between-subject and the third IV (flanker type) is within-subject.
I hope this helps.
Best,
Karsten
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Dear all, since there is not that much information about bilingualism and childhood aphasia in the german literature, I hope you can give me some more information. This is for a 19 year old girl who suffered a stroke at the age of eleven and who has to learn English.
kind regards,
Sandro Kötter
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Hi there,
thanks a lot for all these recommendations. Perhaps i should have said that I was her speech-language pathologist for about four weeks six months ago. I asked the question by order of her current speech-language pathologist.
@Reza. I was chuffed about so many papers. Unfortunately, none of these links are accessible. 
@Dibakar and Hani. Thanks for this Website and the Headway Courses. Probably education.com is rather for younger children than for a nineteen year old aphasic patient. But I am sure to select the right exercises.
@Karsten. Unfortunately, I cannot give you more Information about her lesion. As I can remember it was a mild aphasia with problems in working memory, difficulties in finding words and an articulation disorder of the postalveolar fricative (called Schetismus) which had already been treated before stroke. Duolingo seems quite helpful and i will recommend it.
thanks again,
Sandro  
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Generally, Poetry is the expression of feelings. while expressing feelings, is it necessary to experience and express it through prosody? what about free verse? 
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 Tra utopia e realtà  è così che io definisco la descrizione del testo poetico infatti interagiscono nella descrizione del verso la linguistica la neurolinguistica ecc. Ascoltando un melodioso verso di Dante Alighiero "il maestro" del verso non posso che essere  riverente  alla sua ottemperanza ma.... Egli come tutti ha percepito nel suo profondo delle emozioni che gli hanno fatto generare versi e ritmi "frutto delle sue competenze " Io oggi da linguistica non posso non scansionare le sue morfie allitterative e riprodurle con strumenti elettronici , ma guarda casa la prosodia e la metrica c'è perchè il parlante ha innato la ricevenza e la descrizione dei linguaggi  
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I would like to know what is the main objectives of this project. I am interested in this topic as I have been involved with some of the linguistic minority groups in terms of developing multilingual education. Thanks.
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I think sort out outcomes (what is the extent of this education to be learnt by the students) and follow outcome based education approach. Everything else will fall in place. I hope it helps! 
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I am working on color categorization and terminology with bilingual speakers. The two languages follow different paths of categorization, and the system that each language uses overlaps in individual speech. I was wondering whether there was any other study concerning a similar topic. Thanks!
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Dear Fabio Gasparini,
Generally speaking, color naming , color semantics, color  categorization , and  shape of color space across different languages has long been an area of great interest in bilingual/multilingual studies. Prototypicality norms ( Rosch's model) have also been a matter of importance trying to examine how bilinguals tend to categories the tokens belonging to a given language type. I hope the following links shed more light on what you are looking for.
Best of luck,
R. Biria
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Reports claiming cognitive activity helps delay the onset of dementia are fairly widespread. e.g. “elderly persons who did crossword puzzles four days a week (four activity-days) had a risk of dementia that was 47 percent lower than that among subjects who did puzzles once a week.” [1st link below]
One such report focuses specifically on bilingualism, e.g. the New Scientist (6 November 2013 [2]) magazine stated, under the heading “Learn another language to delay three dementias” that “dementia symptoms appeared in some 650 people who visited the NIMSH over six years. About half spoke at least two languages. This group’s symptoms started on average four and a half years later than those in people who were monolingual.” Alladi S, Bak TH, Duggirala V, Surampudi B, Shailaja M, Shukla AK, Chaudhuri JD, Kaul S (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology 81 (22):1938-1944. [3]
And more recently, it's being suggested that learning a natural language, even late in life, can be beneficial, primarily through the process of switching between languages (multilingualism is reportedly no more beneficial than bilingualism): “Experts in bilingualism will examine how learning a second language at any age not only imparts knowledge and cultural understanding, but also improves thinking skills and mental agility.” [4]
THE QUESTION: Mathematics is a formal (if largely unspoken) language. Is it reasonable to expect that the cognitive challenge of learning advanced mathematics - even without the interpersonal contact of verbal exchange - might also be beneficial to anything like the same degree as learning a second natural language, late in life?
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Hi Paul,
Interesting question, and I believe that the short answer to it would be 'yes, learning a mathematical or programming language would likely confer a benefit to an individual's risk of developing dementia'.
In a review by Lovden and colleagues (1), the authors suggest that any task that involves prolonged engagement in a cognitively challenging task will provide the necessary means to stimulate plastic changes within the brain that likely underpin these cognitively protecting effects. Progressively learning the intricacies of a mathematical language, as long as it remains a cognitive challenge (i.e. the learning and maintenance of complex information is occurring), seems to satisfy these proposed requirements.
As you mention in your question, learning a second language, probably in a classroom setting, involves other factors that are also related to dementia risk, such as social engagement (on this, however, it may be that social isolation increases risk to a greater extent than very high levels of social engagement may decrease risk; 2). But still, there is no suggestion that further education and cognitive engagement only lower dementia risk if the activity involves verbal communication.
For a review of the lifetime activities that have been associated with protection from expressing symptoms of dementia, as well as more information on the theoretical explanations of these protective effects, you might like to see this recent publication by Arenaza-Urquijo and colleagues (3).
Cheers,
David.
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Has anyone encountered an inhibitory repetition priming in L1 but not in L2, or vice versa?!
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Many  thanks  for  that!
I'll  certainly  look  at  those..
Regards  
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I am speaking of the place right before one can actually hear and translate that language, to be able to speak to others in that language effectively in a conversation,
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To continue with Larisa'a metaphor, language learners begin to emerge from the chrysalis when they start to be able to think and speak in the L2 without translating. This is a gradual process which takes different amounts of time depending on the number of teaching hours the student receives, the degree of exposure to English outside the classroom and learner characteristics such as tolerance of ambiguity and willingness to take risks; a learner who wishes to play safe will tend to cling onto the L1 as a crutch, without realizing that it is actually an impediment.
Work on learning styles can reduce the overdependence on translation if the student is receptive to the possibility of changing his or her style. However, one of the best ways to overcome the tendency to translate is to read as much as possible in the target language. Reading helps in three ways to overcome the tendency to translate. Firstly, learning to read fluently without translating can prepare students for speaking or writing directly in English. Secondly, reading will greatly improve the knowledge of vocabulary and structures, thus avoiding some of the lexical or structural gaps which force students into translation mode. Finally, on a psychological level, it will help make the foreign language sound more familiar and thus reduce the overdependence on the L1.
It's best for students  to read and listen to materials on topics that they are familiar with , as  topic knowledge can help them to overcome the structural and, above all, lexical difficulties that they will encounter.
I am not a fan of Krashen's Natural Approach: I find both the heavy emphasis on receptive skills to the detriment of productive skills and  the strict separation between learning and acquisition intuitively unconvincing and lacking in sufficient empirical grounding. However, two aspects of his approach can help learners.
Firstly, great benefits can be gained by encouraging students to devote part of their listening and reading time to narrow reading and listening, that is reading or listening which focuses on a single topic or topic area, or even a single author. 
The case for narrow listening
The Case for Narrow Reading
Stephen Krashen Language Magazine 3(5):17-19, (200
Secondly, Krashen is partly right when he states that the level of reading and listening texts should be only slightly above the learner's productive level, as the greater understanding ensuing from this policy will ensure that more language is acquired. However, learners also need to be exposed to more challenging listening and reading texts from time to time, as a means of developing their reading and listening strategies.
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Im looking for information related to the effects of age in the acquisition of a second language and more specifically the consolidation and progress of reading comprehension. The information can be in English, Spanish or French. Thanks
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Wow Thank you so much Adejoke! These are going to be very helpful for my research. 
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We are writing a systematic lit rev on bilingualism, dementia and music. Any suggestion from any of the three areas would help.
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Oh, thanks, I will. We are designing our pilot project and we need to gather as much information as possible.
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I am exploring on how to overcome barriers when people learn a second language in monolingual contexts. I am specially interested on cultural barriers.
Could you please recommend bibliography on second language acquisition in monolingual contexts?
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These are two books I came across.
Cook, V. J. (2008). Second language learning and language teaching (4th ed.). London: Hodder Education.
Mitchell, R., & Myles, F. (2004). Second language learning theories (2nd ed.). London
New York: Arnold ; Oxford University Press.
Monolingual context in the book by Mitchell and Myles is on American English speakers (pp. 246 and ff).
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I am a bilingual professional working as an assistant psychologist in a memory service. I have found several research articles about administering the Boston Naming Test to bilingual patients, but none about bilingual professionals administering it. 
Thanks for your help,
Alessandra
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interesting question, but no, I've seen a formal study on that, but I have some anecdotes!
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Bilingualism has been shown to delay onset of AD. Is there any relevant research in Chinese context?
Thank you !
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Excellent question, I would forward it to a Canadian researcher 
Dr Bialystok was one of the first to show evidence of the protective effect of bilingualism on cognition/prevention of cognitive decline. Given the large Chines community in Toronto, Chinese may have contributed to that evidence. 
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I came across this article "The Superior Social Skills of Bilinguals" in the New York Times. From your experience, does this conclusion ring true to you? What do you think about it?  Here's the link.
Thank you.
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I don't think that English is the important factor. Learning to live in an environment  where more than one language is spoken is the important factor.
In order to communicate well, one has to come to the realisation that there are completely different contexts for language and actions..These contexts give meaning to language and action which other wise might be difficult to understand.
Experiencing this provides..or rather demands that the listener/observer try to understand that other people might have a different point of view.  Indeed, the language that is spoken will set the context and the meanings in communication.
Although some people think that English is the same everywhere, millions of people would not agree. 
English English is quite different from American English or Canadian English, or Australian English or English spoken in India and other places.
A variety of English is spoken in many different other places - each with its own set of contexts and specific meanings, vocabulary and ideas as to what  to say and think and how to behave within a wide variety of contexts - many of which do not and can not occur everywhere..
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Although I can find everywhere on the internet that most people in the world are bilinguals (always citing Grosjean), I cannot find world percentages, only European percentages.
Where should I look for it? Can you help me?
Cheers
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It depends on the source, but most research articles mention over 50%.
Ansaldo, A. I., Marcotte, K., Scherer, L., & Raboyeau, G. (2008). Language therapy and bilingual aphasia: Clinical Implications of psycholinguistic and neuroimaging research. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 539-557.
De Bot, K. (1992). A bilingual production model: Levelt’s ‘speaking’ model adapted. Applied Linguistics, 13 (1), 1-24.
Paradis and many others
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Bilinguals have been shown to perform better in a vast pallet of tasks hinting at having a better developed and more effective executive control network
The advantages range from superior inhibition of irrelevant information, enhanced decision making to faster problem solving and shifting between mental sets and even improved creativity. 
Because everything in the brain is connected and for bilinguals has been shown that they can compensate and use some are differently or more efficiently (less activation-better performance), we would like to know if this extends to the field of salience perception.   ??
Typically, the area investigated and involved in salience guided attention is posterior parietal cortex (PPC). LEFT is critically involved in attention for low-salience stimuli in the presence of highly salient distractors and the RIGHT one is involved in attending to more salient stimuli.
We would really appreciate any suggestion on how an experimental paradigm could be created using TMS or tDCS to test whether bilinguals are better (faster, more accurate) at a global-local salience task.
Please do not hesitate to PM and ask any further questions! Thank You in advance and thanks for this lovely scientific community!
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Dear Jure,
 To answer your very interesting question, here is a sketch of a study:
Basic assumptions:
 1.   What you call salience perception is the same as, or close to, perceptual attention, whether bottom-up or top-down.
2.   All selective attention, perceptual or executive, has two major components, one intensive (focus, concentration) and the other exclusionary (inhibitory control of interference or distraction).
3.  The prefrontal cortex serves both components, the dorsolateral cortex primarily the first, the inferolateral (orbital) cortex the second.
4.  All attention makes use of cognitive networks (cognits) of established memory and knowledge in the cerebral cortex.
5.  Cognitive networks with linguistic associations are mainly, but not exclusively, distributed in the cortex of the left hemisphere.
6.  Bilingual individuals, and polyglots, have wider and better connected networks, especially semantic networks, than monolingual individuals.
 Methods:
 1.  As independent variables, use anodal tDCS of frontal cortex, right, left, and bilateral.
2.  As dependent variables, take measures of performance and reaction time of (a) working-memory tasks to test executive selective attention to perceptually elicited internal representations, and (b) Stroop task or equivalent to test inhibitory control of interference and irrelevancy.
Predictions:
1.  Frontal stimulation will enhance performance of both types of tasks.
2.  Left and bilateral stimulation will be more effective than right stimulation (?).
 3.  Reaction times in both types of tasks will be shortened by stimulation.
 For more background, you may consult my publications and those of others in RG. 
 Cheers and good luck.  Joaquín.
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does anyone have the color-shape task (e-prime) and may assist with the matter?
much apreciated and thanks in advance!!
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Hi David, thank you very much for your kindness and willingness to help. Eventually we have programmed an e-prime color-shape switching task ourselves. Thanks again!!! In case I can help in any thing please don't hesitate to ask. 
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can I use word fragment completion task to examine cross-language semantic priming with different script bilinguals?
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I would say that you can do it, but it would be you who has to figure out how. The method is new as a test of semantic priming within a single language. Since it's new, the only way to find out how it works for cross-language priming would be to conduct an experiment and see what happens. Probably in comparison to another method like lexical decision.
I would say that how to conduct the experiments using languages that use different scripts would be something that you would also have to figure out, with knowledge of how the different scripts are related to each other. I would think that examining transfer between the Latin-derived alphabet used in English and other languages and the Cyrillic alphabet would be different than going from an alphabet to a semi-alphabet (like Arabic or Hebrew script where vowels are left out or represented in variable ways). These would probably be different from alphabet to syllable-based scripts like Korean, and from ideogram-based scripts like Chinese. Even with alphabets, you also need to be concerned with direction of reading (left to right or right to left, horizontally or vertically).
I think this is something that would be very difficult to work on without know how to read/speak the languages you are testing. The impact of phonological transfer or other factors that may influence word processing are important as well, but if the basic method has never been used before, investigating those factors would be something to do after examining how the method works across languages and scripts rather than something that you should expect there already to be evidence for it in other research reports.
The first thing to do would be to think about how the word fragment completion test would be performed in the languages you want to test. Something like Russian in Cyrillic would be similar English, but deciding what is a suitable word fragment for Chinese requires more knowledge of that language than I have.
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I am working with intonational bilingualism, but I am addressing the linguistic issue in a general way and answers from segmental phonology are welcome:
if on one hand I have a pair of synonymous (due to bilingualism), phonetically similar but phonologically distinct patterns that converge phonetically in a gradient way, creating a continuity of in-between forms without creating new phonological categories (gradent phonetic fudging), thus progressively (in time) eliminating their phonological distinction, and on the other hand I have another synonimous pair which creates a third intermediate fusion-form but also a fusion-category associated to it (phonological discrete fudging), am I allowed to say that (or is there a possible way to assess, and in this case, are there studies assessing whether) the first process is a more "below the level of awareness" than the second one (and therefore, is more bound to result in permanent change)?
Probably the very definition of phonological implies a "more" conscious process, but I mean specific self-awareness tasks, which in intonation may be of the kind "have you said it with an accent?" giving clearly polarized answers in some cases and many "I don't know"s or "sort of"s in others.
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Interesting but complex questions! Without going into any of them directly, I would like to mention an unpublished (and now lost, alas!) paper I wrote on the ability of a speaker who made the COT:CAUGHT distinction regularly and natively, to distinguish it after having lived among speakers who lacked it. The surprising result (to me) was that the speaker failed to recognize the distinction when listening to recorded word lists. I am sure that I have seen this point documented elsewhere, but I don't recall where just now. The moral is that what happens in production does not necessarily always mirror what occurs in reception. (Sometimes the result runs the other way: the hearer recognizes the distinction in the speech of others, but does not produce it -- pointing to the hazards of making internal psycholinguistic inferences based on external events.)
    --Rudy
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I'm looking for research on how Twitter users negotiate which language to use when tweeting. Does their choice of language depend on the topic of the tweet? Does it depend on their audience? 
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There is some ongoing research about codeswtiching and bilingualism on Twitter in the Phillipines - http://www.glennabastillas.com/
And I have done research on language use on twitter in Berlin, Germany. However, without a qualitative study into the factors behind people's language choices, I can only make educated guesses into this choice. I would agree that it is audience dependent. As all Tweets are public, it is difficult to determine who one's intended audience might be. 
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According to the students requirements in terms of high level of innate abilities and skills to follow a bilingual teaching learning process, bilingual teaching can be considered as a little elitist?
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Hello Cesar,
Bilingual education is a choice that students make the same as any other educational decision. The local economy seems to determine how available it is; equally available to all in public education. Outside of that, I do not understand why the question of elitism since 'user pays' is the norm in educational institutions.
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How can the potential of a bilingual home environment can be systematically utilized towards helping young children to be successful blinguals and biliterates?
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This site might be helpful: http://www.bilingualism-matters.ppls.ed.ac.uk/ . We also have a reading list for studies on child-directed speech in bilinguals/multilinguals on our resource site for research on child-directed speech: https://childdirectedspeech.wordpress.com/books-and-articles/bilingual-and-multilingual-cds/ . LinkedIn has groups related to multilingualism and parenting.
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If one identifies himself/herself with a certain culture, lifestyle, ethnic group through one's native language, how is this correlation represented in natural bilinguals (those who acquired two languages as native)? What culture and more generally what 'type of rationality' (worldview) might they identify themselves with? 
Proceeding from the problem of language and identity, the next step seems to be to ask what kind of identity bilingualism and multilingualism suggest.
Thank you!
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If you need an interviewee, contact me. I grew up to be bilingual in German and English, one-parent-one-language method. People have commented on different facettes of my personality coming out depending on the language I'm speaking. 
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I am working on emotional synonymous words of Odia language and Santali Language (written in English & the original script such as Odia- devangiri and Santali - Ol-Chiki). All words are chosen from some reputed dictionaries of both languages (Odia & Santali). Can I use these words in my study by using divided visual field test? For this study I have planned to develop a software.
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I am doing research on knowledge sharing and recently I got interested in sociolinguistics. I am struggling with differentiating between two possible perspectives (in my view) on language. One perspective on language can be perceiving it as a social factor, which can influence society in number of ways. This is more like a general way to conceptualize language where we do not focus on anything specific. Another perspective is to focus on language in action that is language use for example code switching, accommodation etc. First one seems to be more static view of language and second one is more dynamic. .
I would be very thankful if someone sheds light on this. Is there any way to explain this difference in proper words? Moreover what would be useful terms representing these so called perspectives. It would be also helpful if someone can refer me to relevant paper(s), which have in any way talked about this. 
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Dear Farhan
Olga is right. Linguistics can influence social status both in the single language and multi-language background. In the case of single language, this will be due to differences in dialect, accent and use of slang. The novel I mentioned earlier (Pygmalion of GBS) is about the accent and slang in English. Multi-language effect seen most importantly in the case of English where its learning is sought for by many people in many nations all over the world as aMUST for moving up the social ladder, as much as professionally. This effect starts when two languages come into contact and one is dominant over the other; hence works language contact is use ful to learn about this too. Here are some references on this:
Moravcsik, E. 1978). Universals of language contact. In Universals of Human Language, Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.), 94‑122. Stanford. Stanford University Press
Thomason, SG. and Kaufman, T. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press
van Coetsem, Frans. 1988. Loan phonology and the two transfer types in language contact. Dordrecht: Foris
van Coetsem, Frans. 2000. A general and unified theory of the transmission process in language contact. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag, C. Winter
Winford, D: 2008. Processes of creole formation and related contact‑induced language change. Journal of Language Contact – THEMA 2
NARAYANAN
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How does the brain understand sound?
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You may find this publication relevant and interesting:
Arsenault, S. & Buchsbaum BR. 2015. "Distributed neural representations of phonological features during speech perception". Here is a Pubmed link:
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Hi, I am working on bilingualism with indigenous people (Santhali). Need a standardized questionnaire on bilingualism which will used in India.   Can any one send me?
Thank you
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If you can translate, see the Bilingual aphasia test - the part A (http://www.mcgill.ca/linguistics/research/bat) or the Language history questionnaire (http://blclab.org/language-history-questionnaire/). For children: Anamnesis - Multilingual children (Belgium): www.sig-net.be.
dr. Martina Ozbič
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Also, what is the role of the psychological condition?
Bilingual children living in countries other than their homeland tend to grow a shame and embarrassed of their own cultural and traditional background.
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I agree with what the colleagues said earlier: environment is crucial.  Just to expand a little on the second part of your question: psychological factors are equally important, and as parents a little manipulation can be very beneficial.  My daughter grew up with 4 languages (Dutch with her mother, French with me, English in the environment, Urdu at the child minder - a language she lost after moving to nursery school).  Because my wife and I speak Dutch at home, French was the real minority language.  I enrolled my daughter in a French club aged 4.  She was pleased to see that other children were struggling to learn a language she already knew, and she realized that knowing French was something desirable in London. It boosted her French, linguistically and well as psychologically. It may have contributed to her continued use of the language. 
And her own take on her multilingualism:
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Does anybody knows any strict criteria for bilingualism or scale which I could use in order to assess who is bilingual? I need some tool that does not assess some particular language fluency with the use of language proficiency test.
I know only one which is close to what I am looking for - Bilingual Dominance Scale, but it puts emphasis on dominance - so the comparison between two languages. I do not want to compare these two but try to assess it somehow separately - without getting into the assessment with use of language tests.
I would be grateful for any help!
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I also think that it makes sense to develop a questionnaire yourself based on previous research and your own idea about who is bilingual. A language background questionnaire that might help is the one developed Gullberg and Indefrey (2003) from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Its main focus is assessing the language background/history of multilinguals. Maybe some of the questions could be of use (or an inspiration) for your own questionnaire. 
The questionnaire can be downloaded (see link). 
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Are Chinese language policies killing minority languages?
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The disappearing of minority languages is not a problem with China alone, I suppose. It is possibly the natural part of language evolution as a whole. While the government is trying to promote the use of Putonghua, there are also measures being taken to protect those languages in danger.
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+Welcome.
Code-switching [1] can be defined as the alternation between languages or dialects in speaking or writing in a grammatically overall consistent manner. It usually appears in 3 types, that is extrasentential, intrasentential or intraword.
Although it was previously considered as a lower level use of language, lately it is scholarly regarded a normal, natural or even beneficial phenomenon in bilingual or multilingual environments and societies, especially in education and language teaching. There are also those who advocate that not only should it be used as a strategy [2] but also taught as a goal, for example a communicative skill or competence [3].
Please share with us your experience with or opinion on or interesting references to the use of code-switching in education.
Thank you.
[ Featured references:
]
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@Javad and Ina
Javad, how dare you infect English with the pure Persian word Iran?
Just kidding, but that seems to be your attitude.
No language is pure. Pure English is a hybrid between Anglo-Saxon (Germanic languages) and French, with a large infusion directly from Latin. It has significant elements of Greek and several other languages. You seem to use the language without protest, however.
It was the semester-long thesis of my sociolinguistics professor, Tej Bhatia, that English has survived and spread so well because it is receptive to words and constructions from other languages. I give my linguistics students a task of finding everyday English words that were borrowed from 50 different languages, and after a lot of crying, they find that they can do this almost as fast as they can write. This natural process of borrowing words and phrases cannot be stopped and it is a fact of language.
From another standpoint, think of this: Persian has developed from Old Persian, but I will bet that you would not be able to understand Old Persian any more than English speakers can understand Old English or even Middle English. So what is the pure form? Old Persian or the corrupted version of that: Modern Persian?
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By logographic language I mean similar to chinese or japanese, which aren't alphabets.
If not artificial, I would appreciate some suggestions concerning constructed logographic languages.
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There have been several studies that have used a miniature version of Japanese (Mini-Nihongo). An example is below but you will find several papers with Mueller at the first author that use this language in training studies. I believe these studies used auditory presentation so if your focus is the written system, this may not be entirely helpful but if you need just a small selection of nouns, verbs, etc. this may be a good start.
Jutta L Mueller, Masako Hirotani and Angela D Friederici. 2007. ERP evidence for different strategies in the processing of case markers in native speakers and non-native learners. BMC Neuroscience 2007, 8:18 doi:10.1186/1471-2202-8-18
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I am working on a research paper on cross-language effects in bimodal bilinguals, predominantly how this affects realization of overt subject pronouns when one of these languages has the null subject parameter. Does anyone have recommendations on this matter? Also, if I were to test these effects, would a grammaticality judgment task be appropriate?
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I would refer you to the work of Diane Lillo-Martin http://homepages.uconn.edu/~dcl02005/DLM/Publications.html
and her recent doctoral student Helen Koulidobrova, who is working specifically in this area.
Hope this is helpful!
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Just 2 days ago there was a discussion about code-switching skills and strategies in healthy controls; so I wanted to add an addendum to that. What is code-switching and mixing in people with stroke?
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Code -switching in an IWA is likely both. Many compensatory strategies employed by non-brain damaged and brain damaged as well are applied unconsciously. The issue is how systematic a behavior is in its occurrence rather than if it is consciously employed. It is the systematic nature that suggests that it is the application of a cognitive strategy or not. The sociologist Harvey sacks discussed the issue of whether conversational strategies are conscious or not. See Simmons-Mackie & Damico in aphasiology in 1999 on compensations and much of the CA work in aphasia by R. Wilkinson and S. Beeke.
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I am designed an experiment in which I have a plan to use words (emotional and neutral) and emotion face to make judgements for a lateral study. Can anyone suggest me how I could do the test?
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Dear Rupashee Kuman Brahma, several studies approached the problem of monitoring emotion from face expressions. Muscle face EMG (Electromyography) provides good infomation on muscle contraction due to face expression changes.
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Bilinguals can be dyslexic in one language but not the other. Can bilingualism be the key to eliminating dyslexia or is it still too difficult for them to learn another language?
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Hi all,
Just wanted to add a few things.
One of the best examples I could direct you towards examples of dyslexia in one language and not another is:
Wydell, T. N., & Butterworth, B. (1999). A case study of an English-Japanese bilingual with monolingual dyslexia. Cognition, 70(3), 273-305.
There are two similar but distinct theories with regards to the manifestation of dyslexia in orthographies with varying degrees of transparency.
Wydell, T. N. (2003). Dyslexia in Japanese and the ‘Hypothesis of Granularity and Transparency’. Dyslexia in different languages: Cross-linguistic comparisons. London: Whurr Publishers.
According to the above hypothesis, orthographies differ in two dimensions: “transparency” and “granularity.” Along the transparency dimension, for any orthography whose print-to-sound mapping is directly one-to-one or transparent, Wydell suggests that there will be a reduced possibility of producing phonological dyslexia.
Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological bulletin, 131(1), 3.
The psycholinguistic grain size theory states that the availability of different sound units prior to reading, the degree of consistency seen in the associations between the sounds and the symbols of the language and granularity of the language make up the three contributing factors regarding reading development across languages. However this theory is limited thus far to alphabetic scripts.
Hope this helps.
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Many of us academicians are multilingual. We want our published ideas given as much worldwide diffusion as possible. Yet some of the highest ranked scholarly journals prohibit publication of articles in other languages and journals. Should we oppose this prohibition? How can we make our opposition known?
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Dear Nelson,
As you that every scholarly journal has its own copyright act. After your publication in any specific journal you must obey its copy right law. your question is about the same article in multiple language. You may adapt the following safe procedure.
* First of all you have to select the number of languages you want to publish your worthy work.
*After publishing your worthy work in specific language.
*Translate your published work in different languages and make its pdf file with the footer heading of your published citation (in the pdf language).
* Upload the same article in different languages at your profile page at
(a) RESEARCH GATE
* This is the safest way that how can you increase worldwide diffusion.
* So, your required article with same citation but in different languages can be available without any objection by any scholarly journal.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION PLZ, FEEL FREE TO ASK?
Regards
SALMAN AHMED
Ph.D FELLOW
PHARMACY
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Wondering if there are any documented patterns of language preferences by a child who is equally exposed to two or more languages, while learning to speak. In other words, if children are naturally equipped to learn any language, do they prefer an easier one, when given an equal choice?
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Hi Polina,
this is a quite interesting topic. Unfortunately, I cannot give you any specific literature but out of my own experience (as an early multilingual with early multilingual children) I have noticed that their preference alters - depending on their external surrounding & situation. I give you examples from my children's early language acquisition - they grow up with Estonian (mother), French (father), English (parents' lingua franca) and Dutch, replaced by German after relocation. During the one-word phase my daughters were crazy for animals (I was their main care taker at that time), and to me it sounded as if Estonian words were easier to pronounce compared with French (I have had French since my early childhood, so I am used to its pronunciation, but I still find that Estonian pronunciation is easier to learn for European foreigners than French ) - my children would point out at any "koer" (fr. chien - dog), "kass" (fr. chat - cat), "lind" (fr. oiseau - bird) or "konn" (fr. grenouille - frog) which they saw, also frequently preferring the Estonian words when talking with their French father. But at the time they used two, three word-sentences they had started at a Dutch day care with lots of other (half) French kids. Mind: the children frequently spoke French or a mixture of French-Dutch to each other, while the care takers spoke Dutch. At that time, their sentences were predominantly constructed in French ("bebe dodo la" - the baby/doll sleeps there). I was their only Estonian input - and I had the feeling that constructing French syntax was easier for them than Estonian because they heard it more often and used it more frequently. However, their preference later changed again, and nowadays the preference for a language depends on the domain, situation and people present (ok, they are most dominant in their school language:-). I have noticed similar switches with other trilingual children (up to their first three years). However, I have no empirical proof that (during the initial stages of language acquisition and active use of language) they really prefer languages that are easier to pronounce or easier to learn with regard to grammar, - before finding a sort of a balance between their languages. Although it would make sense: as what is easier comes easier, and what is more complex or difficult needs a little bit more time of reflection before putting it in use. However, you might find similar observations when browsing through literature on early multilingual/trilingual language acquisition (Oksaar, Cruz, etc.). Keep me updated on your research.
Cheers, Viktorija
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I need a detailed parental report of the child's age and context of acquisition, an estimation of proficiency and the frequence/intensity of L2 daily use. Thanks for sharing your research tool.
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Dear David,
I really appreciate your suggestions. I finally get a suitable questionnaire for the population and factors I am studying. Ellen Bialystock's lab provide me the Language and Social Background Questionnaire, a parental report that include information about the socio-cultural background of the family (Part A), the linguistic experience with an estimation of proficiency and the type of education attended by the child (Part B) and the dynamic of language use at home in the family and by each one of it's members and for different activities (Part C). This questionnaire is standardized and has been used in several studies with bilingual children.
To supplement the questionnaire with an objective measure of proficiency is a good point in order to maximize the validity of my study. Thanks again!
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Behavioral studies have demonstrated a benefical effect of bilingualism on executive control in children's development but also in adulthood and aging population. I'm interested in study which brain mechanisms, which plastic changes in early cerebral maturation permit this enhancement of linguistic and cognitive control.
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Hello, Maeva Michon. Try this article:
Neuropsychologia. 2009 Feb;47(3):625-33. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.11.009. Epub 2008 Nov 17.
The age of second language acquisition determines the variability in activation elicited by narration in three languages in Broca's and Wernicke's area.
Bloch C, Kaiser A, Kuenzli E, Zappatore D, Haller S, Franceschini R, Luedi G, Radue EW, Nitsch C.
Also our article:
Factors Affecting the Variability of the Central Mechanisms for Maintaining Bilingualism
O. V. Kruchinina, E. I. Galperina, E. E. Kats, A. N. Shepoval’nikov
Hope, It could be useful
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Code switching, bilingualism, multilingualism, cognition
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Code-switching is evident in dialects as well as multilinguals. It is important to recognize that code-switching is a conscious process in many situations, although the process itself may not involve any deliberation on the structural properties of the dialects or languages in question. Those who speak English as a second language tend to code-switch under two conditions (e.g., Nilep, 2006; Woolard, 2004): (1) when speaking with an audience they know is bilingual and (2) when they need a word in L2 that they don’t have or can’t remember. The situation is different for nonstandard-English speakers. They generally do not code-switch when speaking with others who are bidialectal. Instead, they will use one dialect or the other, depending on the social relationship that exists among the group and on the setting. The dominant factor, however, is the social relationship: As it becomes more intimate, there is a greater tendency to use the home dialect, even in those situations in which other speakers do not have a high proficiency in that dialect.
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There is now a large body of evidence that support the role of sensory and motor systems in semantic representation and processing. However, I've never heard about such evidence for bilingual's second language. Do you know of any paradigm that test L2 embodiment?
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HI Mäeva,
I Remember I attended a conference in 2010 in Granada (I send you the proceedings attached) and there was a speaker that made an experiment trying to replicate the ACE in bilingual participants' second language. They did not found significant results. They even could not replicate the original ACE effect, therefore, I suppose they cannot publish their data. But the procedure seemed to be consistent.
If you want to dive on the proceedings, I am sure that you will find this. And maybe you can contact the author.
Best,
Juanjo
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Multilingualism, multiculturalism and cognitive psychology.
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Many people who are multilingual developed in multicultural enviroment. The cultural differences stimulate the multilingual communication.
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Multilinguaslim and emotion.
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it depends on Emotinal experiences. but as whole, L1 (mother language) evokes greater emotional response than Second language. however it is not ture in all situations, If a bilingual person married with woman who is the native speaker of man's second language or talks wiht his children in secondlanguage and etc ,the emotional responses may be stronger in second language.
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Creativity at work, art innovation, cognitive skills.
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