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Descriptors:
Form Classes (Languages); Indo European Languages; Linguistic Competence; Short Term Memory; Syntax; Grammar; Language Processing; Psycholinguistics

Abstract:
In the syntax literature, it is commonly assumed that a constraint on linguistic competence blocks extraction of "wh-"expressions (e.g. "what" or "which book") from embedded questions, referred to as "wh-"islands. Furthermore, it is assumed that there is an argument/adjunct asymmetry in extraction from "wh-"islands. We report results from two acceptability judgment experiments on long and short "wh-"movement and "wh-"extraction from "wh-"islands in Danish. The results revealed four main findings: (1) No adjunct/argument asymmetry in extraction from "wh-"islands. (2) Long adjunct "wh-"movement is less acceptable than long argument "wh-"movement, and this difference is attributable to matrix verb compatibility and factivity, not D-linking. (3) Long movement reduces acceptability, but is more acceptable than island violations. (4) Training effects reveal that island violations, though degraded, are grammatical in Danish. Since the standard assumptions cannot account for the range of results, we argue in favor of a processing account referring to locality (processing domains) and working memory. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Semantics; Language Impairments; Language Acquisition; Bilingualism; Language Dominance; Preschool Children; Data Analysis; Linguistic Competence; Second Language Learning; Language Usage; Code Switching (Language); Risk; English (Second Language); Spanish; Screening Tests; Incidence; Expressive Language

Abstract:
This study examined single-word code-mixing produced by bilingual preschoolers in order to better understand lexical choice patterns in each language. Analysis included item-level code-mixed responses of 606 five-year-old children. Per parent report, children were separated by language dominance based on language exposure and use. Children were assigned to a no-risk or at-risk for language impairment group based on individual performance from an English-Spanish screening battery. Data analysis compared the prevalence, frequency, and accuracy of code-mixed responses on expressive semantic items across participants' language dominance and risk status. Language dominance and risk status impacted children's code-mixing patterns. The correct number of code-mixed responses on the English screener was influenced by risk status, whereas language dominance determined the number of correct code-mixed answers on the Spanish screener. Lexical choice and language selection depend on linguistic knowledge and skill. During this emergent stage of bilingualism, preschoolers demonstrate the use of code-mixing as a compensatory strategy to fill lexical gaps. Consistent with previous studies, findings indicate that code-mixing necessitates linguistic competence in more than one language. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Learning Processes; Foreign Countries; Multilingualism; Linguistic Competence; Attention; Children; Language Proficiency; Role; Cognitive Ability; Language Processing

Abstract:
The aim of the present study was to investigate the attentional mechanisms of multilingual children with differential degrees of language competence. For this purpose, 118 children (61 female/57 male; mean age 10.9 years (SD = 0.29); early acquisition multilinguals) from the Ladin valleys in South Tyrol, Italy, performed the Attentional Network Test (ANT). Our results proved that proficiency levels in early multilingual children may play a crucial role in the development and enhancement of the alerting component of the attentional system. Interestingly enough, we were able to deduce that linguistic competence rather than competence in other skill domains may have a decisive role in the alerting component. We suggest that the peculiarity of highly competent multilinguals relies on their ability to better detect, and consequently react faster to, the target stimulus than their less competent multilingual peers. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Intonation; Selection; Sentences; Indo European Languages; Second Languages; Asians; Native Speakers; Language Proficiency; Linguistic Competence; Suprasegmentals; Chinese; Foreign Countries

Abstract:
Chinese learners of Dutch and a control group of native speakers of Dutch were presented with 26 sentences in the order they come in a story, visually as well as auditorily as spoken with four intonation contours. Participants were instructed to select the most appropriate intonation contour for each sentence in a forced choice task. Chinese participants selected the most appropriate version less often than the native speakers, and their selections from the three less appropriate competitors were more chaotic than those of the control group. The performance of the more proficient Chinese participants (as established in an independent test) was closer to that of the native speakers than the performance by the less proficient participants. Chinese participants employed a policy to assign rising contours to orthographic sentences closed by a question mark and falling contours to other sentences. In addition, they avoided choosing intonation contours ending in downstepped falling pitch and falling-rising pitch, pitch contours that are uncommon in their native language. The general acquisition profile follows findings in other areas of linguistic competence in that their performance correlated with age of arrival, not with either age or length of time they had been exposed to Dutch. As far as we are aware, this is the first systematic investigation of second language (L2) learners' competence in melody selection. (Contains 1 table, 5 figures and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Language Acquisition; Child Development; Epistemology; Linguistic Theory; Language Processing; Behaviorism; Learning Theories; Developmental Psychology; Child Psychology; Piagetian Theory; Linguistic Competence; Language Research; Learning Processes

Abstract:
Acquisition in general and first language acquisition in particular is a very complex and a multifaceted phenomenon. The way that children acquire a language in a very limited period is astonishing. Various approaches have been proposed so far to account for this extraordinary phenomenon. These approaches are indeed based on various philosophical positions that might have quite different underlying assumptions. In the present paper, major approaches to first language acquisition, i. e., empiricism and nativism are reviewed and critically evaluated. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Qualitative Research; Foreign Countries; Intercultural Communication; Linguistic Competence; Modern Languages; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Course Content; Expectation; Grammar; Language Usage; Teaching Methods; Content Area Reading; Content Area Writing; Cultural Awareness; Student Attitudes

Abstract:
This paper reports on a small-scale qualitative study of students' experience of their Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) degrees with particular regard to the relationship between language and content learning. It is framed by the identification in the recent Worton Report on MFL studies in UK higher education and elsewhere of a dualism between language and culture in MFL degrees, which is reflected in the structure of the curriculum, its delivery and staffing. While this study reports the views of only a small number of students in one university, it adds to our understanding of how students' expectations on entering the degree programme (mainly being that they will improve their linguistic competence) are linked to their experience of the degree and their evaluation of what they have gained from it. Their weak appreciation of connections between language form, language use and moments of culture (whether textual, cognitive or in the form of cultural practices) and intercultural communication, and of other beneficial outcomes of a modern languages degree, appears to be associated with a curriculum that does not promote an integration of language and content. To this extent the dualism identified in the literature appears to be associated with a negative aspect of these students' experience. Some suggestions are made for what could be done to manage the separation between language and cultural content. (Contains 4 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Linguistic Competence; Phonetics; Phonemes; Linguistics; Language Skills; Language Acquisition; Linguistic Performance; Italian; Pronunciation; Error Analysis (Language); Children; Correlation; Measures (Individuals); Language Tests; Syllables; Vowels; Identification

Abstract:
Purpose: The principal aims of this study were to detect phonetic measures (consonant inventory, intelligibility, frequency, and types of phonological errors) associated with lexical and morphosyntactic ability and to analyze the types of phonological processes in children with different language skills. Method: The sample was composed of 30 children between the ages of 36 and 42 months. Two tests were administered, one investigating phonological ability and one investigating general linguistic ability. Results: A strong relationship between phonetic measures and language performance was found. The proportion of unintelligible productions and simplified words correlated with all the linguistic measures considered. A comparison of the phonological processes used by children with low, average, and high linguistic performance showed that phonotactic structure errors discriminated better than did system errors between the three groups. In particular, the less competent talkers were more likely to delete weak syllables, omit consonants and vowels, reduce diphthongs, and make consonant harmony errors. Conclusions: The results emphasize the importance of phonetic measures in explaining differences in language performance and suggest the possibility of identifying children with low linguistic competence on the basis of phonetic measures, such as the level of intelligibility and the type of errors committed. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Linguistic Competence; Speech Communication; Grammar; Indo European Languages; Second Language Learning; Adult Learning; Adult Students; Measures (Individuals); Foreign Countries; Correlation; Language Proficiency; Guidelines; Task Analysis; Articulation (Speech); Pronunciation; Vocabulary; Oral Language; Scores; Language Tests

Abstract:
This study examines the associations between the speaking proficiency of 181 adult learners of Dutch as a second language and their linguistic competences. Performance in eight speaking tasks was rated on a scale of communicative adequacy. After extrapolation of these ratings to the Overall Oral Production scale of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001), 80 and 30 participants (on average per speaking task) were found to be, respectively, at the B1 and B2 levels of this scale. The following linguistic competences were tapped with non-communicative tasks: productive vocabulary knowledge, productive knowledge of grammar, speed of lexical retrieval, speed of articulation, speed of sentence building, and pronunciation skills. Discriminant analyses showed that all linguistic competences, except speed of articulation, discriminated participants at the two levels of oral production. Subsequent comparisons showed that the distance between B1ers and B2ers was smaller in knowledge of high-frequency words than in knowledge of medium- and low-frequency words. Extrapolation from scores on the vocabulary test yielded estimations of productive vocabularies of, on average, 4000 and 7000 words for B1ers and B2ers, respectively. The grammar test assessed grammatical knowledge in 10 domains. B2ers were found to outperform B1ers on all parts of the test. Thus, the differences in lexical and grammatical knowledge of B1ers and B2ers appear to be a matter of degree, rather than a matter of category or domain. The paper ends with a research agenda for a linguistic underpinning of the CEFR. (Contains 5 notes and 6 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Language Maintenance; Ethnicity; Self Concept; Ideology; Questionnaires; Writing Skills; Korean; Language Skills; Immigrants; Language Minorities; Heritage Education; Linguistic Competence; Korean Americans; Speech; Pictorial Stimuli; Second Language Learning; Correlation; College Students; Measures (Individuals)

Abstract:
A growing body of literature has explored issues surrounding the maintenance and development of a minority heritage language among immigrants and their children in relation to their ethnic identities in multi-ethnic societies. However, most of the studies either have alluded to heritage learners' language competence by way of their attitudes and ideologies toward their heritage and language maintenance or have addressed their competence by way of self-assessment measures alone. This study examines the interrelationship between Korean heritage learners' perceived and actual competence in Korean vis-a-vis their ethnic identity orientation. Thirty second-generation Korean-American participants completed questionnaires on their language background, ethnic identity orientation, and self-assessment of their speaking and writing skills in Korean. Their speech and writing samples in Korean were elicited with picture stimuli. Results suggest that there was a strong correlation among the subjective and objective assessment of the heritage learners' Korean language skills and their Korean ethnic identity. It was also suggested that the heritage learners who have a strong Korean identity tend to have better competence in Korean, meaning that the strong Korean identity serves as a self-enhancing bias in their self-assessment of the Korean language. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Test Items; Disabilities; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Psychology; Testing Accommodations; Predictor Variables; Outcomes of Education; Performance Based Assessment; Knowledge Level; Linguistic Competence; Linguistic Performance; Lexicology; Reading Tests; Grammar; Text Structure

Abstract:
Assessments developed and field tested for the mainstream student population may not be accessible for students with disabilities (SWDs) as a result of the impact of extraneous variables, including cognitive features, such as depth of knowledge required, grammatical and lexical complexity, lexical density, and textual/visual features. This study investigates the impact of these features on the performance outcomes of SWDs in the United States. Live test items from two different states with large numbers of SWDs were evaluated for their level of depth of knowledge features, linguistic complexity, two types of lexical features, and textual and visual characteristics. Results suggest that textual features have the greatest impact on the performance of students with different types of disabilities. (Contains 5 tables and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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