Bilingualism and cognition

Numerous studies have suggested that under certain circumstances (e.g., immersion in the second language environment) the production of the native language (L1) in adult second language learners can be influenced by features of the second language (L2) (Flege, 1987; Flege & Eefting, 1987; Pavlenko, 2000; Pavlenko & Jarvis, 2002; Porte, 2003). Comparatively fewer studies have investigated whether the L2 can induce changes in the processing of the L1. To begin to fill this gap, this study examines whether L1 Spanish-L2 English speakers immersed in the L2 environment for an extended period of time show processing strategies in their L1 that are different from monolingual speakers. Immersion was examined because past studies have shown that years of immersion experience in the L2 can impact processing in the L1 (Dussias & Sagarra, 2007). Participants were presented with written sentences in their L1 that were syntactically ambiguous between a relative clause reading and a sentence compl...

1. Einführung. 1.1. Motivation der Arbeit. Im Folgenden werde ich zusammenfassend auf drei wichtige Motivationen eingehen, die zur Wahl des Themas vorliegender Masterarbeit geführt haben. Die Aktualität des Themas im heutigen Kontext des "kollektiven Alterns". Das Fremdsprachenlernen im Alter und, im Allgemeinen, das Lernen im Alter, stellen heutzutage sehr aktuelle Themen dar (vgl. Edlinger 2013:8). Wie Berndt behauptet, "rückt [nämlich] der ältere Mensch zunehmend ins Blickfeld [gesellschaftlichen und] politischen Interesses" (vgl. Berndt 2007:470), was mit unterschiedlichen Begründungen erklärt werden könnte. In erster Linie sollten wichtige quantitative Veränderungen im Bereich der Demographie erwähnt werden. Seit einigen Jahrzehnten, kann man nämlich in allen modernen Industrieländern einen allgemeinen demographischen Alterungsprozess beobachten, der zu einer Umstrukturierung der Bevölkerungspyramide und zu einer "ergrauenden Gesellschaft" geführt hat (vgl. Ebd.; Berndt 2003:11), wie außerdem von der Europäischen Kommission mit dem Aging Report im Jahr 2015 neulich bestätigt worden ist:

The bilingual advantage hypothesis contends that the management of two languages in the brain is carried out through domain-general mechanisms, and that bilinguals possess a performance advantage over monolinguals on (nonlinguistic) tasks that tap these processes. Presently, there is evidence both for and against such an advantage. Interestingly, the evidence in favor has been thought strongest in children and older adults, leading some researchers to argue that young adults might be at peak performance levels, and therefore bilingualism is unable to confer an improvement. We conducted a large-scale review of the extant literature and found that the weight of research pointed to an absence of positive evidence for a bilingual advantage at any age. We next gave a large number of young adult participants a task designed to test the bilingual advantage hypothesis. Reasoning from the literature that young adults from an East Asian (Korean) culture would likely outperform those from a We...

Purpose: This paper is a proposal for improving ESL text comprehension by merging a multimodal perspective on language (Kress, 2005) with an integrated psychological (or ‘metacognitive’) approach to language learning and awareness (Fairclough, 1992, p. 1). Design: A multichannel approach is presented, based on two strategies: a main ‘multichannel’ strategy for reading the text, which focuses on the assessment of the visual, auditory, cognitive and kinaesthetic/emotional channels and relative functions, and a corollary one, specifically dedicated to implementing the cognitive function. Methodology/ Approach: The approach has been extensively applied in university-level English classes (Reggio Emilia, Parma, Bologna University) using a ‘multichannel test’ based on students’ feedback to explore the effectiveness of the method. In this paper, a case study is offered: data have been collected with specific reference to the University of Bologna, A. Y. 2017/18 and 2018/2019. Originality/Value: Evidence suggests that further and diversified applications promise an empowerment of the approach and of its impact on ELT as well as on students’ awareness and satisfaction.

In the Republic of Macedonia lives a multicultural population, which speaks different languages. The Macedonian language is the official language in the Republic of Macedonia that is why every citizen learns that language and knows to speak even though his native language is another one. Bilingualism to the citizens of Gostivar has been developed since ancient times, because there have lived and still do many different nations of different cultures. The development of education significantly influenced in the advancement of bilingualism for citizens of Gostivar. One of the most important socio-cultural factors about learning the foreign languages is considered the family, her cultural and social status. The ratio between the level of the education of the parents and the children's achievements can be explained in different ways. Each educated bilingual parent or multilingual demonstrates an example of a speaker with expressive communication skills in two or more languages. Most of the children are bilingual, because they are exposed in a bilingual or multilingual environment, where are spoken two or more languages simultaneously.

This paper explores the roles of both working memory (WM) and more traditional aptitude components, such as input processing and language analytic ability in the context of foreign language learning aptitude. More specifically, the paper compares two current perspectives on language aptitude: the Stages Approach (Skehan, 2016, 2019) and the P/E Model (Wen, 2016, 2019). Input processing and noticing, pattern identification and complexification, and feedback are examined as they relate to both perspectives and are then used to discuss existing aptitude testing, recent research, and broader theoretical issues. It is argued that WM and language aptitude play different but complementary roles at each of these stages, reflecting the various linguistic and psycholinguistic processes that are most prominent in other aspects of language learning. Overall, though both perspectives posit that WM and language aptitude have equal importance at the input processing stage, they exert greater influence at each of the remaining stages. More traditional views of aptitude dominate at the pattern identification and complexification stage and WM with the feedback stage.

An experiment investigated whether Japanese speakers' categorisation of objects and substances as shape or material is influenced by acquiring English, based on Imai and Gentner (1997). Subjects were presented with an item such as a cork pyramid and asked to choose between two other items that matched it for shape (plastic pyramid) or for material (piece of cork). The hypotheses were that for simple objects the number of shape-based categorisations would increase according to experience of English and that the preference for shape and material-based categorisations of Japanese speakers of English would differ from monolingual speakers of both languages. Subjects were 18 adult Japanese users of English who had lived in English-speaking countries between 6 months and 3 years (short-stay group), and 18 who had lived in English-speaking countries for 3 years or more (long-stay group). Both groups achieved above criterion on an English vocabulary test. Results were: both groups preferred material responses for simple objects and substances but not for complex objects, in line with Japanese monolinguals, but the long-stay group showed more shape preference than the short-stay group and also were less different from Americans. These effects of acquiring a second language on categorisation have implications for conceptual representation and methodology.

We live in a globalised world; nowadays people can travel easily from one continent to another for study, work or tourism. As Professor Joseph Jung, cited in Manzo & Zerh (2006: 2), claims, students are finding jobs in different countries as national companies become very competitive internationally: “We live in this global society and English is the communication method in a global village”.
Despite what Graddol (2006) suggests about the end of English as the dominant language due to globalisation and the increasing popularity of other languages such as Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic, English is still the world’s lingua franca. In fact, according to Otálora (2009: 1) “the use of a lingua franca, or widely spoken language, […] has gained worldwide acceptance […] English is considered to be an integral medium for the process”. In other words, English still remains the default foreign language for most academic disciplines and most certainly for international commerce.

The impact of bilingualism on lateralized brain functions such as praxis – the control of skilled actions – and language representations themselves, particularly in the auditory domain, is still largely unknown. Recent studies suggest that bilingualism affects both basic (fundamental frequency) sound and action-related speech processing. Whether it can impact non-verbal action sound processing is a question of debate. Here we examined twenty bilinguals using a dichotic listening paradigm, in which in addition to repeating the just heard action words, participants named – in Polish or English – one of two simultaneously presented tool sounds from attended ears. The results were compared with data from these same participants tested with reading the same words in a visual-half field paradigm. In contrast to typical outcomes from monolinguals, the laterality indices of action-related sound processing (verbal and non-verbal) were not left lateralized but hemispherically balanced. Notably, despite similar organization of tool- and action-word sound processing, their auditory (balanced) and visual-language (left-lateralized) representations might be independent because there were no significant correlations between any of their laterality indices. This indicates that bilingualism might involve reshuffling/reorganization of typically lateralized brain functions and such plasticity will have consequences for second language learning strategies, as well as for neurorehabilitation.

Many children in North America and around the world grow up exposed to two languages from an early age. Parents of bilingual infants and toddlers have important questions about the costs and benefits of early bilingualism, and how to best support language acquisition in their children. Here, we separate common myths from scientific findings to answer six of parents’ most common questions about early bilingual development.

Present study sets out to investigate into the cognitive developmental stages of students of class VIII in Pakistan. Out of sixty students of section C of class VIII, odd baring thirty students were systematically selected as subjects of study. Five Piaget tasks i.e. conservation of mass, conservation of volume, conservation of continuous quantity, conservation of number, conservation of volume displacement and three inquiry activities i.e. control of variables, combinatorial reasoning and proportional reasoning were brought into practice. Piaget tasks were used to measure the concrete operational stage while the inquiry activities were administered in order to determine the formal operational stage of class VIII students. These tasks and activities were administered to the subjects one by one and students' performance was evaluated. While evaluating students' performance, the characteristics of concrete operational stage were identified in most of the students. Almost 75% students performed the Piagetian tasks correctly while only 25% students were unable to perform certain tasks showing the presence of characteristics of concrete operational stage in class VIII students. While administering the inquiry activities, it was observed that through some of the characteristics of formal operational stage were present in few students, yet most of the students were unable to solve these activities accurately. Only 11% students solved these activities correctly while 89% students could not perform them. It was concluded that class VIII students were in concrete operational stage while some features of formal operational stage like control of variables and proportional reasoning were also demonstrated by a few students. But on the whole, class VIII students were found in concrete operational stage.

Titel: Zwei-und Mehrsprachigkeit bei Kindern aus I. Zwei-und Mehrsprachigkeit Zwei-und Mehrsprachigkeit bei Kindern ist, wieder ganz neu, ein sehr aktuelles Thema, weil gerade die Forschung in den letzten Jahren eine kognitive Perspektive eingenommen hat und aus dieser heraus sehr interessante Ergebnisse berichtet wurden. Da dieses recht neue Forschungsfeld interdisziplinär bearbeitet wird, ist es notwendig, sich über Definitionen Gedanken zu machen. Im Berufsalltag und durch die Presse wie vielleicht auch privat werden häufig Termini wie Zwei-und Mehrsprachigkeit, Bilingualisum, Multilingualisum, usw. verwendet, doch die Definition und Abgrenzung der Begriffe ist oft unscharf. Zweisprachigkeit ist die deutsche ÜBersetzung des Fachwortes Bilingualismus. Hierbei werden verschiedene Formen unterschieden, und zwar, je nach dem Alter, in dem begonnen wurde, die Sprachen zu erwerben.  Frühe Bilinguale sind Kinder, die zwei Sprachen von Geburt an lernen (z.B. der Vater spricht Englisch, die Mutter Französisch).  Mit Späten Bilingualen werden die Kinder bezeichnet, die anfangs nur eine Sprache lernen, die zweite Sprache erst "später". Weiterhin wird danach unterschieden, ob zwei Sprachen parallel oder nacheinander erworben werden.  Simultaner Erwerb bedeutet gleichzeitiges Erlernen von zwei Sprachen von früh an.  Sukzessiver Erwerb wäre der Erwerb erst einer, dann einer zweiten Sprache, also nacheinander. Gefragt wird immer wieder, wie gut ein Kind dann eigentlich beide Sprachen sprechen oder beherrschen wird. Ganz wesentlich hierbei ist die Erkenntnis, dass Sprachlernerfolg von sehr vielen unterschiedlichen Faktoren abhängt. Die wichtigsten drei Faktoren sind  interne Lernbedingungen, also die ganz spezifischen, individuellen psychischen Voraussetzungen des Kindes, z.B. die Einschätzung des Kindes bezüglich der Notwendigkeit, die beiden Sprachen zu verstehen und zu verwenden, Sprachlernmotivation (z.B. Integration)  interne Lernbedingungen des Kindes bezogen auf die physischen Voraussetzungen des Kindes (Intelligenz, Lerngeschwindingkeit, Sprachentwicklungsstörungen, Gehör, etc.)

Previous work has shown that prior experience in language brokering (informal translation) may facilitate the processing of meaning within and across language boundaries. The present investigation examined the influence of brokering on bilinguals' processing of two word collocations with either a literal or a figurative meaning in each language. Proficient Spanish-English bilinguals classified as brokers or non-brokers were asked to judge if adjective+noun phrases presented in each language made sense or not. Phrases with a literal meaning (e.g., stinging insect) were interspersed with phrases with a figurative meaning (e.g., stinging insult) and non-sensical phrases (e.g., stinging picnic). It was hypothesized that plausibility judgments would be facilitated for literal relative to figurative meanings in each language but that experience in language brokering would be associated with a more equivalent pattern of responding across languages. These predictions were confirmed. The findings add to the body of empirical work on individual differences in language processing in bilinguals associated with prior language brokering experience.

Bilingualism and multilingualism are the speaker’s ability to speak two or more languages. This capability is achieved by the individual speakers, where besides the mother tongue (L1) learners different languages on a parallel basis or gradually, indifferent times and places, creating different language competence, which memorializes in his cognitive and uses the self-actualization in the process of instruction in the language required in compliance with contextual communication situation.
Linguistic diversity reflected in multicultural social community enables all individuals to develop bilingualism and multilingualism skills ranging from family environment with mixed marriages and social environment with formal education systems, formal and informal education for the achievement of personal and collective in ward-processing versatile in every aspect of life.
Achievements of the Individual in ward-processing to multilingual speakers reflected on the enrichment cognitive with different competitive languages, in developing affective achieving empathic on respecting the principle of multicultural democratic society toward psychomotor skills development of oral and written expression in every language, communication towards the provision and acceptance of different messaging and social terms with the facilitation of providing vital existential unemployment challenge in the XXI century.
This project aims to clarify scientific theoretical concepts about bilingualism and multilingualism and with empirical research to illuminate the current state of bilingualism and multilingualism which is used by the speakers to provide vital existentiality in everyday life in the city of Gostivar, Republic of Macedonia. In this research shall use combined questionnaires prepared in advance according to Likert scale and with alternative questions for three groups of bilingual speakers. The survey will held with employed citizens of three ethnic groups in Gostivar with Albanians, Macedonians and Turks.

En esta obra se desarrolla una propuesta didáctica que consiste en la utilización de los álbumes ilustrados para la enseñanza bilingüe inglés/español. Se trata de un manual para la enseñanza conjunta de dos sistemas lingüísticos y culturales diferentes aplicada a las etapas de la Educación Infantil y Primaria y que se apoya en el trabajo con libros de las diversas disciplinas (Matemáticas, Ciencias, Lectura, etc.). Su metodología se basa en el empleo de los álbumes ilustrados como base para el crecimiento integral del alumno, con el fin de asentar su competencia bilingüe tanto oral como escrita desde las edades más tempranas. Las autoras son bilingües y han impartido docencia en Estados Unidos y Canadá, países pioneros en este tipo de enseñanza, y han aplicado las metodologías más difundidas en esos países a los distintos grados de la educación básica y media, lo que avala sus conocimientos para la implantación de esta metodología, tanto desde los estudios teóricos como en la práctica pedagógica.

Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet die Auswirkungen von Zweisprachigkeit auf die kognitiven Fähigkeiten von Kindern, die im zweisprachigen Unterricht oder in der Familie eine weitere Sprache erwerben. Dazu wird zunächst erläutert, was unter verschiedenen kognitiven Fähigkeiten zu verstehen ist. Dann wird darauf eingegangen, wie diese in zweisprachigen Familien und in verschiedenen Formen von bilingualem Unterricht erworben werden. Zum Schluss wird die Bedeutung dieser Ergebnisse auf den Unterricht mit CLIL Modulen übertragen.

This book presents some of the latest theoretical and empirical advances in cognitive translation & interpreting studies. It involves the modes of interpreting, translation,  sight translation, and computer-aided translation. Some chapters propose a new analytical framework for studying keylogged translation processes, a framework that aims to reconcile a sociological and a psychological (Ericsson's) approach for studying expertise in translation, and a pedagogical model of translation competence. Other chapters expand the investigation of cognitive processes by considering the role of emotional factors, reviews, and develops the effort models of interpreting as a didactic construct. The empirical studies in this book revolve around cognitive load and effort; they explore the influences of text factors (e.g., metaphors, complex lexical items, directionality) while taking into account translator factors and evaluate the user experience of computer-aided translation tools.

This thesis contains details and data collected from an experimental computer test developed to measure language comprehension dominance between simplified Chinese and English in bilinguals who could read both languages. It was created on the principal of the observation of degree of language activation based on reaction time information gathered from masked priming lexical decision tasks, using the University of Arizona programming software DMDX. It was conducted for a graduate degree in applied linguistics to contribute knowledge by showing the usefulness and extent of effectiveness in using these tasks to calculate dominance in this particular domain. A total of 36 participants aged 21-63 from 8 countries with varied levels of proficiency in either languages were recruited in the study, and also completed an adapted questionnaire of language dominance published by Dunn and Fox Tree (2009). After discarding 6 sets of data due to an error rate of more than 25%, the results were analysed with ANOVAs which concluded that trials with targets with English primes are useful to determining dominance, even though no significant correlation between the test results and the questionnaire results was found. The outcome suggested that language activation is reflective of language dominance, but reaction time may not be the most suitable tool for measuring dominance.

In dieser Bachelorarbeit geht es um das Thema des Bilingualismus. Im Nachstehenden werde ich genau klären, mit welchen Bereichen dieses so breiten Phänomens ich mich beschäftigen werde. Aber erstens möchte ich die Motivation erklären, warum ich mich für dieses Thema entschieden habe. Diese Thematik interessiert mich sehr, weil sie mich auch persönlich betrifft. Ich genoss nämlich eine zweisprachige Erziehung seit der Geburt an, weil meine Eltern aus zwei unterschiedlichen Länder kommen. Mein Vater ist Italiener und meine Mutter Slowakin, und beide haben mit mir immer auf ihre erste Sprache (L1) zu Hause geredet (nach dem sogenannten "une personne-une langue" Prinzip). Ich glaube, dass der Kontakt zwischen diesen zwei Sprachen und Kulturen teilweise auch mein Interesse für diese Themen beeinflusst hat. Ich möchte nun zu den spezifischen Themen dieser Arbeit kommen. Ich habe mich beschlossen, zwei wichtige Aspekte des Bilingualismus zu behandeln. Einerseits, die kognitiven und linguistischen Vorteilen, zu denen dieses Phänomen führen kann, anderseits einige Sprachförderungsprojekte im vorschulischen Bereich. Das sind natürlich sehr weite und besprochene Themen und ich bin davon bewusst, dass sie in dieser Arbeit nur teilweise und zusammenfassend behandelt werden. Bei meinen kleinen Recherchen und Lesungen habe ich mich besonders für die kognitiven Wirkungen des Bilingualismus auf das menschliche Gehirn begeistert. Ich finde diese Thematik so faszinierend, wie auch die Tatsache, dass sie so viele andere Disziplinen (z.B. kognitiven Neurowissenschaften, Psychologie, usw.) hineinzieht. Auch das Thema der praktischen Anwendungshypothesen des kindlichen Bilingualismus interessiert mich sehr und ich würde gern, mehr daüber zu entdecken. Vielleicht könnte ich es als eine Möglichkeit für meine künftige Diplomarbeit betrachten. Diese Arbeit wurde in drei Kapiteln geteilt. Der erste Kapitel besteht aus einer Einführung, wo wichtige Grundkonzepte mithilfe der Literatur zur Zweisprachigkeit besprochen werden. Außer klassischen Definitionen von Bilingualismus und Typen von Bilingualismus, wird auch eine ziemlich neue Tendenz der Forschung besprochen, eine "multilinguale" Perspektive einzunehmen. Der zweite Kapitel wird sich mit dem Thema der kognitiven und linguistischen Vorteilen des Bilingualismus beschäftigen, was auch der Fokus dieser Arbeit ist. Die Studien über den Zusammenhang "Sprache und Kognition" sind sehr neu und stellen ein sehr aktuelles und fruchtbares Forschungsgebiet der Mehrsprachigkeit dar. 4 Nach der Behandlung der zahlreichen Vorteilen des Bilingualismus, wird sich man fragen, wie und warum den Erwerb einer anderen Sprache bei kleinen Kinder gefördert werden sollte. Im dritten Kapitel werden einige der möglichen Anwendungshypothesen des kindlichen Bilingualismus besprochen. Insbesondere werden wir uns auf zwei besondere Vorschulprojekte konzentrieren: auf das Modell des Erzählungsformats, an der Basis der Abenteuer von Hocus und Lotus, und auf das Projekt LESI (Lingue Europee nella Scuola d"Infanzia), das auf dem bildungskommunikativen Ansatz basiert. Trento, 29.09.2014 Laura Santoni 1. TEIL I: EINE EINFÜHRUNG Um die unterschiedlichen Vorteilen und die Anwendungshypothesen des Bilingualismus zu analysieren, braucht man erstens einige Grunddefinitionen zu klären. Es ist notwendig, eine Vorbemerkung zu machen. Wie Bettoni dazu sagt, muss man zunächst die Einschränkungen berücksichtigen, mit denen man über die Zwei-oder Mehrsprachigkeit spricht, da es um sehr weite, komplexe und dynamische Phänomene geht (Bettoni, 2006:41). Gerade wegen dieser Komplexität ist es schwierig, den Bi-oder Multilingualismus eindeutig zu definieren. Man braucht den Kontext und die Zwecken zu berücksichtigen, in denen man von diesen Phänomenen sprechen will. 1.1. Zu einer multilingualen Perspektive. Ein wichtiges Problem betrifft die Definitionen von den Termini "Bilingualismus" und "Multilingualismus". Beziehen sie sich auf die gleichen Phänomenen oder gibt es qualitative Unterschiede zwischen ihnen? Eine wissenschaftliche Perspektive ziemlich weit verbreitet in der Vergangenheit, das aber immer noch auftritt, sieht die Mehrsprachigkeit als eine einfache Erweiterung der Zweisprachigkeit, wie Aronin und Singleton betonen (Aronin&Singleton, 2012:4). Weinreich, zum Beispiel, schreibt: …the practice of alternatively using two languages will be called here BILINGUALISM, and the persons involved BILINGUAL. Unless otherwise specified, all remarks about bilingualism apply as well to multilingualism, the practice of using alternatively three or more languages. Ein ähnlicher Ansatz wird von den Autoren in Haugen (1956) , Mackey (1957), Beardsmore (1986) und anderen gefunden. Neuere Forschungen zeigen allerdings, dass es gute Gründen dafür gibt, dem Multilingualismus "eingene Eigenschaften zu erkennen" (Hoffmann, 2001, in Aronin&Singleton, 2012:5). Erstens, wegen einem quantitativen Unterschied. Multilinguale Leute besitzen nämlich mehrere linguistische Repertoires und können deswegen an mehreren linguistischen Situationen erfolgreich teilnehmen. Andere Unterschiede sind qualitativer Art und betreffen, zum Beispiel, die linguistischen Strategien, die in der cross-linguistischen Interaktion benutzt werden. Aus diesen Gründen gibt es eine steigende Tendenz, vorsichtiger über die Konzepten Diese Ansicht ist interessant wie fragwürdig, vor allem in einem Kontext, in dem man die Vorteile der Mehrsprachigkeit untersuchen will. 1.3. Definitionen von Bilingualismus. 1.3.1. Erwerbsalter der Sprachen. Es ist zunächst notwendig, Aufmerksamkeit auf die Umständen des Erwerbs der Sprachen zu schenken. Was dem Erwerbsalter betrifft, kann man zwischen simultanem, konsekutivem und späterem Bilingualismus unterscheiden. Die Tatsache, ob man zwei oder mehreren Sprachen simultan oder konsekutiv erwirbt, kann die Beziehung zwischen kognitiven Funktionen, den Spracherwerb und die kommunikativen und sozialen Fähigkeiten in diesen Sprachen beeinflussen. Aus einer Entwicklungsperspektive spricht man vom simultanen Erwerb, wenn das Kind von der Geburt den Sprachen ausgesetzt wird, und vom konsekutiven Erwerb, wenn man die zweite/anderen Sprache/n nach dem Erwerb der ersten Sprache erwirbt (Bonifacci, Cappello e Bellocchi, 2012:8). Wie es schon implizit in der Definition ist, kann man sagen, dass im ersten Fall das Kind zwei ersten Sprachen (L1) hat. Diesen Sprachen kenn es auf verschiedenen Weisen ausgesetzt werden (z.B. Eltern mit zwei unterschiedlichen Sprachen, eine Baby-Sitter, die eine andere Sprache spricht als die Eltern, usw.). Im Fall vom konsekutiven Bilingualismus, dagegen, erwirbt das Kind die zweite/anderen Sprache/n (L2), nachdem es schon gute Kompetenzen in der ersten Sprache (L1) erworben hat. Aronin und Singleton zitieren Baker und schreiben, dass es keine genaue Grenze gibt, die den simultanen von dem konsekutiven Bilingualismus unterscheidet (Baker, 2006:97 in Aronin&Singleton, 2012:102). Viele Autoren betrachten trotzdem als Altergrenze die drei Jahren, weil normalerweise die L1 mit diesem Alter schon gut entwickelt ist. Schließlich spricht man vom späteren Erwerb, wenn das Erwerb der L2 nach der Pubertät passiert (Johnson&Newport, 1989 in Bonifacci, Cappello e Bellocchi, 2012:9). Die Altergrenzen, auf die man hier gezeigt hat, sind natürlich hinweisend und können von mehreren Faktoren beeinflusst werden.

The word bilingualism became famous since the beginning of the last century. Moreover, in nowadays it is virtually impossible not to hear this word worldwide. Furthermore, this word may refer to the ability of knowing two languages.  According to Bialystok et al., (2012), ‘at least 50% of the worlds population is bilingual’. For example, in Europe over 56% of the population across all Europe union countries are bilinguals (Bialystok, Craik & Luk, 2012). Nevertheless, a great number of researches have shown that bilingualism plays a fundamental role in an individuals cognitive development. However, it had not always been like this, since that; in the beginning of the 20th century bilingual speakers were considered to be as handicapped.  Nevertheless, since the 50s until nowadays, researchers start viewing more advantages rather than disadvantages on bilingualism. Therefore, in this essay we shall analyze the concept of bilingualism by looking at how words are processed in bilinguals mental lexicon, how it influences human cognition, to what extent does  L1 influences the L2 in bilinguals, and finally an analyze will be made on the strategies to enhance L2 learning.

Title: The cognitive benefits of bilingualism: what role does working memory play?
The idea that bilingualism may have positive cognitive effects has received a significant amount of attention in scientific literature as well as in the press. It is difficult, however, to specify exactly what those cognitive advantages are. There are studies that suggest that they involve only specific aspects of executive control. In this direction, a number of studies have focused on the possible roles of inhibition and " shifting ". Fewer studies, however, have focused on the involvement of working memory and how it can be influenced by the experience of processing more than one language. The present contribution falls within this line of research. We present the preliminary results of a study that compared the relative performance on executive function tasks in a group of monolingual and bilingual children growing up in Southern Italy, with a special emphasis on the role of working memory.

1 I sordi preferiscono il termine "sordo" a quello di "non udente" o di "audioleso": il primo, infatti, pone l'accento su ciò che loro sono, sulla loro identità, mentre gli altri due sottolineano ciò che a loro manca, il loro deficit rispetto ad una "norma". Da evitare è anche il termine sordo-muto, in quanto la sordità non comporta alcun danno all'apparato fonoarticolatorio e quindi le persone sorde sono potenzialmente in grado di parlare; inoltre, come si vedrà, ogni comunità di sordi possiede una lingua che si esplica attraverso un canale visivo-gestuale, la Lingua dei Segni.

The study examines performance on an evaluation instrument for classroom use for the purpose of improving instruction that focuses on awareness of language in reading and writing. Findings are reported on the piloting of the first in a series of literacy assessments with students from a rural elementary school in Ecuador. All students who participated in the pilot study are first language speakers of the language of instruction, Spanish. The report follows up on two recent studies on: awareness of language in self-correction (writing ability of bilingual and second language learners, Mexico), and overall literacy attainment comparing boys and girls in rural schools in Latin America with the objective of confirming or disconfirming recent UNESCO estimates of gender parity. The authors present a proposal for monitoring literacy learning in elementary school that will help teachers to integrate teaching and evaluation, an approach that can more effectively link classroom testing to act...

Cette thèse se propose d’étudier d’un point de vue formel et expérimental les fondements perceptifs de la syllabation en anglais et en français. Elle passe en revue différentes définitions de la syllabe et de l’ambisyllabicité et examine l’hypothétique universalité de leurs rôles, chez des natifs monolingues ou des bilingues. L’originalité de ce travail réside dans la prise en compte des préférences des locuteurs-auditeurs francophones et anglophones lors d’une tâche de syllabation. Pour le cas spécifique des segmentations de mots de deux syllabes CVCV, les anglophones prennent parfois en compte la qualité des voyelles et la place de l'accent lexical : un mot de deux syllabes CVCV sera segmenté CV.CV dans la plupart des cas en anglais (a priori toujours en français), mais différemment si l’ambisyllabicité s’y prête (si la première V de CVCV est accentuée et brève alors CVC.V ou CVC.CV) ou que la morphologie intervient (si les V de CVCV sont toutes deux accentuées). Le présent travail est donc la contrepartie perceptive de travaux précédents (Ryst, 2008) et révèle l’influence du degré d’exposition à la L2 des locuteurs-auditeurs sur leurs préférences de syllabation. Les règles de syllabation proposées pour les énoncés anglais peuvent trouver des applications technologiques (segmentation automatique de mots isolés en anglais, par exemple dans les dictionnaires). Des pistes de réflexion pour des applications didactiques et différentes perspectives de recherche sont aussi évoquées.

Historically bilinguals were often associated with low intelligence, high mental confusion, and limited number of vocabularies. In their seminal work Peal and Lambert (1962), however, reported that bilingual children significantly outperformed monolinguals on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. This paper first reviews the benefits that bilinguals have when acquiring an additional language. Secondly, the cognitive benefits will be explored, particularly the bilingual advantage in executive functioning (EF), empirically linked with general intelligence and the ability to better cope with brain damage (e.g., dementia) mostly known as “cognitive reserve”. This paper culminates with presenting speculations why some studies report contradictory findings.

While research on cognitive and metacognitive abilities of bilingual and biliterate students has been advancing, limited studies have examined these influences in the Arabic context. The current study explores the influences of cognitive and metacognitive abilities on the bilingualism and biliteracy of Emirati fifth-grade students whose mother tongue is Arabic but who are learning core subjects in English. This is an explanatory sequential mixed method study where quantitative data from Grade 5 students (n = 350), and their Arabic and English teachers (n = 200; and n = 150 respectively) were first collected, followed by in-depth interviews with three students, two English teachers, and two Arabic teachers. Findings showed that students used their cognitive and metacognitive abilities more freely in Arabic lessons as compared to English. However, Arabic teachers reported that students use background knowledge in their first language in a better way but also demonstrated insufficient transfer strategy between the two languages.

This is a discussion of the phenomenon of bilingualism and its implications on cognition. Monolingual and bilingual speakers follow the same general course of language acquisition and development – both groups learn phonemes and discover grammar, however,
experimental data indicate that the ways in which bilingual and monolingual acquisition and further linguistic development happen differ. The research challenge is to identify and interpret these differences.

This first chapter provides an overview of the four themes of the book that will frame the study of poetry, music and narrative: (1) bilingualism, (2) multicultural knowledge, (3) origins and evolution of the abilities of poetry, music and narrative and (4) the systems and subsystems of cognition that underlie these abilities. The first theme is especially concerned with how language systems interact, among themselves, and then with other kinds of ability. For example, how are the knowledge systems of language and music related and how are they different? Multicultural aspects of poetry, music and narrative will be concerned mainly with the idea of cross-cultural differences (and interactions) and cross-cultural universals. In this case musical ability will provide a good example for studying culture. The problem of origins takes an evolutionary research point of view. Lastly, the study of component systems and subsystems examines the applicability of an important concept from evolutionary science, that of modularity. 1 Introduction: Art in the Voice The problem of how music and literature are related, and how they interact in real life, has a long history. Going back thousands of years, one idea was that the relationship was actually very close; that music and literature sprang forth from the same wellspring. Today, musicologists and linguists have begun to take another look at this relationship, in some ways different and in some ways the same, with a lens borrowed from the branch of psychology that studies cognitive processes. This new appreciation and curiosity has opened another ripe forum for the science-humanities dialogue. Poetry, narrative and music are aesthetic genres that have a number of things in common, even though narrative also includes strictly prosaic and non-artistic forms. Today, we often associate them with literacy, writing and musical notation. But in all three cases this aspect of their reading and (written) composition is completely secondary, secondary from the historical and evolutionary point of view and in how the respective abilities develop throughout the life span of individuals. Possibly, most adults (or depending on how one counts, at least a large percentage), even today, who are skilled and active creators/performers-poets, narrators and musicians-do not read or write. Not that writing and notation are inconsequential-something can be "secondary," in the above sense, but turn out to be important and widespread, with time, even come to be indispensible in some ways. For example, Chapter 4 of this book is mainly about poetry and writing. In music, poetry and narrative, there are purposes for which writing and notation are useful and even necessary. But they are not the primary motivating purposes, at least not the ones that might tell us something about underlying core characteristics. If this idea turns out to be correct, it has important implications for studying how beginning learners experience these genres. What prior sensibility (if such a thing exists) might we possess, from the beginning, that allows us to process music and literature as objects of art? The three genres are also universal: all normally developing individuals acquire, without deliberate instruction, the basic receptive capabilities of each ability and all cultures pass on from one generation to the next their respective repertoire of poems, stories and songs. In this way, the defining sensibilities and skills associated with poetry, narrative and music cross the oral-written "divide" (not a "divide" in the true sense) and cross all cultural boundaries. Upon closer inspection, the apparent exceptions might even be good examples of this generalization. The focus in this book will be on these poetic, narrative and musical abilities, how they develop and how we learn them. What might be some of the primitive components that distinguish one set of abilities from another, and then which components might be shared in common? A better understanding of the nature of these kinds of knowledge and skill, and the

Translation process research (TPR) is an atheoretical label used to describe research within cognitive translation and interpreting studies (CTIS) devoted to the study of the cognition involved in multilingual mediated communication with written source texts. Research methods are a pivotal issue in TPR, where researchers’ main aim is to develop rigorous, reliable methods to access the evidence of the workings of translators’ minds. Moreover, the drive in TPR for advancing fast and catching up with the pace of other cognitive science disciplines has resulted in a profusion of research topics, data coding, and tools. This chapter provides a snapshot of research methodology in TPR with an eye to identifying limitations, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. After introducing some basic notions related to quantitative and qualitative research, it focuses on three key types of research in TPR: quasi experimental, observational, and the cognitive research of texts. Each type is briefly contextualized and defined in relation to the theoretical paradigm it adheres to, its contexts of application and topics, and the data collection and analysis methods most frequently employed. Core results and critical issues are also discussed. The chapter closes with a few recommendations for practice.

Over the past 15 years, we have seen a steady growth of research in Cognitive Translation & Interpreting Studies (CTIS). One of the paradigms within CTIS, Cognitive Translatology (CT), draws from Situated Cognition and already is an alternative to traditional views on the interface between brain, mind and diverse forms of multilectal mediated communication. One decade after the original presentation of the CT framework, this article aims to clarify and update the notions introduced there. First, the article elaborates on prerequisite concepts such as inter-textuality, meaning, language, and communication from cognitive translatological perspectives. Second, it reviews the nature of translations and translating and presents a précis on CT's disciplinary basics, such as the object of study, research methods and future directions. Altogether, we hope to contribute to dispelling misunderstandings and answer some recurrent questions on the theoretical edifice of Cognitive Translatology.

This article examines the perceived effectiveness of multilingual upbringing strategies and ways of communication adopted by families where the parents are of two different nationalities. The theoretical introduction presents an overview of the most important issues related to the linguistic development in bi-/multilingual children, debunking common myths and misconceptions surrounding the notions of bi-/multilingualism. The empirical part analyses the results of a survey conducted among parents who raise their children multilingually, looking at the strategies of communication adopted, the perceived effectiveness thereof, and whether the respondents would have changed or improved anything if they had been given a ‘second chance’. The results show that the most frequently implemented method is the one parent-one language approach, whose usefulness the majority assessed positively. Other practical conclusions concerning multilingual upbringing are also drawn.

Despite abundant evidence of malleability in speech production, previous studies of the effects of late second-language learning on first-language production have been limited to advanced learners. This dissertation examines these effects in novice learners, finding that experience in a second language rapidly, and possibly inexorably, affects production of the native language. In a longitudinal study of Korean acquisition, native English-speaking adult learners (n = 19) produced the same English words at weekly intervals over the course of intensive elementary Korean classes. Results of two acoustic case studies indicate that experience with Korean rapidly influences the production of English, and that the effect is one of assimilation to phonetic properties of Korean. In case study 1, experience with Korean stop types is found to influence the production of English stop types (in terms of voice onset time and/or fundamental frequency onset) as early as the second week of Korean classes, resulting in the lengthening of VOT in English voiceless stops (in approximation to the longer VOT of the perceptually similar Korean aspirated stops) and the raising of F0 onset following English voiced and voiceless stops (in approximation to the higher F0 levels of Korean). Similarly, in case study 2, experience with the Korean vowel space is found to have a significant effect on production of the English vowel space, resulting in a general raising of females' English vowels in approximation to the overall higher Korean vowel space. These rapid effects of second-language experience on first-language production suggest that cross-language linkages are established from the onset of second-language learning, that they occur at multiple levels, and that they are based not on orthographic equivalence, but on phonetic and/or phonological proximity between languages. The findings are discussed with respect to current notions of cross-linguistic similarity, exemplar models of phonology, and language teaching and research practices.

Guardare un oggetto, reagire a uno stimolo, calcolare una distanza “a occhio” sono azioni che svolgiamo normalmente nell'arco di una giornata. Ci soffermiamo poco a pensare come in realtà il nostro cervello lavori per farci percepire questi stimoli.
In questo lavoro analizzerò alcuni articoli scientifici accomunati da una nuova e osteggiata teoria, quella della “cognizione incarnata”. Come elabora il cervello movimenti e concetti astratti?
Partirò da una definizione generale di grounded o embodied cognition, dalla sua nascita fino a una prospettiva futura di questa teoria seguendo gli articoli di Caruana e Borghi (2013) e di Barsalou (2010).
Mi focalizzerò poi su aspetti più specifici: la comprensione del linguaggio, seguendo un articolo di Zwaan (2014), la possibilità di incontrare un esempio di disembodied cognition nei parlanti bilingui (Pavlenko, 2012) e la praticità del linguaggio secondo Arbib, Gasser e Barrès (2013).

Aphasia as a multifaceted language disorder associated with the complicated links between language and brain has been and is of interest and significance to the stream of research in different disciplines including neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive studies and language acquisition. Along with explorations into the manifestations of aphasia in monolingual speakers, bilingual aphasia has similarly become the most current form of this language disorder due to the rising number of bilingual speakers in recent decades all over the world and the probability of facing bilinguals suffering from this language deficit. To paint a picture of this multidimensional linguistic impairment and to get out of the labyrinth of aphasia and in particular bilingual aphasia, the present review study aims to provide a summary of aphasia-related studies in different contexts worldwide and run through the variables affecting the manifestations and language recovery patterns in bilingual aphasic speakers.

Recent studies from the field of neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics suggest that bilinguals and multilinguals are in many ways fundamentally different from monolinguals, a difference that starts with a different cerebral structure for language. This difference will constitute the point of departure for my paper: If multilingual people are intrinsically different from monolingual people, it should follow that multilingual writers must be intrinsically different from monolingual writers. Samuel Beckett's bilingualism was the governing force of much of his writing and has received ample critical attention. Yet this article will examine a hitherto neglected aspect of this topic: the way Beckett's bilingualism may have inflected his writing in the first place. It will call on some of the research in neuro-and psycholinguistics to illuminate Beckett's constant back and forth between English and French and the importance this may have had for his writing as well as to show how Beckett's bilingual background is organically connected to the writing.

This study aims to examine the influence of multiple translations of a word on bilingual processing in three translation recognition experiments during which French–English bilinguals had to decide whether two words were translations of each other or not. In the first experiment, words with only one translation were recognized as translations faster than words with multiple translations. Furthermore, when words were presented with their dominant translation, the recognition process was faster than when words were presented with their non-dominant translation. In Experiment 2, these effects were replicated in both directions of translation (L1–L2 and L2–L1). In Experiment 3, we manipulated number-of-translations and the semantic relatedness between the different translations of a word. When the two translations of a word (i.e., bateau) were related in meaning (synonyms such as the English translations boat and ship), the translation recognition process was faster than when the two translations of a word (i.e., argent) were unrelated in meaning (the two translations money and silver). The consequences of translation ambiguities are discussed in the light of the distributed conceptual feature model of bilingual memory (De Groot, 1992b; Van Hell and De Groot, 1998b).

This study investigated non-native English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’
perceptions regarding error correction in grammar teaching in Qassim University, Saudi
Arabia. The main data collection tool of this study was a five-point Likert-scale
questionnaire, administered to 48 EFL teachers. In order to triangulate the study, four semistructured interviews were conducted. Participants were selected based on convenience
sampling. The study attempted to identify experience-based and gender-based differences
among EFL teachers about error correction in grammar teaching. Descriptive analyses and
independent-samples t-tests were run using a statistical software, SPSS. The results show
that there were no differences of perceptions across teaching experience and across genders.
The findings of the study revealed that experienced and less experienced and male and
female teachers’ perceptions about error correction in grammar teaching are independent of
these individual characteristics. Eventually, implications of this study are identified for
effective teaching of error correction in grammar.

This study investigates potential shifts in relative language dominance in early sequential bilinguals across the primary school years. The subjects are thirty-eight Polish-English speaking children. We introduce a new test, the Child HALA, which measures shifts in relative language strength by comparing lexical accuracy and access between two languages. This test has been designed specifically for use with children, and is based on the HALA psycholinguistic tool (O'Grady, Schaffer, Perla, Lee, & Wieting, 2009). The aim is to examine its suitability, reliability and applicability in research on language acquisition and maintenance in young bilinguals. In particular, we attempt to evaluate whether the test will show a pattern of shifts in language dominance comparable to the outcomes of previous research (Kohnert, Bates & Hernandez, 1999; Kohnert & Bates, 2002, among others). 

We find that the Child HALA test discovers reliable results across age groups and languages when compared with other studies that investigated lexical accuracy and access, and therefore may be considered as a reliable method in assessing language strength and maintenance in children. The results show that the children’s relative language dominance shifts from the initially stronger Polish to the more dominant English between the age of eight and eleven.

Kohnert, K., & Bates, E. (2002). Balancing bilinguals II: Lexical comprehension and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 45(2), 347–359.
Kohnert, K., Bates, E., & Hernandez, A.E. (1999). Balancing bilinguals: Lexical-semantic production and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42(6), 1400-1413.
O'Grady, W., Schaffer, A. J., Perla, J., Lee, O. S. & Wieting, J. (2009). A psycholinguistic tool for the assessment of language loss: The HALA Project. Language Documentation & Conservation, 3(1), 100–112