Universal Communicative Strategies in Acquisition of Second Language Phonology

Nittaya Chaimanee
University of Freiburg

This study investigates the significance of filled and unfilled pause phenomena as a universal strategy in language acquisition to achieve potential in communication across languages. Thai, the language of Thailand is used as a second language by speakers of different first languages as well as a first language in a natural setting, in Thai environment.

The study, by way of contrastive analysis between speech samples of native and non-native speakers, provides statistical results on the distribution of pauses, with discussion of significant features which affect pauses and significance of pauses in conversations in Thai. As a result of the empirical testing of Thai spontaneous speech data, more information on Thai phonology has been revealed. Two corresponding types of pauses, filled pauses/pause fillers and unfilled/silent pauses are found in conversational Thai spontaneous speech. Filled pauses are categorized into two kinds, "common” filled pauses and "typically Thai” filled pauses. They are specifically used in isolation at conversational turns and in conversational overlappings. Unfilled pauses manifest themselves as relatively different durations of silence. Both types of pauses occur within conversational turns, before words initially composed of complex linguistic components. These components mostly operate under modification of certain prosodies, and are specifically characteristic of the target language. They motivate phonotactic constraints due to articulatory difficulties of speech processing which may relate to cognitive factors, especially control and awareness. Filled pauses and unfilled pauses are, as highlighted in this study, normal hesitation phenomena in spontaneous speech. They are phenomena of significance in communication as common speech strategies which enhance for potential proficiency of language acquisition, especially of a second language.

ISBN 9783895866500. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 01. 250pp. 1999.

Développement des compétences narratives des enfants bilingues turc-français en France âgés de 5 à 10 ans

Mehmet Ali Akinci
Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (DDL), UMR 5596, MRASH, Lyon

L'objectif de cette étude est de décrire le développement des compétences narratives des enfants bilingues turc-français âgés de 5 à 10 ans, issus de l'immigration turque en France, dans une perspective comparative (comparaison aux monolingues turcs et français, aux bilingues turc-néerlandais). Quatre aspects des narrations ont été abordés : la macrostructure (étude de la continuité thématique), la référence aux participants (introduction, promotion, maintien, changement et prise de perspective), la temporalité et la connectivité. Les résultats ont montré un "retard" des compétences narratives chez les 5-6 ans par rapport aux monolingues turcs et français de même âge aussi bien dans les narrations en turc qu'en français. Les composantes de la macrostructure sont très peu marquées, les introductions et les maintiens des acteurs se font au moyen de formes non-appropriées à la tâche, le système temporel mixte est dominant et l'emploi de la juxtaposition pour lier les propositions est très sollicité.

En outre, en français nous avons relevé des marqueurs de la langue orale qui persistent plus tardivement chez les bilingues par opposition aux monolingues. Ce retard est en grande partie comblé chez les 7-8 ans. Ces derniers se différencient des monolingues par les formes linguistiques utilisées qui restent peu complexes et peu diversifiées. En revanche, les récits des 9-10 ans sont identiques à ceux des monolingues. Le traitement est similaire chez les bilingues turc-néerlandais. Si à 5-6 ans le bilinguisme n'est pas encore un avantage, dû sans doute à des facteurs extra-linguistiques, à 10 ans, ces enfants ont une compétence narrative dans les deux langues équivalente à celles des monolingues. Par conséquent le bilinguisme ne constitue pas un désavantage.

Mots-clés: Narration, Bilinguisme, Turc, Français, Macrostructure, Introduction, Main-tien, Changement, Temporalité, Connectivité.


ISBN 9783895864377. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 03. 440pp. 2002.

Prosody and Prosodic Transfer in Foreign Language Acquisition:

Cantonese and Japanese

Esther Yuk WahLai
University of Hong Kong

The present volume is an elaborate study of the prosodic system and prosodic transfer effects in two typologically distinct languages, Cantonese and Japanese, which are representative of two big prosodic types, namely, tone language and pitch-accent language. The first part of the study examines the most important features characterizing the overall prosody of each language through a comprehensive review over important issues in the light of present day prosodic and phonological theories as the metrical theory, auto segmental and prosodic phonology etc. The second part focuses on a contrastive study to predict or explain potential areas of prosodic interference in the foreign language classroom of Cantonese and Japanese speakers through postulating a hierarchy of transfer parameters, with empirical verification where necessary.

The study displays its unique contribution in multiple directions: (a)The Cantonese stress/accent hypothesis proposed in the study is the first attempt ever to examine closely the prosodic behaviour of Cantonese, beyond the scope of the lexical tone. (b) The detailed prosodic analyses as presented should greatly facilitate second language learning for Cantonese and Japanese speakers who are both well known to speak a second language with a strong first language accent. (c) The scrutiny of diverse language types revealing universal principles underlying language specific behaviour seems to suggest that barriers between the so called "distinct prosodic types" such as "tonal versus intonation", "rhythm of alternation versus rhythm of succession" can be rather superficial, upon new discovery and new interpretation of their prosodic behaviour.

ISBN 9783895864674. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 08. 340pp. 2002.

Investigating Reconstruction in a Second Language

Ian H.G. Ying

Highly significant in current linguistic research (e.g., Barss, 2001; Lasnik, 2001), but not fully investigated in second language (L2) acquisition research (see Ying, 1999 for discussion), reconstruction refers to structures with a reflexive inside a moved noun phrase (e.g., Johni wonders which pictures of himselfi/j Billj likes.) or predicate (e.g., How proud of herselfi does Maryj think that Janei is ti/*j?). This research monograph examined L2 learners' interpretation of reconstruction in three separate studies.
The first study used a fresh online timed judgment task. The experimental stimuli were programmed to stay on the screen for three seconds. It elicited both reaction times and measure of error rates. The second study, aimed at finding out whether the experimental results obtained from the online task can be replicated, used an offline sentence interpretation task (MacLaughlin, 1998). The first two studies focused on investigating the interpretation of reconstruction in English by Chinese-speaking learners of English. To find out how English-speaking learners of Chinese would interpret reconstruction in Chinese, I conducted a third study using an offline sentence interpretation task by Lakshmanan and Teranishi (1994). The results indicate that L2 learners' interpretation of reconstruction was constrained by linguistic principles and L1-induced language mapping.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Ch. 1 Introduction
Ch. 2 Linguistic Theories on Reconstruction
Ch. 3 Prior studies on L2 learners' knowledge of reflexives
Ch. 4 Timed Sentence Judgments on Reconstruction in English
Ch. 5 Offline Sentence Judgments on Reconstruction in English
Ch. 6 English Learners' Interpretation of Reconstruction in Chinese
Ch. 7 Summary and Conclusion

ISBN 9783895868429. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 09. 250pp. 2003.

The Acquisition of L2-English Spelling

Susana M. Doval-Suárez
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

The present study describes the orthographic interlanguage of Galician-Spanish under-graduates and pays special attention to the exploration of spelling errors in as far as they are indicators of the learners’ use of strategies. The author’s main assumption is that writing processes are also ruled by a grammar, and as a consequence, that learning to spell is a hypotheses-testing process.

The first part of the study provides the theoretical background of the book. Chapter 1 examines the linguistic approaches to the relationship between speech and writing. Chapter 2 presents a contrastive analysis of the different orthographic systems involved in the research. Chapter 3 provides the psycholinguistic background.

The second part of the study concentrates on the empirical analysis of the spelling data taken from 95 compositions and 30 dictations. Chapter 4 classifies, describes and explains the misspelling types identified in the composition sample, and is mainly devoted to the cross-sectional analysis of the four types of error mechanism (displacements, additions, omissions and substitutions), although a more detailed analysis of substitutions is attempted in terms of strategies. Finally, Chapter 5 is an ttempt to ascertain the psychological reality of the strategies of overgeneralisation by means of a dictation-test consisting of 20 non-words. The study closes with a summary of the main conclusions that can be drawn from the different chapters.

By providing the first full description of the orthographic interlanguage of Spanish learners of English, the book could contribute to establishing a typology of mechanisms and strategies of misspellings made by L2-English learners in general, and so it may serve to answer questions such as: how do subjects who have learned to read and write using a regular system cope with an irregular system such as the English one? or how does L1-orthographic knowledge interact with L2-orthography learning?

ISBN 9783895868221. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 10. 275pp. 2004.

 Interlanguage Lexical Innovation

Elsa González Álvarez
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Lexical innovation has been dealt with both in studies of second language lexical acquisition and communication, the former often trying to determine the principles that govern the acquisition of the word formation system of a language, the latter studying the application of these processes to compensate for deficiencies in interlanguage vocabulary during communication.

Both approaches are combines in the present work, which focuses on lexical innovation in the oral production of Spanish learners of L2 English. The analysis and classification of the examples of lexical innovation spotted in the corpus provides a linguistic description of the word formation system of these learners` interlanguage, by determining the frequency of application of these mechanisms as well as the influence of linguistic, contextual and individual variables. The participation of subjects of different proficiency levels in the L2 allows checking whether the principles of productivity, transparency and simplicity have any influence on the acquisition of L2 word formation. Finally, the detailed analysis of a selection of examples in context allows us to trace the psychological processes that take place during communication, and to ascertain the extent to which some contextual variables influence process selection.

ISBN 9783895865411. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 11. 220pp. 2004

Bilingualism and Education

From the Family to the School

Xoán Paulo Rodríguez-Yáñez, Anxo M. Lorenzo Suárez & Fernando Ramallo (eds.)
Universidade de Vigo

This volume (whose title reflects the central theme of the Second University of Vigo International Symposium on Bilingualism, held in Vigo, Spain, in October 2002) deals with the relations between bilingualism and education through three major approaches, preceded by way of introduction by five texts of well-known authors in this field of study (Part One). The first of these perspectives (Part two: Bilingual socialization in the family) undertakes the processes of constitution of the bilingual child, through the child linguistic socialization within the family. This is an approach that in few occasions has been related with the necessary depth, as we aspire to do in this book, to bilingualism in the formal educative and school domains. The second of these perspectives (Part Three: Plurilingualism in education) takes on the specific problems of bilingualism in the international institutional educative domain, with proposals of innovative models on multilingual/plurilingual education, reconsider-ations on the role of plurilingual education in the maintenance of languages, as well as on the scope that these initiatives can have in their social environment. Finally, the third perspective (Part Four: Bilingualism and education in contemporary Spain) discusses the status of the languages in the educative systems of different Spanish communities.

As a summary, the bilingual socialization processes in the family and at school are an inseparable whole, and this is the general intention that motivates the authors in presenting this volume.

Contents:

PART ONE

Joshua A. Fishman: A sociology of bilingualism: From home to school and back again

Ana Celia Zentella: Conducting language socialization research among U.S. Latin@ bilinguals: Premises, promises, and pitfalls

Elizabeth Lanza : Language socialization of infant bilingual children in the family: Quo vadis?

Marilyn Martin-Jones : The development and consolidation of critical, interpretive approaches to language in bilingual education practice

Miquel Siguan: The future of languages in a globalized world

PART TWO: BILINGUAL SOCIALIZATION IN THE FAMILY

Editor: Gabrielle Varro, Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS, France73

Gabrielle Varro: "Acquired knowledge" and "Burning questions" about family bilingualism: a new vernacular?

Christine Deprez: Family languages in France: first results of a demolinguistic survey

Sirkku Latomaa: Multilingualism in Finland: Past and present

Silvia Romeo: Interaction and argumentative strategies in the family, as mediated by Italian-French bilingualism

Héléna Correia Labaye: Bilinguality and the inter-generational transmission of languages

Maria-Jose Azurmendi and Maria-Llanos Luque: Early acquisition-learning of Euskara (at age 2-4) and interdependence between general psychological development, family and school.

Hristo Kyuchukov: The bilingual socialization of Roma children in Bulgaria

Dieter W. Halwachs: The use of Romani in Roma Households

PART THREE: PLURILINGUALISM IN EDUCATION

Editor: F. Xavier Vila i Moreno, Univ. Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain

Peter Plüddemann: Bilingual schooling in post-apartheid South Africa

Elizabeth R. Howard: Two-Way Immersion education: An integrated approach to bilingual education in the United States

Roland Willemyns & Helga Bister-Broosen: Bilingual Education in Alsace

F. Xavier Vila i Moreno, Santi Vial i Rius & Mireia Galindo: Language practices in bilingual schools: Some observed, quantitative data from Catalonia

PART FOUR: BILINGUALISM AND EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY SPAIN

Editor: Angel Huguet Canalis, Univ. de Lleida, Catalunya, Spain

Ignasi Vila: Actualidad y perspectivas de la educación bilingüe en el Estado español

Bieito Silva Valdivia: A lingua galega no sistema educativo de Galicia

José Romay Martínez & Susana Iglesias Antelo: Lengua y vitalidad etnolingüística en Galicia

Xosé Antón González Riaño: El tratamiento de las lenguas en Asturies

Ángel Huguet Canalis y Conxita Vendrell Serés: El tratamiento de las lenguas en Aragón

José Mª Madariaga Orbea: El tratamiento de las lenguas en Euskadi

Pablo Sotés & Nekane Oroz: El tratamiento de las lenguas en Navarra

ISBN 9783895867354. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 12. 580pp. 2005.

Developing Aspects of Second Language Discourse Competence

Katherine Rehner
University of Toronto

This work explores the development of aspects of discourse competence by French immersion students in Ontario, Canada. It represents a new front for second language acquisition and immersion research in that, firstly, it provides an in-depth analysis of the mastery by immersion students of several polysemous and poly-functional words (i.e., comme/like; donc/alors/(ça) fait que/so; bon; and là), words playing key roles in the expression of fundamental semantic notions (e.g., comparison, consequence, location) and discursive functions (e.g., emphasis, topic shifting, turn yielding). Secondly, it offers insight into the use of discourse markers by immersion students, an as yet under-researched area. Finally, it documents the influence on second language learners’ discourse competence exerted by a range of independent factors, many of which have not before been applied to research on the development of this competence.

Katherine Rehner completed her Ph.D. in Second Language Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and held a two-year federally-funded Canadian post-doctoral fellow-ship in the Department of French Studies and the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at York University. Her research to date has focused primarily on the development of sociolinguistic and discourse competencies by advanced second language learners of French.

ISBN 9783895863721. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisition 13. 152pp. 2005.

Ethics and Education in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

John Ippolito
York University

This ethnography of language and education considers the ethics of pedagogy for linguistically and culturally diverse students. It does so by drawing on the existentialist ethics of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Following the Levinasian connection between ethics and language, the study explores the ethical challenges and possibilities confronting teachers of junior school students (ages 6-10) who speak languages in addition to or other than the dominant language which, in this study’s Canadian context, is English.

In particular, the study looks at images of self and other as they manifest themselves in pedagogical practices, and it elaborates relations of responsibility between teachers and students. The data include in-depth interviews with and extended observations of teachers in their publicly-funded, mainstream Anglophone school in Mississauga, Canada. The findings suggest that teachers with flexible linguistic identities are more amenable to pedagogical practices supportive of linguistic diversity during the regular school day while teachers with less equivocal linguistic identities are more sympathetic to a monolingual mandate.

CH 1: PROBLEMATIC: ETHICAL PRACTICE IN LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE CLASSROOMS

CH 2: PEDAGOGICAL RESPONSIBILITY AS ETHICAL ENGENDERMENT: EMMANUEL LEVINAS

CH 3: AN EMPIRICAL INQUIRY INTO IMAGES OF SELF AND OTHER IN LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE CLASSROOMS

CH 4: TEACHING LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE STUDENTS: IMAGES OF SELF AND OTHER IN LANGUAGE

CH 5: TEACHING LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE STUDENTS: IMAGES OF SELF AND OTHER IN PEDAGOGY

CH 6: THE INTERPLAY OF SELF AND OTHER

Works Cited, Notes

ISBN 9783895868337. LINCOM Studies in Language Acquisitions 14. 136pp. 2005.