Early, late or very late? Timing acquisition and bilingualism

Research on child bilingualism accounts for differences in the course and the outcomes of monolingual and different types of bilingual language acquisition primarily from two perspectives: age of onset of exposure to the language(s) and the role of the input (Genesee, Paradis, & Crago, 2004; Meisel, 2009; Unsworth et al., 2014). Some findings suggest that early successive bilingual children may pattern similarly to simultaneous bilingual children, passing through different trajectories from child L2 learners due to a later age of onset in the latter group. Studies on bilingual development have also shown that input quantity in bilingual acquisition is considerably reduced, i.e., in each of their two languages, bilingual children are likely exposed to much less input than their monolingual peers (Paradis & Genesee, 1996; Unsworth, 2013b). At the same time, simultaneous bilingual children develop and attain competence in the two languages, sometimes without even an attested age delay compared to monolingual children (Paradis, Genesee & Crago, 2011). The implication is that even half of the input suffices for early language development, at least with respect to ‘core’ aspects of language, in whatever way ‘core’ is defined.My aim in this article is to consider how an additional, linguistic variable interacts with age of onset and input in bilingual development, namely, the timing in L1 development of the phenomena examined in bilingual children’s performance. Specifically, I will consider timing differences attested in the monolingual development of features and structures, distinguishing between early, late or ‘very late’ acquired phenomena. I will then argue that this three-way distinction reflects differences in the role of narrow syntax: early phenomena are core, parametric and narrowly syntactic, in contrast to late and very late phenomena, which involve syntax-external or even language-external resources too. I explore the consequences of these timing differences in monolingual development for bilingual development. I will review some findings from early (V2 in Germanic, grammatical gender in Greek), late (passives) and very late (grammatical gender in Dutch) phenomena in the bilingual literature and argue that early phenomena can differentiate between simultaneous and (early) successive bilingualism with an advantage for the former group, while the other two reveal similarly (high or low) performance across bilingual groups, differentiating them from monolinguals. The paper proposes that questions about the role of age of onset and language input in early bilingual development can only be meaningfully addressed when the properties and timing of the phenomena under investigation are taken into account.

A pooled genome-wide association study of Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, alongside the presence of unusually repetitive, restricted interests and stereotyped behaviour. Individuals with AS have no delay in cognitive and language development. It is a subset of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), which are highly heritable and has a population prevalence of approximately 1%. Few studies have investigated the genetic basis of AS. To address this gap in the literature, we performed a genome-wide pooled DNA association study to identify candidate loci in 612 individuals (294 cases and 318 controls) of Caucasian ancestry, using the Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping version 6.0 array. We identified 11 SNPs that had a p-value below 1x10-5. These SNPs were independently genotyped in the same sample. Three of the SNPs (rs1268055, rs7785891 and rs2782448) were nominally significant, though none remained significant after Bonferroni correction. Two of our top three SNPs (rs7785891 and rs2782448) lie in loci previously implicated in ASC. However, investigation of the three SNPs in the ASC genome-wide association dataset from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium indicated that these three SNPs were not significantly associated with ASC. The effect sizes of the variants were modest, indicating that our study was not sufficiently powered to identify causal variants with precision.

Older age of onset in child L2 acquisition can be facilitative: evidence from the acquisition of English passives by Spanish natives

We report a longitudinal comprehension study of (long) passive constructions in two native-Spanish child groups differing by age of initial exposure to L2 English (young group: 3;0-4;0 years; older group: 6;0-7;0 years); where amount of input, L2 exposure environment, and socio-economic status are controlled. Data from a forced-choice task show that both groups comprehend active sentences, not passives, initially (after 3.6 years of exposure). One year later, both groups improve, but only the older group reaches ceiling on both actives and passives. Two years from initial testing, the younger group catches up. Input alone cannot explain why the younger group takes 5 years to accomplish what the older group does in 4. We claim that some properties take longer to acquire at certain ages because language development is partially constrained by general cognitive and linguistic development (e.g. de Villiers, 2007; Long & Rothman, 2014; Paradis, 2008, 2010, 2011; Tsimpli, 2014).

Muntlig framställning : att tolka och förstå kunskapskraven i nationellt prov SVA 1

Den här studien har haft som syfte att studera om kvalitetskraven i betygsskalan stämmer överens mellan nationellt prov i SVA1 och motsvarande kursplan svenska som andraspråk 1 (SVA1) samt på vilket sätt det nationella provet underlättar tolkningen av kunskapskraven i kursplanen för SVA1. Undersökningen begränsar sig till att omfatta enbart den muntliga delen, delprov A muntlig framställning. För att beskriva och analysera vilka kunskaper som anses vara eftersträvansvärda i muntlig framställning har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys genomförts som ger en grundmodell till den efterföljande kunskapsanalysen. Resultaten från studiens innehållsanalys visar fram en hur processen kring den muntliga framställningen utgår från den retoriska arbetsmodellen med ett gediget förberedande arbete som följs upp med anförande och avslutas med elevresponser. Resultatet från kunskapsanalysen visar hur eleverna behöver behärska en kombination av kunskapsformerna episteme, techné och fronesis för att uppfylla betygskraven på de högre nivåerna. Studiens slutsatser är att kvalitetskraven stämmer överens mellan det nationella provets bedömningsmatris och kursplanen i svenska som andraspråk 1 (SVA 1) vad gäller bedömningen av elevens språkliga kvaliteter. Dessutom går det att dra slutsatsen att de krav på anpassning till det retoriska sammanhanget också är krav som återfinns i kursplanen men beskrivs mer allmänt i ett språkutvecklande perspektiv vilket underlättar tolkningen av kunskapskraven i kursplanen. Studien visar hur eleven för att få det lägsta betyget (E) behöver kunskaper om en retorisk framställning och att eleven kan presentera ett förberett innehåll inför en publik.

Skicklig läs- och skrivundervisning i åk 1-3 : Om lärares möjligheter och hinder

This study focuses on teachers’ opportunities and obstacles to perform skillful reading and writing instruction. It’s about the ability to accurately identify where students are in their reading and writing process and to help them develop good reading skills. It is also about the ability to recognize signs of difficulties that students may have in their written language development and to know what efforts are needed to help them advance their reading and writing skills. The research is based on teachers’ own statements and survey responses on the external conditions for teaching and on their approach, attitudes and knowledge in reading and writing. The empirical material consists of interviews, surveys and test data. The interview study was conducted with eight teachers. The questionnaire was answered by 249 teachers, while the knowledge test was conducted of 269 teachers and 31 special education teachers. Many of the teachers in this study have lack knowledge in the structure of language and common Swedish spelling rules. Furthermore, it appears that a large part of them are unaccustomed to explaining, in detail, students’ reading development and find it difficult to systematically describe the aspects of daily literacy instruction. The overall picture is that many teachers teach without having tools to reflect on how their education really affects students’ reading and writing. These shortcomings make it difficult to conduct effective literacy instruction. Once students have learned to decode or if they have reading difficulties, many teachers seem to one-sidedly focus on getting students to read more. The consequence could be that those who would need to practice more on the technical basic of reading or comprehension strategies are left without support. Lack of variety and individuality in fluency and comprehension training can challenge the students’ reading and writing development. The teachers in the study, who have the old junior school teacher and elementary teacher education, have the highest amount of knowledge of reading and writing (the test). Good education can provide student teachers with professional skills that they may develop further in their careers. Knowledge of the meaning of phonological and phonemic awareness as well as knowledge of how to count phonemes seem to be important for knowledge of reading and writing (the test). Knowledge of basic reading processes can be obtained by systematic and structured work with students’ linguistic development, and through continuous dialogues with experienced colleagues on how and why questions. This is one important way to work also in teacher training. When essential professional skills are established in the teacher education, in practice students will obtain the school’s learning goals.

Klassrumsinteraktion i de tidiga skolåren : flerspråkiga elever i skolans språkliga vardag

Classroom interaction is particularly important for those students who learn school knowledge in a second language. In this article two episodes of whole class teaching in pre-school and standard one are analyzed. The analysis shows the importance of making teachers aware of interactional patterns in classrooms. Although knowledge was presented clearly and concretely and teachers used routines that made norms explicit, inconsistencies in interactional patterns made the role of the teacher stand out as unclear. Whole class teaching of this type does not provide students with such linguistic and intellectual demands that are necessary for their language development.

Sånger, rim och ramsor inom engelskundervisning : Lärares attityder till användning av sånger, rim och ramsor för att gynna elevers engelska språkutveckling i årskurs F-3

Syftet med detta arbete är att få en ökad insikt i vad svenska lärare har för attityder till arbete med sång, rim och ramsor i engelskundervisning för grundskolans tidigare år. Frågeställningarna är: 1. Vad har lärarna i studien för attityder till arbete med sång, rim och ramsor inom engelskundervisning? 2. Hur arbetar lärarna i studien med sång, rim och ramsor inom engelskundervisning? 3. Hur ser lärarna i studien på vikten av sin egen roll i arbetet med sång, rim och ramsor i engelskundervisning? I studien utfördes sex stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer med lärare som arbetar eller nyligen arbetat med engelskundervisning för årskurserna F-3 i en mellanstor kommun i sydvästra Sverige. I resultatet framkom att det finns betydande skillnader i hur individuella lärare arbetar med och ser på arbete med sång, rim och ramsor. Även flertalet likheter framkom, som i sin tur liknade de resultat från tidigare forskning som tas upp i bakgrunden. Flera lärare har en mycket positiv attityd till arbete med sång, rim och ramsor i engelskundervisningen, men det råder stora skillnader i hur lärarna upplever det faktiska värdet för engelskundervisningen och elevernas språkutveckling. Hur lärarna arbetar med sång, rim och ramsor varierar också stort mellan olika lärare, men återkommande knöt lärarna dessa moment till de teman och övriga ämnen som behandlades i undervisningen. Gemensamt var också en bredd i material och medieringsmetoder, samt ett multimodalt arbete som ofta kombinerade ljud, bild och rörelser. Gällande lärarnas roll var de helt eniga i att lärarens engagemang och deltagande hade en stor inverkan på hur arbetet med sång, rim och ramsor mottogs av eleverna. Enligt intervjusvaren deltog alla lärarna i dessa moment, och lät sig inte hindras av faktorer som självförtroende eller bristande kunskaper. Som vidare forskning föreslås mer djupgående studier i lärares attityder, kombinerat med fältstudier och elevintervjuer, för att på så vis uppnå en mer heltäckande bild av arbete med sång, rim och ramsor i svensk kontext.

Children’s Literature and English Teaching – Swedish Teachers’ Methods and Attitudes

This study investigates how primary school teachers of grades F-3 pupils in a number of sample schools in Sweden use children’s literature and other methods to enhance their teaching of English. The study explores the attitudes of these teachers’ to using English children’s literature as a teaching tool to promote language development in their pupils, focusing on vocabulary. An empirical questionnaire study was carried out including a total of twenty-three respondents from seven schools in a Stockholm suburb. The respondents are all working teachers with experience of teaching English to young learners, particularly in grades F-3. This study contributes with new knowledge about the often-recommended use of children’s literature as a method for teaching English to young learners, connecting international research with empirical data from the Swedish context. While the results suggest that the majority of the respondents are positive to using children’s literature in their teaching and regularly do so, many of them feel that it is somewhat difficult to find relevant materials to plan, implement and evaluate lessons within the allocated time-frame. Based on these results, further research about how to create more effective ways of using children’s literature as a method for English vocabulary teaching in Swedish schools is recommended.

Desenvolvimento neurológico e resposta apendicular ao movimento do tronco de crianças prematuras, durante o primeiro ano de vida

A ausência de estudos de acompanhamento do desenvolvimento neurológico de crianças nascidas prematuras, em nosso meio, motivou a realização desta pesquisa. Com o intuito de estabelecer marcos desse desenvolvimento e de verificar as respostas apendiculares ao movimento do tronco e a uniformidade entre as funções motoras, perceptivas e de linguagem, foram avaliados prematuros aos 3, 6, 9 e 12 meses de idade corrigida, em um estudo de coorte não controlado, com enfoque prognóstico. As respostas apendiculares ao movimento do tronco foram estudadas por meio das reações de paraquedismo e de apoio lateral. A amostra foi constituída de 40 recém-nascidos (RN) prematuros, nascidos no Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, que foram acompanhados no ambulatório do hospital aos 3, 6, 9 e 12 meses de idade corrigida. Foram incluídos no estudo RN com idade gestacional até 36 semanas e 6 dias, com 2.000g ou menos de peso no nascimento. Foram excluídos os RN com índices de Apgar <7 no 5o minuto, hemorragia cerebral, crises convulsivas, alterações no estado de consciência, infecção do sistema nervoso central (SNC), infecções congênitas, síndromes genéticas e intoxicações pré-natais. Também foram excluídos os RN que apresentaram intercorrências capazes de interferir no desenvolvimento neurológico e os que apresentaram exame neurológico alterado. As reações de paraquedismo e de apoio lateral estavam ambas presentes em 8,1% das crianças aos 6 meses de idade corrigida. Aos 9 meses de idade corrigida, a reação de paraquedismo estava presente em 87% das crianças e a reação de apoio lateral, em 90%. Aos 12 meses de idade corrigida, 100% dos casos apresentaram as reações posturais. Estes resultados não foram semelhantes aos encontrados em RN de termo de 6 e 9 meses de idade. O desenvolvimento do RN prematuro foi uniforme em relação às funções perceptivas e de linguagem para as idades corrigidas de 3, 6, 9 e 12 meses de idade corrigida. O desenvolvimento do equilíbrio estático foi o aspecto motor em desacordo com o esperado para cada idade corrigida. A evolução dos reflexos primitivos coincidiu com o esperado para cada idade corrigida; e o reflexo cutâneo-plantar se tornou flexor simultaneamente ao desaparecimento da preensão plantar.

Produção de conhecimento sobre narrativas orais: contribuições para as investigações em linguagem infantil

Este estudo tem como objetivo indicar um panorama geral sobre a produção de conhecimento no que tange os padrões para o desenvolvimento da narrativa oral, nos últimos quatro anos por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica sistematizada, voltada para a temática de intervenção em linguagem infantil, com o uso de narrativas orais. A revisão foi realizada em uma única etapa, com critérios específicos, utilizando os seguintes descritores: narrativas, narrativa, narrativas de crianças, linguagem e desenvolvimento, linguagem oral, habilidades linguísticas, linguagem falada, linguagem infantil, narração/narração de histórias e linguagem. O período considerado foi de 2007 a 2011. Foram obtidos 900 registros, dentre os quais, nove (1%) atenderam aos critérios estabelecidos para análise. A maioria dos estudos relacionou-se com análises psicolinguísticas. Apenas um estudo utilizou método experimental. No período considerado foram produzidos poucos estudos abordando narrativas orais infantis; a sua grande maioria levou em consideração, fundamentalmente, aspectos cognitivos e linguísticos no processo de desenvolvimento da habilidade narrativa; a grande maioria das pesquisas foi realizada com crianças que possuem algum tipo de alteração em seu desenvolvimento linguístico. Considera-se que a produção de conhecimento, em relação ao desenvolvimento de narrativas orais infantis, exige, atualmente, um olhar voltado para as intervenções que utilizem metodologia experimental. Por fim, considera-se que é necessária uma atenção maior em relação ao desenvolvimento típico da habilidade narrativa.

Aquisição da coda vibrante: o estabelecimento de pistas fonético-acústicas

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Aspectos da fluência na narrativa oral de indivíduos com Transtorno do Espectro Alcoólico Fetal

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Perfil da fluência da fala na síndrome de Williams-Beuren: estudo preliminar

TEMA: o padrão de fala fluente atribuído aos indivíduos com a síndrome de Williams-Beuren sustenta-se pela efetividade da alça fonológica. Alguns estudos citaram a ocorrência de disfluências decorrentes de prejuízos léxico-semânticos, entretanto, a quebra de fluência não foi bem especificada quanto ao tipo e freqüência de ocorrência. OBJETIVO: obter o perfil da fluência da fala de indivíduos com a SWB e comparar com um grupo controle pareado por gênero e idade mental semelhante. MÉTODO: foram avaliados 12 sujeitos com síndrome de Williams-Beuren a com idade cronológica entre 6,6 a 23,6 e idade mental de 4,8 a 14,3 anos que foram comparados a outros 12 sujeitos de idade mental semelhante com ausência de dificuldades de linguagem/aprendizagem. Para avaliação da fluência foi utilizado o Teste de Linguagem Infantil - ABFW, na área de fluência, que possibilitou classificar, quantificar e comparar os dois grupos quanto às tipologias e freqüência de rupturas e velocidade de fala. RESULTADOS: o grupo com a síndrome de Williams-Beuren (SWB) apresentou maior porcentagem de descontinuidade de fala e freqüência aumentada para disfluências comuns do tipo hesitação e repetição de palavras quando comparados aos indivíduos com idade mental semelhante e com desenvolvimento típico de fala e linguagem. CONCLUSÃO: O perfil da fluência da fala apresentado pelos indivíduos com a SWB neste estudo mostrou a presença de disfluências que podem ser decorrentes de prejuízo no processamento léxico-semântico e sintático da informação verbal; ressaltando-se, pois a necessidade de investigações mais sistemáticas sobre este tema.