Educaci��n y biling��ismo en el Estado espa��ol = Education and bilingualism in the Spanish territory

This article looks at the treatment of languages in the communities in Spanish territory, which apart from Spanish have another language. At the beginning we discuss some questions which are relative to social cohesion in those territories where more than one language is spoken and we defend bilingual education as a good instrument in favour of it. At the same time we look at the concept of bilingual education and the assumptions that it bears in respect of the learning of languages. In this sense we discuss the conditions of acquisition of language and its appearance in the area of bilingual education

Cross-Linguistic Transfer (CLT) in Bilingual Speakers : Neural Correlates of Language Learning

Le but de cette th��se est d'��tudier les corr��lats comportementaux et neuronaux du transfert inter-linguistique (TIL) dans l'apprentissage d���une langue seconde (L2). Compte tenu de nos connaissances sur l'influence de la distance linguistique sur le TIL (Paradis, 1987, 2004; Odlin, 1989, 2004, 2005; Gollan, 2005; Ringbom, 2007), nous avons examin�� l'effet de facilitation de la similarit�� phonologique �� l���aide de la r��sonance magn��tique fonctionnelle entre des langues linguistiquement proches (espagnol-fran��ais) et des langues linguistiquement ��loign��es (persan-fran��ais). L'��tude I rapporte les r��sultats obtenus pour des langues linguistiquement proches (espagnol-fran��ais), alors que l'��tude II porte sur des langues linguistiquement ��loign��es (persan-fran��ais). Puis, les changements de connectivit�� fonctionnelle dans le r��seau langagier (Price, 2010) et dans le r��seau de contr��le suppl��mentaire impliqu�� dans le traitement d���une langue seconde (Abutalebi & Green, 2007) lors de l���apprentissage d���une langue linguistiquement ��loign��e (persan-fran��ais) sont rapport��s dans l�����tude III. Les r��sultats des analyses d���IRMF suivant le mod��le lin��aire g��n��ral chez les bilingues de langues linguistiquement proches (fran��ais-espagnol) montrent que le traitement des mots phonologiquement similaires dans les deux langues (cognates et clangs) compte sur un r��seau neuronal partag�� par la langue maternelle (L1) et la L2, tandis que le traitement des mots phonologiquement ��loign��s (non-clang-non-cognates) active des structures impliqu��es dans le traitement de la m��moire de travail et d'attention. Toutefois, chez les personnes bilingues de L1-L2 linguistiquement ��loign��es (fran��ais-persan), m��me les mots phonologiquement similaires �� travers les langues (cognates et clangs) activent des r��gions connues pour ��tre impliqu��es dans l'attention et le contr��le cognitif. Par ailleurs, les mots phonologiquement ��loign��s (non-clang-non-cognates) activent des r��gions usuellement associ��es �� la m��moire de travail et aux fonctions ex��cutives. Ainsi, le facteur de distance inter-linguistique entre L1 et L2 module la charge cognitive sur la base du degr�� de similarit�� phonologiques entres les items en L1 et L2. Des structures soutenant les processus impliqu��s dans le traitement ex��cutif sont recrut��es afin de compenser pour des demandes cognitives. Lorsque la comp��tence linguistique en L2 augmente et que les t��ches linguistiques exigent ainsi moins d���effort, la demande pour les ressources cognitives diminue. Tel que d��j�� rapport�� (Majerus, et al, 2008; Prat, et al, 2007; Veroude, et al, 2010; Dodel, et al, 2005; Coynel, et al ., 2009), les r��sultats des analyses de connectivit�� fonctionnelle montrent qu���apr��s l���entra��nement la valeur d'int��gration (connectivit�� fonctionnelle) diminue puisqu���il y a moins de circulation du flux d'information. Les r��sultats de cette recherche contribuent �� une meilleure compr��hension des aspects neurocognitifs et de plasticit�� c��r��brale du TIL ainsi que l'impact de la distance linguistique dans l'apprentissage des langues. Ces r��sultats ont des implications dans les strat��gies d'apprentissage d���une L2, les m��thodes d���enseignement d���une L2 ainsi que le d��veloppement d'approches th��rapeutiques chez des patients bilingues qui souffrent de troubles langagiers.

Argument omissions in preschool Catalan and Spanish speaking children with SLI

El presente art��culo describe tres estudios sobre la producci��n del verbo y la estructura argumental en ni��os con Trastorno Espec��fico del Lenguaje (TEL) usando diferentes metodolog��as. El primero es un estudio observacional que usa una muestra de habla espont��nea. El segundo usa una tarea experimental de denominaci��n de oraciones como resultado de la observaci��n de videos de acciones. El tercero comprende la tarea de denominaci��n de oraciones con im��genes est��ticas en eventos con diferente complejidad argumental. Aunque los datos concretos var��an en funci��n de la metodolog��a usada, hay una clara evidencia de que los ni��os de habla catalana y espa��ola con TEL presentan especiales dificultades en la producci��n de verbos con una alta complejidad en relaci��n a la estructura argumental y cometen errores en la especificaci��n de los argumentos obligatorios. Se concluye que tanto limitaciones en el procesamiento como d��ficits en la representaci��n sem��ntica de los verbos pueden estar implicados en estas dificultades

Mesoclitic Romance futures and conditionals vs participle preposing

(INFINITIVE + CLITIC + AUX) is an evidential configuration in Old Spanish and Old Catalan, whereas (PARTICIPLE + CLITIC + AUX) is an instance of weak or unmarked focus fronting. The evidentiality of mesoclitic structures can be put forward on the bases of three main arguments: a) mesoclisis is not compulsory (i.e., whenever you have a clitic, you can either have mesoclisis or proclisis/enclisis); b) mesoclitic futures and conditionals are attested in interrogative sentences (with wh- elements); and c) they are not found in derived adverbial clauses (which is what you expect if they have an evidential value, since they bring about intervention effects corresponding to the derivational account of conditional and temporal sentences, for example - see Haegeman 2007 and ff.), and are related to high modal expressions (thus interfering with MoodPIrrealis)

Culturally appropriate activities for Spanish speaking families and educators of children who are deaf or hard of hearing

A look at teaching language to a child who is deaf or hard of hearing from a Spanish speaking home. A guide, including songs, activities and wordlists for families and teachers of the deaf.

Language support for immigrant children: a study of state schools in the UK and US

In recent decades, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers have sought a new way of life in large numbers, often leaving their countries of origin behind in search of places that offer a better way of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary and middle school students in state schools in Reading, England (primarily speakers of Asian languages), and Richmond, Virginia (primarily speakers of Spanish), were supported academically, when most children's first language was not English. The authors were interested in exploring whether or not there were cultural or structural differences in the way each country helped or hindered these students as they progressed through the school systems. Three UK schools in a district of approximately 100,000 and three US schools in a district of approximately 250,000 were the focus of this exploration from 2000 to 2003. Findings indicated that there were cultural and legislative differences and similarities. Teachers and administrators in both countries attempted to provide services with limited and sometimes diminishing resources. Community support varied based on resources, attitudes toward various ethnic groups, and the coping strategies adopted by these groups in their new environments. Marked differences appeared with regard to the manner in which assessments took place and how the results were made available to the public.

L1 transfer in the acquisition of manner and path in Spanish by native speakers of English

In this article the authors argue that L1 transfer from English is not only important in the early stages of L2 acquisition of Spanish, but remains influential in later stages if there is not enough positive evidence for the learners to progress in their development (Lefebvre, White, & Jourdan, 2006). The findings are based on analyses of path and manner of movement in stories told by British students of Spanish (N = 68) of three different proficiency levels. Verbs that conflate motion and path, on the one hand, are mastered early, possibly because the existence of Latinate path verbs, such as enter and ascend in English, facilitate their early acquisition by British learners of Spanish. Contrary to the findings of Cadierno (2004) and Cadierno and Ruiz (2006), the encoding of manner, in particular in boundary crossing contexts, seems to pose enormous difficulties, even among students who had been abroad on a placement in a Spanish-speaking country prior to the data collection. An analysis of the frequency of manner verbs in Spanish corpora shows that one of the key reasons why students struggle with manner is that manner verbs are so infrequent in Spanish. The authors claim that scarce positive evidence in the language exposed to and little or no negative evidence are responsible for the long-lasting effect of transfer on the expression of manner.

Subject-to-subject raising and the syntax of tense in L2 Spanish: a full access approach

This paper investigates the acquisition of syntax in L2 grammars. We tested adult L2 speakers of Spanish (English L1) on the feature specification of T(ense), which is different in English and Spanish in so-called subject-to-subject raising structures. We present experimental results with the verb parecer ���to seem/to appear��� in different tenses, with and without experiencers, and with Tense Phrase (TP), verb phrase (vP) and Adjectival Phrase (AP) complements. The results show that advanced L2 learners can perform just like native Spanish speakers regarding grammatical knowledge in this domain, although the subtle differences between both languages are not explicitly taught. We argue that these results support Full Access approaches to Universal Grammar (UG) in L2 acquisition, by providing evidence that uninterpretable syntactic features can be learned in adult L2, even when such features are not directly instantiated in the same grammatical domain in the L1 grammar.

Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: a case of successful acquisition at the syntax-discourse interface

This experimental study tests the Interface Hypothesis by looking into processes at the syntax��� discourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting L��pez���s (2009) pragmatic features [��a(naphor)] and [��c(ontrast)], which in combination account for the constructions of dislocation and fronting, we tested clitic left dislocation and fronted focus in the comprehension of English native speakers learning Spanish. Furthermore, we tested knowledge of an additional semantic property: the relationship between the discourse anaphor and the antecedent in clitic left dislocation (CLLD). This relationship is free: it can be subset, superset, part/whole. Syntactic knowledge of clitics was a condition for inclusion in the main test. Our findings indicate that all learners are sensitive to the semantic constraints. While the near-native speakers display native-like discourse knowledge, the advanced speakers demonstrated some discourse knowledge, and intermediate learners did not display any discourse knowledge. The findings support as well as challenge the Interface Hypothesis.

On the (un)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: informing debates on the mental representations of L2 syntax.

This study contributes to a central debate within contemporary generative second language (L2) theorizing: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target (see White, 2003). The adult acquisition of L2 nominal phi-features is explored, with focus on the syntactic and semantic reflexes in the related domain of adjective placement in two experimental groups: English-speaking intermediate (n = 21) and advanced (n = 24) learners of Spanish, as compared to a native-speaker control group (n = 15). Results show that, on some of the tasks, the intermediate L2 learners appear to have acquired the syntactic properties of the Spanish determiner phrase but, on other tasks, to show some delay with the semantic reflexes of prenominal and postnominal adjectives. Crucially, however, our data demonstrate full convergence by all advanced learners and thus provide evidence in contra the predictions of representational deficit accounts (e.g., Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Hawkins & Franceschina, 2004; Hawkins & Hattori, 2006).