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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Developmental Psychology

Dissertations

Bilingualism

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Academic Achievement Of Latino Emerging Adults: The Role Of Language Brokering, Executive Functions, And Language Proficiency, Valerie Christina Flores Jan 2015

Academic Achievement Of Latino Emerging Adults: The Role Of Language Brokering, Executive Functions, And Language Proficiency, Valerie Christina Flores

Dissertations

A vast literature has examined bilinguals’ strengths in executive functions (EFs) without considering how language brokering, or translating frequently for family and friends, relates to such advantages in EFs. At the same time, Latinos students – many of whom are bilingual – are the largest minority group attending college today in the U.S., despite being less likely to receive a bachelor’s degree. The overarching goal of the present study was to explore whether language brokering practices among Latino emerging adults led to better cognitive skills and ultimately greater academic achievement in college. Data were collected from multiple cohorts of bilingual …


Processes Underlying Syntactic Control: Evaluating Linguistically Diverse Children, Vanessa R. Raschke Jan 2013

Processes Underlying Syntactic Control: Evaluating Linguistically Diverse Children, Vanessa R. Raschke

Dissertations

The current study focused on the mechanisms involved in syntactic awareness development in monolingual and bilingual (English/Spanish-speaking) nine-year-olds. Inclusion of child language brokers (those who translate and interpret for non-English speaking family members) diversified the definition of "bilingual." Previous research has shown bilingual advantages in areas of metalinguistic awareness and executive function (e.g., Bialystok, 2010; Davidson, Raschke, & Pervez, 2010), however, child language brokers have not been distinguished in these studies. These children, due to early language-switching and translation duties, may have differential development of areas of inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, areas suspected to aid in metalinguistic awareness …