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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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2020

Bilingualism

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Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Language Vitality Of Nahuatl In Santiago Tlaxco, Mexico, Grace Gomashie Oct 2020

The Language Vitality Of Nahuatl In Santiago Tlaxco, Mexico, Grace Gomashie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis assesses the language vitality of Nahuatl (also known as Mexicano) in Santiago Tlaxco, a rural bilingual community in the municipality of Chiconcuautla, located in Puebla, Mexico, in the face of the growing trend of language endangerment for many Indigenous languages. It explores the linguistic use and attitudes of community members, and how they contribute to language maintenance and language shift of Nahuatl. The main research questions are: a) what are the language use patterns of the community? and b) what are the prevailing language attitudes of this Nahuatl-speaking community towards its Indigenous language? Data on the language practices …


Developing Consecutive Interpreter’S Communicative Skills Of Emotive-Empathic Interaction, Jameela Abduganieva Researcher Sep 2020

Developing Consecutive Interpreter’S Communicative Skills Of Emotive-Empathic Interaction, Jameela Abduganieva Researcher

Philology Matters

Consecutive interpretation is a special form of oral communication between people speaking different languages, representing different cultures, and it is carried out in any situation of intercultural communication in order to exchange thoughts, information, knowledge, labor results, products, emotions, values, relationships in the process of interaction.
A consecutive interpreter is a mediator of intercultural communication, and the development of emotive-empathic interaction skills of an interpreter promotes the successfullness of such communication.
Interpreters’ communicative skills of emotive-empathic interaction within consecutive interpretation may be defined as a communicative and speech act in a foreign language communication implemented independently and in an optimal …


Researching Paraguayan Guarani: The Minoritized Language Of The Majority, Josefina Bittar Phd Candidate Sep 2020

Researching Paraguayan Guarani: The Minoritized Language Of The Majority, Josefina Bittar Phd Candidate

LAII Events

Paraguayan Guarani, one of the native languages of Paraguay, is spoken by more than 80% of the country’s population. However, despite government and societal efforts, Spanish remains the language of prestige, required for education opportunities and social mobility. In this presentation, Josefina Bittar will discuss the characteristics of Guarani-Spanish bilingualism in Paraguay, the importance of documenting linguistic practices in the country, and the role of researchers in challenging the population’s internalized prejudices about languages and their speakers.


Comparing Verbal And Spatial Working Memory In Monolingual And Bilingual Speakers, Rosaury Hernandez Jul 2020

Comparing Verbal And Spatial Working Memory In Monolingual And Bilingual Speakers, Rosaury Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

The bilingual advantage has been demonstrated in different domains of cognitive functioning, especially executive functioning. Compared to other domains of executive functioning, the impact of bilingualism on working memory in children and adults has received relatively little attention. Moreover, research on the bilingual advantage in young adults has produced mix results in tasks where working memory is required. The present study examined whether bilingual expertise yielded different results depending on the working memory task. The present study included 54 participants, 44 identified as female and 10 identified as male. Spatial working memory was measured using the computerized spatial span task …


Cross-Modal Distraction On Simultaneous Translation: Language Interference In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Violet Young Jun 2020

Cross-Modal Distraction On Simultaneous Translation: Language Interference In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Violet Young

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Bilingualism has been studied extensively in multiple disciplines, yet we are still unsure how exactly bilinguals think. Though the existence of a bilingual advantage is debated, this effect has been shown in tasks using selective attention. These tasks study the effects of language interference, where two types of interference are observed: interlingual (between-languages) and intralingual (within one language). This study examines language interference in Spanish-English bilinguals using an auditory-visual simultaneous translation experimental setup. Sixteen college English monolinguals and 17 college Spanish-English bilinguals were tested. Participants translated or repeated words displayed on a screen while ignoring distractor words played through headphones. …


Linguistic Self-Esteem In Bilingual Adults, Eunice Gonzalez, Dr. Nora Murphy May 2020

Linguistic Self-Esteem In Bilingual Adults, Eunice Gonzalez, Dr. Nora Murphy

Honors Thesis

The present study investigated the psychology of linguistic self-esteem in bilingual speakers. Previous research suggested that students’ self-esteem strongly correlated with academic achievement, but current studies also suggest these trends may differ across ethnic minority groups and their majority group peers (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Ferguson & Cramer, 2007). In addition, the growing bilingual student population in the United States highlights a need to assess how multiple languages interact with students’ self-esteem in academic settings (NCES, 2019). Recently, the Language Efficacy and Acceptance Dimension Scale was developed to assess linguistic self-esteem in bilingual adults (Neugebauer, 2011). Participants who …


Eye-Movement Benchmarks In Heritage Language Reading, Olga Parshina, Anna K. Laurinavivhyute, Irina A. Sekerina Feb 2020

Eye-Movement Benchmarks In Heritage Language Reading, Olga Parshina, Anna K. Laurinavivhyute, Irina A. Sekerina

Publications and Research

This eye-tracking study establishes basic benchmarks of eye movements during reading in heritage language (HL) by Russian-speaking adults and adolescents of high (n = 21) and low proficiency (n = 27). Heritage speakers (HSs) read sentences in Cyrillic, and their eye movements were compared to those of Russian monolingual skilled adult readers, 8-yearold children and L2 learners. Reading patterns of HSs revealed longer mean fixation durations, lower skipping probabilities, and higher regressive saccade rates than in monolingual adults. High-proficient HSs were more similar to monolingual children, while low-proficient HSs performed on par with L2 learners. Low-proficient HSs differed from high-proficient …


Testing The Perceptual Magnet Effect In Monolinguals And Bilinguals, Michael C. Stern Feb 2020

Testing The Perceptual Magnet Effect In Monolinguals And Bilinguals, Michael C. Stern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research has demonstrated an apparent warping of the perceptual space whereby the best exemplars or ‘prototypes’ of speech sound categories minimize the perceptual distance between themselves and neighboring stimuli in the same category. This phenomenon has been termed the ‘perceptual magnet effect’ (PME). The present study extends work on the PME to a speech sound category previously unstudied in this paradigm (American English /æ/), and to bilingual speech sound representation and perception. American English monolinguals and Turkish-English bilinguals completed identification tasks, category goodness rating tasks, and same-different discrimination tasks with synthesized vowel sounds from the American English /æ/ category—not …


The Relationship Between Theory Of Mind And Executive Function: Are They Two Facets Of The Same Process Or Two Distinct Processes?, Isu Cho Jan 2020

The Relationship Between Theory Of Mind And Executive Function: Are They Two Facets Of The Same Process Or Two Distinct Processes?, Isu Cho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the relationship between Theory of Mind (ToM) and Executive Function (EF). There has been debate on whether ToM and EF are two facets of the same process or are two distinct processes. Distinguishing between these possibilities empirically is challenging because the two abilities have similar developmental timetables and ToM tasks typically place high demands on EF, with the consequence that ToM and EF performance measures may be artificially correlated. Three experiments explored the nature of this relationship. Experiments 1 and 2 tested whether socio-cultural factors known to influence individual differences in EF (i.e., bilingualism, country-of-origin) extend to …


Functional Load, Token Frequency, And Contact-Induced Change In Toronto Heritage Cantonese Vowels, Holman Tse Jan 2020

Functional Load, Token Frequency, And Contact-Induced Change In Toronto Heritage Cantonese Vowels, Holman Tse

English Faculty Scholarship

Unlike many previous studies of heritage speakers showing phonological maintenance, this presentation will show evidence for a vowel merger among second-generation Toronto Cantonese speakers. Two pairs of vowels are tested for merger. Both pairs are hypothesized to merge due to the lack of similar contrasts in Toronto English: /y/~/u/ and /a/~/ɔ/. Results show merger for only /y/~/u/. This is argued to be due to the lower functional load of /y/~/u/ (three minimal pairs with /y/~/u/, but 105 minimal pairs for /a/~/ɔ/) and due to lower token frequency of /y/ and /u/ compared to /a/ and /ɔ/ in conversational speech.


Consciousness Vis-À-Vis The Restraints Of Language, Angela-Maria Martinez Jan 2020

Consciousness Vis-À-Vis The Restraints Of Language, Angela-Maria Martinez

Honors Program Theses

In my work, I explore the overlooked complexities of linguistics within the languages I speak and I examine the philosophical ideologies that surround the different perspectives offered by those languages I do not understand. As a bilingual, I have often pondered about the languages I speak fluently and how their differences allowed me to understand my surroundings in distinctive ways. Through the use of peaceful colors and audio, a combination of abstract and minimalist imagery, and a time-based medium, I seek to reveal the undiscovered possibilities of spoken language. It is through tranquil imagery and audio that I attempt to …


Bilingual Children's L1 And L2 Word Frequency Effects: The Role Of Individual Differences, Astrid Michelle Portillo Jan 2020

Bilingual Children's L1 And L2 Word Frequency Effects: The Role Of Individual Differences, Astrid Michelle Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bilingualism continues to grow among the world's population. Nevertheless, most research studies on language processing have focused on monolingual individuals, leaving questions about how language processing unfolds in bilingual individuals. Here, we investigated how individual differences in bilingual experience, indexed by current L2 exposure, impact eye movement measures of reading fluency, indexed by word frequency effects, in an understudied population: bilingual children. Prior eye movement research involving bilingual younger adults (aged 18 to 30) has reported a trade-off in L1 and L2 word frequency effects with greater levels of current L2 exposure (Whitford & Titone, 2012, 2017). We wanted to …


Language Transfer Between English And German: A Phonetics-Based Study Of Interactions Between Speakers' Native And Second-Language Vowel Systems, Emelia Bensonmeyer Jan 2020

Language Transfer Between English And German: A Phonetics-Based Study Of Interactions Between Speakers' Native And Second-Language Vowel Systems, Emelia Bensonmeyer

Scripps Senior Theses

The present study addresses language contact processes in which the phonetic systems of the languages that bilinguals speak interact. Specifically, language transfer with respect to English and German was examined, focusing on native German speakers (L1) who learned English as a second language (L2). It employed as its central method an analysis of their vowel systems, both language-specifically and cross-linguistically. Extralinguistic variables were also considered, ranging from speakers’ age of acquisition (AOA) of English to their length of residence in an English-speaking environment to their consideration of home. Results indicated statistically significant differences between speakers’ production of /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ …


Mitigation Of A Prospective Association Between Early Language Delay At Toddlerhood And Adhd Among Bilingual Preschoolers: Evidence From The Gusto Cohort, Shaun K. Y. Goh, Hwajin Yang, Stella Tsotsi, Anqi Qiu, Yap-Seng Chong, Kok Hian Tan, Lynette Shek, Birit F. P. Broekman, Anne Rifkin-Graboi Jan 2020

Mitigation Of A Prospective Association Between Early Language Delay At Toddlerhood And Adhd Among Bilingual Preschoolers: Evidence From The Gusto Cohort, Shaun K. Y. Goh, Hwajin Yang, Stella Tsotsi, Anqi Qiu, Yap-Seng Chong, Kok Hian Tan, Lynette Shek, Birit F. P. Broekman, Anne Rifkin-Graboi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is accumulating evidence of a prospective relation between early language problems and ADHD, a disorder associated with deficits in executive functioning. However, little is known regarding this link among bilingual children. Here, we investigate whether (i) the prediction from language to ADHD may be lower among bilinguals, and (ii) explore if this moderation can be explained by differential executive functioning ability. Utilising a prospective sample of 408 South-East Asian toddlers, bilingual exposure as a moderator of the link between language delay at 24 months to ADHD intermediate diagnosis at 54 months was first examined with an interaction model. Next, …