International Journal of Bilingualism

We examined whether the language status (L2 vs L3/Ln), the presence of grammatical errors, and the degree of speech monitoring affect the perceived global foreign accent and comprehensibility in L1 Polish multilingual learners speaking L2 English and L3/Ln Norwegian.

We conducted a foreign accentedness rating study in two non-native languages with speech samples in three different conditions, including language status (L2 vs L3/Ln), speaking mode (read vs extemporaneous), and grammaticality (error-free vs erroneous).

To analyze the results obtained in the accentedness and comprehensibility rating tasks, we fitted four identical linear mixed-effects models for ordinal response variables, independently for accentedness ratings and for comprehensibility ratings in L2 English and in L3/Ln Norwegian.

We found that speaking mode influenced comprehensibility ratings in L2, but not in L3/Ln. Sentence type (i.e., extemporaneous error-free or extemporaneous erroneous) influenced both the perceived level of accentedness and comprehensibility in L2 and comprehensibility in L3.

The study is one of the first attempts to systematically compare the levels of accentedness and comprehensibility in two non-native languages in the same group of speakers.

Our findings clearly confirm that foreign-accented speech perception and comprehension is modulated by several factors, including language status, the speaking mode, and the presence of grammatical errors.

The paper investigates variation in numeral constructions in the L2 Russian speech of bilinguals from different regions of Russia. The main research questions are the following: What factors prompt variation in this domain of grammar? Can we argue that non-standard marking is motivated by contact?

We conduct a corpus-based study of seven varieties of L2 Russian. The corpora contain spontaneous spoken texts collected between the 2000s and 2020s.

Data from 181 participants born between 1920 and 1997, who are native speakers of 21 languages belonging to four different families, were analyzed based on a number of sociolinguistic and linguistic parameters that were modeled using hierarchical mixed effects logistic regression.

We show that variation in numeral constructions is correlated with the speakers’ level of education and year of birth, the numeral type, and especially with the “collocationality” of numeral-noun combinations. The findings indicate that variation might be motivated by lower L2 proficiency and exposure to the input, but they do not provide strong evidence for contact influence. The negative correlation we found between higher “collocationality” and probability of non-standard marking supports a usage-based view of language acquisition as an experience-driven process in which frequency effects play a central role.

This is the first study to provide a corpus-based analysis of this phenomenon in different varieties of L2 Russian.

The findings have implications for the study of language variation in contact settings, and for the question of whether phenomena that apparently look like the result of pattern borrowing should rather be explained by other sociolinguistic and acquisitional factors that are not necessarily related to contact.

This study investigated language preference and code-switching produced by unimodal sign-bilinguals of two sign languages, Kufr Qassem Sign Language (KQSL), a local sign language used in central Israel, and Israeli Sign Language (ISL), the national sign language of Israel. More specifically, we tested how interlocutor and topic affect language preference and code-switching patterns.

Ten KQSL-ISL bilinguals participated in semi-spontaneous conversations, in three language conditions: (1) with another bilingual, (2) with a KQSL-dominant signer, and (3) with a monolingual ISL signer. They were given local and global topics to discuss.

A total of 655 code-switches were found in the data.

Interlocutor and topic were found to be significant predictors of the frequency of language preference. Furthermore, an interaction was found between interlocutor and topic, showing that code-switches occurred most frequently when there was a mismatch between the interlocutor and the topic (e.g., KQSL-dominant signer and global topic, or ISL monolingual and local topic).

The findings suggest that inhibition of one language might be more difficult in mismatched situations, leading to a higher frequency of code-switching.

This paper attempts to develop a predictive computational model of Cantonese–English code-switching (CS) in Hong Kong, informed by language-internal and “language-external” (e.g., social) factors. I analyze this bilingual practice with respect to these factors and evaluate how accurately a model informed by this analysis can forecast Cantonese–English lexical choice in the context of digital platform WhatsApp.

A quantitative “bag-of-words” approach was used to analyze bilingual variability/choice. The paper will focus on analyzing the frequency distribution of English and Cantonese choice at the word level without considering information in peripheral constituents (i.e., part-of-speech of the preceding and succeeding word, collocations).

A 329,087-word sociolinguistic corpus of WhatsApp messages from 24 Hong Kong residents was used. The data were analyzed using principal components analysis, sentiment analysis, and Bayesian multivariate regression.

Part-of-speech, style, proficiency in English and Cantonese as well as attitudes toward switching to Cantonese interact with matrix language to condition CS. Switches from Cantonese to English signal “interpersonality” whereas the maintenance of English in English-matrix clauses index “informationality.” Individual factors have less of an impact than other factors, suggesting uniformity within the community. Attitudes toward mixing and preference for frequent mixing do not correlate with rates of CS.

Unlike prior work, this paper analyzes original, manually collected WhatsApp data, typically underexplored due to access and privacy limitations, leveraging understudied variables such as style, sentiment (affect/emotion), attitudes, and linguistic factors and their interactions under a single model of digital CS. Furthermore, this paper considers the effect of individual/stylistic and dialectal/social factors on CS.

This paper advances research on Cantonese-English code-switching in Hong Kong and East Asia, enriching our understanding of bilingualism’s social, linguistic, and affective dimensions while informing multilingual AI models. By prioritizing a simple ‘bag-of-words’ approach to modeling, it also offers a computationally efficient method accessible to researchers with limited resources, broadening the methodological toolkit for sociolinguistic analysis.

This study explores how three first-generation Chinese immigrants manipulated Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) as part of their transnational habitus and capital to defuse the impact of structural constrains on their economic wellbeing in Australia.

The paper is part of a larger research project which uses ethnographic case study within Bourdieu’s theory of practice to examine how transnational habitus and capital shaped the participants’ economic life trajectories.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews to document the participants’ reflective discourses about their occupational trajectories. We use thematic analysis as the key method to analyze the audio-recorded and transcribed data.

The findings demonstrate the participants’ diverse adaptation trajectories as they manipulated CHL as transnational habitus in distinct but flexible ways to negotiate gainful work for socioeconomic mobility. Based on these stories, we make a case for viewing heritage languages (HLs) as mediating resources for immigrants’ transnational habitus and capital in response to the demand for social integration. We argue that HLs deserve more attention as part of the resources for first-generation immigrants’ economic integration. Also, we suggest a shift from a deep-seated monolingual habitus toward a multilingual habitus that engenders multidimensional local spaces where linguistic minority communities are encouraged to maintain their HLs and exert agency to use glocalized HL habitus and capital to pursue their economic futures.

Deploying a qualitative approach, the study makes both theoretical and empirical contribution to existing scholarship by validating the economic significance of CHL in Australia.

This article introduces a fresh perspective to investigate language and migration studies. The findings provide insights for educators, students, and their parents to revamp the rationale for maintaining HLs and evidence for policymakers for viewing bilingualism as resource for migrants and the migrant society.

In this study, we examine the discrimination and the pronunciation of new Spanish and Mandarin phonemes in French–English bilingual children in first and second grades compared with French-speaking monolingual children of the same grades.

We recruited 18 French–English bilingual children and 27 French-speaking monolingual children in first or second grade in elementary schools. They were asked to carry out discrimination and word repetition tasks from audio files recorded by a Colombian Spanish speaker and a Chinese Mandarin speaker.

For discrimination tasks, we calculated two measures: the percentage of success in the discrimination of two Spanish rhotics (/r/-/ɾ/) and the percentage of success in the discrimination of the set of Mandarin phonological contrasts (/p-p^h/, /t-t^h/, /k-k^h/, /ʂ-ɕ/, /ts-ts^h/, /tʂ-tʂ^h/ and /tɕ-tɕ^h/). For word repetition tasks, pronunciation was assessed for accuracy and foreign accent by native Spanish and Mandarin speakers. We completed our analyses with measures of voice onset time (VOT) values of Mandarin stops in word initial position (in milliseconds).

The results of our study showed that the members of the bilingual group were neither advantaged nor disadvantaged compared with the monolingual group. Our findings suggest that specific exposure to the characteristics intrinsic to an L3 is necessary for mastering new sounds in an L3.

This study examines whether early bilingualism facilitates the perception and the pronunciation of new sounds in an L3 in young bilingual (French–English) children. Few studies have examined this issue in this age group, that is, 6- to 9-year-old children. In addition, unlike other studies that analyzed oral production in speech, we chose to focus on the pronunciation of sounds in isolated words.

Our study highlights that no significant differences between bilingual and monolingual children were revealed. These results contribute to an understanding of whether there are bilingual advantages in L3 phonological acquisition.

Attentional control is an important cognitive ability, and it includes the abilities of attention and inhibitory control. It remains unclear whether a bilingual advantage in attentional control exists and whether different bilingual experiences exert distinct effects on this ability. This study aimed to address these questions.

(1) Does bilingual experience enhance attentional control? (2) Do different bilingual experiences differentially influence attentional control?

Chinese-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals were recruited for the study. The participants underwent assessments of their English learning experiences, English proficiency, and attentional control abilities.

Data analysis was performed by using SPSS 23. The group differences in the English learning experiences, English proficiency, Attentional Network Task (ANT) indicators for Chinese-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The correlations between ANT and English learning experiences, and English proficiency for three groups were analyzed using Pearson correlation.

Compared with English monolinguals, both Chinese-English bilinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals did not show better attentional control ability. Further, we found that compared with Spanish-English bilinguals, Chinese-English bilinguals showed better inhibitory control, indicating that different bilingual experiences have different impacts on inhibitory control ability. However, no significant difference was found between Chinese-English bilinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals after controlling for age or AOA (age of acquisition), indicating age or AOA influenced the effect of different bilingual experiences on inhibitory control ability. The correlation results indicated the older the age, the better the attention ability for Chinese-English bilinguals; the older the age and AOA, the better the attention ability for Spanish-English bilinguals; the older the AOA, the poorer the inhibitory control ability for Spanish-English bilinguals. This study fills the gap in the effect of different bilingual experiences on attentional control ability.

Research on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has contributed to the identification of factors that may influence languages’ bias formation. Accents, language varieties, and language lexical-semantic properties affect the relationship between cognitive and emotional processes. Our study aims to examine the influence of the language used during the administration of the IAT on bilingual participants’ performance—specifically, on the detected biases toward Traditional Galician (TG) and Galician Spanish (GS).

A quantitative, experimental design was created to explore the BIAS and the IAT language effect on participants’ IAT scores. A total of 168 bilingual students in Galicia, an autonomous community in Spain with two official languages (Spanish and Galician), took part in our study.

An ANOVA was performed to explore the interaction and main effect of IAT’s language and BIAS on IAT scores. Results showed a statistically significant interaction effect, reflecting that the IAT scores were different both in terms of BIAS and IAT’s language.

Our findings suggest that both bias and the IAT language had an impact on bilingual participants’ IAT scores.

This study is one of the first studies to confirm the influence of the IAT language over the IAT results in bilingual populations.

The language of IAT appears to be important when investigating bilingual populations by means of this tool. The discussion emphasizes the need for controlling the linguistic setup in the IAT.

Bilingualism has often been related to advantages in learning foreign languages (FLs) as compared to monolingualism. Previous studies on FL vocabulary learning showed inconclusive results such as a disadvantage, no advantage, or an advantage of bilingualism. The objectives of the present paper are to investigate the extent to which bilingualism affects vocabulary learning in English as an FL (EFL) and the extent to which the learner’s age and the nature of vocabulary tests moderate the potential bilingual advantage in learning EFL vocabulary.

We carried out a systematic review and a meta-analysis focusing on the difference in EFL vocabulary knowledge between monolingual and bilingual learners.

Thirty-seven effect sizes were extracted from 14 studies with 1,984 participants and were analysed by means of a random-effects meta-analysis. Q-statistics were used to analyse the moderator variables.

The results indicate a small bilingual advantage (g = .20) in EFL vocabulary knowledge. Neither the nature of vocabulary knowledge nor the learners’ age was found to moderate this bilingual advantage. We conclude that bilingualism is associated with enhanced EFL vocabulary knowledge as compared to monolingualism and that this bilingual advantage is consistent in receptive vs. productive vocabulary knowledge and child vs. adolescent bilinguals.

This study provides new insights into the bilingual advantage in FL vocabulary learning and contributes to our understanding of bilingual advantages in FL learning.

Bilingualism fosters EFL vocabulary knowledge, regardless of the nature of vocabulary knowledge and the learner’s age. Future meta-analyses should include more language background variables to account for the large diversity of bilingual populations.

Despite the significant phenomenon of bilingualism, not much evidence is available on bilinguals’ processing of affective information in their second language (L2). The present study attempts to examine the influences of valence and arousal on word recognition in L2.

Two experiments were conducted in a lexical decision task on a cohort of international students in China, who studied Chinese as their L2. The stimuli were commonly used, two-character words (2C-words) and their transposed forms (T-words), which were created by exchanging the relative positions of the constituent characters and were taken as meaningful words when read from right to left. Each experiment consisted of one sub-experiment on concrete words and one on abstract words.

Three-way ANOVAs were conducted on the participants’ error rates and their reaction times for the correctly responded trials. Having a significantly lower efficiency in their task performance, the Chinese L2 learners were similar to the Chinese L1 speakers in having longer reaction times to the T-word than the word targets. Critically, a significant interaction was revealed between valence and whether the participants were L1 speakers or L2 learners (pGroup) but not between valence and whether the targets were words or T-words (cOrder) in Experiment 1; an interaction was revealed between arousal and cOrder but not between arousal and pGroup in Experiment 2.

This seems to be the first finding relating to the independent influences of valence and arousal on word processing from a bilingual perspective.

Future studies are expected to yield more innovative findings in relation to word processing, through manipulation of valence/arousal and participants’ language proficiency.

Increased contact between Dutch-speaking and international, English-speaking students and employees at universities in the Netherlands prompts an investigation into how multilingual communication could be used effectively. Using a council at a Dutch university as a case study, this paper examines the role of the chairperson in maintaining a bilingual language policy in meetings that strive to use receptive multilingualism: international participants speak English and use their receptive proficiency in Dutch to understand their interlocutors. It explores how speech actions realized by the chairperson construct the multilingual discourse structures used in meeting practice.

A functional-pragmatic discourse analysis is used to reconstruct the activities of the chairperson within the question/answer speech action pattern. Such an analysis aims to reveal how multilingualism is used to fulfill the institutional purposes of the council.

The data collection consists of 18 plenary meetings of a Dutch university participatory body over three academic years. Transcripts of interactions with international, English-speaking council members are used to conduct the discourse analysis.

The results show that the chairperson uses Dutch, English, or both languages at four distinct pattern positions: appointing speaker, appointing hearer, checkpoint, and closing the pattern. The chairperson’s use of language at particular pattern positions and with particular addressees shows how languages are used for different purposes. Overall, Dutch is used to address the group, whereas English is used to address individual international members.

This paper illustrates how the chairperson of a council meeting can take an active role in steering speakers’ language use and checking understanding when certain hearers lack proficiency in a language being spoken.

Inclusive multilingual modes, including receptive multilingualism, can be effective when interlocutors share institutional knowledge. Careful management is needed to ensure that interlocutors maintain the language policy and can understand one another.

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of parent-formed family language policy on the language use of a bilingual child.

Qualitative research methodology was employed to collect data about family language policy through interviews with parents. Observations and audio recordings of the child’s speech were used to understand the bilingual performance of the child in the two languages.

The data from all three sources, including interviews, observation notes, audio recordings, and speaking tasks were transcribed and analyzed through Spolsky’s language policy framework.

The findings from the data revealed that family language policy has a strong influence on the child’s fluency, identity, and attitude as preferred by the parents.

This article reports the findings from empirical data collected for family language policy on the under-researched local languages of Pakistan in a Lasi–Balochi bilingual family and its influence on the language use of the bilingual child.

This research study presents a list of significant words (LSW) designed for multilingual learners (MLLs) in K-12 contexts, developed from a corpus with 11,251,207 running words in total.

First, we review literature on educational corpora and wordlists designed for younger children in K-12 settings. Then, we explore why an LSW for K-12 MLLs is needed. In establishing the LSW, we collected 60 textbooks from States of Florida and California; next, we developed school and comparison corpora.

Following key considerations in wordlist development as well as word selection criteria, we developed the LSW from the school corpus. We then validated the LSW against major wordlists and corpora commonly used in educational contexts.

The results show that the LSW is stronger than major wordlists in K-12 textbooks.

This research provides a corpus-based study examining the vocabulary breadth of one’s entire schooling from kindergarten to secondary school graduation. This includes splicing the experience grade by grade which is easily accessible by teachers and MLLs through a website.

This study developed the LSW to provide MLLs with vocabulary strategically ordered to promote their language proficiency. We conclude with a discussion on teaching implications of the LSW, and how it may be used as a source for making decisions about word learning and planning in K-12 contexts.

The aims and objectives of the present research were to investigate and cross-check if immersion in a bilingual situation over a certain period of time had any modulatory effect on bilingual processing in an immigrant population. Then, main aim of the experiment was to test the performance in L1 in comparison to their L2.

Theoretically, we tested two dominant bilingual processing theories—Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech (BLINCS) and Adaptive Control Hypothesis (ACH) in a parallel language activation paradigm using MouseTracker as a tool in a non-Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) population. Bilingual language comprehension was tested using “listen, look and click” lexical access task in mouse-tracking hand movement experiment in which participants listened to the spoken word and clicked on the matching picture on the computer screen, and bilingual language production was tested using both semantic and phonetic verbal fluency task.

Data were collected in a controlled situation from 55 undergraduate and postgraduate students from Nepal who were studying in a technical college in South India. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for Initiation Time and Response Time for mouse movement trajectories in lexical access task and, phonetic and semantic word production for verbal fluency task. Demographic profile and language measures of the participants were analyzed.

Our results showed L2 immersion had no modulatory effect on bilingual processing. Irrespective of length of stay duration in a foreign country, the participants did not show much of processing difference in mouse initiation and response time in lexical access language comprehension mouse-tracking task. However, in language production task, the less immersed group produced more words in both phonetic and semantic fluency. Our study showed even an extended duration of L2 immersion is not detrimental to L1 mental lexicon.

This is the first study of parallel language activation using mouse-tracking paradigm on Nepali–English bilingual population immersed in an L2 context in a foreign country.

This study extends our earlier understanding of bilingual processing and also challenges the earlier claims of modulatory effect of L2 immersion on L1 by providing counter evidence to findings in previous studies.

Beyond socio-interactive and behavioral deficits, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show exceptional cognitive capacities. Incipient evidence shows that these may involve elevated second-language (L2) learning abilities. Yet, research is scant and existing reports have targeted broad receptive and productive skills, prompting an unexplored question: How do elevated L2 skills in ASD manifest across overlooked domains, such as vocabulary and pragmatics?

We report on the case of LC, an 11-year-old Chilean child with ASD who learned English via minimal audiovisual exposure in a fully Spanish-speaking environment.

Our protocol included systematic assessments of language exposure and development, neuropsychological outcomes, and bilingual tests of language production and comprehension as well as syntactic, semantic, translation, vocabulary, and prosodic skills.

LC exhibited high L2 (English) abilities despite null social interactions in this language, alongside lower first-language (Spanish) skills despite constant exposure. His L2 abilities were most notable in speech fluency, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

This is the first report of exceptional L2 skills in ASD including fine-grained measures of multiple linguistic and pragmatic domains. The uniqueness of this case adds to a rare corpus of paradoxical language dominance in children with this condition.

LC’s paradoxical dominance may reflect a preference for engaging, non-socially mediated stimuli, inviting reconsiderations of language learning patterns in ASD.

This study investigates the intergenerational transmission of Sami languages across three generations, focusing on the influence of parental language input patterns and ethnic contexts on the child’s indigenous language acquisition.

Employing a longitudinal design, this research utilized quantitative data on language competence in grandparents, parents, and children. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to mothers before childbirth and when the child was 5 years old.

The study is based on the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and uses data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). The sample includes 169 Sami children. The Chi-square test of independence and Firth logistic regression were used to examine group differences in language transmission.

Parental Sami language input and indigenous ethnic context significantly contribute to the transmission of Sami languages. The likelihood of Sami languages being passed on from parents to children was notably higher than from grandparents to parents, indicating a potential generational shift in language transmission.

This is the first national-scale study in Norway investigating the impact of parental language input patterns within an indigenous setting in various ethnic contexts. By examining Sami language transmission over two generational shifts, this study provides insights into the dynamics of indigenous language transmission and its changes over time.

This study confirms the importance of parental language input and the significance of ethnic context for indigenous language transmission. Some children learned the indigenous language even without parental input, emphasizing the importance of the educational system and broader society, as well as family in indigenous language revitalization.

Inspired by Yahya & Ozkan Ceylan’s, this study explored reasons for the absence of asymmetrical switch costs and its theoretical implications. Specifically, we aimed to examine whether the type of language script contributes to language control in bilinguals, potentially resulting in anticipated language switch cost asymmetries. We report the preliminary results.

Ten bilingual participants were presented with color words in either Turkish (L1) or Macedonian (L2), printed in congruent or incongruent ink colors. They named the ink color in the language of presentation. Stimuli language and congruency either matched or differed from the previous trial.

Reaction times (RT) were analyzed using a linear mixed-effects model.

The pilot findings mostly aligned with the original study, with larger switch cost performance in incongruent, and larger Stroop effects in language switch trials. Interestingly, the preliminary results indicate to a greater switch cost for L1 compared to L2, suggesting that script types may affect switch costs. In general results lead into the direction for possible script effects and are in line with and compatible with the original study.

This study presents data from Turkish–Macedonian bilinguals, a linguistic population rare in the existing literature.

We addressed potential limitations of the current experimental design, such as ecological validity and ability to demonstrate asymmetries, proposing alternative experimental approaches for future studies.