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This study explores the manifestation patterns of speech revisions in monolingual English and Spanish-English bilingual children. All speakers exhibit speech revisions to some degree and some researchers have indicated that they may manifest due to linguistic uncertainty (Bedore et al., 2006; Loban, 1976). In the current study, speech revisions were documented in the context of two narrative conditions manipulated to elicit revisions. In one context, a high uncertainty condition, the narrative picture sequence depicted a vague or unclear ending to a story, therefore increasing the speaker’s linguistic uncertainty. In the second condition, the low uncertainty condition, the narrative picture sequence had a logical ending reducing linguistic uncertainty. These tasks were designed to elicit speech revisions in children ranging in age from 3;5 to 5;11. Participants included 33 Spanish-English bilingual Kindergarten-age children, 32 language-matched monolingual English-speaking pre-K children, and 37 age-matched monolingual English- speaking children. All children exhibited typical language abilities based on a language screening measure. The first research question was whether there was a difference in the rate of speech revisions in English between the narratives with high and low uncertainty across the 3 groups of children. The second question pertained to whether the rate of speech revisions in their narrative samples was influenced by task (high vs low uncertainty condition) when language productivity as measured by lexical diversity (NDW), mean length of utterance (MLU) and grammaticality. Results indicated that all of the children across the three groups exhibited fewer speech revisions in the low uncertainty condition than in the high uncertainty condition. There were no differences observed by group for frequency of revisions across task condition. Further, NDW accounted for a significant amount of the variance in frequency of revisions across all three groups. Again, there were no group differences observed in frequency of speech revisions when measures of language productivity were controlled. These results indicate that in an experimental condition, bilinguals were no more susceptible to exhibit revisions than their monolingual peers. Implications for these results and further considerations regarding revisions and the speech production process for monolinguals and bilinguals are discussed. / text

This thesis considers how different groups of Spanish speakers (monolinguals, early bilinguals and late bilinguals) organize and limit grammatical optionality related to the placement of Spanish pronominal clitics with many complex infinitival constructions (Spanish clitic-climbing). In examining empirical work on the process and outcome of early and late dual language exposure and how early and late bilinguals acquire and limit grammatical optionality, this study will contribute to our understanding of 1) the nature of language-related cognition at different ages; 2) the systematic nature of bilingual language behaviour in child and adults (transfer, cross-language influence, etc.); 3) the cognitive and contextual factors associated with age of exposure to bilingualism to explain bilingual language behaviour; and 4) the importance of incorporating a clear model of language variation (language-internally and cross-linguistically) into a formal model of (bilingual) language. The empirical study conducted here tested how highly proficient heritage speakers (HS) of Spanish (native speakers of Spanish and Spanish-English bilinguals) deal with the optionality of clitic-climbing structures compared to monolingual speakers (native speakers) and highly proficient adult L2 speakers of Spanish (Spanish-English bilinguals). Forty participants completed a picture elicitation task testing a lexical limitation of the optionality, and an acceptability-preference task testing the speakers’ judgments on structural, semantic and lexical limitations of the optionality. Results show that all groups of speakers exhibited knowledge of syntactic constraints associated with pronominal placement in Spanish (optional clitic-climbing) infinitival sentences. All groups also performed similarly in exhibiting sensitivity to non-categorical factors that have been shown to guide the preferences of monolingual Spanish speakers. However, in the production task, the heritage speakers significantly outperformed the monolingual and non-native speakers of Spanish in their use of the Spanish-specific variant (proclisis). I explain these results through both cognitive and contextual factors related to age of exposure to bilingualism, and I discuss how the production results may underestimate a monolingual-bilingual difference for this optional domain.

This thesis considers how different groups of Spanish speakers (monolinguals, early bilinguals and late bilinguals) organize and limit grammatical optionality related to the placement of Spanish pronominal clitics with many complex infinitival constructions (Spanish clitic-climbing). In examining empirical work on the process and outcome of early and late dual language exposure and how early and late bilinguals acquire and limit grammatical optionality, this study will contribute to our understanding of 1) the nature of language-related cognition at different ages; 2) the systematic nature of bilingual language behaviour in child and adults (transfer, cross-language influence, etc.); 3) the cognitive and contextual factors associated with age of exposure to bilingualism to explain bilingual language behaviour; and 4) the importance of incorporating a clear model of language variation (language-internally and cross-linguistically) into a formal model of (bilingual) language. The empirical study conducted here tested how highly proficient heritage speakers (HS) of Spanish (native speakers of Spanish and Spanish-English bilinguals) deal with the optionality of clitic-climbing structures compared to monolingual speakers (native speakers) and highly proficient adult L2 speakers of Spanish (Spanish-English bilinguals). Forty participants completed a picture elicitation task testing a lexical limitation of the optionality, and an acceptability-preference task testing the speakers’ judgments on structural, semantic and lexical limitations of the optionality. Results show that all groups of speakers exhibited knowledge of syntactic constraints associated with pronominal placement in Spanish (optional clitic-climbing) infinitival sentences. All groups also performed similarly in exhibiting sensitivity to non-categorical factors that have been shown to guide the preferences of monolingual Spanish speakers. However, in the production task, the heritage speakers significantly outperformed the monolingual and non-native speakers of Spanish in their use of the Spanish-specific variant (proclisis). I explain these results through both cognitive and contextual factors related to age of exposure to bilingualism, and I discuss how the production results may underestimate a monolingual-bilingual difference for this optional domain.

Cognitive-based narrative intervention for bilingual preschoolers Abstract The aim of this study was to determine how an intervention conducted in Spanish and English influenced macro and micro structure in the oral narratives produced by eight preschool Spanish-speaking English-language-learners (M = 68 months, range 59 to 79 months) during a four-week summer intervention program. Following a single-subject pre-experimental repeated A-B measure design, each subject completed an initial treatment phase in Spanish followed by an English treatment phase. The cognitive-based intervention method focused on the mediated learning of language-independent cognitive strategies such as attention, self-regulation, organization, and problem solving. Analysis at the macrostructure level included story component and episode structure and microstructure level analysis considered lexical diversity and use of grammatical forms in each language. All narrative samples were evaluated to determine the effect of language treatment condition and narrative productivity in both languages. Mediated learning significantly increased participants’ ability to independently produce narrative macrostructure story component and episodic structure on multiple elicitation tasks across both languages. Mixed results were observed at the microstructure level for participants’ demonstration of lexical diversity and grammatical complexity specific to language condition and elicitation task. These findings help us understand which macro and micro structure skills transfer under a cognitive-based intervention conducted in two languages. / text

The purpose of this analysis was to define norms for grammatical morpheme development in Spanish for Spanish-English bilingual children ages 4;0-7;6 relative to their use of Spanish. This study uses secondary data analysis based on two existing datasets. Participants included 334 Spanish-English bilingual children that were recruited from school districts in Texas, Utah, and Pennsylvania. Grammatical morpheme accuracy was determined by performance on the BESA (Bilingual English Spanish Assessment) (Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen et al., in preparation). Percentage of current use of Spanish was estimated based on a parental interview in which parents estimated children language input and output. The average percent accuracy of grammatical morphemes was calculated and analyzed as a function of current use of Spanish and of chronological age. Results show that the percentage of accurately produced morphemes has a general upward trend as Spanish use and age increases. These findings will help define expectations for bilingual children that in turn can inform the development of intervention goals. / text

abstract: ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes the Spanish (SPA) and English (ENG) code-switching (CS) at Latino Vibe (LV), a bilingual radio station in Phoenix; Arizona from a sociolinguistic perspective. Using Gumperz's (1982) Conversational Functions of CS, Myers-Scotton's (1993) Markedness Model, and Bell's (1984) Audience Design model, this thesis intends to evaluate which one of these sociolinguistic models is the most accurate to explain the SPA-ENG CS at LV. In January 2009, the data were collected in a two week period of programming of the show "José y Tina en la mañana" (José and Tina in the morning), and then transcribed. This qualitative study consisted in analyzing the same subset of the data, corresponding to ten days. The model with the greater predictably of the types of CS and their causes would be considered the most appropriate for the data studied. The results show that CS is common and that codeswitched utterances are the most representative at LV. The conclusion also states that out of the three models, Gumperz's accounts better for the data than the other two. It explains more clearly the reasons why LV announcers code-switch in particular social contexts, and the important role of these switches during their interaction in this bilingual radio station. KEYWORDS: Code-switching, bilingual radio, Spanish-English / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Spanish 2012

This study examined the underlying factor structure of the Nova Multilingual Neuropsychological Battery (NMNB) and evaluated the influence of demographic variables such as language fluency and acculturation on test performance. The NMNB is a comprehensive test designed to measure cognitive abilities in Spanish/English bilinguals. The instrument was developed taking into consideration cultural variables believed to influence neuropsychological test performance and it includes a Spanish and an English version. It is comprised of tasks measuring abilities such as short and long term memory, executive functioning, motor skills, visuo-spatial abilities, arithmetic, and vocabulary. The study included 155 participants (71 English monolinguals and 84 Spanish/English bilinguals). Forty-six participants from the bilingual group were tested in English and 37 were tested in Spanish. Participants were normal adults between 18 and 60 years of age who were primarily recruited from a university setting. They also completed a demographic questionnaire that included a measure of acculturation. An exploratory factor analysis was used to test the hypothesis that the subtests from NMNB would load onto five factors including language, perceptual reasoning, memory, executive functioning and psychomotor abilities. Results from four different retention models did not match the hypothesized factor structure, yet they allowed the identification of specific cognitive domains within the factors. These cognitive domains include memory, learning, executive functioning, perceptual reasoning, reading ability, and psychomotor skills. Verbal memory and learning were factors consistently identified across the retention methods. The moderation effects of language fluency and level of acculturation on test performance were examined. It was hypothesized that language fluency, as defined by performance on the Categorical Fluency subtest, on tasks measuring language abilities. It was also hypothesized that level of acculturation would moderate the performance on measures of executive functioning and perceptual reasoning abilities. These hypotheses were based on the alleged pattern of advantages and disadvantages observed in bilingual individuals according to current research studies. Results from regression analyses showed no mediation effects of language fluency and level of acculturation on test performance. Data from this study did not show the purported pattern of disadvantages of bilingualism on language abilities neither demonstrated advantages in areas such as executive functioning and working memory. Overall, the findings did not support the hypotheses of the study However, the results allowed the analyses of the utility of the instrument in the assessment of specific cognitive abilities as well as the need for developing appropriate measures for this population. Furthermore, the findings put into perspective the importance of formal and objective assessment of language abilities and level of acculturation. This study represents a significant contribution to the empirical knowledge regarding neuropsychological assessment of individuals of Hispanic backgrounds. As such, it adds to the scarce literature on this topic. Further examination of the psychometric properties of the NMNB is warranted. Future research should include a larger sample including Spanish monolinguals, older adults as well as individuals with different levels of educational attainment.