Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Psychology, Committee on Human Development, August 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1982. / Also available in print.

Code-switching is a common feature of bilingual language use and has multiple factors that influence the frequency and type of code-switching. 56 Spanish-English bilingual children recorded sessions of Spanish-designated and English-designated interactions with a caregiver at 2.5 and 3.5 years. These sessions were transcribed and coded for all code-switched utterances. At both ages, we found: (1) Children switched to English more frequently than they switched to Spanish. (2) Their degree of English dominance was a positive predictor of their frequency of switching to English, but a negative predictor of their frequency of switching to Spanish. Between 2.5 and 3.5 years, children became more English dominant, and their rate of switching to English increased while their rate of switching to Spanish decreased. The present findings suggest that the strongest influence on bilingual children’s code-switching is their relative proficiency in their two languages and as that proficiency changes, their code-switching changes. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The evolution of the concept of language interference and how it has been instructionally applied to Spanish English Chicano children in the United States was the central thesis of this work. The study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) What does language interference mean? (2) How is it used? and (3) Why is it used in teaching English to Spanish speaking Chicano students in the United States? The study revealed that: (1) Two implicit paradigms, the languages as habit formation and the languages in contact, explained the meaning of language interference. (2) The guiding assumption operating under the language as habit formation paradigm had never been examined; thus, the wide acceptance of the habit formation theory, which defined interference as differences between two languages causing difficulty and interference. (3) The unexamined assumption in the habit formation paradigm when examined with twelve Spanish English bilingual children in grades 2, 4, and 6 was not valid; thus its instruction practices regarding language learning and language teaching are not valid. (4) Given the new knowledge about language learning and teaching (applied sociolinguistics and applied psycholinguistics), the definition of language interference had to be expanded and redefined; thus a new paradigm emerged--languages in communicative use--but its unexamined assumptions need to be examined now. (5) The wide acceptance of the habit formation definition of language interference was due to racism, prejudice, and elitism in intellectual guise. (6) Given that the habit formation definition of language interference is valid, then changing teachers' perceptions, attitudes, and understanding about language learning and teaching, and bilingualism would necessitate a demythification process. This study was a descriptive, theoretical, and epistemological examination of a phenomena that occurs when two languages are used to communicate. How reality is described depends on one's governing gaze, operating assumptions (both implicit and explicit), logic of reasoning, and theory building. If a theory is built on an unexamined assumption, i.e., has never been tested with reality, then its perpetuation builds an illusion, a myth that people try to make real. The construction and description of reality are challenging tasks in any field of study.

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It has been demonstrated that in early visual word processing, monolingual speakers process morphologically complex words in terms of their constituent morphemes (e.g., hunt+er), irrespective of the semantic relationship between stem and suffix (e.g., corn+er) (e.g., Longtin, Segui, & Halle, 2003; Rastle, Davis, & New, 2004). However, research into bilingual morphological processing has produced support for and against the notion that bilinguals process morphologically complex words akin to monolingual speakers (Clahsen, Felser, Neubauer, Sato, & Silva, 2010; Diependaele, Dufiabeitia, Morris, & Keuleers, 2011). The experiments in this work explored the nature of bilingual morphological processing in early visual word recognition, by means of masked priming. Using prime target pairs sharing a morphological a nd semantic (e.g., hunter-hunt), only a pseudo-morphological (e.g., corner-corn), and neither morphological nor semantic relationship (e.g., yellow-yell), Experiments 1 and 2 explored morphological priming in English for English L1 - German L2 and German L1 - English L2 speakers, respectively. The design was expanded to German, testing bilingual German L1 and L2 speakers in Experiments 3 and 4. Results showed similar trends with consistent priming across all conditions for bilingual English L1 and L2 speakers, but different priming magnitudes for bilingual German L1 and L2 speakers. Using primes ranging from very low to very high frequencies, the relative contribution of prime frequency with respect to these findings was explored first for native English speakers in Experiment 5, and expanded to English L2 speakers in Experiment 6. Although prime frequency affected reaction latencies in both monolingual and bilingual speakers, Experiment 7, a re-test of Experiment 1 with monolingual speakers with no knowledge of a foreign language, indicated that it may be the sound command of another language that influences morphological processing in the participants' native language. The results are discussed in relation to the current literature and models of bilingual word processing.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This case study reports on the revising processes of 6 bilingual 5th grade students who have been identified as skilled English writers. The research was situated in two 5th grade mainstream classrooms an urban elementary school in the Northeastern United States. The following research questions guided the study: 1) How do bilingual fifth-graders evaluate and recognize needs in their writing and do they use their first language to meet these needs? 2) What strategies and languages do these bilingual students employ as they revise text written in English? The researcher observed the participants as they composed text during literacy block, audiotaped think-alouds during revising and peer revising conferences, collected written products from all stages of the writing process, and conducted interviews with the participants. Data were collected as the participants wrote four different assignments over a period of four months. The multiple data sources provided information not only on the products of writing, but also on the processes of writing. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to analyze data for evidence of evaluative ability and revising strategies. The levels of discourse at which participants revised (linguistic, textual, and pragmatic) and the operations employed in revision (deletion, addition, substitution, and reordering) were investigated. Data analysis also addressed the use of the participants' first language, Spanish, during composing and revising. Cross-case analyses investigated similarities and differences among participants. The findings suggest that the participants made the most revisions at the linguistic level. All participants engaged in textual changes, but very few pragmatic changes were initiated. Participants employed the following operations (ranked by frequency): substitution, addition, deletion, and reordering. The participants were able to revise their written work on their own and with help from peers and teachers. Revisions were made for a range of purposes throughout all writing process stages. Five of the participants incorporated Spanish words into their writing, and the most recently mainstreamed participant reported using Spanish during the phases of the writing process. Revision is an important cognitive ability developing in these young bilingual writers. / 2031-01-01

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No description available.