The daily practice of bilingual language control has been argued to affect both lexical processing and non-verbal executive control in bilingual speakers. On the one hand, bilingualism may slow down lexical processing in both languages. On the other hand, bilinguals have been said to show cognitive advantages compared to monolinguals, for example on inhibition and switching tasks. However, this ‘bilingual advantage’ is hotly debated, can often not be replicated, and language groups have been poorly matched on background variables in previous studies. Furthermore, I examined the reliability of the literature and found evidence for the existence of a publication bias (Chapter 3). This over-representation of positive studies compared to studies with null or negative findings hinders a reliable interpretation of the actual effects of bilingualism. The current thesis therefore aimed to examine possible effects of bilingualism on both lexical processing and executive control. Specifically, I investigated the effects of an understudied, but important feature of bilingualism: language use. Effects of bilingualism have been argued to be largest in older adults. Chapter 4 presents a study discussing inhibition and possible effects of age across various tasks. I show that inhibitory control and age effects depend on task-specific features, including the type of interference, type of stimuli, and processing speed. Next, I present a study (Chapter 5 and 6) examining the relation between bilingualism and both lexical processing and executive control in older adults. Importantly, bilingual and monolingual groups were matched on background variables including immigrant status. I furthermore compared a group of active to inactive bilinguals to assess effects of language use. On a lexical processing task, bilinguals had a disadvantage compared to monolinguals. This effect was modulated by language use, implying that not only language proficiency but also actual language use are needed to explain lexical effects of bilingualism. However, the non-verbal executive control tasks showed no consistent effects of bilingualism or language use on inhibition or task switching. Thus, this study did not replicate positive effects on executive control in older adults. Between-subject comparisons remain problematic as groups can never be matched perfectly. Furthermore, these designs cannot assess a causal effect of bilingualism. Therefore, I conducted another study using behavioural and EEG measurements to test for causal effects of language switching on task switching (Chapter 7). When young bilinguals completed a language-switching task prior to a verbal task-switching paradigm, they showed larger switching costs than after a monolingual naming task. However, this effect of language switching was not found for non-verbal task switching. Language switching may thus have a negative impact on verbal switching, but these effects did not extend to non-verbal executive control. Together, these studies suggest that bilingualism and language use affect lexical processing, but there was no evidence for effects of bilingualism and language use on non-verbal executive control in younger or older adults. In combination with other failed replications and the biased literature, this questions the reliability of cognitive benefits associated with bilingualism. However, executive control is not a unity and its manifestation depends on task-specific features. This task impurity, together with the degree to which participant groups are matched, may explain the inconsistency with which effects of bilingualism on executive control have been observed.

I rapporten undersöks brukandet av engelska med NATO-standard inom den svenska militärens marina verksamheter. Anställda inom olika organisationer har intervjuats om hur det parallella brukandet av engelska med vanliga arbetsuppgifter påverkar deras förmåga att verka till önskad effekt. De intervjuade vittnar alla om en kännbar problematik gällande hur språket ska användas enligt gällande direktiv och att många problemen berör; hur språket påverkar verksamheten gällande stress, ger upphov till kommunikationsproblem, uppgifters tidsåtgång ökar och att tolkningssvårigheter uppstår, även om deras personliga arbetsuppgifter inte alltid påverkas direkt. Även möjligheter till att göra karriär påverkas negativt när språklig kompetens prioriteras och sätts mot yrkeskompetens, vilket riskerar att över tid ge en oerfarnare organisation när äldre medarbetare ej besitter samma språkliga kompetens. Olika förslag ges för hur man ska hantera engelska inom verksamheten i framtiden. / The report covers a study of the usage of English with NATO-standard within the Swedish Military’s Marine Force and Navy. Employees within different organizations have been interviewed regarding the parallell usage of the english language combined with their every-day working tasks and how the language is affecting their ability to keep on operating at a desirable level. All the interviewees have noticed a wide range of problems regarding how the language should be used according to their directives, that the problems are mainly concerning how the language is affecting their levels of stress when it creates communication problems, interpretation difficulties and makes ordinary tasks require more time to finish, even though their personal tasks might not always be affected directly. Carrier possibilities are also affected negatively, when language proficiency is prioritized over working experience and general competence, which over time could lead to a less experienced organization. A number of suggestions is given regarding how the language should be viewed upon in near the future.

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The present thesis investigates in how properties of a reader’s first language (L1) have an influence on syntactic processing in a second language (L2). While the Competition Model (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982, 1987, 1989, MacWhinney, 1997) predicts that syntactic properties of the L1 can have an influence on L2 processing, the Shallow-Structure Account (Clahsen & Felser, 2006) suggests that an L2 speaker’s representation of an L2 sentence is shallower, lacks syntactic detail, and is therefore not detailed enough for properties of the L1 to have an influence on L2 processing (Papadopoulou & Clahsen, 2003). In two sets of studies, I investigate whether L2 speakers of English activate syntactic information from their L1 while processing English sentences. In Experiments 1-4, native speakers of German, and control groups of native speakers of French and English, are confronted with English sentences consisting of a word order which exists in both English and German, but which represents different underlying syntactic structures in both languages. Results suggest that native speakers of German activate syntactic information from their L1 while reading such sentences. Experiments 5-7 represent an attempt to address both the issue of L1 influence and the issue of shallow processing within the context of the same experimental design. Native speakers of German, and a control group of native English speakers, read grammatically incorrect English sentences with a word order which would either be grammatically correct in German, or grammatically incorrect in both English and German. In this set of experiments, we found evidence against an influence of syntactic properties of the L1. Results also suggest that contrary to the predictions of the shallow-structure account, L2 speakers fully parse the syntactic structure of an L2 sentence, and compute detailed syntactic representations.

Theories of lexical storage differ in how entries are encoded in the lexicon. Exemplar-based accounts posit that lexical items are stored with detailed acoustic information, while abstract accounts argue that fine acoustic detail is removed and an item is stored in more basic phonological units. These separate accounts make distinct predictions about cross-linguistic and bilingual perception. Studies asking participants to compare non-native vowels have shown that people tend to associate multiple non-native phonemes to a single L1 phoneme when the contrast between the two does not exist in the L1. However, several studies have shown that the ability to discriminate sounds is never lost. A line of research has focused on how bilinguals perceive contrasts in their second language. One such study, Pallier et al. (2001) looked at early bilinguals of Spanish and Catalan, testing whether the native Spanish speakers, who were highly proficient in Catalan, perceived certain Catalan minimal pairs as homophones. Importantly, the contrasts of these minimal pairs were exclusive to Catalan. The native Spanish bilinguals heard pairs such as /neta/-/nεta/ in an audio-only lexical decision task (LDT), and showed responses to the second item that were not significantly different from actual item repetitions (i.e., /neta/-/neta/). These results were taken as evidence in favor of abstractionist models of lexical storage. This study was based on Pallier et al, (2001), examining instead the perceptions of heritage speakers of Spanish (HSSs) in the U.S., children of native Spanish speakers who get early and sustained exposure to their second language, English. Unlike the bilinguals studied in Pallier et al., heritage bilinguals receive little linguistic or social support for development of their first language. The L1 proficiency of adult heritage bilinguals varies considerably. In this study, a group of these HSSs participated in an LDT testing their perception of English-exclusive phonemic vowel contrasts (i.e., peak-pick). It was hypothesized that, like Pallier et al.'s highly proficient bilinguals, HSSs would show responses to the second item of these minimal pairs as if it were a repetition of the first. Results of the LDT did not confirm the hypothesis. The heritage Spanish speakers did not perform significantly differently from the native English controls on English-specific contrasts (p = .065), and it was found that the native English speakers showed higher priming on these minimal pairs than HSSs. These results run counter to those of previous studies, and may disfavor an abstract account of lexical storage. At the very least, the construct validity of this methodology is questionable when the control and experimental participants reverse hypothesized behavior.

Thesis (M.ED (Language Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / This research study investigated subtractive bilingualism in teaching and learning through the medium of English without the support of the mother tongue. The aim was to investigate if it is possible for learners to acquire a second language (English) without totally losing their home language. This was done through: probing the reasons why the language policy is difficult to implement in schools as outlined by the constitution of South Africa; determining the causes of subtractive bilingualism in the school settings and; an emphasis of the rights and responsibilities of educators and parents to make a positive difference in the lives of bilingual and bicultural learners. This research was grounded on Cummins (1991) theory of second language acquisition. The literature review examined other theories of second language acquisition and learning (Krashen 1981). In particular, emphasis was placed on the following broad areas in the literature review: mother tongue development; language shift and language loss; language planning and language policy; language and culture; language and identity, attitudes and equity; language in education; the National Language Policy Framework; and multilingualism. This research was conducted using the qualitative research methodology. A case study design was employed. Three instruments were used for collecting of the data. These were: questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. The data analysis strategy used in this research was interaction analysis which was done through transcriptions of observations and video and audio recordings of interviews and classroom observations. The following were some of the findings from this research study: learners were not happy with their educators who unduly force them to communicate in English as the educators themselves are also not proficient in the language; learners are afraid to take risks of communicating in English for fear of other learners intimidating them; and many learners now communicate only in English and cannot understand the greater details of their mother tongue. The recommendations of this study are: to reduce the extent of language loss, parents should establish a strong home language policy and provide ample opportunities for children to expand the functions for which they use the mother tongue; parents and care-givers should spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue vocabulary and concepts so that children come to school prepared to learn the second language successfully without being distracted; funding and resources must be made available for additional language acquisition; well-trained and dedicated teachers with similar linguistic backgrounds to the learners should be hired; and the new language policy should be adopted

Orientador: Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão / Banca: Cristina Reckziegel Guedes Evangelista / Banca: Daniela Nogueira de Moraes Garcia / Resumo: Esta pesquisa foi realizada no contexto do "Projeto Teletandem Brasil: línguas estrangeiras para todos", na Unesp de Araraquara, tendo como objetivo verificar como o princípio da igualdade na modalidade de aprendizagem em teletandem tem sido colocado em prática pelos parceiros durante as interações, bem como as motivações que levam à prática da alternância de códigos entre os participantes. O referencial teórico baseia-se nos fundamentos da aprendizagem em teletandem, seus princípios norteadores, nas teorias sobre bilinguismo e code-switching. Essa pesquisa se encaixa no paradigma qualitativo e utiliza como metodologia o estudo de caso. O estudo em questão investigou três pares de teletandem constituídos por brasileiros e estrangeiros, que realizaram entre duas e quatro interações de teletandem por meio de videoconferência, pelo período de aproximadamente um mês. Os dados foram gerados por meio de gravações das interações, realizadas através do programa Evaer, que grava as imagens da webcam local e remota, bem como os áudios simultaneamente; pelas transcrições das falas de ambos os participantes (brasileiros e estrangeiros) e pela aplicação do questionário inicial e final. Elaboramos uma tabela para medir a quantidade de tempo utilizada na prática de ambas as línguas-alvo, a fim de verificar se o princípio da igualdade estava sendo cumprido durante as sessões de teletandem para, em seguida, quantificarmos as vezes que cada participante alternava de um código para o outro, poi... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research was carried out in the context of "Projeto Teletandem Brasil: línguas estrangeiras para todos", at Unesp de Araraquara, aiming to verify how the principle of equality in the teletandem learning modality has been put into practice by the partners during the interactions, as well as the motivations that carry the practice of code-switching between participants. The theoretical framework is based on the fundamentals of teletandem learning, its guiding principles, on theories of bilingualism and code-switching. This research fits the qualitative paradigm and uses as methodology the case study. This study has investigated three teletandem pairs constituted of Brazilians and foreigner students, who have performed between two and four interactions of teletandem through videoconference, for a period of approximately one month. The data were collected through recording of the interactions, performed by the Evaer program, which records the images of the local and remote webcam as well as the audios simultaneously; by the transcription of the speeches of both participants (Brazilians and foreigners) and by the application of the initial and final questionnaire. We elaborated a table to register the amount of time that partners spent practicing both target languages, in order to verify whether the principle of equality was being met during the teletandem sessions and then quantify how often each participant switched from one to the other code, as we believe that the constant practice of code-switching would hurt the equality in the teletandem relationship. After this step, we analyzed all the code-switching events found during the interactions, with the intention of listing, in graphs by partnership, the main motivations for their practice. For the analysis of the data... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

It is well documented in the literature that bilingual speakers simultaneously activate both languages during spoken language processing (e.g., Marian & Spivey, 2003). However, parallel activation can lead to competition between the two languages (e.g., Blumenfield & Marian, 2013; Freeman, Shook, & Marian, 2016). The Unified Competition model (UCM) provides a theory as to how bilingual speakers navigate through two languages while different linguistic cues are competing (MacWhinney, 2005). The UCM proposes that cues are used to process language, based on cue validity (the product of how reliable and available a cue is), which is determined by cue strength (a measure based on conflict reliability; how reliable a cue is when it directly conflicts with others). Two likely cues bilingual speakers use while processing a novel spoken word are linguistic environment (the language being spoken around them) and phonotactic probability (the probability of the sounds making up a novel word). Applying the theory of the UCM this study sets to answer the following general question: How do Spanish/English bilingual adults assign language membership to nonwords when linguistic environment and phonotactic cues are competing? The current study consisted of twenty-two Spanish/English adults who listened to 96 nonwords that corresponded to three different groups based on phonotactic probability: Language Exclusive (the phonotactics of the nonwords designated them as either Spanish only or English only), High-Low (the nonwords had high phonotactic probability in one language and low probability in the other), and Ambiguous (the nonowords had similar phonotactic probability in both languages). The participants were tested in one of two linguistic environments (primarily English with some Spanish code-switching or primarily Spanish with some English code-switching) and partook in a two-alternative forced choice listening test (participants determined if each nonword was either Spanish or English). The language membership decision was measured via verbal response and eye-tracking using EyeLink 1000 Plus measuring eye gaze, number of fixations and switches. In general, results indicated that Spanish/English bilingual adults relied only on phonotactic probability when making language membership decisions, but not as strongly as may be suggested by the UCM. The results of this study suggest that environmental cues are not strong enough to impact spoken language processing in Spanish/English bilingual adults and that phonotactic probability is likely a more easily accessible (and therefore more commonly used) cue.

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<p>Studiens syfte var att ta reda på om elever med invandrarbakgrund får samma förutsättningar att klara sina studier och om lärarna tar hänsyn till elevernas olika bakgrund vid planering och utformning av lektionernas innehåll. Studien ska ge svar på om alla elever får en likvärdig chans till att klara kursmålen och om lärarna inkluderar och strävar efter att motivera elever som inte faller inom ramen för lärarens egen bakgrund och omvärldsperspektiv.</p><p>     Genom en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ studie i form av intervjuer med lärare och analys av undervisningsmaterial har jag försökt att ta reda på hur verksamheten utformas för att inkludera och stärka alla elever samt motivera och uppmuntra till vidarestudier. Hur och om man involverar elevernas erfarenheter, intresse och bakgrund för att motivera, engagera och inkludera eleverna i undervisningen.</p><p>     Resultatet av min studie visade på att lärarna inte tar hänsyn till elevernas olika bakgrunder när de selekterar stoffurvalet och när de planerar innehållet av lektionerna. Studien visade att lärarna inte är medvetna om att ett sådant behov kan finnas.</p>