Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, April 30, 1997." Also available in print.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, May 14, 1999." Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Moving to a new country often involves exposing oneself to new languages and cultures. Many individuals who move to another country and acquire a new language are sometimes at risk of losing the language of their country of origin. Studies in first language (L1) loss aim to describe what happens in an individual’s L1 when he/she moves away or disconnects from its source as well as to explain which linguistic aspects change and why. The aim of this research paper is to investigate lexical proficiency in L1 German bilingual speakers residing in the Western Cape. Lexical data were elicited through a Verbal Fluency Task (VFT) and a Picture Naming Task (PNT). Particularly, the paper assesses the extent to which degree of German L1 contact influences lexical development, alongside other background factors (age of reduced L1 contact, length of residence in the L2, education level) and sociolinguistic factors (attitude towards the L1, language use and contact). Correlational analyses revealed that two types of contact factors were crucial for maintaining L1 lexical proficiency: 1) intense receptive input such as reading German books and other German visual media, and 2) exposure to German as a medium of instruction within an educational setting. Neither of these factors allow nor permit any code-switching or code-mixing and are considered to be a form of German monolingual input, thus cementing L1 knowledge and skills and proving to be beneficial for long-term language development and maintenance. Conclusions drawn from the results of the study are discussed in the final chapter and suggestions for future research are presented. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die verhuising na ‘n nuwe land sluit gewoonlik blootstelling van menself aan nuwe tale en kulture in. Baie individue wat na ‘n ander land verhuis en ‘n nuwe taal aanleer, loop soms die risiko om die taal van hulle land van herkoms, te verloor. Studies in eerste taal (L1) verlies het ten doel om te beskryf wat in ‘n individu se L1 gebeur wanneer hy of sy verhuis of wegbreek van die bron asook om te verduidelik watter linguistiese aspekte verander of aanpas en waarom. Die doel van hierdie navorsing is om leksikale bevoegdheid in L1 Duitse tweetalige sprekers in die Wes-Kaap, te ondersoek. Leksikale data is deur ‘n Verbale Vlotheid Taak (VFT) en ‘n Prentjie Benaaming Taak (PNT) versamel. Meer spesifiek, assesseer die navorsing die mate van die graad waartoe Duitse L1 kontak leksikale ontwikkeling beïnvloed tesame met ander agtergrondfaktore (ouderdom van verminderde L1 kontak, lengte van verblyf in die L2, onderrigvlak). Korrelatiewe analises dui daarop dat twee tipes kontakfaktore van uiterste belang was vir L1 leksikale bevoegdheid: 1) intense vatbare insette soos die lees van Duitse boeke en ander Duitse visuele media, en 2) blootsteling aan Duits as ‘n medium van instruksie in ‘n onderrigopset. Nie een van hierdie twee faktore laat enige kode-wisseling of kode-vermenging toe nie en is oorwegend ‘n vorm van Duitse eentalige tevoer, dus word L1-kennis en-vaardighede vasgelê en bewys dat dit voordelig is vir langtermyn taalontwikeling en instandhouding. Gevolgtrekkings wat van die resultate van die studie gemaak is, word in die finale hoofstuk bespreek en voorstelle vir toekomstige navorsing word aangedui.

This thesis examines how students, aged 13-15, with a mother tongue other than Swedish, experience learning English in school. This is important since there is an increasing number of bilinguals and multilinguals learning English in schools in Sweden and around the world. Several concepts are presented and discussed that have been argued to pose barriers to bilingual and multilingual language learning. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with ten students, aged between 13 and 15. The empirical material shows that bilingual and multilingual students usually refer to Swedish, even when their mother-tongue may be a better reference for learning English. This is because teachers commonly refer to Swedish grammar rules in attempting to clarify English grammar rules and the textbooks used to support the learning process are in Swedish. This may pose problems for the learning process, particularly for students who are not proficient in Swedish. The study also highlights the importance of diagnosing bilingual students' L1 and L2 on a regular basis to see when the optimum time is to be exposed to English language learning rather than the current approach of immersing them in English learning without considering the other language learning processes the student may be engaged in. The study also found that students commonly perceived their English to be proficient even though they had poor grades. One possible reason for this is that they manage well in their day-to-day engagement with computer games, films and social media while formal English learning, including aspects such as grammar and writing, require a different type of application. Finally, the thesis describes how important high metalinguistic awareness is for language learning and it is suggested that additional research focuses on how this conceptual understanding can be translated in practitioner tools useful for teachers. Schools need to create an environment that values and supports multilingual students’ language competence and an early national diagnostic test would help to support those conditions.

Statistical learning refers to the ability to track regular patterns in sensory input from ambient environments. This learning mechanism can exploit a wide range of statistical structures (e.g., frequency, distribution, and co-occurrence probability). Given its regularities and hierarchical structures, language is essentially a pattern-based system and therefore researchers have argued that statistical learning is fundamental to language acquisition (e.g., Saffran, 2003). Indeed, young infants and adults can find words in artificial languages by tracking syllable co-occurrence probabilities and extracting words on that basis (e.g., Saffran. Aslin & Newport, 1996a). However, prior studies have mainly focused on whether learners can statistically segment words from a single language; whether learners can segment words from two artificial languages remains largely unknown. Given that the majority of the global population is bilingual (Grosjean, 2010), it is necessary to study whether learners can make use of the statistical learning mechanism to segment words from two language inputs, which is the focus of this thesis. I examined adult and infant learners to answer three questions: (i) Can learners make use of French and English phonetic cues within a single individual’s speech to segment words successfully from two languages?; 2) Do bilinguals outperform monolinguals?; and 3) Do specific factors, such as cognitive ability or bilingual experience, underlie any potential bilingual advantage in word segmentation across two languages? In Study 1, adult learners generally could make use of French and English phonetic cues to segment words from two overlapping artificial languages. Importantly, simultaneous bilinguals who learned French and English since birth segmented more correct words in comparison to monolinguals, multilinguals, and sequential French-English bilinguals. Early bilingual experience may lead learners to be more flexible when processing information in new environments and/or they are more sensitive to subtle cues that mark the changes of language inputs. Further, individuals’ cognitive abilities were not related to learners’ segmentation performance, suggesting that the observed simultaneous bilingual segmentation advantage is not related any bilingual cognitive advantages (Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012). In Study 2, I tested 9.5-month-olds, who are currently discovering words in their natural environment, in an infant version of the adult task. Surprisingly, monolingual, but not bilingual, infants successfully used French and English phonetic cues to segment words from two languages. The observed difference in segmentation may be related to how infant process native and non-native phonetic cues, as the French phonetic cues are non-native to monolingual infants but are native to bilingual infants. Finally, the observed difference in segmentation ability was again not driven by cognitive skills. In sum, current thesis provides evidence that both adults and infants can make use of phonetic cues to statistically segment words from two languages. The implications of why early bilingualism plays a role in determining learners’ segmentation ability are discussed.

Cognitive control-e.g. the abilities to pay attention, to ignore irrelevant input, and to switch between tasks- has received much attention in recent literature. Since both of their languages are activated in parallel, bilinguals have been suggested to have improved cognitive control skills in both the linguistic and non-linguistic domain (e.g., Bialystok, 2017), but inconsistent results (e.g., Hilchey, Saint-Aubin, & Klein, 2015) have lead to a heated debate in the field. However, when found, the effects of bilingualism on cognitive control appear to be generally positive (Valian, 2015). Furthermore, earlier bilingualism has been linked to greater cognitive benefits (Yow & Li, 2015), and Green and Abutalebi's (2013) Adaptive Control Hypothesis (ACH) suggests that the bilingual environment also plays a role. The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of the Age of Acquisition (AoA) of the second language on cognitive control in young adult bilinguals in two different linguistic environments, as well as to examine the underlying processes of cognitive control via event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Two research questions are focused on: 1) Which, if any, cognitive control abilities are enhanced by bilingualism? and 2) Does the type of bilingual experience modulate observed effects? The present study uses the non-linguistic Attention Network Test (ANT; Fan et al., 2002), in which sets of arrows appear with a central target arrow in either a congruent (e.g. ← ← ← ) or incongruent (e.g. ← → ← ) condition, to examine Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control networks, and a linguistic Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), in which colour terms appear in congruent (i.e. the word "red" presented in red font) and incongruent (i.e. the word "red" presented in green font) conditions, to examine language processing of English-French bilinguals in Canada and in Japanese-English bilinguals in Japan. In addition, Canadian participants also completed an ERP version of the Stroop task to examine possible underlying differences. The results of this series of experiments revealed a complex, yet interesting picture of bilingual cognitive control: although bilingual advantages were not consistent, there was support for earlier bilingualism being more beneficial to cognitive control. Particularly, results show Executive Control advantages for Simultaneous bilinguals, and significant differences between Simultaneous and Early Sequential bilinguals (typically grouped together as "early") in the Stroop task, demonstrating that balanced, proficient bilingualism enhances both linguistic and non-linguistic control. Interestingly, these effects only become apparent when both languages are mixed in the task, in line with suggestions that young adults’ cognitive resources need to be maximally taxed before advantages become apparent. Indeed, ERP results confirmed a greater engagement of cognitive resources in the more difficult version of the task. Although AoA and environment turned out to be confounded, there were still differences between Canadian and Japanese participants. Most notably, Canadian participants appeared to have better Executive Control. Taken together, the current work concludes that despite increased processing load, bilingual cognition does not suffer. Instead, cognition may receive a boost from dual language experience in some cases. Several rarely-explored factors were examined, and the complex results suggest possible areas that would benefit from further exploration, as well as raise interesting questions for future research.

In an era where the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is as high as 7% in school-aged children, the search for causes and preventions has never been more important. Current research indicates a positive relationship between bilingualism, particularly native bilingualism, and executive function in normally developing individuals. This study served to examine the potential relationship between bilingual education in a public school setting and the presence of ADHD symptoms in that school's students. This was a comparative analysis of students in a South Florida School District's two-way immersion program with the national average in terms of frequency of ADHD symptoms using the NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale and the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham (SNAP). The results did not show any significant differences between groups in terms of language history, gender, race, or family structure.

Researchers from Jean Piaget (1932) to Sehlauoi (2008) have utilized small case studies to intensively examine naturally occurring child language production in the home environment. This qualitative, 5-year longitudinal, five-year case study continues the focus of previous research on child bilingualism and code-switching; however, it aims to strengthen the previously tenuous connection linking said bilingualism with the speech of fraternal boy/girl twins, who are simultaneously making code choices and reflecting their gender language usage of these choices. The purpose of this study was to identify each twin’s code-switching patterns in Spanish and English in the bilingual home environment, examine the differences in their language choices, and reflect on their gendered language use as it pertains to each child’s own language production choices. The study connects the results of this research to previous research on child code-switching and reveals the similarities and differences between these two patterns and new ways of understanding the rich variety of linguistic understandings and possibilities in bilingual speech of twins. The study demonstrates that while Spanish code-maintenance was the preferred code choice by both twins throughout the length of the study, the female twin consistently code-switched into English and took more total turns in English than her twin brother while the male twin code-switched more frequently within a turn. These code-switching occurrences may be related to their gender. The limitations of this study, future directions of research, and conclusions are also discussed.