Over the years, scholars have gained much insight into language choice and code-switching patterns; however, the research in this area on children and second language (L2) learners has been limited with few exceptions (Fuller, 2009; Potowski, 2004, 2009; Reyes, 2001, 2004; Zentella, 1997). In particular, little research has compared simultaneous (2L1) bilingual children, those who acquired both languages before age three, and sequential (L2) bilingual children, those who learned an additional language after age three. In order to draw these beneficial comparisons, the current dissertation investigates the language choice and code-switching patterns of 2L1 and L2 bilingual children from kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade classrooms of a Spanish immersion program. The data include over 150 hours of participant observation as well as interviews with students, parents, and teachers and a core dataset of 12 hours of fully transcribed spontaneous classroom audio-recordings. The analysis of language choice patterns yields a Dynamic Model of Social Structures which offers a unique venue from which to consider how various social structures impact language choice as well as how individuals enact social identities through linguistic behaviors. The study of the communicative functions reveals that L2 and 2L1 bilingual children alike use Spanish and English for a wide variety of communicative functions. Finally, a study on the grammatical patterns and strategic discourse functions of code-switching reveals that grammatical switch-points of 2L1 and L2 bilingual code-switching are very similar and that L2 bilinguals code-switch for a variety of strategic purposes, not only to compensate for a gap in knowledge. In conclusion, this dissertation provides substantial contributions to several fields. For the field of linguistics, the study reveals that 2L1 and L2 bilingual children exhibit similar grammatical switch points. For sociolinguistics, the Dynamic Model of Social Structures contributes a conceptual tool for the analysis of language choice, which integrates individual language behaviors and social identities. Additionally, a sociolinguistic analysis reveals how 2L1 and L2 bilingual children code-switch for a variety of discursive functions. For the field of education, the results argue for the reconceptualization of code-switching as a resource, demonstrating that code-switching and diverse language choices are used for strategic purposes which often support language learning. In sum, this study sheds light on language choice and code-switching patterns among 2L1 and L2 bilingual children, contributing to the scarce research on this population and allowing a beneficial comparison between the two groups.

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This research investigates language use in Linguistic Landscapes (LLs) of an urban center of post-Soviet eastern Ukraine The major focus is on how the signs represent linguistic, social and ideological phenomena in the context of competing local, national, and global language ideologies with Ukrainian, Russian and English in Cyrillic and Roman scripts. More than 100 pictures of public signs were selected and analyzed, from more than one thousand photographs.Detailed analyses of the signs show that the `one state - one language' official language policy is not effective in the predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine: the signs frequently use Russian, and blend in Ukrainian. There were revealing differences between establishment categories. Bank signs were almost all in Ukrainian, because they are government regulated. In contrast, local clothing store signs used Russian, along with English and European languages to convey `modernity', `prestige' and `high fashion'; other establishment (casinos and electronics stores) mixed Russian and Ukrainian with some English. English and European languages with Roman script were also frequently used to `smooth over' the conflict between Ukrainian and Russian.The genetic closeness of Ukrainian and Russian allows a linguistic phenomenon that reconciles the languages, `bivalency'. Bivalency refers to shared linguistic elements between the languages, allowing the signs to appeal to the local population, while complying with the official Ukrainian language policy. This work analyzes and documents bivalency at phonological, morphological, and lexical levels, introducing a new sensitive tool for quantifying language dominance in signs.The overall conclusion is that signs in the LLs reveal that despite the official language policy, both Ukrainian and Russian appear in signs. In this way, Linguistic Landscapes may predict a future Ukraine in which both Russian and Ukrainian are accepted as official languages.This work contributes several new perspectives to the analyses of LLs. It demonstrates that LLs are multimodal, multilayered and multidimensional to be studied from a multidisciplinary perspective; the methodology integrates Critical Discourse Analysis and grounded theory; LLs are considered as texts analyzed on multiple discourse levels. The work invents and applies continua of bivalency as a multilevel phenomenon. The research focuses on LLs in eastern Ukraine.

Most bilingual lexical models assume that L1 and L2 either share the same semantic system, or are distinguished at the semantic level but connected through lexical associations. For example, the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994) assumes the stronger access from L2 to concepts via the L1 lexical representation at the early stage of L2 acquisition and direct access to concepts after L2 proficiency is achieved. However, the model is not well supported by subsequent empirical evidence, and encounters difficulty in explaining cross-language priming data. The recently developed Sense Model (Finkbeiner, M., Forster, K., Nicol, J., & Nakamura, K., 2004) assumes a direct access from the L2 form to its related meaning and argues for the representational asymmetry in lexical semantics between L1 and L2. This model was designed to account for the translation asymmetry and task effect in the masked priming literature: L2-L1 priming is not observed in lexical decision due to the small proportion of L1 senses activated by the L2 prime; however, the category provides a context which restricts L1 sense activation and thus enhances the effectiveness of the L2 prime in semantic categorization. This dissertation reports the results of several semantic categorization experiments designed to test several assumptions of the Sense Model. Experiments 1-4 investigated whether the Category Restriction Hypothesis assumed by the Sense Model was empirically supported when congruence effects are minimized. The results showed that translation priming could be obtained for exemplars when congruence effects were controlled, but that there were no effects for non-exemplars, as predicted by the Sense Model. Subsequent experiments showed that category size is an important variable, since L2-L1 priming was not obtained with large categories (e.g., living thing), which was taken to indicate that a large category is ineffective as a 'focusing' device to enhance the activation of L2 semantic senses. Finally, it was shown that the priming asymmetry in lexical decision was not due to differential degrees of semantic activation of the prime in L1 and L2.

Monolingual, monocultural approaches to education in Canada overlook the tremendous cultural and linguistic resources present in our classrooms and communities. Connecting language teaching and learning with a politics of global location and broader social issues relating to migration and diversity, this dissertation explores how dichotomous understandings of ‘native’/’nonnative’ students neglect these interlocking and intersecting dimensions of experience. The dissertation employed Lather’s (2007) critical praxis methodology to generate data from a collaborative research project involving teachers, students, and university-based researchers. The purpose of this project was to explore the educational significance of engaging students in authentic forms of cultural production that drew upon their cultural and linguistic resources, diverse histories, and multiple modes of representation in classroom-based learning. While endeavouring to contribute to positive change in education practice, the dissertation directs a critical gaze toward the dominant and marginalizing practices and discourses that materialized during this work. Drawing upon ethnographic data gathered over the course of the project, including classroom observations, interviews with students and teachers, multimodal artifacts of student work, and researcher field notes, the dissertation maps moments of ‘otherness’ that marked nonnative ‘others’. Located where sameness and difference meet, these pedagogical pivot points became sites for negotiating understandings of cultural difference. The discoveries arising from the study are presented as two stories, offering what Lather (2007) calls a “double(d) reading” of the empirical work of the project. The first story articulates a critical analysis of the research, based on efforts to incorporate plurilingualism in education and meet the needs of students as plurilingual social actors. The second story deconstructs these aims, examining the desires of liberatory educators to create contexts of empowerment for immigrant students. The significance of the study is its contribution to expanding conversations about how educators and researchers interested in language learning might talk about difference and the social subject in education, adding greater complexity to address the multiple dimensions of students’ experiences in globalized educational contexts.

Provides an overview of work on the effects of Quebec French (QF) on Quebec English (QE) since 1977. Argues that the framework used by sociolinguists is too narrow methodologically, excluding conversations in English between people whose first languages are different and ignoring the deliberate use of language for political effect. Examines some cognate nouns to show how meanings in QE have shifted because of knowledge of QF.

Speakers of Spanish in the United States are living perhaps the most interesting linguistic experience in the entire Hispanic world. The present study deals with the theme of the Spanish language in contact with English and the problems related with social bilingualism. The first part of Chapter I recounts the principal incidents in the history of Spanish expansion, and outlines the route of the advance of the Spanish language throughout the American continent. The second part of Chapter I presents statistical tables pertaining to immigrants, and explains the geographic and demographic distribution of Hispanics in the United States. Chapter II is a linguistic study of the varieties of Spanish found in the United States, along with lexical examples from daily use, and grammatical characteristics. Chapter III provides an academic classification according to the sociolinguistic and sociocultural factors which affect the Spanish language. Chapter IV presents the linguistic deviations produced by factors at the phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, semantic and grammatical level. Chapter V concentrates on the bilingual element of U.S. society. Three tables demonstrate the distribution of English and Spanish according to the sociolinguistic context and the type of text involved. In addition, three studies are presented to deepen our knowledge of bilingualism, as well as its causes and consequences. The conclusion must take into account the fact that it will not be possible to assimilate Hispanics as easily as has been done with people of other cultures in the United States, since the group renews itself continuously through the presence of recently arrived Hispanic immigrants, and those who have recently returned.

Darbe analizuojami priešmokyklinio amžiaus vaikų kalbos ir ugdymo(si) ypatumai dvikalbystės sąlygomis. Teorinėje dalyje analizuojami priešmokyklinio amžiaus vaikų kalbos ypatumai, pateikiamos įvairios dvikalbystės apibrėžtys, rūšys, analizuojama jos įtaka vaiko raidai. / This paper analyses the peculiarities of preschool children language and lerning in bilingual environment. The theoretical part addresses the peculiarities of preschool children speech, while various definitions and types of bilingualism are also presented, in regards to its influence on child’s development.