scholarly journals Evidence for a bimodal bilingual disadvantage in letter fluency

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCEL R. GIEZEN ◽  
KAREN EMMOREY
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Fluency Task

Many bimodal bilinguals are immersed in a spoken language-dominant environment from an early age and, unlike unimodal bilinguals, do not necessarily divide their language use between languages. Nonetheless, early ASL–English bilinguals retrieved fewer words in a letter fluency task in their dominant language compared to monolingual English speakers with equal vocabulary level. This finding demonstrates that reduced vocabulary size and/or frequency of use cannot completely account for bilingual disadvantages in verbal fluency. Instead, retrieval difficulties likely reflect between-language interference. Furthermore, it suggests that the two languages of bilinguals compete for selection even when they are expressed with distinct articulators.

The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL KEMPLER ◽  
EVELYN L. TENG ◽  
MALCOLM DICK ◽  
I. MARIBEL TAUSSIG ◽  
DEBORAH S. DAVIS
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
American English ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Animal Names ◽  
American English Speakers ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Fluency Task

A group of 317 healthy participants between 54 and 99 years of age performed a verbal fluency task. The participants included Chinese, Hispanic, and Vietnamese immigrants, as well as White and African American English speakers. They were given 1 min to name as many animals as possible in their native language. The results showed that more animal names were produced by younger people and those with more education. Language background was also an important factor: The Vietnamese produced the most animal names and the Spanish speakers produced the fewest. The exaggerated difference between these two groups is attributed to the fact that Vietnamese animal names are short (predominantly 1 syllable) while the Spanish animal names are longer than any other language in this study (2 and 3 syllables per word). Finally, although the ethnic groups named different animals, and appeared to vary in the variety of animal names they used, these factors did not affect overall verbal fluency performance. (JINS, 1998, 4, 531–538.)

scholarly journals A PROPOSAL FOR RECALIBRATION OF A VOCABULARY LEVELS TEST AS DIAGNOSIS OF LATE BILINGUALS’ L2 PROFICIENCY

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesiel Soares-Silva ◽  
Luiz Henrique Mendes Brandão ◽  
Lara Do Nascimento Góes ◽  
Brenda Lorraine Grillo Silva ◽  
Geovanne Barbosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Internal Coherence ◽  
Specific Part ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

his study explores the recalibration and adequacy of a measure of vocabulary size – the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) – as a predictor of Brazilian Portuguese-English speakers’ ability to access grammatical representations through their non-dominant language. Such endeavor concerns a specific part of the test (composed majorly by cognates) which has been blurring the results when participants are natives in Latin-derived languages, such as Brazilian Portuguese. A new test (nVLT) was designed, with a novel version of this problematic part (level 4) present in the older test that, now, avoids the proliferation of cognates. Both versions were applied to a number of Brazilian participants and the results were correlated with another proficiency measure, taken from an acceptability judgment task designed according to the model reported in Souza et al (2015). When the low-proficiency participants took the VLT, there were a decreasing pattern in their scores from the first level of the exam all the way to level 3 (because each level is harder than the preceding). But, when they got to level 4, which is “harder” than level 3, their scores increased surprisingly, and then decreased again in level 5. When they performed the nVLT, which has a level 4 recalibrated (without latin cognates), the decreasing pattern was maintained evenly through the whole test. These results from nVLT show an internal coherence of the test due to the recalibration.

Some observations on the acquisition of evidentiality in bulgarian as a second language by native english speakers

Proglas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandrina Raykova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Current Analysis

Second language acquisition of grammatical evidentiality in Bulgarian is studied through analyzing the spoken language use of a number of native English speakers. The category is found unstable at the higher levels of language proficiency, which indicates incomplete acquisition. There are cases of probable full acquisition which the current analysis cannot confirm. Suggestions regarding the role of the linguistic worldview are put forward.

scholarly journals Two Relative Contact Phenomena in the Language use of Hungarians in Transylvania

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-112
Author(s):  
Attila Benő
Keyword(s):  
Representative Sample ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Regional Characteristics ◽  
Bilingual Speakers

Abstract The paper discusses two peculiarities of language use generally taken to be relative contact phenomena in case of Hungarian in bilingual, non-dominant context: the preference of analytical linguistic variants and non-standard plural forms. The data come from two sociolinguistic surveys conducted in Transylvania (in 1996 and 2009). The surveys were carried out with the participation of a representative sample of speakers. The 1996 survey was conducted with a quota sample (N = 216 in Romania and N = 107 in Hungary) and the 2009 sample with a representative sample (N = 4058 in Romania). The hypothesis that Romanian-dominant bilingual speakers tend to exhibit relative contact phenomena to a larger extent was supported with respect to these two issues. The results show that the occurrence of these phenomena is determined both by the language competence of the dominant language and by the regional characteristics of the bilingualism. The results confirm the possibility that the spoken-language properties under discussion are relative contact phenomena.

A cross-linguistic comparison of category and letter fluency: Mandarin and English

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Eng ◽  
Jet MJ Vonk ◽  
Melissa Salzberger ◽  
Nakyung Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Task Completion ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Alphabetic Language ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Category Fluency ◽  
Mandarin Speakers ◽  
Fluency Task

Verbal fluency tasks are widely applied in a variety of languages, but whether the quality and quantity of responses are comparable across structurally different writing systems is debatable. For example, since there are no letters in a logographic, non-alphabetic language such as Chinese, the mechanisms speakers use to generate a list of words in a letter fluency task might be structurally different than those used by speakers of alphabetic languages. In this study, we investigated lexical retrieval strategies and approaches in letter and category fluency tasks among monolingual Mandarin speakers compared to monolingual English speakers. We found that the responses of Mandarin speakers are both qualitatively and quantitatively different in letter fluency, and qualitatively different in category fluency. These results suggest that differences in task completion among non-English-speaking populations are important to consider when using this extensively utilised cognitive and linguistic measure in research and clinic.

LANGUAGE USE BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE HOST IN HITAM PUTIH TALK SHOW

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurmaliana Sari ◽  
Sumarsih Sumarsih ◽  
Busmin Gurning
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
The Other ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Talk Show ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Domestic Activities ◽  
Female Host ◽  
Negative Connotation ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This study discusses about language use occurred by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The method of this research is descriptive qualitative. The subjects of this study are male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The data are the utterances produced by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. This research focuses on the show broadcasted on October 2016 by taking 4 videos randomly. The objective of this study is to describe kinds of the language use uttered by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The findings showed that the kinds of language use consist of 6 parts. The dominant language use uttered by male host is expletive, because male’s utterances are frequently stated in a negative connotation. On the other hand, female host utterances are found in specialized vocabulary as the most dominant because female host has more interest in talking family affairs, such as the education of children, clothes, cooking, and fashion, etc. Women also tended to talk about one thing related to the home and domestic activities. However, the representation of language use uttered by male and female are deficit, dominance and different. Keywords: Language Use, Gender, Talk Show

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Attention in Post-Lexical Processes of Utterance Production: Dual-Task Cost in Younger and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110341
Author(s):  
Maryll Fournet ◽  
Michaela Pernon ◽  
Sabina Catalano Chiuvé ◽  
Ursula Lopez ◽  
Marina Laganaro
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Verbal Task ◽  
Lexical Selection ◽  
Speech Task ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Dual Task Cost ◽  
Lexical Processes ◽  
Fluency Task

There is a general agreement that speaking requires attention at least for conceptual and lexical processes of utterance production. However, conflicting results have been obtained with dual-task paradigms using either repetition tasks or more generally tasks involving limited loading of lexical selection. This study aimed to investigate whether post-lexical processes recruit attentional resources. We used a new dual-task paradigm in a set of experiments where a continuous verbal production task involved either high or low demand on lexical selection processes. Experiment 1 evaluates lexical and post-lexical processes with a semantic verbal fluency task, whereas experiments 2 and 3 focus on post-lexical processes with a non-propositional speech task. In each experiment, two types of non-verbal secondary tasks were used: processing speed (simple manual reaction times) or inhibition (Go/No-go). In Experiment 1, a dual-task cost was observed on the semantic verbal fluency task and each non-verbal task. In Experiment 2, a dual-task cost appeared on the non-verbal tasks but not on the speech task. The same paradigm was used with older adults (Experiment 3), as increased effort in post-lexical processes has been associated with ageing. For older adults, a dual-task cost was also observed on the non-propositional verbal task when speech was produced with the inhibition non-verbal task. The results suggest an attentional cost on post-lexical processes and strategic effects in the resolution of the dual-task.

scholarly journals Reviving the genitive. Prescription and practice in the Netherlands (1770–1840)

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Krogull ◽  
Gijsbert Rutten
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
National Language ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
The One ◽  
Genitive Case

AbstractHistorical metalinguistic discourse is known to often prescribe linguistic variants that are not very frequent in actual language use, and to proscribe frequent variants. Infrequent variants that are promoted through prescription can be innovations, but they can also be conservative forms that have already largely vanished from the spoken language and are now also disappearing in writing. An extreme case in point is the genitive case in Dutch. This has been in decline in usage from at least the thirteenth century onwards, gradually giving way to analytical alternatives such as prepositional phrases. In the grammatical tradition, however, a preference for the genitive case was maintained for centuries. When ‘standard’ Dutch is officially codified in 1805 in the context of a national language policy, the genitive case is again strongly preferred, still aiming to ‘revive’ the synthetic forms. The striking discrepancy between metalinguistic discourse on the one hand, and developments in language use on the other, make the genitive case in Dutch an interesting case for historical sociolinguistics. In this paper, we tackle various issues raised by the research literature, such as the importance of genre differences as well as variation within particular genres, through a detailed corpus-based analysis of the influence of prescription on language practices in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Dutch.

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