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At least 343 records · Page 19Linked to original sources
PubMed2007

Late acquisition of literacy in a native language.

With event-related functional MRI (fMRI) and with behavioral measures we studied the brain processes underlying the acquisition of native language literacy. Adult dialect speakers were scanned while reading words belonging to three different conditions: dialect words, i.e., the native language in which subjects are illiterate (dialect), German words, i.e., the second language in which subjects are literate, and pseudo-words. Investigating literacy acquisition of a dialect may reveal how novel readers of a language build an orthographic lexicon, i.e., establish a link between already available semantic and phonological representations and new orthographic word forms. The main results of the study indicate that a set of regions, including the left anterior hippocampal formation and subcortical nuclei, is involved in the buildup of orthographic representations. The repeated exposure to written dialect words resulted in a convergence of the neural substrate to that of the language in which these subjects were already proficient readers. The latter result is compatible with a "fast" brain plasticity process that may be related to a shift of reading strategies.

Adult↗
PubMed2007

Effect of syntactic similarity on cortical activation during second language processing: a comparison of English and Japanese among native Korean trilinguals.

In this study of native Korean trilinguals we examined the effect of syntactic similarity between first (L1) and second (L2) languages on cortical activation during the processing of Japanese and English, which are, respectively, very similar to and different from Korean. Subjects had equivalent proficiency in Japanese and English. They performed auditory sentence comprehension tasks in Korean, Japanese, and English during functional MRI (fMRI). The bilateral superior temporal cortex was activated during the comprehension of three languages. The pars triangularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was additionally activated for L2 processing. Furthermore, the right cerebellum, the pars opercularis of the left IFG, and the posteriomedial part of the superior frontal gyrus were activated during the English tasks only. We observed significantly greater activation in the pars opercularis of the left IFG, the right cerebellum, and the right superior temporal cortex during the English than Japanese task; activation in these regions did not differ significantly between Korean and Japanese. Differential activation of the pars opercularis of the left IFG and the right cerebellum likely reflects syntactic distance and differential activation in the right superior temporal cortex may reflect the prosodic distance between English from Korean and Japanese. Furthermore, in the pars oparcularis of the left IFG and the right cerebellum, significant negative correlation between the activation and duration of exposure was observed for English, but not for Japanese. Our research supports the notion that linguistic similarity between L1 and L2 affects the cortical processing of second language.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1997

Semantic organization, strategy use, and productivity in bilingual semantic verbal fluency.

This study of semantic verbal fluency addressed two research questions: (1) What are the between-language similarities and differences in the performance of balanced bilinguals? (2) What is the relationship between productivity and the use of a semantic grouping strategy to organize responses? Forty neurologically normal, bilingual adults were tested twice in each language (French/English), in a 2 (Language) by 2 (Test) by 2 (Group) design. On Test 2, half the 40 subjects were instructed to group items by subcategory, while half simply repeated the test. Results showed (1) many more between-language similarities than differences and (2) no between-group differences in productivity.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Bilingual aphasia: semantic organization, strategy use, and productivity in semantic verbal fluency.

A semantic verbal fluency task (Animals, Foods) was administered to 16 aphasic, bilingual adults in French and English. Each subject was tested twice in each language. The two goals of the study were to compare performance across languages and to determine the effect of a deliberate grouping strategy on productivity. All subjects claimed approximately equal prestroke abilities in both languages. The number of words subjects produced was not significantly different in the two languages. Semantic organization across languages was also similar on Test 1. On Test 2, 8 subjects were instructed to group items by subcategory and 8 simply repeated the task. There was no consistent between-group difference in number of correct words or in the semantic organization of responses. Implications for the clinical use of verbal fluency tests and for further research into bilingual lexicosemantic systems are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Bilingual performance on the boston naming test: preliminary norms in Spanish and English.

A total of 100 young educated bilingual adults were administered the Boston Naming Test (BNT) (Kaplan, Goodglass, & Weintraub, 1983) in both Spanish and English. Three group performance scores were obtained: English only, Spanish only, and a composite score indicating the total number of items correctly named independent of language. The scores for the entire group were significantly greater in English than in Spanish. An additional set of analyses explored individual differences in picture naming performance across the two languages as measured by the BNT. For a subset of the larger group (n = 25) there were significant differences in composite over single language scoring, but no significant differences between Spanish and English. Item analyses of correct responses were conducted in both languages to explore the construct validity of the standardized administration of the BNT with this population. There was much greater variability in responses over the Spanish items for this bilingual group. The results of a correlation analysis of information obtained from the initial questionnaire with the BNT scores in each language is also reported. The practical implications of this preliminary bilingual BNT normative data are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

A comparison of the codeswitching patterns of aphasic and neurologically normal bilingual speakers of English and Spanish.

Conversational discourse samples were obtained from four aphasic and four neurologically normal Hispanic bilinguals in monolingual English, monolingual Spanish, and bilingual contexts to identify codeswitching patterns. Analysis of the samples based on the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993a) revealed consistent matching of the language context by the aphasic and normal subjects. The aphasic subjects demonstrated a greater frequency of MLF constituents and codeswitching patterns not evident in the speech samples of the normal subjects. Results suggest an increased dependence on both languages for communication following neurological impairment.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Convergent cortical representation of semantic processing in bilinguals.

This study examined whether semantic processes in two languages (English and Spanish) are mediated by a common neural system in fluent bilinguals who acquired their second language years after acquiring their first language. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed while bilingual participants made semantic and nonsemantic decisions about words in Spanish and English. There was greater activation for semantic relative to nonsemantic decisions in left and right frontal regions, with greater left frontal activation. The locations of activations were similar for both languages, and no differences were found when semantic decisions for English and Spanish words were compared directly. These results demonstrate a shared frontal lobe system for semantic analysis of the languages and are consistent with cognitive research on bilingualism indicating that the two languages of a bilingual person access a common semantic system.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

In search of the language switch: An fMRI study of picture naming in Spanish-English bilinguals.

For many years, researchers investigating the brain bases of bilingualism have concentrated on two basic questions. The first concerns the nature of language representation. That is, are a bilinguals' two languages represented in distinct or overlapping areas of the brain. The second basic question in the neuropsychology of bilingualism concerns the neural correlates of language switching, that is, the areas that are active when bilinguals switch from one language to the other. Performance between single-language and dual-language picture naming was compared in a group of six Spanish-English bilinguals using behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants showed slower reaction times and increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the mixed language condition relative to single language condition. There was no evidence that each language was represented in different areas of the brain. Results are consistent with the view that language switching is a part of a general executive attentional system and that languages are represented in overlapping areas of the brain in early bilinguals.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Visual field asymmetries for rhyme and semantic tasks in fluent and nonfluent bilinguals.

A tachistoscopic study investigated hemispheric specialization among fluent and nonfluent bilinguals for rhyme and semantic tasks in both their languages. Fluent bilinguals gave faster responses and made fewer errors in their responses to the words presented in the RVF(LH) while the opposite happened for nonfluent, which indicates greater RH participation in the first stages of a second language. Fluent bilinguals performed better not only in the second but also in their native language, suggesting superior language skills on the part of fluent bilinguals. A LVF(RH) superiority was obtained for semantic tasks, indicating RH participation in semantic judgments. Another finding was a high ratio of first-born children among fluent bilinguals, potentially explained in terms of parental attitudes toward first- versus later born children.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sonority constraints on onset-rime cohesion: evidence from native and bilingual Filipino readers of English.

Research in English suggests that syllables can be analyzed in terms of two subunits-the onset (defined as the initial consonant or consonant cluster) and the rime (the unit formed by the vowel and following consonant/s). This study investigated whether nonnative readers of English, which in the case of the present study were native Filipino speakers, also make use of onset-rime units, particularly when some features of their native language (namely infixation and reduplication) appear to foster no awareness of such units. In two lexical decision experiments, monosyllabic English words were presented, divided in between their first and second consonants (e.g., B LIND), at their onset-rime boundary (e.g., BL IND), or at their antibody boundary (e.g., BLI ND). Results indicated that the processes of infixation and reduplication did not affect the English word processing of native Filipino speakers. Rather, results for both native Filipino and native English speakers suggest that onsets composed of an "s + consonant" sequence (e.g., STAMP) are less cohesive than onsets comprised of a stop-liquid sequence (e.g., BLIND). It was concluded that not only may sonority constraints underlie onset cohesiveness, but that such phonetic properties may also be involved in visual word recognition.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Conceptual representation of verbs in bilinguals: semantic field effects and a second-language performance paradox.

It is well known that bilinguals perform better in their first language (L1) than in their second lanaguage (L2) in a wide range of linguistic tasks. In recent studies, however, the authors have found that bilingual participants can demonstrate faster response times to L1 stimuli than to L2 stimuli in one classification task and the reverse in a different classification task. In the current study, they investigated the reasons for this "L2-better-than-L1" effect. English-French bilinguals performed one word relatedness and two categorization tasks with verbs of motion (e.g., run) and psychological verbs (e.g., admire) in both languages. In the word relatedness task, participants judged how closely related pairs of verbs from both categories were. In a speeded semantic categorization task, participants classified the verbs according to their semantic category (psychological or motion). In an arbitrary classification task, participants had to learn how verbs had been assigned to two arbitrary categories. Participants performed better in L1 in the semantic classification task but paradoxically better in L2 in the arbitrary classification task. To account for these effects, the authors used the ratings from the word relatedness task to plot three-dimensional "semantic fields" for the verbs. Cross-language field differences were found to be significantly related to the paradoxical performance and to fluency levels. The results have implications for understanding of how bilinguals represent verbs in the mental lexicon.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Orthographic processing of polysyllabic words by native and nonnative English speakers.

How polysyllabic English words are analyzed in silent reading was examined in three experiments by comparing lexical decision responses to words physically split on the screen. The gap was compatible either with the Maximal Onset Principle or the Maximal Coda Principle. The former corresponds to the spoken syllable (e.g., ca det), except when the word has a stressed short first vowel (e.g., ra dish), while the reverse is true for the latter (giving cad et and rad ish). Native English speakers demonstrated a general preference for the Max Coda analysis and a correlation with reading ability when such an analysis did not correspond with the spoken syllable. Native Japanese speakers, on the other hand, showed a Max Onset preference regardless of the type of word, while native Mandarin Chinese speakers showed no preference at all. It is concluded that a maximization of the coda is the optimal representation of polysyllabic words in English and that poorer native readers are more influenced by phonology than are better readers. The way that nonnative readers mentally represent polysyllabic English words is affected by the way such words are structured in their native language, which may not lead to optimal English processing.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The cues that children use in acquiring adjectival phrases and compound nouns: evidence from bilingual children.

This study explores the cues used in acquisition of two semantically similar structures that are ordered differently in French and English: adjectival phrases and compound nouns. One possible prediction is that children attend primarily to meaning, so they should order both structures similarly. Another is that children attend primarily to structure, so they should learn these structures independently. Two kinds of data were obtained from eight 4-year old bilinguals: (1) spontaneous production and (2) experimental elicitation. The children were nearly perfect in their ordering of adjectival phrases, but less so in compounds. These results conform to neither prediction, leaving open the question of which cues children use in acquisition.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The bilingual mental lexicon and speech production process.

The Chinese/English intrasentential code-switching data provide evidence that the bilingual mental lexicon involves language contact between language-specific semantic/pragmatic feature bundles. Lemmas in the mental lexicon are tagged for specific languages and contain semantic, syntactic, and morphological information about lexemes. In a bilingual mode, the speaker makes choices at the preverbal level of lexical-conceptual structure, and these choices activate the lemmas in the mental lexicon for the speaker's preverbal message to be morphosyntactically realized at the functional level of predicate-argument structure. The result will be language-specific surface forms at the positional level of morphological realization patterns. The languages involved in the bilingual's mixed speech are never equally activated, with one language projecting the sentential frame and the other supplying a particular type of morphemes for the speaker's communicative intentions.

Cognition↗
PubMed2002

Switching languages, switching palabras (words): an electrophysiological study of code switching.

Switching languages has often been associated with a processing cost. In this study, the authors used event-related potentials to compare switches between two languages with within-language lexical switches as bilinguals read for comprehension. Stimuli included English sentences and idioms ending either with the expected English words, their Spanish translations (code switches), or English synonyms (lexical switches). As expected, lexical switches specifically enhanced the N400 response in both context types. Code switches, by contrast, elicited an increased negativity over left fronto-central sites in the regular nonidiomatic sentences (250-450 ms) and a large posterior positivity (450-850 ms) in both context types. In addition, both lexical and code switches elicited a late frontal positivity (650-850 ms) relative to expected completions, especially in idioms. Analysis of the individual response patterns showed correlations with vocabulary skills in English and in Spanish. Overall, the electrophysiological data suggest that for some speakers in some contexts, the processing of a code switch may actually be less costly than the processing of an unexpected within-language item.

Adolescent↗