Studies using the English and Spanish MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories demonstrated that the grammatical abilities of 20-30-month-old bilingual children were related more strongly to same-language vocabulary development than to broader lexical-conceptual development or maturation. First, proportions of different word types in each language varied with same-language vocabulary size. Second, individual changes in predicate and closed class word proportion scores were linked to growth in same-language vocabulary but not to total conceptual vocabulary. Third, increases in English utterance length and English and Spanish sentence complexity were related to growth in same-language vocabulary but not to growth in conceptual vocabulary. Increases in Spanish utterance length were linked to growth in both Spanish vocabulary and conceptual vocabulary. Possible mechanisms underlying these patterns are considered.

Ties Between the Lexicon and Grammar: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies of Bilingual Toddlers

Infant bilingualism offers a unique opportunity to study the relative effects of language experience and maturation on brain development, with each child serving as his or her own control. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to words were examined in 19- to 22-month-old English-Spanish bilingual toddlers. The children's dominant vs. nondominant languages elicited different patterns of neural activity in the lateral asymmetry of an early positive component (P100), and the latencies and distributions of ERP differences to known vs. unknown words from 200-400 and 400-600 ms. ERP effects also differed for 'high' and 'low' vocabulary groups based on total conceptual vocabulary scores. The results indicate that the organization of language-relevant brain activity is linked to experience with language rather than brain maturation.

Two languages, one developing brain: event-related potentials to words in bilingual toddlers

Infant bilingualism offers a unique opportunity to study the relative effects of language experience and maturation on brain development, with each child serving as his or her own control. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to words were examined in 19to 22-month-old English-Spanish bilingual toddlers. The children’s dominant vs. nondominant languages elicited different patterns of neural activity in the lateral asymmetry of an early positive component (P100), and the latencies and distributions of ERP differences to known vs. unknown words from 200‐400 and 400‐600 ms. ERP effects also differed for ‘high’ and ‘low’ vocabulary groups based on total conceptual vocabulary scores. The results indicate that the organization of language-relevant brain activity is linked to experience with language rather than brain maturation.

/pdf/fast-track-report-two-languages-one-developing-brain-event-ilgvjxu4pi.pdf

FAST-TRACK REPORT Two languages, one developing brain: event-related potentials to words in bilingual toddlers

Models such as Eckman's markedness differential hypothesis, Flege's speech learning model, and Brown's feature-based theory of perception seek to explain and predict the relative difficulty second language (L2) learners face when acquiring new or similar sounds. In this paper, we test their predictive adequacy as concerns native English speakers’ mastery of French /ʁ/ and Spanish /ɾ/. Based on an acoustic analysis of the learner data, we demonstrate that these three models do not account for the full range of variability nor for the developmental sequences attested, because they do not consider the degree of difficulty involved in the simultaneous mastery of multiple phonetic parameters across prosodic positions. Consequently, models of L2 phonological acquisition must not only integrate findings from markedness theory and speech perception but also incorporate phonetic constraints on production.

Integrating articulatory constraints into models of second language phonological acquisition

Varieties of Spoken French

Cet article examine les differentes realisations des voyelles nasales francaises par des apprenants cantonais.Les resultats principaux sont les suivants: les apprenants tendent a reduire les quatre phonemes francais a deux voyelles basses; ils denasalisent souvent les voyelles cibles; et, frequemment, ils transforment les voyelles en diphtongues ou leur ajoutent une consonne nasale.Les auteurs expliquent ces resultats en se referant a l'hypothese de l'analyse contrastive et a l'hypothese de la marque differentielle.Enfin, des conseils pedagogiques sont donnes pour l'enseignement des voyelles nasales francaises aux apprenants cantonais.

Cantonese Speakers and the Acquisition of French Nasal Vowels

This chapter reports the findings of research on the acquisition of French consonants by native speakers of Cantonese. The corpus is noteworthy because few studies have investigated this particular interlanguage. Indeed, although our knowledge of the phonology of French is rich, we know considerably less about Cantonese. As members of different language families, French and Cantonese display phonetic and phonological features that differ along various tiers of analysis; one of the important differences illustrated in this study is the [voice] feature.



The principle guiding our research on Cantonese-French interlanguage is the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH), which invokes notions of universal markedness to make predictions about which target language forms are more difficult to acquire than others. Although the fact that it provides testable hypotheses makes it an attractive framework, the MDH has its share of difficulties. We show that the MDH can explain several major patterns of difficulty, but that other errors found can be explained in terms of an interaction of language acquisition and markedness reversals. Our ongoing research on the interlanguage vocalic system suggests other interactions between the hypothesized markedness relations and language transfer facts. Noteworthy is the fact that the markedness relations have been established on the basis of typological, and not necessarily Universal Grammar, universals.



The methodological issue of defining standards of acceptable/unacceptable responses in learning research continues to be problematic. A well-defined and quantitative measure of difficulty is attractive for applications in language learning, yet continuous acoustic spaces such as vowels or prosodic features provide challenges to this goal. In this study, we develop a scale of difficulty of consonants in both initial and final positions. For consonants we use judgements of unimpeded understanding, and these prove to offer a workable approach.

Cantonese Speakers and the Acquisition of French Consonants

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Cantonese Speakers and the Acquisition of French Nasal Vowels

Cantonese Speakers and the Acquisition of French Consonants