Bilingual memory

Abstract: PART 1: ACQUISITION 1. The learning of foreign language vocabulary Syntax 2. Early bilingual acquisition: Focus on morphosyntax and the separate development hypothesis 3. A unified model of language development 4. Phonology and bilingualism Biological bases 5. What does the critical period really mean? 6. Interpreting age effects in second language acquisition 7. Processing constraints on L1 transfer 8. Models of monolingual and bilingual language acquisiton PART 2: COMPREHENSION 9. Bilingual visual word recognition and lexical access 10. Computational models of bilingual comprehension 11. The representation of cognate and noncognate words in bilingual memory: Can cognate status be characterized as a special kind of morphological relation? 12. Bilingual semantic and conceptual representation 13. Ambiguities and anomalies: What can eye-movements and event-related potentials reveal about second language sentence processing PART 3: PRODUCTION AND CONTROL 14. Selection processes in monolingual and bilingual lexical access 15. Lexical access in bilingual production 16. Supporting a differential access hypothesis: Codeswitching and other contact data 17. Language selection in bilinguals: Mechanisms and processes 18. Automatically in bilingualism and second language learning 19. Being and becoming bilingual: Individual differences and consequences for language production PART 4: ASPECTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF BILINGUALISM Cognitive consequences 20. Consequences of bilingualism for cognitive development 21. Bilingualism and thought 22. Simultaneous interpreting: A cognitive perspective Cognitive neuroscience approaches 23. Clearing the cobwebs from the study of the bilingual brain: Converging evidence from laterality and electrophysiological research 24. What can functional neuroimaging tell us about the bilingual brain? 25. The neurocognition of recovery patterns in bilingual aphasics 26. Models of bilingual representation and processing: Looking back and to the future

Abstract: The paper opens with an evaluation of the BIA model of bilingual word recognition in the light of recent empirical evidence. After pointing out problems and omissions, a new model, called the BIA+, is proposed. Structurally, this new model extends the old one by adding phonological and semantic lexical representations to the available orthographic ones, and assigns a different role to the so-called language nodes. Furthermore, it makes a distinction between the effects of non-linguistic context (such as instruction and stimulus list composition) and linguistic context (such as the semantic and syntactic effects of sentence context), based on a distinction between the word identification system itself and a task/decision system that regulates control. At the end of the paper, the generalizability of the BIA+ model to different tasks and modalities is discussed.

Abstract: This updated and revised edition of Hamers and Blanc's successful textbook presents state-of-the-art knowledge about languages in contact from individual bilingualism (or bilinguality) to societal bilingualism. It is both multi- and interdisciplinary in approach, and analyses bilingualism at individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. Linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural aspects of bilingual development are explored, as are problems such as bilingual memory and polyglot aphasia. Hamers and Blanc analyse the relationship between culture, identity, and language behaviour in multicultural settings, as well as the communication strategies in interpersonal and intergroup relations. They also propose theoretical models of language processing and development, which are then applied to bilingual behaviour. Other topics reviewed include language shift, pidgins and creoles, language planning and bilingual education. This book will be invaluable to students, teachers and scholars interested in languages in contact in a range of disciplines including psycholinguistics, linguistics, the social sciences, education and language planning.