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Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World

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A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2017) | Viewed by 44950

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Anel Brandl

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Guest Editor

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Florida State University, 600 W. College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Interests: heritage speaker bilingualism; Spanish heritage language instruction; heritage language for specific purpose; Spanish language acquisition and processing; instructed second language acquisition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Carolina González

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Guest Editor

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Florida State University, 600 W. College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Interests: phonetics; phonology; phonological acquisition; syntax–phonology interface

Dr. Michael J. Leeser

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Guest Editor

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Florida State University, 600 W. College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Interests: second language acquisition; input processing and processing instruction; sentence processing in second language learners and bilinguals

Dr. Antje Muntendam

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Guest Editor

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Interests: bilingualism and language contact; morphosyntax; phonetics/phonology; psycholinguistics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. M Carmen Parafita Couto

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Guest Editor

Centre for Linguistics, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, 2311 EZ Leiden, The Netherlands
Interests: Bilingualism; code-switching; language contact; syntax
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Lara Reglero

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Guest Editor

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Florida State University, 600 W. College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
Interests: syntax; syntax–phonology interface; language acquisition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together state-of-the art papers on different aspects of bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world. By bringing together papers from different perspectives, we hope to be able to gain a better understanding of bilingualism and to share new insights regarding methodology. Hence, this Special Issue is dedicated to research in any area related to bilingualism, including theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, language contact, second language and bilingual acquisition, heritage languages, communication, education, and psycholinguistics.

We invite papers, either theory-oriented or empirically based, which further explore any aspect of bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World.

We welcome contributions from participants at the recently held conference Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world.

Dr. Anel Brandl
Dr. Carolina González
Dr. Michael J. Leeser
Dr. Antje Muntendam
Dr. M. Carmen Parafita Couto
Dr. Lara Reglero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Bilingualism
Spanish
Portuguese
Theoretical linguistics
Sociolinguistics
Language contact
Second language acquisition
Heritage languages
Psycholinguistics
Education
Communication

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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Open AccessEditorial

Introducing the Special Issue: Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World

by Anel Brandl, Carolina González, Michael Leeser, Antje Muntendam, M. Carmen Parafita Couto and Lara Reglero

Languages 2017, 2(4), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040031 - 22 Dec 2017

Viewed by 2471

Abstract

This Special Issue of Languages includes nine selected and peer‐reviewed papers from the second meeting of Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World (BHL), an international conference that took place at Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, in January 2017 [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

1764 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Input Factors in the Lexical Development of European Portuguese as a Heritage Language in Portuguese–German Bilingual Speakers

by Liliana Correia and Cristina Flores

Languages 2017, 2(4), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040030 - 21 Dec 2017

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6466

Abstract

In light of previous research on early bilingualism, this study investigates whether 6–11-year-old child heritage speakers (HSs) of European Portuguese (EP), living in Germany, show patterns of lexical development similar to those of monolingual EP children, both in terms of vocabulary size and of lexical composition. Moreover, it assesses the role of factors related to the quantity and quality of the input in the HSs’ lexical development in EP. Twenty-three bilingual and 21 monolingual children were tested on a semi-spontaneous oral production task. The collected data were used to build a corpus composed of three subcorpora (nouns, verbs, adjectives), which served as a basis for between- and within-group comparisons. Information regarding the HSs’ language experience was collected by means of a parental questionnaire. Results revealed significant between-group differences concerning the total corpus and the subcorpora of nouns and verbs. Within-group comparisons showed that both groups produced significantly more nouns than verbs and more verbs than adjectives. Correlation analyses revealed that the HSs’ lexical knowledge is significantly correlated with the input and output quantity at home as well as with the number of EP-speaking parents. Parents emerge as the key players in the acquisition of EP as a heritage language. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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The Effects of Code-Switching and Lexical Stress on Vowel Quality and Duration of Heritage Speakers of Spanish

by Vanessa Elias, Sean McKinnon and Ángel Milla-Muñoz

Languages 2017, 2(4), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040029 - 21 Dec 2017

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5153

Abstract

The quantity of research on Heritage Speakers (HS) of Spanish phonetics has increased over the last decade, including studies on the possible effect of code-switching on Spanish phonetics. Following this line of research, the present study investigates the role of code-switching and lexical stress on Spanish HS vowel production, specifically if the introduction of English reduces the vowel quality and duration of Spanish vowels after a code-switch. Eleven Spanish HSs participated in a controlled narration task in which they were asked to read aloud texts that code-switched between English and Spanish and one text that only contained Spanish. PRAAT was used to segment the vowels and the F1 and F2 values, along with duration, were extracted. The results show that both code-switching and lexical stress significantly affect Spanish HS vowels. Code-switching and vowels in unstressed position were more centralized than the vowels in the monolingual Spanish session and vowels in stressed position, respectively; unstressed vowels were also shorter in duration than stressed vowels. These results show that the introduction of English—a language in which vowel quality and duration change between unstressed and stressed syllables—via code-switching significantly affects Spanish HS vowels, subsequently providing evidence for transient interference. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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A Comparison of the Grammatical Production of Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish across Language and Grade: Kindergarten and Grade 1

by Estrella Rodriguez, Kristina Bustamante, Carla Wood and Gretchen Sunderman

Languages 2017, 2(4), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040027 - 13 Dec 2017

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3894

Abstract

In this study, we elicited grammatical forms (oral production) from a group of child heritage speakers of Spanish (N = 45) in English and Spanish, using the morphosyntax subtest of the Bilingual English–Spanish Assessment (BESA), (Peña et al. 2014). A cross-sectional design was used with 25 participants in kindergarten and 20 in first grade. All children spoke Spanish at home and attended English rural schools. We controlled for L2 class environment and socio-economic status. Research findings indicated children produced more target structures in L1 Spanish. This project supports the view that sequential bilingualism and continuous exposure to the heritage language may assist heritage speakers to maintain some L1 structures (Miller and Cuza 2013; Pascual y Cabo and Gómez Soler 2015). Patterns of L2 development are also addressed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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Open AccessArticle

Sibilant Merger in the Variety of Basque Spoken in Amorebieta-Etxano

by Oihane Muxika-Loitzate

Languages 2017, 2(4), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040025 - 05 Dec 2017

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4970

Abstract

Basque has an apico-alveolar /s̺/, a lamino-alveolar /s̻/, and a prepalatal sibilant /ʃ/ that are represented by the letters <s>, <z>, and <x>, respectively. The apico-alveolar and the lamino-alveolar sibilants have merged in some areas of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and the Basque-speaking territories of Alava (e.g., Hualde 2010), and Spanish has been hypothesized as a factor driving this merger (Jurado Noriega 2011). On the other hand, complex sibilant systems like the traditional Basque one tend to be neutralized independently of language contact (Bukmaier et al. 2014). In order to add to this debate and shed new light on the merger, this study explored Biscayan Basque, a variety at an advanced state of the merger (Hualde 2010). More precisely, the study tested how the degree of bilingualism affects the production of the sibilants under study and the resulting neutralization by performing an acoustic analysis of the data. The results show that Basque- and Spanish-dominant speakers behave differently with regard to the sibilant merger, and that they have different places of articulation for their sibilants. Only Basque-dominant speakers maintain a significant distinction in the place of articulation of <z> and <x> overall, whereas Spanish-dominant speakers do not make a distinction among sibilants. Furthermore, the resulting merged sibilant is less fronted for Spanish-dominant speakers than the sibilants of Basque-dominant speakers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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Cross-Linguistic Orthographic Effects in Late Spanish/English Bilinguals

by Christopher A. Dean and Jorge R. Valdés Kroff

Languages 2017, 2(4), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040024 - 14 Nov 2017

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5338

Abstract

Through the use of the visual world paradigm and eye tracking, we investigate how orthographic–phonological mappings in bilinguals promote interference during spoken language comprehension. Eighteen English-dominant bilinguals and 13 Spanish-dominant bilinguals viewed 4-picture visual displays while listening to Spanish-only auditory sentences (e.g., El detective busca su banco ‘The detective is looking for his bench’) in order to select a target image. Stimuli included two types of trials that represent potential conflict in bilinguals: b-v trials, e.g., banco-vaso ‘bench-glass’, representing homophonous phonemes with distinct graphemic representations in Spanish, and j-h trials, e.g., juego-huevo ‘game-egg’, representing interlingual homophonous phonemes with distinct graphemic representations. Data were collected on accuracy, reaction time (RT), and mean proportion of target fixation. Reaction Time results indicate that Spanish-dominant speakers were slower when the competitor was present in b-v trials, though no effects were observed for English-dominant speakers. Eye-tracking results indicate a lack of competition effects in either set of trials for English-dominant speakers, but lower proportional target fixations for Spanish-dominant speakers in both sets of trials when an orthographic/phonological distractor was present. These results suggest that Spanish-dominant bilinguals may be influenced by the orthographic mappings of their less-dominant L2 English, providing new insight into the nature of the interaction between the orthography and phonology in bilingual speakers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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Are Lions Green?: Child L2 Learners’ Interpretation of English Generics and Definite Determiners

by Alexandra Morales-Reyes and Begoña Arechabaleta-Regulez

Languages 2017, 2(4), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040022 - 31 Oct 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2884

Abstract

The aim of this small-scale study (22 participants) was to analyze how L1-Spanish L2-English children interpret English noun phrases (NPs) by taking into consideration two variables: children’s age and amount of input. These two variables were studied in relation to children’s developmental tendencies and language transfer. Children begin with an innate predisposition for the generic interpretation, which leads them to incorrectly interpret some specific NPs. In contrast, transfer from the L1 explains the incorrect mapping between NP and interpretation in adult L2 speakers. We examined 22 L1-Spanish L2-English children and a control group of L1-English children on their interpretation of English NPs through an online task. Results revealed that L2 children’s interpretations significantly differ from the interpretations of the control group. We propose that like L1 children, child L2 learners will have to overcome their natural predisposition to interpret NPs as generic. However, child L2 learners must also overcome transfer effects from their L1. Additionally, results seem to suggest that the amount of input plays a role in learners’ interpretations. We propose that children who receive similar amounts of input in their two languages become aware of the differences faster, particularly in the forms where there is no overlapping between the languages (i.e., bare NPs). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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On the Acceptability and Use of -ra and -se in Conditional Phrases in Galician Spanish

by Ana Maria Anderson

Languages 2017, 2(4), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2040021 - 13 Oct 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3669

Abstract

The verb forms ending in -ra and -se in modern Spanish both correspond to the imperfect subjunctive, but their use is far from equal throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Rojo (1996) documents that the -se form is all but obsolete in the majority of American nations, and Kempas (2011) records rates of use in Spain ranging from 11% to 44%. The highest rate corresponds to usage patterns in Galicia, where contact with the regional language, Galician, may provide a conservative influence with respect to the shift from -se to -ra. The present study considers the effects of age, sex, and primary language, as well as linguistic factors such as possibility of the event (i.e., Lavandera (1975)) on the acceptability and choice of -se or -ra in the protasis of conditional statements in Galician Spanish. To accomplish this, 29 speakers completed an online acceptability rating task of 24 statements with varying combinations of verb forms in the protasis and apodosis. They were asked to correct those statements that they rejected as incorrect and unused in their own speech, and their produced corrections were compared to their acceptance or rejection of forms in the models. Results indicated that neither social factors nor possibility significantly affect the acceptance of phrases in -ra or -se. However, individual idiosyncrasies do affect the production of these verb forms, in line with results from Kempas (2011) and Rojo and Vázquez Rozas (2014). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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Cross-Linguistic Transfer of Object Clitic Structure: A Case of L3 Brazilian Portuguese

by Alan Parma

Languages 2017, 2(3), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2030014 - 14 Aug 2017

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3420

Abstract

This study examines the role of previously known language in L3 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) object expression acquisition. It investigates the claims of the main models of L3 transfer, the cumulative enhancement model (CEM) (Flynn et al. 2004), the L2 status factor (Bardel and Falk 2007) and the typological proximity model (TPM) (Rothman 2011) in both comprehension and production tasks. It also aims at measuring the extent of transfer effects in comprehension and production. Participants (N = 33) were divided into three groups, a mirror image group of L3 BP learners who already knew English and Spanish, and a native control group. They performed a self-paced reading task and a story telling task, which focused on object clitics in BP. Results indicate early convergence to the BP grammar by the L3 learners in what refers to object expression. They also suggest that, although no major effects of transfer were obtained, clitic placement errors in the production task and preference for inanimate and non-specific contexts for null objects can be traced to Spanish, independent of order of acquisition, providing evidence in favor of the TPM. Finally, comprehension seems to override the effects of language transfer earlier than production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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Rapid Automatic Naming Performance of Young Spanish–English Speaking Children

by Carla L. Wood, Kristina N. Bustamante, Lisa M. Fitton, Dana M. Brown and Yaacov Petscher

Languages 2017, 2(3), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages2030013 - 02 Aug 2017

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5719

Abstract

The aim of this preliminary study was to examine the feasibility of a rapid automatic naming (RAN) task for young Spanish–English speaking dual language learners (DLLs) and to examine the relationship between children’s performance on RAN and other standardized language and literacy assessments. A total of 275 Spanish–English speaking children in kindergarten and first grade attempted a RAN task and completed assessments of language and early literacy. Correlational analyses and quantile regression was conducted to examine relationships. Overall the RAN task was feasible for 74% (n = 203) of the DLLs; however, 42% of participants in kindergarten were unable to complete the task. There was a moderate positive correlation between RAN performance and standard scores in receptive vocabulary and letter identification, a small positive correlation with non-verbal intelligence, and no significant relationship with phonological awareness. There was a differential relation between RAN and English sentence imitation. The results support further consideration of RAN as a feasible and useful measure for young Spanish–English speaking DLLs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World)

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