Diverse Perspectives on Cognition and Language Learning in Bilingual Children

Dear Colleagues,

A Languages Special Issue is planned which will be centered on critical perspectives on cognition and language learning in child bilingualism/multilingualism. We welcome submissions that:

1. Apply non-traditional frameworks, perspectives, and methodologies to the study of cognition and language in bilingual and multilingual youth, including but not limited to usage-based, embodied, situated processing, socio-cognitive, crip linguistics, DisCrit, critical disability raciolinguistics studies, etc. (e.g., Block 2013, Henner & Robinson 2021);
2. Consider one or various domains of linguistic knowledge and use (i.e., pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics) in oral domains, non-spoken languages (e.g., sign languages), and multimodal contexts (e.g., Grosjean 2010, Li 2017);
3. Debunk deficit frames through the study of intersectional power and privilege across social constructions of identity such as class, race, gender, ability, etc. (e.g., Cioè-Peña 2021, Wang et al. 2021);
4. Center minoritized populations and their ways of knowing in academic and clinical contexts (e.g., Evans et al. 2018, Meisel 2021).

This Special Issue will expand the traditional viewpoint of the existing literature on cognitive mechanisms in language and bilingualism to include novel data, theoretical proposals, and critical assessments of current theories and approaches and ways of knowing. The Guest Editors seek to expand the scope of discussion on language, cognition, and identities to include minoritized voices and to expand awareness of linguistic justice and the impacts of Western, colonial research traditions on evaluation, assessment, and the treatment of linguistically minoritized children with and without disabilities.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors ([email protected], [email protected]) or to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Tentative Completion Schedule:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 June 2024
• Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 1 July 2024
• Full Manuscript Deadline: 1 September 2024

References

Block, D. (2013). Moving beyond “lingualism”: Multilingual embodiment and multimodality in SLA. In S. May (Ed.),  The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education. (pp. 54-77). London, UK: Taylor and Francis.

Cioè-Peña, M. (2021). Raciolinguistics and the education of emergent bilinguals labeled as disabled. The Urban Review, 53(3), 443-469.

Evans, K.E., Munson, B., & Edwards, J. (2018). Does Speaker Race Affect the Assessment of Children’s Speech Accuracy? A Comparison of Speech-Language Pathologists and Clinically Untrained Listeners. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49, 906-921.

Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingualism, biculturalism, and deafness. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(2), 133-145.

Henner, J., & Robinson, O. (2021, July 8). Unsettling languages, unruly bodyminds: Imaging a Crip Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7bzaw.

Li, F. (2017) The development of gender-specific patterns in the production of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 55(5), 1021-1044.

Meisel, Jürgen M.. "Diversity and divergence in bilingual acquisition" Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, vol. 40, no. 1, 2021, pp. 65-88. https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2021-2025.

Wang S-h, Lang N, Bunch GC, Basch S, McHugh SR, Huitzilopochtli S and Callanan M (2021) Dismantling Persistent Deficit Narratives About the Language and Literacy of Culturally and Linguistically Minoritized Children and Youth: Counter-Possibilities. Front. Educ. 6:641796. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2021.641796.

Dr. María Rosa Brea
Dr. Stefan A. Frisch 
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.

• bilingualism
• children
• cognition
• culture
• language learning
• language processing
• linguistic justice
• translanguaging