The 59th Language Lunch
Date: 2017-10-19
Location: G.07 Informatics Forum
First language attrition at the interface among Chinese-English late bilingual speakers
Wenjia,Cai; s1342561@sms.ed.ac.uk
The current study aims to investigate L1 syntactic attrition effects among Chinese (mandarin)- English late bilinguals, with different patterns of language use and lengths of residence during online processing. Previous research has rarely shown direct correlations between language use and the degree of L1 attrition (Schmid & Dusseldorp, 2010); however, the Chamorro study (2015) has found significant in-group differences after L1 attriters were re-exposed to the L1 environment intensively for only a short period of time, indicating that the degree of attrition is sensitive to the language use. And it’s more likely that the effects of attrition do not involve the representation of knowledge, but rather the efficiency of accessing and integrating the knowledge, as suggested by the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011). It is the processing deficit rather than the erosion of the knowledge that we are looking at in the current study. Two groups (N= 40*2) of Chinese-English bilinguals were recruited, and they have been living in the U.K. for either less than 8 months, or more than 5 years. Apart from the differences in the length of residence (LoR), their L2 English proficiency were kept at a comparable level, as well as their socio-economic status. The type and amount of L1 and L2 use, were carefully recorded through a sociolinguistic questionnaire, adapted from Schmid and Dusseldorp (2010). I expect that participants with less or infrequent L1 use (especially L1 use in the intermediate mode, see Schmid & Dusseldorp, 2010) and longer LoR will display more attrition effects than those with more or frequent L1 use and shorter LoR. Participants were asked to complete two on-line linguistic tasks, three cognitive tasks, including two shortened complex span tasks (see Foster et al., 2015) and the elevator task (Robertson, Ward, Ridgeway, & Nimmo-Smith, 1994), and one sociolinguistic questionnaire in the experiment. The linguistic structures under investigation are“interface structures”: reflexive ziji ‘self’ and wh-topicalization. Both the pronoun interpretation and the topicalization require accessing and integrating the discourse information, the syntax knowledge in real time, thus putting them at the interface of syntax and discourse. It’s been predicted by the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011) that, compared to structures within core grammars, structures at the syntax-discourse or syntax-pragmatics interface are less robust against language attrition, because integrating information from different cognitive domains imposes extra cognitive loads. Since there is no direct way to measure the cognitive loads for processing the linguistic structures, the cognitive tasks were employed as an indirect measurement. I expect that not only will attrition effects be found on these structures, the scores of the three cognitive tasks will also positively correlate with the scores of the linguistic tasks.
Instructed vs. Uninstructed Bilinguals: The Role Played by Metalinguistic Awareness in Third Language Acquisition
Francesca,D’Angelo; None; None
Previous and current research on the positive effects of bilingualism on Third Language Acquisition (TLA) relate the advantages evident in bilingual learners to the influence of bilingualism on cognitive development and, specifically, to metalinguistic awareness (MLA) and communicative skills (Cenoz, 2003; Cenoz & Genesee, 1998; Cummins, 1978; Jaensch, 2009; Jessner, 1999; Jessner, 2006; Thomas 1988). rn rnAlthough it is has been widely acknowledged that MLA is strongly affected by literacy and grammar related activities, only a few studies have attended to the context and method of acquisition of the bilingual learners’ L2 (Cenoz, 2013; Sanz, 2000). The current work aims at investigating the bilingualism specific variables affecting the process and outcomes of TLA, with a particular focus on the relationship between the context and method of acquisition of bilinguals’ L2 (i.e. instructed/uninstructed; formal/informal) and the degree of metalinguistic awareness developed. It is worth exploring how the level of explicit and implicit metalinguistic awareness of “primary”and “secondary” bilinguals (Hoffman, 1991) correlates with a higher level of proficiency attained in a third (or additional) language. In other words, is it the level of bilingualism or the level of linguistic knowledge in the L2 that plays a fundamental role to succeed in TLA? (Bialystok & Barac, 2012).
CLIL & Code-Switching in Galicia: Classroom Action Research in Physics
Noelia María,Galán Rodríguez; None; None
It was in the year 1994 when the term CLIL was coined by Marsh and Maljers. Understood as an umbrella term to refer to educational programmes focused on the teaching and learning of academic content throughout a non-L1 language, CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has become the norm all over European schools mostly encouraged by the multilingual vision of Europe promoted by the European Commission in the last decades. However, the language of instruction is not the only one used in these classes; the L1 is sometimes present in CLIL. Despite previous misconceptions on whether using the L1 in foreign language lessons would be counterproductive, research has proved that CLIL may benefit from a certain coexistence of both languages (Méndez García & Pavón Vázquez, 2012). Contrary to the idea of L1 usage due to poor language proficiency, the appearance of both languages in students’and CLIL teachers’ speech may point to a deeper understanding of both languages. Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to analyse the code-switching speech of two groups of 2nd ESO Spanish students belonging to the CLIL section and their Physics teacher. In order to do so, the methodology used is based on conversational analysis theories as well as qualitative analysis of the data through classroom observation.
Deep learning for historical text normalisation
Alexander,Robertson; alexander.robertson@ed.ac.uk
Normalisation of orthography is an important pre-processing step when applying NLP techniques to historical documents. Though semi-supervised software tools exist to assist with this, they still require both significant labour in order to achieve reasonable accuracy and the use of pre-existing normalisation dictionaries. This poster presents three supervised approaches to document normalisation and reports state-of-the-art performance using an encoder-decoder model with a hard attention mechanism.
The Use of Educational Code-Switching in Saudi University EFL Classroom: a Case Study
Ali,Almuhayya; s1782349@sms.ed.ac.uk
Code-switching—alternation between L1 and L2—is a common learning strategy in EFL classrooms (Bista, 2010; Levine, 2003; Weng, 2012). The reasons for code-switching in this context vary, depending on educational goals (Moghadam, Abdul Samad, & Shahraki, 2012; Yavuz, 2012). Through sociolinguistic analysis, this study observes the use of educational code-switching to L1 (Arabic) at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia and analyzes its linguistic, social, and class management purposes. Previous studies have suggested that educational code-switching to the L1 in EFL classrooms is an unconscious act (Moghadam, Abdul Samad, & Shahraki, 2012) and that when it occurs it is used extensively (Abdel Magid & Mugaddam, 2013; Afzal, 2013). Reasons for code-switching found in studies include linguistic purposes, such as explaining grammatical terminology; social purposes, such as engaging in small talk with students; and general classroom management, such as delivering exam instructions (Al-Nofaie, 2010). After consulting previous research, these three purposes were constructed using an a priori approach (Creswell, 2003) to analyze educational code-switching to Arabic among teachers in EFL classrooms. The instrument includes a demographic questionnaire, audio recorder, and observation sheet, which divides the categories into subcategories representing situations where code-switching is used. I observed and recorded six Saudi teachers during EFL classes. The recorder and observation sheet were used to gather quotes illustrating purposes behind educational code-switching and whether those purposes fit the categories outlined in the observation sheet. The a priori coding helped identify and categorize the most common purposes. The results show that educational code-switching is an intentional practice among teachers in EFL classrooms and provide a deeper understanding of educational code-switching to the L1. They agree with previous studies that found code-switching common among EFL teachers. Although participants display different linguistic, social, and class management purposes, data analysis reveals that some purposes are more common than others.
