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This study presents an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) conducted with Latinx1 Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States. We take a social approach to the AJT by contextualizing code-switching (CS) within the context of reggaetón music by adding experimental labels to sentences and examine how the results vary according to enjoyment and frequency of listening to reggaetón music. Results from mixed-effects regression models show effects of sentence grammaticality and frequency of listening to reggaetón. Results do not show effects of the reggaetón label on the CS sentences, however we find higher ratings for ungrammatical sentences and lower ratings for grammatical sentences than previously shown in the AJT literature. This study highlights the importance of the social context of code-switching when investigating acceptability judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Bilingualism has historically been claimed to be a risk factor for developmental stuttering. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011) ostensibly contains evidence to test that claim. Methods: We analyze data from monolingual and bilingual children in Kindergarten through fifth grade in the ECLS-K:2011. Results and discussion: The prevalence, male/female ratio, and onset and recovery of reported stuttering in the ECLS are inconsistent with widely-accepted clinical reports of stuttering. We argue that the reported figures may be misleading. We discuss some factors that may inflate the reported prevalence, including a lack of awareness of the difference between stuttering vs. normal disfluencies, and the informal usage of the word "stuttering" on the part of teachers and parents to describe typical disfluencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are vast individual differences in heritage bilinguals' linguistic skills. It is not clear, however, to what extent this variation can be attributed to experience, cognitive ability or motivation. This study investigates factors influencing the acquisition of both Polish (HL = Heritage Language) and English (SocL = Societal Language) of school-age children, examining the role of motivation, linguistic experience, and language aptitude. We collected and analyzed speech samples from 7- to 12-year-old participants (n = 78) residing in the UK to derive linguistic measures of fluency, syntactic complexity and lexical diversity in both languages. Additionally, a receptive grammar test was administered. Independent variables were obtained via parental questionnaires, a motivation survey and a language aptitude test. To identify predictors of heritage bilingual acquisition, we conducted least squares linear regression analyses for each language area and applied backward stepwise selection to reduce the models. Results show that predictors differ between languages and linguistic areas. Our findings highlight the role of language aptitude in bilingual development, challenge assumptions that motivation to use HL might detract from SocL development, and suggest that HL acquisition can support, rather than hinder, societal language development, as bilingual children draw on their metalinguistic awareness and cognitive skills across both languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metalinguistic awareness is considered by many to be a crucial ingredient for successful adult foreign-language acquisition. Researchers further suggest that it helps bilinguals learning a third language (L3) even more than it does monolinguals learning their second language (L2). In response to a recently proposed hypothesis that differences in metalinguistic awareness may be responsible for the variation in L3 grammatical development often witnessed amongst bilingual university students, and that teaching methods should accordingly be modified as a result, research that actually measures these varying levels of metalinguistic awareness has now become urgently needed. However, due to a lack of standardized assessments and an inability to converge on how best to measure this set of abilities in adults, few studies have yet attempted to operationalize this variable in the US-based L3 context, and those that did adopted diverse methods, raising issues of comparability. For multilingual language learners, especially those who grew up speaking a heritage language, the challenge that researchers face is whether to measure metalinguistic awareness in a native language, a prior-learned L2 (if one such language exists), the learner's current target language, or a language unknown to the learner entirely. This article highlights these methodological complexities and calls for a principled approach to measuring metalinguistic awareness before implementing any pedagogical changes in terms of how third languages are taught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multidimensional nature of bilingualism demands ecologically valid and inclusive research methods that can capture its dynamism and diversity. This is particularly relevant when assessing language proficiency in minoritized and racialized communities, including heritage speakers (HSs). Motivated by a paradigm shift in bilingualism research, the present study joined current efforts to establish best practices for assessing language proficiency among bilingual individuals accurately and consistently, promoting ecological validity and inclusivity. Specifically, we examined the reliability and validity of objective and subjective proficiency assessments ubiquitously used in second language (L2) and bilingualism research to assess Spanish proficiency, within a sample of HSs of Spanish in the United States (US). We also sought to understand the relationships between these proficiency assessments and a subset of heritage language (HL) experience factors. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the reliability and validity of these proficiency assessments and their relationship with HL experience factors with HSs of Spanish in the US in a multidimensional way. Forty-three HSs of Spanish completed the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire, including self-reports of proficiency and information about HL experience and two objective proficiency assessments: a lexical decision task, namely the LexTale-Esp, and a vocabulary and grammar task, often referred to as the "Modified DELE". Our findings revealed high internal consistency for both objective proficiency assessments and medium correlations between them, supporting their reliability and validity. However, our results also revealed inconsistent relationships between subjective proficiency assessments and HL language experience factors. These findings underscore the dynamic interplay between these HSs' objective and subjective proficiency, and HL experiences and use across different contexts. Additionally, they highlight the limitations of relying on any single proficiency assessment, aligning with previous research that emphasizes the need for multidimensional proficiency assessments and language experience factors to capture the dynamic and diverse nature of bilingualism. By critically evaluating the reliability and validity of existing objective and subjective proficiency assessments alongside HL experience factors, our study aims to shed light on the best practices of assessing language proficiency among bilingual individuals, specifically HSs of Spanish in the US, in an ecologically valid and inclusive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Lateral temporal neural measures (Na and T-complex Ta and Tb) of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) index auditory/speech processing and have been observed in children and adults. While Na is already present in children under 4 years of age, Ta emerges from 4 years of age, and Tb appears even later. The T-complex has been found to be sensitive to language experience in Spanish-English and Turkish-German children and adults. In particular, Ta elicited to a vowel has been found to be sensitive to language experience in bilingual preschool children. This paper examines neural responses in 4-to-6-year-old Italian-German bilingual and German monolingual children using language-specific phonetic cues for voicing. Methods: We tested children's processing of voicing features in bilabial stop consonants in relation to (1) their language status (i.e., being monolingual vs. bilingual) as well as to (2) their relative amount of current exposure to the heritage (Italian) and the societal language (German). Italian-German bilingual and German monolingual children were hypothesized to encode the temporal properties of a set of Voice Onset Time (VOT) stimuli differently as indexed by Ta and Tb. Results: The results revealed no main effects of language group, but interactions of group with hemisphere and stimulus. In particular, bilingual children showed less hemispheric differentiation and an attenuated (less positive) response at the right site (T8) for the 0 ms VOT stimulus during the Ta-Tb time window. Children with more German (and consequently, less Italian) input showed a more positive T8 response for the Na, Ta and Tb time intervals. Discussion: These findings partially replicated previous studies, but also revealed that stimulus factors modulate the response. They suggest that a delay in commitment is found only in bilinguals with less input in the target language, and those who are strongly dominant in one of the two languages will resemble monolinguals in the development of T-complex responses. However, the finding of greater Na positivity for German-dominant bilinguals suggests that their specific experience also influences processing, but perhaps via a different mechanism than found for the more balanced bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are bilingualism and/or biculturalism good for a person's positive well being? A growing number of studies have shown different positive outcomes of being exposed to two cultures or speaking two languages respectively, but the benefits of being both bilingual and bicultural have rarely been investigated theoretically or empirically. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the main beneficial outcomes of bilingualism and biculturalism, and to integrate these benefits into a new conceptual framework: Positive Bilingualism and Biculturalism GEAR model. The GEAR model suggests that the beneficial outcomes of bilingualism and biculturalism can be systematically classified into four positive dimensions (psychological G rowth; cognitive E xploration; linguistic A wareness; and social R einforcement), in which there are dynamic interactions among these four dimensions. The hypothetical GEAR model provides an intricate theoretical approach to understand the potential benefits to an individual of experiencing more than one language and one culture in their life. The proposed model in this research offers a systematic framework for conducting future research to examine whether bilingualism and biculturalism accrue benefits to the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processing a word in a second language (L2) may be hindered or helped by the simultaneous activation of similar words present in L2 and in addition by similar words that occur in the first language (L1). Precise mechanisms for influencing variables within L2 and cross-language processing are still little understood. The current visual word recognition study explored orthographic neighborhood density (ND) effects in L2 English, replicating the effects for Dutch–English while expanding the exploration to a new language combination, Spanish–English. The within- and across-language effects were explored in a group of Dutch–English and Spanish–English bilinguals. English L2 targets were subdivided into four ND conditions: high L1 + high L2, high L1 + low L2, low L1 + high L2, and low L1 + low L2. For Experiment 1, an analysis of generalized linear mixed-effects models (GLMMs) revealed that Dutch (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals showed a facilitatory main effect of English ND on reaction times and error rates. However, an inhibitory main effect of L1 Dutch ND on L2 visual word recognition was only observed for reaction times, not error rates. Overall, no interaction was detected between L1 and L2 NDs for reaction times or error rates. Additionally, a factorial permutation test confirmed the L2 facilitatory effect on both reaction times and error rates, while it supported an L1 inhibitory effect for error rates only. In Experiment 2, a GLMM analysis replicated the L2 facilitatory effect on reaction times in Spanish (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals but did not reveal an inhibitory main effect of L1 on L2 word recognition. Instead, we found a significant interaction between English (L2) and Spanish (L1) ND. Reaction time patterns were confirmed by the non-parametric analysis, although with only a marginally significant interaction. For error rates, no effect for ND was detected using GLMMs. However, the permutation test revealed significant L2 facilitatory and L1 inhibitory effects on L2 word recognition but no significant interaction. Our data confirm a robust L2 facilitatory main effect of ND on reaction times across experiments and analyses, while L1 inhibitory main and interaction effects were less robust across experiments and analyses. The latter may be dependent on language specificity and speaker characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature, we encounter papers reporting manipulating pitch contours in speech tokens for a specific problem to be addressed in experiments (e.g., learning pitch patterns superimposed onto a pseudo-syllable), usually in the field of Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition. This type of research often tests listeners' perceptual and processing skills in tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin, Thai, etc.), and requires superimposing a pitch contour onto a spoken syllable. However, very few studies reported in detail how this critical manipulation was done to meet specific experimental needs. In addition, there was neither specific guideline or description of the techniques being used, nor how 'natural' these manipulated tokens sounded in a particular language upon speech synthesis. Because this technique is crucial in establishing the conclusions in various studies, here, we will demonstrate our method of establishing this technique of tone superimposition (i.e., lexical tones in Mandarin) onto English syllables. In line with the open science model, we will also show our stimuli and procedures via OSF for readers to evaluate the validity of this technique. Manipulating the pitch contour in a spoken syllable can be complicated and change the perception of the spoken syllable in a significant way. Thus, we will also show the important factors to be considered in this process for doing research in Speech Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate bilinguals' sensitivity to two structures that display overlapping word orders across their two languages but are argued to have different derivational properties in their formation. We focus on filler-gap dependencies with and without resumptive pronouns in Egyptian Arabic, a language argued to have grammatical resumptive pronouns base generated at the tail end of nominal A-bar dependencies, and English, a language argued to have intrusive resumptive pronouns inserted post-syntactically due to illicit movement operations, such as in syntactic islands. Using experimental data from code-switched filler-gap dependencies, we argue that when given conflicting requirements of structural well-formedness, this population of bilinguals converge on a single structural representation across their two languages, resulting in a one-to-one mapping between derivational properties and surface form rather than maintaining two distinct representations resulting in a many-to-one mapping. To explain why bilinguals may have chosen to converge onto a unified structure rather than maintaining two distinct representations, we highlight that such one-on-one mapping is part of an arsenal of optimization strategies observable in the grammars of various bilingual populations in which bilinguals capitalize on the structural overlaps already present between their two languages. For the purpose of this paper, such optimization results in a structure that is ultimately common to both English and Egyptian Arabic, for this population of bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a case of suspension of data input during the acquisition of a second language by a young Korean child acquiring English in an English-only nursery school in the United States. Data suspension occurred naturally when the child returned to Korea for a summer where only Korean was spoken. Systematic investigations using an enriched case study methodology which assessed the nature of the child's English target language acquisition both before and after the Korean Summer revealed significant advances in his English after the Korean Summer despite the absence of English input during this time. Several hypotheses regarding the nature and explanation of this advance are tested. It is argued that significant internal linguistic integration leading to systematization of linguistic knowledge occurred in the absence of synchronous language data input, demonstrating the significance of internal computational processes over and above language data input in the language acquisition process. Results have implications for understanding the fundamental nature of language acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In research on second language (L2) processing, the processing of reference has been highlighted as a domain of particular difficulty, but the source of the difficulty is not well understood. The present study examines whether differences in the pronominal systems of the first language (L1) and L2 impact processing. We take a novel approach, testing a group of intermediate-advanced L2 learners in both their L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and L2 (English), allowing us to directly examine whether L2 learners show similar or different patterns when processing the L1 and L2. We also test a group of L1 English speakers. The study focused on two topicality-related factors, subjecthood and pronominalization, that have been shown to increase the prominence of an entity in the discourse, making it more likely that an entity in subject position (subjecthood) or an entity that has been referred to with a pronoun (pronominalization) will be considered as an antecedent for a subsequent pronoun. We developed a picture verification task with visual-world eye-tracking in both English and Chinese. This task provides a measure of both pronoun interpretation and online processing. Results showed subtle differences in how subjecthood and pronominalization are weighted in English and Chinese as L1s: pronominalization played a stronger role in L1 Chinese than in L1 English both in the interpretation measure and in the eye-movement data. The results for the L2 English learners showed an interesting pattern in which their results were more similar to the L1 English results on the measure of pronoun interpretation, but were more similar to the L1 Chinese results in the eye-movement data. These results show successful use of discourse cues in L2 pronoun interpretation but differences between L1 and L2 speakers during processing. It is proposed that decreased sensitivity to morphosyntactic information that is not present in the L1 (case on pronouns) leads to differences in L2 referential processing, in line with proposals that L2 learners face challenges with integrating different kinds of linguistic information online, particularly morphosyntactic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing evidence that using more than one languages has significant effects on brain function. These effects have been observed in the developing, adult and aging brain, and have been suggested to have implications for cognitive and brain decline in bilinguals and multilinguals. Aside from extensive investigations with behavioral methods, such effects are now commonly investigated with functional neuroimaging methods, mostly functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). A relatively underused method in the field is functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), which carries several advantages over more established methods, including being appropriate for use with infants and children, but also with older and diseased samples. This paper provides an overview of the method and an account of how it has been used in the field of bilingual cognition. It concludes with suggestions of how the method can be best utilized in future research, highlighting it as a method with a strong potential for updating existing theories on the effects of bilingualism on brain function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discussions have emphasized the significance of embodied processing in language comprehension. Nevertheless, continuous debates persist regarding the relative contribution of modal (embodied) and amodal (abstract) processing of language. The current study investigated the contribution of modal processing in the first (L1) and second (L2) language, hypothesizing higher level of abstract amodal symbol processing in L2 than L1, since the correspondence of L1 and L2 (i.e., the symbol-to-symbol assignment) is in the foreground when learning L2. We employed the modality-switch paradigm (Pecher et al., 2003) in both German and French versions with proficient sequential German and French bilinguals (N = 79). Participants were presented with noun-adjective pairs (e.g., keys - jingling) in both languages and decided whether the adjective could be applied to the noun. This task repeatedly requires switching modality between trials, (e.g., from auditory [keys - jingling] to olfactory [soap - perfumed]), typically causing switch costs on response latency as compared to maintaining the modality. Contrary to the hypothesis, we observed modality switch effects (MSE) in both L1 and L2. This result suggests that embodied language processing occurs not only in the first language but also extends to the second language thus challenging the assumption that L2 processing predominantly involves abstract amodal symbol processing. Notably, however, significant L1 and L2 MSEs were found for French, whereas for German already the L1 effect was rather weak (though significant); the corresponding L2 effect was not significant. Thus, the results hinted at differences between languages regarding the relative role of modal and amodal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Research to date has focused on the associations between spelling and (i) its precursors (phonological information processing and language) and (ii) socioeconomic status and bilingualism. Studies have also indicated that bilingualism and parental education are associated with spelling precursors. Whereas these associations have previously been analyzed individually, this study proposes a mediation model in which the effects of socioeconomic status and bilingualism on spelling are mediated by phonological information processing and language skills. Methods: A total of 1,012 German-speaking first graders attending primary schools in Austria were assessed at the beginning of the first grade on their phonological information processing and language abilities, and their spelling abilities were tested again at the end of the first grade. Subsequently, a structural equation modeling approach was employed to evaluate the mediation model. Results: In line with the mediation hypothesis, the results show indirect effects of parental education (as a measure of socioeconomic status) on spelling via language and phonological information processing. In addition to mediation, we also found a direct effect of SES on spelling performances. For bilingualism, the results support full mediation as an indirect effect via language abilities. Notably, we found no effect of bilingual status on phonological information processing. Discussion: This study highlights the ongoing need for systematic oral language training for bilingual children and children from low-SES backgrounds that starts in preschool and continues throughout primary school. Moreover, given the predictive effect of phonological awareness on spelling achievement, phonological awareness should be part of the training for preschool and school-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of tools have been used to assess the language proficiency of bilingual speakers. The validity and high reliability of lexical diversity and syntactic complexity measures as instruments for measuring language proficiency have been demonstrated in previous studies across different languages. However, the relationship between self-assessment and the two measures has not yet been investigated. The present study focused on the Italophone bilingual language speakers, an understudied minority diglossic community in Croatia, and investigated whether measures of lexical diversity and syntactic complexity reflect self-assessment of language proficiency in the standard Italian language and the Istrovenetian dialect overall and in four specific domains (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). In addition, we aimed to investigate whether there are possible differences in self-assessment between the standard Italian language and the Istrovenetian dialect and whether there are language varietyrelated differences (standard vs. dialect) in the relationship between selfassessment and measures of lexical diversity and syntactic complexity. The results showed an intricate interplay between self-assessment and the lexical diversity and syntactic complexity of bilingual speech. This suggests that these measures are interrelated and that heritage bilingual language speakers may be able to objectively assess their language proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This article analyses parents' and children's attitudes toward the different literacy practices across three different contexts (at home, in a community project, and, indirectly, at school) and how they perceive the interaction between these practices and the development of competences in the Heritage Language (HL). We investigate the relevance of family and community, and how mainstream school influences the co-construction of literacy practices that affect the development of HL, while at the same time supporting the development of the majority language, and especially in broadening the understanding of the notion of language exposure. Methods: Semi structured interviews with parents and focus groups with children (aged 4-14) were carried out in Munich, Germany, between May 2018 and February 2020. Data from the verbal interactions, in a total of 12 h of recorded audio with the parents and 8h with the children, was transcribed and the excerpts were coded in Nvivo. In a first moment, a data and theory driven thematic analysis with open data coding was undertaken; subsequently, discourse analysis was used to analyze selected excerpts individually and reconstruct the meaning the participants were attaching to their literacy practices. Three thematic strands were identified. Results: We make the case that exposure to literacy practices in the majority language is interpreted and (re)appropriated by families and communities to support the development of complex and integrated literacy practices involving the different languages of children's repertoires. We shed light on how families construct bilingual input safe spaces at home, i.e., spaces where continuities between formal, informal and non-formal literacy practices in both German and Portuguese are assured. Discussion: The results bring a critical perspective on the ecology of literacy practices and highlight the added value of seeing those practices interconnected holistically from a co-developmental viewpoint. Such interconnectedness has a potential positive impact not only in children's HL but also in the majority language, and possibly in the languages learnt at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an investigation of reference production in 84 Italian-Spanish bilingual children aged 8 to 12. The study explores whether such reference production is influenced by either the type of referential expression involved or language dominance by analyzing how these children manage reference. The children's relative proficiency in the two languages (and thus their language dominance) was assessed through a cloze-test, and their narrative production was evaluated using a retelling task. Results indicated a preference for null pronouns to refer to subjects and full referential expressions for objects, with Italian showing a higher occurrence of full referential expressions. Dominance in either language did not significantly impact reference production. This suggests that bilingual children can distinguish between language-specific patterns, a behavior consistent with adult monolingual groups. These results contribute to our understanding of bilingual reference management and shed light on the role played by language and language dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, successful language learning is optimal during early childhood, whereas language learning outside of this time window is unsuccessful. In this respect, early language acquisition is viewed as convergent and reliable but late acquisition is not. The present study revisits the idea of a critical period by investigating the grammatical attainment of early bilinguals/heritage speakers (HSs), late second/foreign language (L2) learners, and comparable groups of monolinguals by testing Greek-English bilinguals in the two languages they speak by means of a grammaticality judgment task. Our findings show that in English, HSs performed on par with monolinguals, both groups surpassing the late L2 learners, who performed about 2 SDs below the HSs and the monolinguals. In Greek, late L2 learners and monolinguals exhibited comparable performance, contrasting sharply with the HSs' significantly lower proficiency, which was on average about 5 SDs below the late L2 learners and the monolinguals. Consequently, our results show that the performance gaps between HSs and Greek monolinguals/late L2 learners were more pronounced than the differences between late L2 learners and English monolinguals/HSs, suggesting that the early bilinguals' success in English may come at the expense of their heritage language (Greek). Furthermore, we observe substantially more individual variation within HSs in their heritage language than within the late L2 learners for their second language. Thus, testing bilinguals in both of their languages allows us to unveil the complexity of grammatical ultimate attainment and prompt a re-thinking of age as the major determining factor of (un)successful attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently available data show mixed results as to whether the processing of emotional information has the same characteristics in the native (L1) as in the second language (L2) of bilinguals. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to shed light on the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying bilinguals' emotional processing in L1 and L2 during an emotional interference task (i.e., the Emotional Stroop Task - EST). Our sample comprised proficient Italian-English bilinguals who learned their L2 during childhood mainly in instructional rather than immersive contexts. In spite of no detectable behavioural effects, we found stronger brain activations for L1 versus L2 emotional words in sectors of the posteromedial cortex involved in attention modulation, episodic memory, and affective processing. While fMRI findings are consistent with the hypothesis of a stronger emotional resonance when processing words in a native language, our overall pattern of results points to the different sensitivity of behavioural and hemodynamic responses to emotional information in the two languages of bilingual speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined grammatical gender processing in school-aged children with varying levels of cumulative English exposure. Children participated in a visual world paradigm with a four-picture display where they heard a gendered article followed by a target noun and were in the context where all images were the same gender (same gender), where all of the distractor images were the opposite gender than the target noun (different gender), and where all of the distractor images were the opposite gender, but there was a mismatch in the gendered article and target noun pair. We investigated 51 children (aged 5;0– 10;0) who were exposed to Spanish since infancy but varied in their amount of cumulative English exposure. In addition to the visual word paradigm, all children completed an article–noun naming task, a grammaticality judgment task, and standardized vocabulary tests. Parents reported on their child’s cumulative English language exposure and current English language use. To investigate the time course of lexical facilitation effects, looks to the target were analyzed with a cluster-based permutation test. The results revealed that all children used gender in a facilitatory way (during the noun region), and comprehension was significantly inhibited when the article–noun pairing was ungrammatical rather than grammatical. Compared to children with less cumulative English exposure, children with more cumulative English exposure looked at the target noun significantly less often overall, and compared to younger children, older children looked at the target noun significantly more often overall. Additionally, children with lower cumulative English exposure looked at target nouns more in the different-gender condition than the same-gender condition for masculine items more than feminine items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multidimensional nature of bilingualism demands ecologically valid and inclusive research methods that can capture its dynamism and diversity. This is particularly relevant when assessing language proficiency in minoritized and racialized communities, including heritage speakers (HSs). Motivated by a paradigm shift in bilingualism research, the present study joined current efforts to establish best practices for assessing language proficiency among bilingual individuals accurately and consistently, promoting ecological validity and inclusivity. Specifically, we examined the reliability and validity of objective and subjective proficiency assessments ubiquitously used in second language (L2) and bilingualism research to assess Spanish proficiency, within a sample of HSs of Spanish in the United States (US). We also sought to understand the relationships between these proficiency assessments and a subset of heritage language (HL) experience factors. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the reliability and validity of these proficiency assessments and their relationship with HL experience factors with HSs of Spanish in the US in a multidimensional way. Forty-three HSs of Spanish completed the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire, including self-reports of proficiency and information about HL experience and two objective proficiency assessments: a lexical decision task, namely the LexTale-Esp, and a vocabulary and grammar task, often referred to as the “Modified DELE”. Our findings revealed high internal consistency for both objective proficiency assessments and medium correlations between them, supporting their reliability and validity. However, our results also revealed inconsistent relationships between subjective proficiency assessments and HL language experience factors. These findings underscore the dynamic interplay between these HSs' objective and subjective proficiency, and HL experiences and use across different contexts. Additionally, they highlight the limitations of relying on any single proficiency assessment, aligning with previous research that emphasizes the need for multidimensional proficiency assessments and language experience factors to capture the dynamic and diverse nature of bilingualism. By critically evaluating the reliability and validity of existing objective and subjective proficiency assessments alongside HL experience factors, our study aims to shed light on the best practices of assessing language proficiency among bilingual individuals, specifically HSs of Spanish in the US, in an ecologically valid and inclusive manner.

There are vast individual differences in heritage bilinguals' linguistic skills. It is not clear, however, to what extent this variation can be attributed to experience, cognitive ability or motivation. This study investigates factors influencing the acquisition of both Polish (HL = Heritage Language) and English (SocL = Societal Language) of school-age children, examining the role of motivation, linguistic experience, and language aptitude. We collected and analyzed speech samples from 7- to 12-year-old participants (n = 78) residing in the UK to derive linguistic measures of fluency, syntactic complexity and lexical diversity in both languages. Additionally, a receptive grammar test was administered. Independent variables were obtained via parental questionnaires, a motivation survey and a language aptitude test. To identify predictors of heritage bilingual acquisition, we conducted least squares linear regression analyses for each language area and applied backward stepwise selection to reduce the models. Results show that predictors differ between languages and linguistic areas. Our findings highlight the role of language aptitude in bilingual development, challenge assumptions that motivation to use HL might detract from SocL development, and suggest that HL acquisition can support, rather than hinder, societal language development, as bilingual children draw on their metalinguistic awareness and cognitive skills across both languages.

This study presents an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) conducted with Latinx1 Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States. We take a social approach to the AJT by contextualizing code-switching (CS) within the context of reggaetón music by adding experimental labels to sentences and examine how the results vary according to enjoyment and frequency of listening to reggaetón music. Results from mixed-effects regression models show effects of sentence grammaticality and frequency of listening to reggaetón. Results do not show effects of the reggaetón label on the CS sentences, however we find higher ratings for ungrammatical sentences and lower ratings for grammatical sentences than previously shown in the AJT literature. This study highlights the importance of the social context of code-switching when investigating acceptability judgments.

IntroductionLateral temporal neural measures (Na and T-complex Ta and Tb) of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) index auditory/speech processing and have been observed in children and adults. While Na is already present in children under 4 years of age, Ta emerges from 4 years of age, and Tb appears even later. The T-complex has been found to be sensitive to language experience in Spanish-English and Turkish-German children and adults. In particular, Ta elicited to a vowel has been found to be sensitive to language experience in bilingual preschool children. This paper examines neural responses in 4-to-6-year-old Italian-German bilingual and German monolingual children using language-specific phonetic cues for voicing.MethodsWe tested children's processing of voicing features in bilabial stop consonants in relation to (1) their language status (i.e., being monolingual vs. bilingual) as well as to (2) their relative amount of current exposure to the heritage (Italian) and the societal language (German). Italian-German bilingual and German monolingual children were hypothesized to encode the temporal properties of a set of Voice Onset Time (VOT) stimuli differently as indexed by Ta and Tb.ResultsThe results revealed no main effects of language group, but interactions of group with hemisphere and stimulus. In particular, bilingual children showed less hemispheric differentiation and an attenuated (less positive) response at the right site (T8) for the 0 ms VOT stimulus during the Ta-Tb time window. Children with more German (and consequently, less Italian) input showed a more positive T8 response for the Na, Ta and Tb time intervals.DiscussionThese findings partially replicated previous studies, but also revealed that stimulus factors modulate the response. They suggest that a delay in commitment is found only in bilinguals with less input in the target language, and those who are strongly dominant in one of the two languages will resemble monolinguals in the development of T-complex responses. However, the finding of greater Na positivity for German-dominant bilinguals suggests that their specific experience also influences processing, but perhaps via a different mechanism than found for the more balanced bilinguals.

In the literature, we encounter papers reporting manipulating pitch contours in speech tokens for a specific problem to be addressed in experiments (e.g., learning pitch patterns superimposed onto a pseudo-syllable), usually in the field of Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition. This type of research often tests listeners’ perceptual and processing skills in tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin, Thai, etc.), and requires superimposing a pitch contour onto a spoken syllable. However, very few studies reported in detail how this critical manipulation was done to meet specific experimental needs. In addition, there was neither specific guideline or description of the techniques being used, nor how ‘natural’ these manipulated tokens sounded in a particular language upon speech synthesis. Because this technique is crucial in establishing the conclusions in various studies, here, we will demonstrate our method of establishing this technique of tone superimposition (i.e., lexical tones in Mandarin) onto English syllables. In line with the open science model, we will also show our stimuli and procedures via OSF for readers to evaluate the validity of this technique. Manipulating the pitch contour in a spoken syllable can be complicated and change the perception of the spoken syllable in a significant way. Thus, we will also show the important factors to be considered in this process for doing research in Speech Sciences.

This paper explores a case of suspension of data input during the acquisition of a second language by a young Korean child acquiring English in an English-only nursery school in the United States. Data suspension occurred naturally when the child returned to Korea for a summer where only Korean was spoken. Systematic investigations using an enriched case study methodology which assessed the nature of the child’s English target language acquisition both before and after the Korean Summer revealed significant advances in his English after the Korean Summer despite the absence of English input during this time. Several hypotheses regarding the nature and explanation of this advance are tested. It is argued that significant internal linguistic integration leading to systematization of linguistic knowledge occurred in the absence of synchronous language data input, demonstrating the significance of internal computational processes over and above language data input in the language acquisition process. Results have implications for understanding the fundamental nature of language acquisition.

In research on second language (L2) processing, the processing of reference has been highlighted as a domain of particular difficulty, but the source of the difficulty is not well understood. The present study examines whether differences in the pronominal systems of the first language (L1) and L2 impact processing. We take a novel approach, testing a group of intermediate-advanced L2 learners in both their L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and L2 (English), allowing us to directly examine whether L2 learners show similar or different patterns when processing the L1 and L2. We also test a group of L1 English speakers. The study focused on two topicality-related factors, subjecthood and pronominalization, that have been shown to increase the prominence of an entity in the discourse, making it more likely that an entity in subject position (subjecthood) or an entity that has been referred to with a pronoun (pronominalization) will be considered as an antecedent for a subsequent pronoun. We developed a picture verification task with visual-world eye-tracking in both English and Chinese. This task provides a measure of both pronoun interpretation and online processing. Results showed subtle differences in how subjecthood and pronominalization are weighted in English and Chinese as L1s: pronominalization played a stronger role in L1 Chinese than in L1 English both in the interpretation measure and in the eye-movement data. The results for the L2 English learners showed an interesting pattern in which their results were more similar to the L1 English results on the measure of pronoun interpretation, but were more similar to the L1 Chinese results in the eye-movement data. These results show successful use of discourse cues in L2 pronoun interpretation but differences between L1 and L2 speakers during processing. It is proposed that decreased sensitivity to morphosyntactic information that is not present in the L1 (case on pronouns) leads to differences in L2 referential processing, in line with proposals that L2 learners face challenges with integrating different kinds of linguistic information online, particularly morphosyntactic information.

Introduction: Language delay cannot be ignored, and there is an urgent need to determine therapies that elicit better results in a short period. However, whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) alone or in combination with other therapies can promote recovery of language and cognitive function in children with language delay remains unknown. This study aims to explore the effects of tDCS combined with language-cognitive training and home-based rehabilitation on language and cognitive ability in children with language delay. Methods: Children with language delay who visited the Department of rehabilitation medicine or the pediatric outpatient clinic of the First People’s Hospital of Foshan from January 2019 to December 2021, totaling 190 in number, were included and randomly divided into 4 groups, i.e., the family guidance group, the tDCS group, the language-cognitive training group, and the comprehensive training group. The family guidance group (47 cases) received home training. The tDCS group (46 cases) received home training and tDCS treatment. The language- cognitive training group (49 cases) adopted home training and language-cognitive training. The comprehensive training group (48 cases) took home training, language-cognitive training, and tDCS treatment. All groups received training 5 times a week for 4 weeks. The Sign-significant relations (S-S) test was applied to evaluate the language comprehension, language expression, basic learning ability, and attitude of communication of the children. Results: The language-cognitive training group and the comprehensive training group showed improvement after treatment (p < 0.05) regarding basic learning ability. The communication attitude of the four groups improved after intervention (p < 0.05). Particularly, the comprehensive training group had maximum improvement after intervention. No serious adverse reactions such as epilepsy, headache, and behavioral abnormalities were found. Conclusion: tDCS combined with language-cognitive training and home training can improve language and cognitive ability in children with language delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper studies the pragmatic force that heritage speakers may convey through the use of the diminutive in everyday speech. In particular, I analyze the use of the Spanish diminutive in 49 sociolinguistic interviews from a Spanish–English bilingual community in Southern Arizona, U.S. where Spanish is the heritage language. I compare the use of the diminutive in heritage Spanish to the distribution of the diminutive in the speech of a Spanish monolingual community (18 sociolinguistic interviews) from the same dialectal region. Although Spanish and English employ dierent morphosyntactic strategies to express diminutive meaning, the analysis reveals that the diminutive morpheme -ito/a is a productive morphological device in the Spanish-discourse of heritage speakers from Southern Arizona (i.e., similar diminutive distributions to their monolingual counterparts). While heritage speakers employed the diminutive -ito/a to express the notion of “smallness” in their Spanish-discourse, the analysis indicates that these language users are more likely to invoke a subjective evaluation through the diminutive -ito/a when talking about their family members and/or childhood experiences. This particular finding suggests that the concept “child” is the semantic/pragmatic driving force of the diminutive in heritage Spanish as a marker of speech by, about, to, or with some relation to children. The analysis further suggests that examining the pragmatic dimensions of the diminutive in everyday speech can provide important insights into how heritage speakers encode and create cultural meaning in their heritage languages. Methods: In this study, I analyze the use of Spanish diminutives in two U.S.- Mexico border regions. The first data set is representative of a Spanish–English bilingual community in Southern Arizona, U.S., provided in the Corpus del Español en el Sur de Arizona (The CESA Corpus). The CESA Corpus comprises 49 sociolinguistic interviews of ∼1 h each for a total of ∼305,542 words. The second data set comprises 18 sociolinguistic interviews of predominantly monolingual Spanish speakers from the city of Mexicali, Baja California in Mexico, provided in the Proyecto Para el Estudio Sociolingüístico del Español de España y de América (PRESEEA). The Mexicali data set consists of ∼119,162 words. Results: The analysis revealed that the Spanish diminutive morpheme -ito/a is a productive morphological device in the Spanish-discourse of heritage speakers from Southern Arizona. In addition to its prototypical meaning (i.e., the notion of “smallness”), the diminutive morpheme -ito/a conveyed an array of pragmatic functions in the everyday speech of Spanish heritage speakers and their monolingual counterparts from the same dialectal region. Importantly these pragmatic functions are mediated by speakers’ subjective perceptions of the entity in question. Unlike their monolingual counterparts, heritage speakers are more likely to invoke a subjective evaluation through the diminutive - ito/a when talking about their family members and/or childhood experiences. Altogether, the study suggests that the concept “child” is the semantic/pragmatic driving force of the diminutive in heritage Spanish as a marker of speech by, about, to, or with some relation to children. Discussion: In this study, I followed Reynoso’s framework to study the pragmatic dimensions of the diminutive in everyday speech, that is, speakers’ publicly conveyed meaning. The analysis revealed that heritage speakers applied most of the pragmatic functions and their respective values observed in Reynoso’s cross-dialectal study of Spanish diminutives, and hence providing further support for her framework. Similarly, the study provides further evidence to Jurafsky’s proposal that morphological diminutives arise from semantic or pragmatic links with children. Finally, the analysis indicated that examining the semantic/pragmatic dimensions of the diminutive in everyday speech can provide important insights into how heritage speakers encode and create cultural meaning in their heritage languages, which can in turn have further ramifications for heritage language learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication failures among clinicians in the ICU (intensive care unit) often lead to worse patient outcomes. CritCom is a bilingual (English and Spanish) tool to evaluate the quality of interdisciplinary communication around patient deterioration for pediatric oncology patients. The use of reports, such as the CritCom report, as dissemination methods lead to quicker knowledge translation and implementation of research findings into policy. Nurses and physicians at participating centers who care for patients at risk of deterioration completed the CritCom survey and center-specific reports were generated to communicate CritCom results. Focus groups were conducted with clinicians receiving CritCom reports in both English and Spanish to evaluate report clarity and usability. Participants found the reports to be useful and described the writing and design as clear and specific. Participants provided feedback to improve report design and requested actionable steps to improve communication at their center. Feedback illustrated that the report was easy to interpret and a useful way to disseminate information. Participants noted the utility of the report, illustrating that the use of reports can be a useful method to disseminate research findings back to participants in a way that is applicable to the local context. Communicating research findings through reports can minimize the significant time lag in knowledge translation and provide participants with actionable steps to implement in their setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growth of dual-language programs in the United States, few studies have examined how children acquire Spanish through immersion. This article compares how heritage speakers (HS) and English-fluent Spanish L2 learners(L2L) immersed in Spanish comprehend gender in direct object clitics, an area of Spanish grammar prone to bilingual effects. A total of 78 English-dominant children enrolled in a dual language school participated in the experiment: 24 HS (6 in 2nd grade, 10 in 4th/5th grade, 8 in 7th/8th grade) and 54 L2L (16 in 2nd grade, 20 in 4th/5th grade, 18 in 7th/8th grade). Participants completed a forced-choice task which tested their ability to select target-like clitic gender after hearing sentences such as 'La niña está tocando la guitarra (feminine). ¿Qué hace?' The girl is playing the guitar (feminine). What does she do? * 'Lo toca' (masculine singular clitic)/'La toca' (feminine singular clitic) She plays it. Results did not reveal any significant differences at the p < 0.05 level between the HS and L2L groups with accuracy in clitic gender. We found that in receptive knowledge of masculine clitic gender, the HS and L2L children had very similar scores in the 2nd grade and showed a similar improvement in accuracy by the 7th/8th grades. However, we did not find a similar pattern of growth in children's ability to select target-like feminine gender in either group. We discuss our findings and propose possible implications for immersion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Exposure to maternal speech during the prenatal period shapes speech perception and linguistic preferences, allowing neonates to recognize stories heard frequently in utero and demonstrating an enhanced preference for their mother's voice and native language. Yet, with a high prevalence of bilingualism worldwide, it remains an open question whether monolingual or bilingual maternal speech during pregnancy influence differently the fetus' neural mechanisms underlying speech sound encoding. Methods: In the present study, the frequency-following response (FFR), an auditory evoked potential that reflects the complex spectrotemporal dynamics of speech sounds, was recorded to a two-vowel /oa/ stimulus in a sample of 129 healthy term neonates within 1 to 3 days after birth. Newborns were divided into two groups according to maternal language usage during the last trimester of gestation (monolingual; bilingual). Spectral amplitudes and spectral signal- to-noise ratios (SNR) at the stimulus fundamental (F0) and first formant (F1) frequencies of each vowel were, respectively, taken as measures of pitch and formant structure neural encoding. Results: Our results reveal that while spectral amplitudes at F0 did not differ between groups, neonates from bilingual mothers exhibited a lower spectral SNR. Additionally, monolingually exposed neonates exhibited a higher spectral amplitude and SNR at F1 frequencies. Discussion: We interpret our results under the consideration that bilingual maternal speech, as compared to monolingual, is characterized by a greater complexity in the speech sound signal, rendering newborns from bilingual mothers more sensitive to a wider range of speech frequencies without generating a particularly strong response at any of them. Our results contribute to an expanding body of research indicating the influence of prenatal experiences on language acquisition and underscore the necessity of including prenatal language exposure in developmental studies on language acquisition, a variable often overlooked yet capable of influencing research outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper provides an initial exploration of Ukrainian–Russian bilingualism in the context of the war-affected migration from Ukraine to Austria and Germany. While extensive research exists on various aspects of Ukrainian– Russian bilingualism in relation to Ukraine itself, thus far no studies have been conducted on this bilingualism in the diasporic context, i.e., as a language of the first and subsequential generations with a migrant background in Austria and Germany. Methods: To address this research gap, our paper examines the language attitudes of two respondent groups with a Ukrainian background in the two countries: migrants and refugees who left Ukraine after 2014 and those who left after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In the framework of a sociolinguistic survey, we describe their current attitudes regarding the use of Ukrainian and Russian, among others, in relation to the actual and intended use of the language(s) in the multilingual context of migration. The survey eliciting information on demographic information, language proficiency, language attitudes and language use was conducted on 406 Ukrainians in two host countries (Austria: n = 103; Germany: n = 306). First, we compared self-rated proficiency in Ukrainian and Russian as well as attitudes and use of these languages. Second, we applied a network modelling analysis to determine the nature of relationships between these variables. Results and discussion: The results indicated that proficiency in Ukrainian and in Russian were the strongest nodes in the model affecting language use and language attitudes toward the respective languages. Our data analysis focused on the pragmatic and symbolic value of Russian and Ukrainian playing a crucial role in the language vitality in multilingual settings. The paper discusses the imbalanced correlation of the symbolic and pragmatic value of Ukrainian and Russian in the diasporic Ukrainian communities. While Ukrainian has gained a higher symbolic status, Russian maintains a better pragmatic one, despite its negative symbolic status. However, we anticipate that the increasing symbolic value of Ukrainian and the diminishing value of Russian will lead to an increase in the use of Ukrainian also in Russian-dominant bilingual groups of Ukrainian migrants and refugees, even as an insider-code in hermetic minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how heritage Spanish-English bilinguals integrate their cue hierarchies to process simple sentences in both Spanish and English. Sentence interpretation is achieved by weighing the various cues that are present in the sentence against that language's cue hierarchy. The Unified Competition Model (UCM) suggests that bilinguals show a variety of patterns in sentence interpretation strategies depending on language proficiency. Previous research on heritage Spanish-English bilinguals and late bilinguals has demonstrated differences in cue utilization and sentence interpretation compared to monolinguals. However, good-enough processing suggests that when a sentence does not meet certain heuristics, like the first-noun agent heuristic, a semantic representation of the sentence will be processed instead of a syntactic one. Even with reliable sentential-level cues such as word order, a plausible semantic representation of the sentence is favored. This is especially the case with inanimate-inanimate (IA-IA) sentences, like in the present study, in which there is less reversibility of thematic roles without competing with semantic plausibility. For this study, participants (n = 32) read a total of 80 inanimate sentences in English and Spanish with subject-verb-object and object-verb-subject (OVS) word orders, indicated the subject of the sentences, and completed language proficiency and dominance tasks. When reading Spanish sentences, participants read the OVS word order faster. English proficiency was a significant predictor of sentence reading time and choice selection time but did not predict word choice. The results suggest that IA-IA sentences pose challenges for cue utilization and thematic role assignment due to semantic limitations. This study found that participantsmay prioritize semantic plausibility over syntactic representations in sentence processing, supporting a good-enough processing model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous research shows that bilinguals' ability to mix and switch between two separate languages is influenced by both cross-language similarity and language use contexts, little attention has been paid to bidialectal populations. Given the linguistic and sociolinguistic differences between bilingualism and bidialectalism, it is thus unclear to what extent mechanisms underlying bidialectal variety switching resemble those underlying bilinguals. To investigate the effects of cross-variety phonological distance and variety use contexts on variety switching, we tested two groups of Chinese speakers in a bidialectal auditory word recognition task. Both groups speak a regional dialect (Chengdu Mandarin or Cantonese) as their native language and are also highly proficient in Standard Mandarin. Participants' language background and linguistic experience are collected by a language background questionnaire. Mixing and switching between two varieties are costly for bidialectal speakers in comprehension. Mixing costs can be attributed to variety switches instead of the mere presence of a mixed-variety context. While variety switch and mixing costs are not influenced by cross-variety phonological distance, they are modulated by variety dominance and habitual variety use contexts. This study highlights the similarities between bidialectals and bilinguals in language processing, as well as the significance of recognizing between- and within-group differences in conducting psycholinguistics research with multilingual populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In heritage bilingualism studies, code-switching has often been overlooked, with a focus on either the heritage language or the dominant societal language of the bilingual individual. However, exploring code-switching can provide valuable insights into heritage speakers' grammar, revealing patterns that may not be apparent when only examining monolingual speech. Recent research suggests that in code-switched clauses, functional elements must align with the language of verbal inflection (INFL), which encompasses tense, aspect, voice, and agreement. This generalization is usually referred to as the Matrix Language Frame (MLF). The present study explores the empirical validity of this generalization using an experimental protocol that controls for variables that earlier work did not take into consideration. These variables are (a) adjacency between INFL and the functional element, (b) the interaction of the MLF with embedded islands, and (c) the possibly degrading effects of inserting a functional category. Thus, the aim of this study is to provide evidence in support (or not) of the INFL constraint beyond the experimental limitations in earlier work. The study focuses on the bilingual combination Papiamento-Dutch. Our results, by and large, support the MLF generalization. Methods: We carried out an online audio survey (3-point Likert scale) with 43 Papiamento-Dutch bilinguals. We manipulated the position of the switch and controlled for potential directionality effects by presenting code-switches in both switching directions. Results: We find a scale of acceptability, where the conditions that respect the INFL constraint are preferred. Additionally, and consistent with recent corpus and experimental literature, our results point to a clear asymmetry regarding directionality effects or choice of ML, reflecting how code-switching is deployed in the community. Discussion: Controlling for directionality allows us to discern the mechanisms of the INFL constraint. Thus, these findings underscore the intertwining influence of linguistic factors and community norms in guiding code-switching dynamics. Such insights extend beyond the specific context to shed light on broader dynamics within (heritage-language) bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To comprehend speech, listeners must resolve competition between potential candidate words. In second-language (L2) listening such competition may be inflated by spurious activation; the onsets of “reggae” and “legacy” may both activate “leg” for Japanese listeners, or the rhymes of “adapt” and “adept” may activate “apt” for Dutch listeners, while only one in each pair triggers competition for L1 listeners. Using eyetracking with L2-dominant bilingual emigrants, we directly compared within-language L1 and L2 lexical activation and competition in the same individuals. For these listeners, activation patterns did not differ across languages. Unexpectedly, however, we observed onset competition in both languages but rhyme competition in the L2 only (although the same stimuli elicited rhyme competition for control listeners in both languages). This suggests that L1 rhyme competition may disappear after long-time immersion in an L2 environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilinguals make decisions differently across languages likely due to reduced affect in the foreign language, but very little is known about language use in relation to deception. Here, we tested whether late Chinese-English bilinguals prefer to lie in the foreign language when betting against a virtual opponent. In each trial, participants freely announced bets in Chinese or English depending on whether they had drawn a coin or not. Results showed that bilinguals preferred using their native language, Chinese, over their foreign language, English, when being truthful-namely, announcing a coin when they had one. Even though participants did not choose English more to lie than to tell the truth, our results can be interpreted as a tendency to lie more in English when their behavior in the truth condition is considered the baseline. Participants also switched between languages more often after telling the truth than lying, and after telling the truth they switched more to Chinese. These results provide the first empirical evidence for strategic language use in bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In bilingual communities, knowing the language each speaker uses may support language separation and, later, guide language use in a context-appropriate manner. Previous research has shown that infants begin to form primary associations between the face and the language used by a speaker around the age of 3 months. However, there is still a limited understanding of how robust these associations are and whether they are influenced by the linguistic background of the infant. To answer these questions, this study explores monolingual and bilingual infants' ability to form face-language associations throughout the first year of life. Methods: A group of 4-, 6-, and 10-month-old Spanish and/or Catalan monolingual and bilingual infants were tested in an eye-tracking preferentiallooking paradigm (N = 156). After the infants were familiarized with videos of a Catalan and a Spanish speaker, they were tested in two types of test trials with different task demands. First, a Silent test trial assessed primary face-language associations by measuring infants' visual preference for the speakers based on the language they had previously used. Then, two Language test trials assessed more robust face-language associations by measuring infants' ability to match the face of each speaker with their corresponding language. Results: When measuring primary face-language associations, both monolingual and bilingual infants exhibited language-based preferences according to their specific exposure to the languages. Interestingly, this preference varied with age, with a transition from an initial familiarity preference to a novelty preference in older infants. Four-month-old infants showed a preference for the speaker who used their native/dominant language, while 10-month-old infants preferred the speaker who used their non-native/non-dominant language. When measuring more robust face-language associations, infants did not demonstrate signs of consistently matching the faces of the speakers with the language they had previously used, regardless of age or linguistic background. Discussion: Overall, the results indicate that while both monolingual and bilingual infants before the first year of life can form primary face-language associations, these associations remain fragile as infants seemed unable to maintain them when tested in a more demanding task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collection of articles explores the use of virtual reality (VR) technology in assessing and improving cognitive function, specifically executive functions. The articles cover a variety of topics, including the assessment of attention profiles in children with brain injuries, cognitive training for older adults using VR-based exergaming, and the development of virtual environments for assessing everyday cognitive function. The articles also discuss the use of EEG and other neuroimaging techniques in combination with VR for measuring cognitive load and identifying psychiatric disorders. These articles offer valuable insights into the potential advantages of VR in cognitive assessment and rehabilitation. [Extracted from the article]

Recent discussions have emphasized the significance of embodied processing in language comprehension. Nevertheless, continuous debates persist regarding the relative contribution of modal (embodied) and amodal (abstract) processing of language. The current study investigated the contribution of modal processing in the first (L1) and second (L2) language, hypothesizing higher level of abstract amodal symbol processing in L2 than L1, since the correspondence of L1 and L2 (i.e., the symbol-to-symbol assignment) is in the foreground when learning L2. We employed the modality-switch paradigm (Pecher et al., 2003) in both German and French versions with proficient sequential German and French bilinguals (N = 79). Participants were presented with noun-adjective pairs (e.g., keys – jingling) in both languages and decided whether the adjective could be applied to the noun. This task repeatedly requires switching modality between trials, (e.g., from auditory [keys – jingling] to olfactory [soap – perfumed]), typically causing switch costs on response latency as compared to maintaining the modality. Contrary to the hypothesis, we observed modality switch effects (MSE) in both L1 and L2. This result suggests that embodied language processing occurs not only in the first language but also extends to the second language thus challenging the assumption that L2 processing predominantly involves abstract amodal symbol processing. Notably, however, significant L1 and L2 MSEs were found for French, whereas for German already the L1 effect was rather weak (though significant); the corresponding L2 effect was not significant. Thus, the results hinted at differences between languages regarding the relative role of modal and amodal processing.

There is increasing evidence that using more than one languages has significant effects on brain function. These effects have been observed in the developing, adult and aging brain, and have been suggested to have implications for cognitive and brain decline in bilinguals and multilinguals. Aside from extensive investigations with behavioral methods, such effects are now commonly investigated with functional neuroimaging methods, mostly functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). A relatively underused method in the field is functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), which carries several advantages over more established methods, including being appropriate for use with infants and children, but also with older and diseased samples. This paper provides an overview of the method and an account of how it has been used in the field of bilingual cognition. It concludes with suggestions of how the method can be best utilized in future research, highlighting it as a method with a strong potential for updating existing theories on the effects of bilingualism on brain function.

Currently available data show mixed results as to whether the processing of emotional information has the same characteristics in the native (L1) as in the second language (L2) of bilinguals. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to shed light on the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying bilinguals’ emotional processing in L1 and L2 during an emotional interference task (i.e., the Emotional Stroop Task – EST). Our sample comprised proficient Italian-English bilinguals who learned their L2 during childhood mainly in instructional rather than immersive contexts. In spite of no detectable behavioural effects, we found stronger brain activations for L1 versus L2 emotional words in sectors of the posteromedial cortex involved in attention modulation, episodic memory, and affective processing. While fMRI findings are consistent with the hypothesis of a stronger emotional resonance when processing words in a native language, our overall pattern of results points to the different sensitivity of behavioural and hemodynamic responses to emotional information in the two languages of bilingual speakers.