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Understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of migrants' second language (L2) competence in naturalistic settings is a pressing concern for receiving societies. Several studies have established a positive relation between people's self-positioning with respect to the L2 ethnolinguistic group and their L2 competence, but the mechanisms underlying this relation are relatively unexplored. Using path analysis, this study investigates the hypothesis that migrants' experience with the L2 mediates the positive association between mainstream cultural orientation and self-assessed L2 competence among 123 multicultural recent immigrant students to Montreal, Quebec. As such, this study applies notions from L2 motivation and sociocultural L2 learning to an acculturation context. This study also unpacks L2 experience by examining L2 use and L2 social contact (namely, friendships in the mainstream group) separately. In addition, this study takes into account the important role of the social context by selecting a setting that maximizes the centrality of individual differences in cultural orientations. The hypotheses were fully supported: model fit for the hypothesized model was excellent and better than for alternative models.

Purpose: People are shaped holistically by dynamic and interrelated individual and social-ecological systems. This perspective has been discussed in the context of varied aspects of bilingual experiences, namely language acquisition and development. Here, we applied a Systems Framework of Bilingualism to language attitudes, which may be especially responsive to social-ecological influences. Methodology: One hundred twenty-three French–English bilingual adults (M age = 21.20, SD = 3.21) completed self-report questionnaires on demographic information and their attitudes toward languages. A subset of these bilinguals (n = 73) completed a social network survey. Data and analysis: We used language-tagged social network analysis and geospatial demographic analysis to examine the role of individual characteristics (i.e., first language), interpersonal language dynamics (i.e., person-to-person interactions), and ecological language dynamics (i.e., neighborhood language exposure). Findings and Conclusions: At an individual level, we found that bilinguals' language background (i.e., first language) predicted attitudes of solidarity toward a language (i.e., whether a language is associated with personal identity and belongingness). When considering sociolinguistic layers of influence, we found that bilinguals' social network and neighborhood-level language exposure jointly predicted their attitudes of solidarity toward a language, as well as their attitudes toward the protection of minority languages. Originality: While most studies have examined language experience in a unidimensional nature, the present study investigated multilingual language attitudes by considering multiple systems within a social-ecological framework. Implications: Taken together, the results suggest that several interrelated interpersonal and ecological systems are associated with language attitudes, which could have important implications for planning future language policies in multilingual societies such as Montréal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We probed the impact of two teaching strategies, "guided inquiry" and "argumentation," on students' conceptual understanding of the conservation of matter. Conservation of matter is a central concept in middle school science curriculum and a prerequisite upon which rests more complex constructs in chemistry. The results indicate that guided inquiry was particularly effective in improving students' conceptual understanding, as evidenced by pre/posttest results and by a skill analysis of in-depth interviews of student dyads. We also discuss how the challenges inherent to educational contexts can undermine the quality and limit the impact of empirical research carried out in many schools. We suggest how these challenges could be met in the emerging infrastructures for change called the Research Schools Network.

The author uses an autobiographical approach to reinterpret her memories of being an immigrant and an English language learner and to probe how these memories are intimately involved in the process of becoming a science teacher. This reflexive process of "excavation" (Grumet, 1999) allows the writing of narratives that explore how words and language impact identity formation. (Contains 2 notes.)

Although many individuals migrate to a new country with their romantic partner, most acculturation research has focused on individual factors related to migration-related psychological adjustment without considering couple influences. The current research investigates traditional predictors of psychological adaptation – mainstream and heritage acculturation, motivation to migrate, and perceived discrimination – from the perspective of both migrants and their partners. Participants were 151 French migrant couples (n = 302) living in Canada. We conducted mixed-effects regression analyses (HLM) predicting psychological adaptation within an actor-partner interdependence modelling framework. In line with past results, actors' motivation to migrate and mainstream acculturation were positively associated with psychological adaptation, whereas perceived discrimination was negatively associated with it. Contrary to our hypotheses, the actor's heritage acculturation was negatively associated with psychological adaptation. Above and beyond these individual-level predictors, our results revealed a positive effect of partner's motivation to migrate and a negative effect of partner's perceived discrimination. Finally, acculturation gaps were significantly associated with psychological adaptation. Mainstream acculturation gaps seem to be detrimental to migrants' psychological adaptation, whereas heritage acculturation gaps were associated with greater psychological adaptation. These findings underscore the necessity to better understand how romantic relationship dynamics following migration play out in individual-level migration outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compartmentalization (keeping identities separate) and integration (creating a single overarching identity) are two ways in which people can manage their multiple cultural identities. This study examined social network correlates of these two configurations among immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Canada (N= 137). Drawing on sociological theories, we focused on egocentric network indices reflecting bonding capital – the benefits from being embedded in a community – and bridging capital – the benefits from outward-looking social connections. Further, we considered the differential role of three culturally-defined subnetworks: mainstream, heritage, and third-culture connections. The latter played in critical role in fostering identity integration. Network configurations striking a balance between boosting mainstream density and limiting heritage density seemed to be optimally related to identity integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]