Bilingualism: Language and Cognition - Current Issue

Volume 11 Issue 02

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02

Bilingualism is an international peer-reviewed journal focusing on bilingualism from a cognitive science perspective. The aims of the journal are to promote research on the bilingual person and to encourage debate in the field. Areas covered include: bilingual language competence, perception and production, bilingual language acquisition in children and adults, neurolinguistics of bilingualism in normal and brain-damaged subjects, and non-linguistic cognitive processes in bilinguals. Bilingualism carries articles and research notes on all aspects of the bilingual person, and is published three times a year.

Emotion and emotion-laden words in the bilingual lexicon

Research Articles
ANETA PAVLENKO,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 147-164

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to draw on recent studies of bilingualism and emotions to argue for three types of modifications to the current models of the bilingual lexicon. The first modification involves word categories: I will show that emotion words need to be considered as a separate class of words in the mental lexicon, represented and processed differently from abstract and concrete words. The second modification involves conceptual representations: I will demonstrate that emotion concepts vary across languages and that bilinguals' concepts may, in some cases, be distinct from those of monolingual speakers. The third modification involves emotionality: I will argue that emotionality is an important feature of the bilingual lexicon, where different languages and word types display different levels of emotionality. I will also show how differential emotionality affects code-switching and language choice in bi- and multilinguals.

Expressions of emotion as mediated by context

Article Commentary
JEANETTE ALTARRIBA,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 165-167

Abstract

Language research needs an “emotion revolution” and distributed models of the lexicon

Article Commentary
CATHERINE L. CALDWELL-HARRIS,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 169-171

Abstract

Dynamic emotion concepts of L2 learners and L2 users: A Second Language Acquisition perspective

Article Commentary
JEAN-MARC DEWAELE,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 173-175

Abstract

Emotions in the cross-fire: Structuralist vs. post-structuralist stances in bilingualism research

Article Commentary
CLAIRE KRAMSCH,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 177-179

Abstract

Bilingual effects are not unique, only more salient

Article Commentary
MICHEL PARADIS,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 181-183

Abstract

The bilingual emotion lexicon and emotion in vivo

Article Commentary
ROBERT SCHRAUF,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 185-187

Abstract

Emotion and emotionality as a hidden dimension of lexicon and discourse

Article Commentary
ÅKE VIBERG,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 189-191

Abstract

A conceptual basis for research into emotions and bilingualism

Article Commentary
ANNA WIERZBICKA,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 193-195

Abstract

Bi- and multilingualism as a metaphor for research

Reply
ANETA PAVLENKO,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 197-201

Abstract

Age of first bilingual language exposure as a new window into bilingual reading development

Research Articles
IOULIA KOVELMAN, STEPHANIE A. BAKER, LAURA-ANN PETITTO,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 203-223

Abstract
How does age of first bilingual language exposure affect reading development in children learning to read in both of their languages? Is there a reading advantage for monolingual English children who are educated in bilingual schools? We studied children (grades 2 9) in bilingual Spanish 3 years) outperformed other bilingual groups (age of first exposure 3 6 years). Remarkably, schooling in two languages afforded children from monolingual English homes an advantage in phoneme awareness skills. Early bilingual exposure is best for dual language reading development, and it may afford such a powerful positive impact on reading and language development that it may possibly ameliorate the negative effect of low SES on literacy. Further, age of first bilingual exposure provides a new tool for evaluating whether a young bilingual has a reading problem versus whether he or she is a typically-developing dual-language learner.

The effect of linguistic proficiency, age of second language acquisition, and length of exposure to a new cultural environment on bilinguals' divergent thinking

Research Articles
ANATOLIY V. KHARKHURIN,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 225-243

Abstract
The study argues that, in addition to advantages in conscious attention-demanding processing, bilinguals may also exhibit enhanced unconscious divergent thinking. To investigate this issue, the performance of Russian English bilingual immigrants and English monolingual native speakers was compared on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults, which is a traditional assessment tool of divergent thinking. The study reveals bilinguals' superiority on divergent thinking tasks that require the ability to simultaneously activate and process multiple unrelated concepts from distant categories. Divergent thinking was facilitated by bilinguals' proficiency in two languages, the age of acquisition of these languages and the length of exposure to the new cultural settings that accompanies the acquisition of a new language. A specific architecture of bilingual memory in which two lexicons are mutually linked to the shared conceptual system is theorized to facilitate the functioning of the language mediated concept activation, thereby encouraging bilinguals' divergent thinking performance.

Morphologically complex words in L1 and L2 processing: Evidence from masked priming experiments in English

Research Articles
RENITA SILVA, HARALD CLAHSEN,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 245-260

Abstract
This paper reports results from masked priming experiments investigating regular past-tense forms and deadjectival nominalizations with -ness and -ity in adult native (L1) speakers of English and in different groups of advanced adult second language (L2) learners of English. While the L1 group showed efficient priming for both inflected and derived word forms, the L2 learners demonstrated repetition-priming effects (like the L1 group), but no priming for inflected and reduced priming for derived word forms. We argue that this striking contrast between L1 and L2 processing supports the view that adult L2 learners rely more on lexical storage and less on combinatorial processing of morphologically complex words than native speakers.

Phonological short-term memory, working memory and foreign language performance in intensive language learning

Research Articles
JUDIT KORMOS, ANNA SÁFÁR,
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 11 Issue 02 , pp 261-271

Abstract
In our research we addressed the question what the relationship is between phonological short-term and working memory capacity and performance in an end-of-year reading, writing, listening, speaking and use of English test. The participants of our study were 121 secondary school students aged 15 16 in the first intensive language training year of a bilingual education program in Hungary. The participants performed a non-word repetition test and took a Cambridge First Certificate Exam. Fifty students were also tested with a backward digit span test, measuring their working memory capacity. Our study indicates that phonological short-term memory capacity plays a different role in the case of beginners and pre-intermediate students in intensive language learning. The backward digit span test correlated very highly with the overall English language competence, as well as with reading, listening, speaking and use of English (vocabulary and grammar) test scores.