LINGUIST List 26.2625
Tue May 26 2015
Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq: Thomas, Mennen (2014)
Editor for this issue: Sara Couture <saralinguistlist.org>
Date: 09-Jan-2015
From: Tyler Anderson <tanderso
coloradomesa.edu>
Subject: Advances in the Study of Bilingualism
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EDITOR: Enlli Môn Thomas
EDITOR: Ineke Mennen
TITLE: Advances in the Study of Bilingualism
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2014
REVIEWER: Tyler Kimball Anderson, Colorado Mesa University
Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry
SUMMARY
Edited by Enlli Môn Thomas and Ineke Mennen, this volume contains ten articles that address a number of areas focused on the study of bilingualism, from methodological matters (corpus development) to technical investigations (the bilingual brain). As a book written for both practitioner and researcher alike, the volume draws on many experts in the field of bilingual studies, most connected to the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism housed at Bangor University in Wales. While the uniqueness of this volume stems partly from the variety of language pairs that are studied (Welsh-German, Welsh-Spanish, English-Spanish,), most draw on the unique linguistic environment of Wales (Welsh-English) to address theoretical and practical issues dealing with bilingualism. Each essay focuses on contemporary findings that illuminate how bilinguals process and produce two languages; special focus is also given to bilingual education, from primary to tertiary schools.
The two editors begin the tome by offering an introduction into the theme of the study of bilingualism, a field that “has experienced an explosion of activity in recent years” (Thomas and Mennen, 2014, p. xvii). They discuss the differences between bilingualism and the less common state of monolingualism. Unlike other volumes that embark on a study of bilingualism from one particular area, this tome purposefully—and cohesively—combines several disparate approaches to a single research focus, namely “what is the nature of the relationship between the two languages of bilingual speakers in bilingual communities?” (Thomas and Mennen, 2014, p. xviii). The authors then provide an overview of the book, stating that the comparable findings in distinct language pairs imply the ability to generalize to other bilingual populations.
Part 1, “Bilingual speech”, provides two chapters that deal with the production of speech by bilinguals. In Chapter 1, “Speech learning in bilinguals: Consonant cluster acquisition”, Robert Mayr, Danna Jones and Ineke Mennen focus on a key area in the study of bilingualism, specifically the differing dimensions of phonetics and phonology of the two (or more) languages of a multilingual, and how these differences are developed, perceived and generated. To embark on this study the authors investigate the acquisition of consonant clusters in Welsh-English bilingual children. Not surprisingly, previous studies have provided contradictory findings in terms of bilinguals’ speed of acquisition of phonological features in comparison to monolinguals, some showing a delay in acquisition while others finding acceleration. Interestingly, however, this is the first study of bilinguals’ consonant clusters development. They do find that the children in their study indeed show a much faster rate of acquisition of consonant clusters in the two languages, and as would be expected, they find that production accuracy increases with language dominance and age.
The theme of age of acquisition is continued in Chapter 2, “Maturational constraints on bilingual speech”, where author Esther de Leeuw investigates how the acquisition of a second language influences the native language, which she labels L1 attrition. Here the author provides a review of the extant literature on the production and perception of speech of late consecutive bilinguals, concentrating on the subjects’ L1; she also provides research into highly proficient L2 learners.
Part 2, “Bilingual language development”, explores those factors which contribute to the acquisition of linguistic and non-linguistic systems in bilinguals. In Chapter 3, “Cross-linguistic influence and patterns of acquisition”, Enlli Môn Thomas, Katja F. Cantone, Susanne Davies and Anna Shadrova investigate the distinctive gender assignment and word order in naturalistic speech of German and Welsh simultaneous bilingual children, a language pair previously uninvestigated. Based on preliminary data analysis, the authors find that with regard to gender assignment, there appears to be no transfer from one language to the other; however, these bilinguals showed a longer duration with bare nouns (i.e. no gender assignment) than monolinguals of the same age. Word order, on the other hand, does seem to show some patterns of transfer; nevertheless, both languages allow for some variation of word order, thus the results should be taken with some caution.
In “Bilingual construction of two systems” (Chapter 4), Virginia Mueller Gathercole, Rocío Pérez-Tattam, Hans Stadthagen-González and Enlli Môn Thomas compare the development and relationship between the morphosyntactic and semantic systems in bilinguals and monolinguals. Using English and Welsh bilinguals, the investigators find that there is little convergence between the two linguistic systems at the morphosyntactic level, but a higher occurrence of interaction at the semantic level.
Part 3, “Bilingual language use”, contains two chapters that address linguistic code-switching. In Chapter 5, “Building bilingual corpora”, Margaret Deuchar, Peredur Davies, Jon Russell Herring, M. Carmen Parafita Couto and Diana Carter address the creation of a three-language bilingual corpus, with Spanish-English from Miami, English-Welsh from Northern Wales, and Spanish-Welsh from Argentina. The end goal was the development of tools that would allow a comparison of the ways these different language permutations influenced the frequency and type of code switches. An innovative outcropping of this is the housing of this corpus on a server that is available to the general public. In this chapter the authors explain the techniques of corpora creation, from participant recruitment to recording equipment to transcription of materials.
In Chapter 6, many of the same authors from the previous chapter (M. Carmen Parafita Couto, Peredur Davies, Diana Carter and Margaret Deuchar) give us “Factors influencing code-switching”. Here they focus on the naturalistic data from their Miami and Welsh corpora to investigate any similarities and differences in the manifestations of language choice. Using the Matrix Language Frame model (Myers-Scotton 2002) as a their reference point, the authors find that in their data from Wales, Welsh is the Matrix Language (ML) in 100% of the bilingual clauses, while in Miami, English is the ML in 34% of the instances (compared to 66% for Spanish). As one explanation of this distinction in the two communities, the authors postulate that identity plays a large role in language choice; in Wales, Welsh identification is uniform throughout the community, whereas identity is more diverse in Miami.
“Bilingual education”, is the theme of Part 4, where we find two chapters dealing with the use of two languages in an educational setting. Bryn Jones and W. Gwyn Lewis author Chapter 7, “Language arrangements within bilingual education”, wherein they discuss the current linguistic settings in primary and secondary schools in Wales. They investigate whether there is a strict separation of the two languages, or whether translanguaging—the planned and systematic use of two languages in the same lesson—is adhered to. In translanguaging, input (reading/listening) is generally done in Language A, while output (writing/speaking) is done in Language B. A third option is that of code-switching, defined in this chapter as the switching between two languages in the same speech act. After observing 100 lessons, they conclude that translanguaging takes on a more prominent role as children advance (i.e. at the top end of primary schools and in secondary schools). The remainder of the chapter discusses at length the concept of translanguaging, providing practical samples from lessons that were observed.
W. Gwyn Lewis and Hunydd Andrews then take on “Bilingualism in higher education” in Chapter 8. Here they analyze the use of Welsh and English in the Bangor University’s School of Education, starting with a discussion of various models of bilingual education, all with the aim of identifying effective practices in bilingual teaching. Through surveys and interviews with staff and students the researchers attempt to uncover students’ and lecturers’ attitudes toward the inclusion of both English and Welsh in the university classrooms. While language equality is a priority in the University, they find an imbalance favoring English, something that concerns both students and lecturers, especially Welsh-dominant students. They conclude that more training on how to achieve a better balance is needed.
To conclude, Part 5 focuses on the “Bilingual brain”, beginning with Noriko Hoshino and Guillaume Thierry’s “Language selection during speech production in bilingual speakers”, wherein event-related potentials (ERPs) are used to analyze whether both languages are active during language processing, with a particular focus on lexical retrieval. Results indicate both the target language (i.e. the one being used for lexical retrieval) and the non-target language are simultaneously activated during lexical retrieval in these bilinguals.
Chapter 10, “Juggling two grammars”, concludes this tome. Eirini Sanoudaki and Guillaume Thierry focus their attention on the processing of syntactic rules, particularly adjectival placement in Welsh and English, questioning whether bilinguals function in a similar fashion to monolinguals during syntactical processing. Using ERPs to track the brain waves of monolinguals and bilinguals, they determine that bilinguals function markedly differently from monolinguals in the processing of grammar violations (i.e. incorrect placement of adjective with respect to the languages in question), taking this as evidence that both languages are activated at all times in the bilingual brain. As part of their conclusions, they postulate that the bilingual brain is perhaps more tolerant of violations of syntactic rules.
EVALUATION
In this thought provoking work on bilingualism we are presented with cutting-edge research on a variety of topics. The tome is well written, with minimal orthographic errors. In general, the authors have achieved their overall goal; each chapter has made important contributions to advancing our understanding of the use and impacts of multiple languages, from the individual to the societal level. Many chapters are very practical, especially the chapters on bilingual education and corpus creation. Although generally centered on one particular language pair (English-Welsh), the conclusions and research paradigms are applicable to and provoke ideas for future research on other language dyads.
The manuscripts are generally written for those already familiar with specific topics dealing with bilingualism, and thus the volume does not target the novice audience. For example, the discussion on ERPs—though well explained and illustrated—was delayed until well into Chapter 9, which would necessitate that the reader already be familiar with this type of study in order to engage in the reading. Other topics only received a cursory description; for example the Sonority Sequencing Principle in Chapter 1 required previous knowledge of the theory to be able to follow the discussion; in Chapter 3 ‘nasal mutation’ appears to be important for the study, but is nowhere discussed; and the MLF (Main Language Frame) received only a brief mention in Chapter 5 (although it was further discussed in Chapter 6 in more detail).
In Chapter 6, the authors never discussed why the MLF was used as opposed to other theories on code-switching. While this was perhaps the best model for the authors’ purposes, a justification would strengthen the chapter. As part of the ‘findings’ to this chapter we are shown different code-switching patterns between the two communities in question; however, this weakens their conclusions, as there are two different proficiency levels in the communities in question, and thus different patterns would be expected. Had the authors used bilinguals with similar proficiency patterns, better conclusions could have been drawn; simply too many factors inhibit pinning down which ones are influencing the code-switching in the two communities in question.
While broad in its scope, the ‘bilingual brain’ section may be questioned because of its lack of variation. While the two studies fit the bill of ‘advances in the study of bilingualism’, the lack of other methods (e.g. fMRI) besides ERPs seemed an oversight in a tome of this type. Similarly, Chapter 2 appeared out of place as simply a review of a literature; with no study coupled with it, not much ‘advancing’ was accomplished.
Overall, this volume is a magnificent contribution to the study of bilingualism. Indeed, the authors and editors have stimulated thought on theoretical and empirical research, especially toward future research on language pairs other than Welsh and English. It should be clear that this book represents an important contribution to the understanding of bilingualism, and will serve as an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners alike.
REFERENCES
Myers-Scotton, C. (2002). Contact linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomas, E. M., and Mennen, I. (Eds.) (2014). Advances in the study of bilingualism. New York: Multilingual Matters.
Thomas, E. M., and Mennen, I. (2014). Introduction: Advances in the study of bilingualism. In E. M. Thomas and I. Mennen (Eds.) Advances in the study of bilingualism (pp. xvii-xxv). New York: Multilingual Matters.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Tyler K. Anderson is Associate Professor of Spanish at Colorado Mesa University, where he teaches courses in linguistics and second language acquisition. His research interests include language attitudes toward manifestations of contact linguistics, including the acceptability of lexical borrowing and code-switching in Spanish and English contact situations. He is currently researching the perceptions of phonetic interference in second language acquisition.
Page Updated: 26-May-2015