30.581, Review: Applied Linguistics; Psycholinguistics: Nicoladis, Montanari (2018)

Tue Feb 5 15:46:10 UTC 2019

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-581. Tue Feb 05 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.581, Review: Applied Linguistics; Psycholinguistics: Nicoladis, Montanari (2018)

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Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2019 10:45:56
From: Prue Goredema [teurayi.goredema at phil.tu-chemnitz.de]
Subject: Bilingualism Across the Lifespan

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-2808.html

EDITOR: Elena  Nicoladis
EDITOR: Simona  Montanari
TITLE: Bilingualism Across the Lifespan
SUBTITLE: Factors Moderating Language Proficiency
SERIES TITLE: Language and the Human Lifespan (LHLS)
PUBLISHER: De Gruyter Mouton
YEAR: 2018

REVIEWER: Prue Goredema, Technische Universität Chemnitz

SUMMARY

Bilingualism is a catch-all term that covers many convoluted language
scenarios, running the gamut from those who grow up in dual-language
households, those who comfortably use different languages for work versus
familial settings, those who pick up or formally learn another language in
later life and go on to gain perceptible proficiency in it and even polyglots
who navigate from one tongue to another with seeming ease.  Elena Nicolas and
Simona Montanari make it clear at the outset of this volume that
multilingualism of one stripe or another is the norm in many parts of the
world.  There are myriad avenues of investigation covered in this edited
volume – from the cognitive aspects that obtain in infancy, childhood,
adulthood and senescence to the psychological, social and political factors
that define the environment in which the speakers live, study and work.

Students of language studies, education, psychology, anthropology and the
various social sciences will find this to be an easily accessible text that
gives a concise overview of what decades of research into language acquisition
have taught us about bilingualism across the lifespan.  Scholars and
practitioners may also find this volume to be a handy reference work, since
each chapter mentions the major findings and turning points in each area
investigated.

Section I On Early Bilingualism

The book begins in earnest with a clarion call for a new take on the existing
theories of first language acquisition, since bilingual children who from the
outset acquire different languages simultaneously are no longer an obscure
minority.  Those linguists wedded to interpretations that see bilingualism as
a case of two differentiated systems are losing ground, explain Suzanne Quay
and Simona Montari.  The chapter covers the main milestones in the research
community’s continual journey and considers shifts in thinking about the
lexical, grammatical and phonological development of bilingual children, as
well as the role played by family language policies.

W. Quin Yow, Ferninda Patrycia and Susanne Flynn’s work entitled
Code-Switching in Childhood used established measures such as the Peabody
Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-IV) number of different word
roots (NDWR) mean length of utterances (MLU) to ascertain the effect of
English/Mandarin code-switching on the linguistic performance of children
enrolled at two Singaporean schools.  They concluded that code-switching with
peers in the school environment is just as important, if not more so, than
home exposure to Mandarin and that such abilities are an indicator of language
competence (p. 95).

Section II On Factors Affecting Bilingualism Across the Lifespan

The five chapters that comprise Section II of this volume give a concise
overview of the myriad variables that make bilingualism a dynamic process
across the lifespan.  Sharon Unsworth gets the discussion underway by
surveying some key impact factors in child bilinguals’ language development,
such as parents, siblings, peers and the school environment, and she also
highlights the differences between vocabulary acquisition and output, and
control of grammar and morphosyntax in early bilinguals.

Those who have studied most strands of the Critical Period Hypothesis will
recognise the research duo of David Birdsong and Jan Vanhove, who team up in
Chapter 9 to revive some of their greatest hits.  Various other studies that
explore the significance of age of acquisition in determining ultimate
attainment are also reflected upon, and this is conveniently done in
chronological order, thus allowing newcomers to see how our understanding of
the age factor in language acquisition has evolved from a reductively rigid
adherence to the primacy of biological factors to one in which the
complexities of socialisation are taken into account.

Section III On Academic Achievement and Literacy in Bilinguals

With just two chapters, this is the shortest section in this volume.  Kathryn
Lindholm-Leary gives readers an overview of how the matter of academic
achievement has been approached by scholars, primarily in the United States
where schooling models exist in which the target language and L1 (often
Spanish though also other minority languages) are used in varying degrees. 
These so-called dual language programmes have produced many and varied
results; however, one of the findings that Lindholm-Leary highlights is that
bilingualism and, indeed biliteracy “may be enhanced to a greater degree when
children receive higher levels of instruction in the partner language” (p.
209).

Chapter 12, entitled Literacy in Adulthood: Reading in Two Languages shows how
difficult it is to draw broad and binding conclusions about proficiency and
efficiency in adult readers.  In addition to accounting for individual
speakers’ biographical information, researchers must also consider the
syntactic properties of the languages spoken and the attendant cross-language
effects as well as the cognitive strategies used in language selection.  This
reflection by Kroll, Gullifer and Zirnstein.focuses on pertinent research.

Section IV On the Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism

This section begins with a recapitulation of significant research findings on
the process of bilingual language acquisition.  Agnes Melinda Kovacs hearkens
back to papers by Werner F. Leopold (1978) and Virginia Volterra and Traute
Taeschner (1978) in alerting readers to the fact that bilingual infants
initially have “a single language system for both languages” (p. 249).
Volterra & Taeshner’s three-stage model of the development of bilingualism
(which is here merely alluded to) was derived, in part, from longitudinal work
Leopold conducted on his own daughter, Hildegard.  These early works are well
worth a view for those who wish to retrace the path that the field of language
and cognition has taken in the past half a century. Kovacs’s chapter is a
decent enough primer.  

Elena Nicoladis picks up the baton in Chapter 14, where she discusses
bilingualism in childhood and ponders whether children actually think
differently when engaging their two languages and whether their cognitive
development is significantly different from that of monolinguals.  Max R.
Freeman, Anthony Shook and Viorica Marian’s chapter on the Cognitive and
Emotional Effects of Bilingualism in Adulthood clearly articulates the manner
in which cognitive control, with its attendant interference suppression and
response inhibition mechanisms, is a defining factor in our daily functioning.
 They explain how bilingualism promotes cognitive control and enhances the
overall cognitive reserve, thus helping to stave off the onset of geriatric
neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.  This theme is carried on
in the ensuing chapter by Hilary D. Duncan and Natalie A. Phillips.

In The Contribution of Bilingualism to Cognitive Reserve in Healthy Aging and
Dementia, Duncan and Phillips define some key concepts and then mostly
summarise the findings of others who have explored the many facets of
senescence and memory, dementia, executive control and language.  They refer
to persuasive findings by Chertkow et al. (2010) that suggest that immigrants
enjoy more cognitive vitality than non-immigrants. Chertkow et al.’s research
was based on patient data gathered at their memory clinic in Montreal, Canada,
whereby they had access not only to English-French bilinguals, but also to
multilingual immigrants.  They found that bilingualism alone does not offer a
protective shield from Alzheimer’s disease; however, immigrants, particularly
those who spoke four or more languages, had a delayed age of symptom onset. 
This is but one of the insightful studies that Duncan and Phillips include in
their synopsis of the state of affairs in the area of aging and bilingualism.

Section V Conclusion

As to be expected, the conclusion is a concise summary of the themes presented
in the volume.

EVALUATION

>From the outset, the editors indicate that their aim is to “present the latest
research on bilingualism”; yet the simultaneous positioning of the work as a
text for students of various related disciplines (such as the aforementioned
linguistics and education) means that in more than a few chapters, much space
is in fact dedicated to establishing first principles or giving accounts of
how we came to know what we know about variability, input, codeswitching,
attrition and other aspects of bilingualism.  A case in point is Elena
Nicoladis’s chapter entitled Bilingual Speakers’ Cognitive Development in
Childhood wherein the cognitive flexibility of bilingual children is
described.  Using a narrative form that is replete with examples, the writer
explains key principles of bilingualism succinctly, covering factors such as
interaction, phonology and theory of mind. However, the new research findings
that editors Nicoladis and Montanari have promised in the introduction are
somewhat wanting in places.

Overall, all fifteen substantive chapters have much to commend them, for
students and scholars alike are presented with a précis of the key points that
have emerged from research into bilingualism across the lifespan.

REFERENCES

Chertkow H, Whitehead V, Phillips N, Wolfson C, Atherton J, Bergman H. 2010.
Bilingualism (but not always bilingualism) delays the onset of Alzheimer
disease: Evidence from a bilingual community. Alzheimer Disease Associated
Disorders, 24 (2) (2010): 118-125. doi: 10.1097/WAD.0b013e3181ca1221

Leopold, W. (1978). A child’s learning of two languages. In E. Hatch (Ed.),
Second Language Acquisition: A Book of Readings (p. 23–32). Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.

Volterra, V., Taeschner, T. (1978). The acquisition and development of
language by bilingual children. Journal of Child Language, 5, pp. 311-326.
Reprinted (2007) in In L. Wei (ed) The bilingual reader, 301 - 320. New York:
Routledge.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Prue Goredema, MBS is a lecturer and researcher in Second Language Acquisition
Theory at Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany. Her work covers TESOL
Methodology, eLearning and Curriculum Planning & Materials Development.

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