26.2625, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq: Thomas, Mennen (2014)

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Subject: 26.2625, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq: Thomas, Mennen (2014)

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Date: Tue, 26 May 2015 13:38:11
From: Tyler Anderson [tanderso at coloradomesa.edu]
Subject: Advances in the Study of Bilingualism

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-2146.html

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.





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