Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: Factors Moderating Language Proficiency

by Elena Nicoladis, Simona Montanari

Overview

The study of bilingualism unfolds against a varied backdrop of sociocultural ants sociopolitical factors. While the nature of bilingualism has often been misunderstood, the bilingual community is a dynamic and ever-growing part of the global population. This book pioneers the study of bilingualism across the lifespan and in all its diverse forms. In framing the newest research within a lifespan perspective, Nicoladis and Montanari highlight the importance of considering an individual's age-from infancy to late-adulthood - when researching how bilingualism affects language acquisition and cognitive development. Four major topics are explored: (a) early bilingualism, (b) factors affecting bilingualism across the lifespan, (c) academic achievement and literacy in bilinguals, and (A) cognitive effects of bilingualism. A key theme is the variability among bilinguals. which may be due to a host of individual and sociocultural factors, including the degree to which bilingualism is or is not valued in each country and context. This book is a call for language re-searchers, psychologists, and educators to pursue and promote a better understanding of bilingualism in our increasingly multicultural society. The Series: Language and the Human Lifespan The Language and the Human Lifespan series is co-published by the American Psychological Association and De Gruyter Mouton. The volumes in this series feature the best contemporary research on topics where psychology and language intersect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433822834
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
Publication date:	06/13/2016
Series:	Language and the Human Lifespan Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Elena Nicoladis, University of Alberta, Canada; Simona Montanari, California State University Los Angeles, USA.

Table of Contents

Contributors vii

Introduction Simona Montanari Elena Nicoladis 3

1 Shifting Perspectives on Bilingualism Fred Genesee 9

I Early Bilingualism

2 Early Bilingualism: From Differentiation to the impact of Family Language Practices Suzanne Quay Simona Montanari 23

3 Speech Perception in Simultaneously Bilingual Infants Christopher T. Fennell Angeline Sin-Mei Tsui Tamara M. Hudon 43

4 Early Lexical Development in Bilingual Infants and Toddlers Barbara T. Conboy Simona Montanari 63

5 Code-Switching in Childhood W. Quin Yow Fern in da Patrycia Suzanne Flynn 81

II Factors Affecting Bilingualism Across the Lifespan

6 Quantity and Quality of Language Input in Bilingual Language Development Sharon Unsworth 103

7 Factors Moderating Proficiency in Bilingual Speakers Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole 123

8 Age of Onset of Bilingualism Effects and Availability of Input in First Language Attrition Silvina Montrul 141

9 Age of Second-Language Acquisition: Critical Periods and Social Concerns David Birdsong Jan Vanhove 163

10 Code-Switching in Adulthood Jeff MacSwan 183

III Academic Achievement and Literacy in Bilinguals

11 Bilingualism and Academic Achievement in Children in Dual Language Programs Kathryn Lindholm-Leary 203

12 Literacy in Adulthood: Reading in Two Languages Judith F. Kroll Jason Gullifer Megan Zirnstein 225

IV Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism

13 Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism in infancy Ágnes Melinda Kovács 249

14 Bilingual Speakers' Cognitive Development in Childhood Elena Nicoladis 269

15 Cognitive and Emotional Effects of Bilingualism in Adulthood Max R. Freeman Anthony Shook Viorica Marian 285

16 The Contribution of Bilingualism to Cognitive Reserve in Healthy Aging and Dementia Hilary D. Duncan Natalie A. Phillips 305

V Conclusion

Concluding Remarks and Future Directions Simona Montanari Elena Nicoladis 325

Index 331

About the Editors 353

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Gary B Kaniuk, PsyD (Cermak Health Services)
Description: This book approaches bilingualism from a lifespan perspective, exploring the impact on language acquisition and cognitive development. It is part of the Language and the Human Lifespan series.
Purpose: The purpose is "to present the latest research on bilingualism from this broader perspective, exploring the complex interaction between the acquisition, processing, and use of multiple languages throughout the lifespan and in different sociopolitical contexts and the effects of bilingualism on some nonlinguistic domains such as family functioning, literacy, cognition, and identity, to name a few."
Audience: Although no audience is specified, this book would benefit researchers and psychologists, as well as graduate students. Elena Nicoladis, a professor at the University of Alberta focuses her research on language acquisition in children and the relation of manual gestures and language use. Simona Montanari, associate professor at California State University, researches the acquisition of phonology, lexicon, morphosyntax, and communicative competence in multiple languages. Contributors are from the U.S., Canada, Hungary, Singapore, and the Netherlands.
Features: Section I explores early bilingualism, noting that bilingual infants do not differ in most speech perception milestones and code-switching between English and another language does not significantly affect English receptive and expressive competency. The next section, on bilingualism across the lifespan, notes the variability in the language experience of bilingual children, especially in terms of vocabulary acquisition and syntax. If children learn a second language in infancy, there is fluent speech and easy language processing, and studies show that bilingual students achieve at grade level or above in English and their second language. Learning two languages also helps increase executive functions and bilingual individuals have two different ways of understanding the world. Learning a second language later in life can add to cognitive reserve. The book ends with future challenges in the field, and suggests that research should focus on psychophysiology of infants learning a second language, especially if a cognitive disability exists. The book is not easy to read without a basic foundation in language acquisition, although figures and tables help clarify concepts.
Assessment: Written by an international collection of experts, this book is useful because of the large number of immigrants coming to the U.S. who are bilingual or trilingual, in addition to the minority population already living in this country who speak at least two languages.

Doody's Review Service

The time has come for language researchers to abandon the monolingual model in favor of more inclusive theories of language development and processing that are inclusive of the bilingual experience. Clearly, Bilingualism Across the Lifespan is an essential read for all psycholinguists and developmental psychologists.

PsycCRITIQUES

"Bilingualism Across the Lifespan is an important contribution to the growing literature on the bilingual experience. Compiling 16 chapters of solid literature review, editors Nicoladis and Montanari successfully present the case that bilingualism is not an aberration but rather is well within the normal range of human experience." David Ludden in PsycCRITIQUES

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