Postsecondary education in Canada is mostly provided in institutions that offer courses and programs in one of the two official languages, English or French. Is there a link between the language of instruction of the postsecondary institutions attended by students and the language choices they make in the workplace after their studies? Since the…

This chapter explores the concept of a Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) in a Canadian context and links it to family language policy (FLP) and language of schooling. The focus is on the province of Ontario where English is the majority language and French a minority language, along with various other minority languages, including…

This study evaluates the extent to which syntactic awareness contributes to reading comprehension in English-French bilinguals, considering both the potential for a direct relation, as well as an indirect one, through word reading. Participants were 146 first-grade students enrolled in early French immersion programs in Canada. While the children…

Bilingual children's dominance can predict a variety of language and cognitive outcomes. The purpose of this study was to test the validity of parents' classifications of 3- to 6-year-old bilingual children's dominance against relative receptive vocabulary scores. In Study 1, the parents' classifications of Mandarin-English bilingual children's…

Most language experiences take place at the level of multiple sentences. However, previous studies of second language (L2) comprehension have typically focused on lexical- and sentence-level processing. Our study addresses this gap by examining auditory discourse comprehension in 32 English/French bilinguals. We tested the prediction of the noisy…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the predictive value of a dynamic test of English and French lexical specificity on at-risk reading classification in 13 at-risk and 44 not at-risk emerging English (L1)-French (L2) bilingual Grade 1 children (M = 75.87 months, SD = 3.18) enrolled in an early French immersion program in Canada.…

Cognates have served as a useful tool for investigating the bilingual lexicon in many studies, but very little research has been carried out on different types of cognates, specifically, partial cognates and their role in cross-linguistic effect. The present study examines cognate effect in the speech production and acceptability judgment of two…

Previous studies have shown that immersion students tend to speak the majority language during peer interactions, regardless of the language of instruction or their dominant language. Researchers have argued that the societal status of the majority language presents an obstacle to providing equitable support for both languages of instruction. To…

According to the critical period hypothesis, the earlier the acquisition of a second language starts, the better. Owing to the plasticity of the brain, up until a certain age a second language can be acquired successfully according to this view. Early second language learners are commonly said to have an advantage over later ones especially in…

This study investigated the perception of Canadian French word-final vowels by English-dominant and French-dominant bilinguals living in Montreal. In a modified identification task, listeners selected the response that rhymed with the target word, embedded in a carrier sentence. Minimal sets of real and nonsense target words were used, contrasting…

This study reconceptualizes the native/nonnative dichotomy and provides a powerful lens to examine linguistic identities. In a study of 25 linguistically diverse teacher candidates in Canada, the respondents' native and nonnative self-ascription and self-assessed level of proficiency was juxtaposed with the judgment of their instructors. This…

Two-year-old bilingual children can show sensitivity to the language choice of their interlocutor, but do not necessarily achieve perfect separation by discourse context, e.g. speaking only French with a French interlocutor; dominance in one language is often cited as a reason for this. In this study we asked whether older bilingual preschoolers…

Whereas in Quebec the use of English is seen as a threat to the French language, English words are often used in France, particularly in advertising. They imply certain values: British words suggest elite status; U.S. ones promise technological progress, freedom, and fun. The adaptation of English words is described. (18 references) (Author/LB)

A method of assessing language dominance using self-reports of language usage in social interaction, language preference in answering a written questionnaire, and language proficiency measured by equivalent tests of linguistic aptitude is outlined. The results of the method's application on francophone ninth and twelfth graders in northeastern…

Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to identify the cultural factors that influence the usage of household French by three French/English bilingual children in Louisiana. Using 24 months of weekly tape recordings of spontaneous dinnertime conversation, a ratio of French to English utterances was calculated, and correlated with…