Perception of American Sign Language (ASL) handshape and place of articulation parameters was investigated in three groups of signers: deaf native signers, deaf non-native signers who acquired ASL between the ages of 10 and 18, and hearing non-native signers who acquired ASL as a second language between the ages of 10 and 26. Participants were…

A survey of 724 families of dual language enrichment students in the South-west USA explored what kinds of families had chosen dual language education for their children and why. Of those parents who chose dual language for their children, 45.4% speak primarily English with their child, while 54.6% speak primarily Spanish. English-dominant parents…

Study abroad (SA) is one of the flagship offerings among United States higher education institutions. Approximately 220,000 students studied abroad in the 2005/2006 academic year, 52.8% of whom studied on programs that lasted eight weeks or less. The effect of these short-term programs on second language development has been little investigated,…

This study examines nine voluntary working relationships or partnerships between tribal education departments (TEDs) and local education agencies supporting American Indian students. Individual profiles describe how each partnership works, focusing primarily on collaborative activities intended to improve education outcomes for American Indian…

The current study investigates the phonemic awareness and nonword processing of English as a foreign language students from Hong Kong and Mainland China, with reference to factors considered the main facilitators of phonemic awareness: written language experience, spoken language experience, and metalinguistic training. The Mainland Chinese…

Infant bilingualism offers a unique opportunity to study the relative effects of language experience and maturation on brain development, with each child serving as his or her own control. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to words were examined in 19- to 22-month-old English-Spanish bilingual toddlers. The children's dominant vs. nondominant…

For immigrants, the acquisition of language, specifically the ability to communicate effectively, is one prerequisite of full integration into the host society. For an adult immigrant second language (L2) learner in Canada, access to opportunities that may enhance communicative ability are often limited to the ESL classroom. However, while…

Patterns of developmental change in phonetic perception are critical to theory development. Many previous studies document a decline in nonnative phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months of age. However, much less experimental attention has been paid to developmental change in native-language phonetic perception over the same time period. We…

Compared phonological awareness of younger prereading children and older literate children from different linguistic backgrounds (Hong Kong and Guangzhou children speaking Chinese and New Zealand children speaking English). Found that both orthographic and spoken language experience affect the development of phonological skills, implying a…

During the summer of 2005, a longtime Japanese teacher at a K-8 school in southwestern Pennsylvania unexpectedly resigned. The school, unable to recruit a new teacher for the 2005-2006 school year, chose to suspend the teaching of Japanese and to establish a committee to examine the foreign language program within the overall school curriculum. In…

Over two decades, six studies evaluated the effects of a home-based early language program on the development of 101 infants. Parents engaged in enrichment activities with their infants over a one-year period that began when the infants were between three and 13 months of age. Participants from families with varied levels of education were…

Describes an experiment to introduce biliteracy development in two Italian-English preschool bilingual children, noting that both children not only learned to read but also improved fluency, production, and receptive language in their weaker language. (CB)

Assessment of two-year-olds' (N=22) acquisition of words for referents of previously learned words indicated that young children found it easier to learn a new word when they were able to contrast its referent with that of a word they already knew. (Author/CB)

Previous research has shown that individual differences in working memory (WM) are highly predictive of a wide range of cognitive behaviours. Until recently, research has focused on monolingual, or undifferentiated, populations. The present research compares metacognitive awareness, as measured by self-ratings of reading, writing, speaking and…

Urges educators to utilize metaphors in language instruction. Two experiments support this position. The results of the first experiment reveal that students learn lexical items more efficiently if presented in metaphors. The results of the second experiment indicate the usefulness of metaphors in developing students' critical thinking. (CFM)