Strong claims are made regarding the significant role that multiword sequences play in the comprehension and production of speech and writing. Although the literature is replete with research-informed, evidence-based guidelines on how to maximize the learning of such sequences, such guidelines need to be synthesized, analyzed and evaluated for…

This article offers a critical examination of the current practices and beliefs about vocabulary teaching and learning in typical communicative-approach German classrooms. While research on vocabulary acquisition is scarce, frequency dictionaries reveal that current practice is based heavily on the use of concrete, referential lexemes that may be…

This paper sketches a comprehensive framework for modeling and interpreting language contact phenomena, with speakers' bilingual strategies in specific scenarios of language contact as its point of departure. Bilingual strategies are conditioned by social factors, processing constraints of speakers' bilingual competence, and perceived…

Educators often do not recognize biliteracy and bidialectalism in African American Language (AAL) speakers. Chronicling the experiences of twin four/five-year old AAL and emergent Standard English speakers, we discuss the importance of recognizing and building on the routines and identities of African American children and families. We present…

Until recently, the history of debates about language and thought has been a history of thinking of language in the singular. The purpose of this volume is to reverse this trend and to begin unlocking the mysteries surrounding thinking and speaking in bi- and multilingual speakers. If languages influence the way we think, what happens to those who…

The structure of /s/-clusters has been a rather controversial subject due to their structural oddities. Studies on the acquisition of these clusters have contributed to the discussion to validate certain theoretical claims, and sonority-related issues have always been in focus. Cross-linguistic acquisition data from children with phonological…

Examines the structures present in the writing samples of bilingual respondents to written questions in Spanish in order to determine which forms represent a departure from standard Spanish; discusses the patterns that develop; and offers insights into the factors underlying this systemic departure from standard written Spanish. (26 references)…

This book examines how the brain enables people to speak creatively and build up an understanding of language. The discussion looks at the linguistic and neuro-anatomical underpinnings of language and considers how language skills can systematically break down in individuals with different types of brain damage. By studying children with language…

The bilingual speech of members of Spanish, Portuguese, and Algerian communities in France was examined, and a model proposed for classification of code-switching according to speakers' intentions and the dynamics of the interaction. (Author/CB)

Examines the phonetic characteristics of babbling by a pair of fraternal twins raised in a bilingual environment (English/Serbian). The study focused on the basic articulatory form of babbling, the impact of twinship on babbling patterns, and whether effects specific to one or another of the ambient languages could be observed. (30 references)…

Language attrition research usually attempts to elicit all types of usage from speakers of all fluency levels in a dying language in order to abstract changing linguistic patterns from situational variation. Informants adept at hiding their vernacular and improvising in an obsolescing variety are reluctant to admit to such scrutiny. In a…

Research in a Puerto Rican community in New York City was undertaken to explore the language climate in that community, which included the linguistic forms in use, their distribution and functions in daily life, community members' attitudes toward language, and the way in which language phenomena are influenced by various social factors. An…