This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children's vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word-level similarities and language-level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual-level variation in age, exposure, and nontarget language proficiency. Children…

Recent decades have seen an increase in research informing our understanding of the complex ways in which bilingual development is shaped by biological, cognitive, and behavioral factors. We investigate the predictors that shape, drive, and constrain the development of the first language (L1) of bilinguals, focusing on 92 Turkish-English bilingual…

Language mixing in a given class is often avoided in bilingual education because of the generally held belief that "one subject" should be taught in only "one language" and "one person" should stick to "one language" in order to minimize confusion. Here, we compared the effects of mixing two languages and…

We report a classroom experiment directed at increasing lexical fluency in writing. Participants were 107 Dutch students in bilingual (EFL) education (Grades 10 and 11). According to current theories of writing such fluency allows writers to devote more attention to higher order aspects of text production, such as idea generation, selection and…

This study examined bilingual children's performance in reading Persian and English at grades one, three, and six. Indications are that the bilingual children performed not quite as well as their monolingual counterparts in either of the languages despite the high degree of variation among the subjects. (Author/POP)

The French language competence of two groups of English-speaking pupils who are educated via French was investigated. Third and fifth grade English-speaking pupils were compared with French-speaking children of the same age. Results of the study are discussed. (Author/RM)

A study of the French immersion program in Quebec, in which English reading is introduced in some schools at Grade 2 and in some at Grade 3. The stage at which English reading was first taught was found not to affect reading grade level. (Author/RM)

Examination of a second grade additive-bilingual (Spanish-immersion) classroom, compared to a monolingual classroom for nonverbal problem-solving and native-language development, found significant differences in problem solving in favor of the bilingual class and no significant differences in native-language development. (46 references) (Author/CB)

In this longitudinal study in which a second language was used as the sole or major medium of instruction, the experimental group performed as well as or better than the control groups with respect to language skills, academic skills and cognitive development. Pupils could also communicate effectively in their second language. (AG)

The school performance of pupils in grades K-2 of the French immersion program in operation in Ottawa public schools is evaluated in comparison with that of pupils in the regular English program. (Author/RM)

Presents results of the fourth evaluation of trilingual school programs in French, Hebrew, and English being offered on an experimental basis in several elementary schools in Montreal. (Author/AM)

This article is based on current research being undertaken in an African high school in the Republic of South Africa. The subjects for this research are Zulu-speaking pupils, average age sixteen years, who have received eight years of formal instruction in English. They are being tested in their ninth year of schooling (Standard Seven) when…

Reports the results of a study examining the effect of one year's attendance in a French language immersion program on the intelligence and self-esteem of six year olds. (AM)