Research on monolingual children has shown that listening comprehension is predicted by a range of language and cognitive skills; less is known about predictors of listening comprehension in bilingual children and about the role of language input. This study presents longitudinal data on predictors of English listening comprehension in 100…

This study aimed to test three competing hypotheses concerning the strength of the cross-language relationship in listening comprehension proficiency in emergent bilinguals: Cummins's developmental linguistic interdependence hypothesis, Proctor, August, Snow, and Barr's interdependence continuum hypothesis, and Goodrich, Lonigan, Kleuver, and…

It is unknown if the developmental path of antonym knowledge in deaf children increases continuously with age and correlates with reading comprehension, as it does in hearing children. In the current study we tested 564 students aged 4-18 on a receptive multiple-choice American Sign Language (ASL) antonym test. A subgroup of 138 students aged 7-18…

Although statistical learning and language have been assumed to be intertwined, this theoretical presupposition has rarely been tested empirically. The present study investigates the relationship between statistical learning and language using a within-subject design embedded in an individual-differences framework. Participants were administered…

All natural languages rely on sentence-level form-meaning associations (i.e., linking rules) to encode propositional content about who did what to whom. Although these associations are recognized as foundational in many different theoretical frameworks (Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Lidz, Gleitman, & Gleitman, 2003; Pinker, 1984, 1989) and are--at least…

The experiment investigated the benefit to second language (L2) sentence comprehension of priming word meanings with brief visual exposure to first language (L1) translation equivalents. Native English speakers learning Mandarin evaluated the validity of aurally presented Mandarin sentences. For selected words in half of the sentences there was…

This study investigates knowledge of gender agreement in Spanish L2 learners and heritage speakers, who differ in age and context/mode of acquisition. On some current theoretical accounts, persistent difficulty with grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition is due to age. These accounts predict that heritage speakers should be more accurate on…

This study investigated the relationship of first language (L1) skills in elementary school and second language (L2) learning in high school. Students classified as high-, average-, and low-proficiency L2 learners were compared on L1 achievement measures of reading, spelling, vocabulary, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension…

Studies employed detailed discourse analysis techniques to examine Montreal nursing students' comprehension of texts in both their first and second languages. The results suggest that the use of second-language production tends to underestimate and distort second-language comprehension, at least at intermediate levels of second-language…

Examined the influence of the social use and the history of acquisition of Euskera on comprehension and recall of two versions (Euskera-Castilian) of a scientific text read by bilingual high school and college students. Results suggested that both extensive social use and an active history of acquisition of a language improve the level of…

The comprehension processing strategies of 15 monolingual English and 8 bilingual French native speakers were compared with those of 112 second-language learners of French, using stimuli containing word order and clitic pronoun cues in French. Results indicated differential dependence on cue use by native speakers. (Contains 97 references.)…

Research measured grade 5-7 children (n=73) for intelligence; reading comprehension and both static and working memory in the first (L1) and second language (L2); and linguistic knowledge in L1. Results support the notion that increased speed of basic processing in L2 facilitates higher-level processes involved in linguistic and oral communication…

Reports on an experimental investigation of the effects of a systematic, story-reading-aloud program on some language variables in preschool and first-grade children. Results indicate that both age groups significantly increased their language comprehension and expressions when listening to stories read aloud, either at home or at school. (25…