NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Audience
Laws, Policies, & Programs
What Works Clearinghouse Rating
Showing all 11 results Save | Export
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Joan Birulés; Ferran Pons; Laura Bosch – International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2024
Successful language learning in bilinguals requires the differentiation of two language systems. The capacity to discriminate rhythmically close languages has been reported in 4-month-olds using auditory-only stimuli. This research offers a novel perspective on early language discrimination using audiovisual material. Monolingual and bilingual…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Second Language Learning, Infants, Bilingualism
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Yang, Meiling; Wang, Yunqi – Language Learning and Development, 2023
How does linguistic structure affect children's developing cardinal number knowledge? The bootstrapping theory proposes that children might use syntactic information provided by known words such as quantifiers to bootstrap the meanings of unfamiliar words such as number words. Prior studies of numeral and quantifier development have indicated that…
Descriptors: Correlation, Numeracy, Linguistic Theory, Syntax
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Joanine Hester Nel; Frenette Southwood; Michelle Jennifer White – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2024
The acquisition of passives is well-studied in many languages, with evidence of crosslinguistic differences in the age at which passives are acquired. The aim of this study is to add to the existing knowledge of child acquisition of passives by providing data from Afrikaans and isiXhosa, two under-researched and typologically different languages…
Descriptors: African Languages, Child Language, Language Acquisition, Language Classification
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Han, Mengru; de Jong, Nivja H.; Kager, René – Language Learning and Development, 2021
Previous research indicates that infant-directed speech (IDS) is usually slower than adult-directed speech (ADS) and mothers prefer placing a focused word in isolation or utterance-final position in (English) IDS, which may benefit word learning. This study investigated the speaking rate and word position of IDS in two typologically-distinct…
Descriptors: Infants, Language Acquisition, Speech Communication, Mothers
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Smolík, Filip; Bláhová, Veronika – First Language, 2021
The early use of first and second person pronouns has been viewed as a sign of emerging social understanding. However, it may also depend on general language development: pronouns do not appear among the first words children acquire. In addition, some languages conjugate verbs for person, and the inflections may thus show similar relations to…
Descriptors: Slavic Languages, Form Classes (Languages), Language Acquisition, Interpersonal Competence
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Garcia, Rowena; Roeser, Jens; Höhle, Barbara – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2019
It is a common finding across languages that young children have problems in understanding patient-initial sentences. We used Tagalog, a verb-initial language with a reliable voice-marking system and highly frequent patient voice constructions, to test the predictions of several accounts that have been proposed to explain this difficulty: the…
Descriptors: Language Acquisition, Tagalog, Cues, Morphology (Languages)
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Sultana, Asifa; Stokes, Stephanie; Klee, Thomas; Fletcher, Paul – First Language, 2016
This study examines the morphosyntactic development, specifically verb morphology, of typically-developing Bangla-speaking children between the ages of two and four. Three verb forms were studied: the Present Simple, the Present Progressive and the Past Progressive. The study was motivated by the observations that reliable language-specific…
Descriptors: Morphology (Languages), Accuracy, Indo European Languages, Syntax
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Slavkov, Nikolay – Second Language Research, 2015
This article investigates spoken productions of complex questions with long-distance wh-movement in the L2 English of speakers whose first language is (Canadian) French or Bulgarian. Long-distance wh-movement is of interest as it can be argued that it poses difficulty in acquisition due to its syntactic complexity and related high processing load.…
Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Native Language, Linguistic Theory
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Armon-Lotem, Sharon; Haman, Ewa; de López, Kristine Jensen; Smoczynska, Magdalena; Yatsushiro, Kazuko; Szczerbinski, Marcin; van Hout, Angeliek; Dabašinskiene, Ineta; Gavarró, Anna; Hobbs, Erin; Kamandulyte-Merfeldiene, Laura; Katsos, Napoleon; Kunnari, Sari; Nitsiou, Chrisa; Olsen, Lone Sundahl; Parramon, Xavier; Sauerland, Uli; Torn-Leesik, Reeli; van der Lely, Heather – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2016
This cross-linguistic study evaluates children's understanding of passives in 11 typologically different languages: Catalan, Cypriot Greek, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Lithuanian, and Polish. The study intends to determine whether the reported gaps between the comprehension of active and passive and between short and…
Descriptors: Language Research, Form Classes (Languages), Language Processing, Language Acquisition
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; da Silva, Carlos Fernandes – International Journal of Multilingualism, 2016
Heritage language speakers struggle in European classrooms with insufficient material provided for second language (SL) learning and assessment. Considering the amount of instruments and pertinent studies in English SL, immigrant students are better prepared than their peers in Romance language settings. This study investigates how factors such as…
Descriptors: Immigrants, Second Language Learning, Romance Languages, Morphology (Languages)
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Rast, Rebekah – International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL), 2010
This paper examines cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition relative to language typology, psychotypology and proficiency level. In particular, it observes how learners make use of their background languages when faced with a language they know little to nothing about. The participants, native French speakers with English as a…
Descriptors: Sentences, Intervals, Second Language Learning, Language Classification