Languages differ in their realization of the subject argument: non-null-subject languages, like English, require subjects to be phonologically overt; rather, null-subject languages, like Greek, allow the subject to be overt or null. This cross-linguistic difference can lead to the transfer of grammatical properties across languages during…

Assessing vocabulary knowledge is an important part of establishing language proficiency in bilingual children. The crosslinguistic lexical tasks (CLTs) provide a framework for testing vocabulary development in three-to-six year-olds using a standard procedure and comparable items for multiple languages. This study describes the development of the…

In second language acquisition, it is well known that an early age of onset and an extensive amount of naturalistic input are key elements promoting successful learning outcomes. What is less well known is what outcomes we can expect when the main source of these elements is full-immersion schooling, defined for the purposes of this study as a…

This study evaluates the extent to which syntactic awareness contributes to reading comprehension in English-French bilinguals, considering both the potential for a direct relation, as well as an indirect one, through word reading. Participants were 146 first-grade students enrolled in early French immersion programs in Canada. While the children…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the predictive value of a dynamic test of English and French lexical specificity on at-risk reading classification in 13 at-risk and 44 not at-risk emerging English (L1)-French (L2) bilingual Grade 1 children (M = 75.87 months, SD = 3.18) enrolled in an early French immersion program in Canada.…

Although English-Chinese bilingual development has been studied in community contexts, it has not been adequately addressed in the K-12 Chinese immersion classrooms despite the increasing number of Chinese immersion programs across the United States. To inform effective pedagogies in Chinese immersion classrooms, this study reports on a nine-month…

This study documents the notion of unilateral translanguaging--the configuration of translanguaging spaces to disproportionately privilege a dominant language or its speakers. We analyze four teachers' translanguaging practices in a Portuguese-English two-way immersion (TWI) program in the United States. Rather than focusing on whether and how…

Working memory (WM) is a recognised component of executive function and has undergone scrutiny in terms of bilingual and monolingual performance comparisons. Research to date, however, has not consistently replicated the presence of bilingual advantage. The present study examined short-term (STM) and WM in immersion-educated children and a matched…

In several studies it is highlighted that the early acquisition of a language in the home results in phonetic and phonological benefits, and that it is not uncommon for early learners to achieve native-like pronunciation in their heritage language. However, most of these studies have been carried out with bilinguals. The present contribution aims…

Previous studies have shown that immersion students tend to speak the majority language during peer interactions, regardless of the language of instruction or their dominant language. Researchers have argued that the societal status of the majority language presents an obstacle to providing equitable support for both languages of instruction. To…

Spanish-speaking parents choose to enroll their children in either an English only or English-Spanish dual immersion program when presented with both choices. This ethnographic study explored parent's perceptions of the purpose, advantages, and disadvantages of learning in school in English only or in a dual English-Spanish. Through focus group…

This study builds on previous work to examine parent reasons for enrolling their children in a two-way immersion (TWI) charter school. This work goes beyond ethno linguistic background variables (language, ethnicity), to include other key variables such as education level, income, religion, household distance from school, and family structure.…

Forty initially English-dominant Latino students in four 90:10 Spanish two-way dual-immersion programs and 62 of their peers in mainstream English programs were studied to find out if their attitudes toward Spanish and Spanish-dominant individuals differ. Significant differences were found on many variables, with two-way dual-immersion students…

This paper reports the fifth-year results of a study comparing the English and Spanish language and reading performance of Spanish-dominant children randomly assigned beginning in kindergarten to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) or Structured English Immersion (SEI). This is the first randomized study to compare TBE and SEI reading…

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…