Examines the simultaneous development of two linguistic competences in the bilingual child. Special attention is devoted to the role of functional categories in the development patterns attested, and a position is taken that is intermediate between two hypotheses: the strong hypothesis and the weak hypothesis. Childhood bilingualism is viewed as a…

Interpreters working in southern Florida courts are witnessing the genesis and proliferation of a non-standard Spanish variety due to the constant interaction of Spanish and English. Interpreters' ability to interpret "Spanglish" and to deal effectively with other code-switching is essential to achieving the communicative competence…

A description is given of a model of the bilingual speaker. The model is based on Levelt's (1989) "speaking model," which sketches a framework in which a number of highly autonomous information processing components are postulated. (56 references) (JL)

Examines two works, "Pnin" (1957) and "Pale Fire" (1962), by writer Vladimir Nabokov, a polyglot with strong metalinguistic awareness. Shows how Nabokov used a polylinguistic matrix to create a subtext partially accessible to monoglots but only fully comprehensible to those who know several languages, literatures and histories.…

Proposes that interlanguage constructions are driven by different types of morphemes, and argues that the reason why morphemes are not acquired at the same rate is that they are projected differently from the mental lexicon. Claims that early IL forms are the consequences of the learner's incomplete acquisition of the abstract lexical entries of…

Explores whether the functional element effect (Muysken, 1997), often observed in production, is replicated in on-line comprehension results. Compared results of published frequency counts involving Spanish-English code switches with comprehension-timed experimental results. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the relationship between a child's degree of bilingualism and features of parental input. Seeks to demonstrate that parental discourse strategies have a direct bearing on the levels of mixing present in a child's utterances in his weaker language (English). (Author/VWL)

Discusses the incidence of codeswitching in primary schools in South Africa and examines the speakers' motivations for employing codeswitching. The discussion is informed by current theoretical frameworks in codeswitching research. Implications of codeswitching for education in South Africa are considered. (Author/VWL)

Deals with two compromise strategies: (1) embedded language islands (EL Islands), and (2) "bare forms" in code switching (CS) within the projection of complementizer. These elements are discussed within the framework of the Matrix Language Frame Model. Shows how this model provides an explanatory account for the occurrence of both EL…

This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a project to support the learning of the mother tongue by children aged 4-8 years. The aim of the project was to: actively involve and engage children with learning their mother tongue for functional use; involve parents in the learning process and support them in doing so; and increase…

"Iranian Journal of Language Studies" ("IJLS") is devoted to all areas of language and linguistics. Its aim is to present work of current interest in all areas of language study. No particular linguistic theories or scientific trends are favored: scientific quality and scholarly standing are the only criteria applied in the…

This study is built upon an understanding of a wide range of variables including foreign language education in Turkey, the sociolinguistic profile of English, the phenomena of code-switching, language transfer (in particular second language transfer in third language production), teaching of a second foreign language after English, plurilingualism…

Despite individual differences, all bilinguals share the ability to act in their native language, in their second language, and to switch back and forth between the two languages they know (Van Hell, 1998). Chinese is the largest Asian American ethnic group in the United States. Their use of code-switching is an increasingly important issue in…

The focus of this paper is on speakers' rationalisations of their everyday linguistic choices as members of a multilingual academic department in the US. Given the monolingual macro-context, the myriad of native languages spoken by participants, and the professional stake in language competence, the question of how speakers arrive at language…

This article focuses on the identity accounts of a group of Chinese children who attend a heritage language school. Bakhtin's concepts of ideological becoming, and authoritative and internally persuasive discourse, frame our exploration. Taking a dialogic view of language and learning raises questions about schools as socializing spaces and…