Doctoral Degrees (General Linguistics)
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Browsing Doctoral Degrees (General Linguistics) by Subject "Bilingualism"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemEffects of the second language on the first : investigating the development of 'conceptual fluency' of bilinguals in a tertiary education context(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) Oostendorp, Marcelyn Camereldia Antonette; Anthonissen, Christine; Van Dyk, T.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Scineces. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the effect of the increased use of a second language (L2) (English) as language of teaching and learning on the bilingual individual in a specific bilingual higher education context. The specific interest is in the development of conceptual fluency, and the role that bilingualism and the increased exposure to an L2 in a teaching and learning context plays in such development. In order to serve the interest of the study, the theoretical framework includes theories developed in language and cognition, bilingualism and cross-linguistic influence. The theoretical stance that is taken in this thesis is one that: recognises that bilingual individuals cannot be expected to exhibit the same kind of linguistic and conceptual knowledge as monolinguals, investigates the possibility that language can affect certain aspects of cognition, acknowledges that bilingual individuals themselves can contribute to the knowledge about the bilingual mind. The participants in the study are L1 speakers of Afrikaans who finished their secondary schooling in Afrikaans. At university they are increasingly exposed to more English as language of teaching and learning than in previous formal education. The effects of the increased use of English on conceptual fluency, academic achievement and self-perception of language proficiency were investigated. The study used university records, language tests and interviews to collect data. No concrete evidence could be found that English has a significantly positive or negative effect on 'conceptual fluency', academic achievement or self-perception of language proficiency. The study however provided valuable information about how bilinguals use the languages they have in their repertoires. The findings from the study suggest that increased exposure to an L2 leads to a unique form of language competence. This 'multi-competence' enables the participants in the study to use both languages in the understanding and learning of concepts in their respective fields of study. Thus this dissertation provides evidence that bilinguals can transfer knowledge and skills between the languages they know. Theories developed by Cook (1999, 2003) and Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008), that suggest transfer is bidirectional, is partly supported by the findings of the study. The study has various implications for the field of bilingualism in education. It illustrates how a multilingual context such as the one we have in South Africa complicates the use of certain methodologies and theoretical frameworks. This also means that models of bilingual education designed elsewhere cannot be implemented in the South African context without considered modification.
- ItemPredictive variables in lifelong bilingualism : an exploratory study probing the effects of L2 English on L1 Afrikaans syntax(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Van Heukelum, Marie-Louise; Biberauer, Theresa; Bylund, Emanuel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This exploratory study is concerned with effects of the second language on the first (EotSLotF). It specifically aims to probe the extent to which it is possible to establish whether and, if so, how the morphosyntactic system of Afrikaans as a first language (L1) changes under the influence of English as a second language (L2) as a result of language exposure and use across the lifespan. Research focussing on EotSLotF is typically concerned with either heritage language (HL) development or L1 attrition. The present study investigates variables typical of both HL development (i.e. exposure/use in childhood/adolescence) and L1 attrition (i.e. exposure/use in adulthood), thus bringing these two sub-fields together in an attempt to deepen our understanding of how L1 Afrikaans develops under the influence of L2 English across the lifespan. Tsimpli (2014) argues for a three-way distinction in L1 grammatical development between early, late and very late properties: early properties turn on narrow syntax, while late and very late properties require syntax- and potentially language-external mapping. Similarly, studies of L1 attrition show crucial differences between early/narrow-syntax and late/interface- driven properties: the former are suggested to be less vulnerable to attrition as they incur fewer processing-related challenges. This observation is central to the so-called Interface Hypothesis (IH; Sorace & Filiaci, 2006 et seq.). This study tests the early-acquired/interface-internal versus late-acquired/interface-external asymmetry in Afrikaans-English bilinguals, a language combination and population not previously investigated within the IH framework. 166 participants in South Africa and the diaspora completed (i) a language background questionnaire, (ii) an acceptability judgement task (AJT), and (iii) a contextualised acceptability judgement task (CAJT). Five syntactic properties of Afrikaans, which differ with respect to their sensitive periods and their relationship to the interfaces, were investigated: (i) Verb Second (V2), (ii) basic sentential negation, (iii) double negation (DN), (iv) pronominal scrambling, and (v) discourse-driven scrambling. The study also takes into account sociolinguistic variation: both what is prescriptively sanctioned in Standard Afrikaans (StdA) and what is permissible in Modern Spoken Afrikaans (MsA) is investigated. The results reveal that, overall, variation indicative of EotSLotF appears to be minimal in the population under investigation. The earlier-acquired properties of the narrow syntax/internal interfaces, while not impervious to the effects of differing amounts of L1/L2 exposure and use, in particular exhibit remarkable stability. The MsA judgement patterns suggest that more frequent exposure to and use of Afrikaans is facilitative in predicting “target- like” behaviour. Where variation indicative of EotSLotF is evidenced, the patterns are, in some cases, similar to those seen in traditional HS populations. The results also suggest, however, that language-specific sociolinguistic and language-internal factors may be centrally relevant. The picture that emerges is that the IH is a useful framework for probing L1 (in)stability under the influence of an L2 in populations resembling the Afrikaans-English type. However, beyond sensitive-period and interface considerations, language-specific factors appear to play a non-trivial role in the more fine-grained shaping of the L1 grammar. These factors therefore appear to warrant special attention in research concerned with EotSLotF.
- ItemSyntactic processing in English–Afrikaans bilinguals(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Berghoff, Robyn; Bylund, Emanuel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A fundamental question in the study of human language is why, compared to the acquisition of a first language (L1), second language (L2) acquisition should have such widely varying outcomes. Relatedly, there is a question regarding the upper limits on L2 acquisition, namely whether it is possible for learners who have not acquired a language from birth to perform identically to native speakers of that language. Experimental psycholinguistic techniques offer insight into the moment-by-moment processes involved in language comprehension and production, and in recent years have increasingly been employed to investigate L2 and bilingual processing, both in their own right and in relation to L1 processing. In this dissertation, such techniques are employed to investigate L2 English syntactic processing among early L2 acquirers (L1 Afrikaans) who receive extensive naturalistic exposure to the L2 and have attained high proficiency therein. Second language populations with this combination of features, each of which has been shown to affect processing outcomes, are understudied in the literature, as are highly linguistically diverse settings such as South Africa. There is thus little information available regarding the consequences of this particular constellation of individual- and environmental-level characteristics on ultimate levels of L2 attainment. The studies presented in the dissertation focus on three syntactic phenomena that have been shown to be processed in a non-nativelike fashion by L2 speakers. These are temporarily ambiguous or so-called garden-path sentences, pronouns, and long-distance wh-dependencies. The techniques of self-paced reading and eye-tracking-while-reading were utilized to obtain real-time processing data. These data were supplemented by measures of L2 proficiency and language background. First-language speakers of South African English were employed as a comparison group. The findings show L1–L2 convergence for a subset of the L2 participants – those with a relatively earlier age of L2 acquisition – in the garden-path sentence processing experiment. In the pronoun resolution experiment, evidence of cross-linguistic influence at the verb level is observed, which subsequently affects processing at the sentence level. Finally, in the processing of long-distance wh-dependencies, the strategies employed by the L1 and L2 speakers differ, with awareness of an abstract syntactic cue being evident in the L1 but not the L2 speakers. The results provide insight into the implications of the South African language acquisition and use contexts for L2 development. A more general consideration of these implications as they relate to other multilingual settings contributes to our knowledge of L2 attainment in linguistically heterogeneous environments.