Jeff MacSwan

The architecture of the bilingual language faculty: evidence from intrasentential code switching

In this article, the author addresses the question of how the mind represents two languages in simultaneous bilingualism. Some linguistic theories of intrasentential code switching are reviewed, with a focus on the Minimalist approach of MacSwan (1999b); the author concludes that evidence from code switching suggests that bilinguals have discrete and separate Lexicons for the languages they speak, each with its own internal principles of word formation, as well as separate phonological systems. However, the author argues that computational resources common to the two languages generate monolingual and bilingual syntactic derivations alike. Advantages of the Minimalist Program for the analysis of code switching data are discussed at some length.

The Threshold Hypothesis, Semilingualism, and Other Contributions to a Deficit View of Linguistic Minorities

Although some educational researchers have appealed to “semilingualism” or “limited bilingualism” to explain differences in student achievement among language minority students, in this article the author argues that the construct contributes much more to the malady than the remedy in the education of linguistic minorities. The author reviews four kinds of reputed evidence for semilingualism (from studies of language variation, linguistic structure, school performances, and language loss) and concludes that all of it is either spurious or irrelevant. The author argues that semilingualism is essentially indistinguishable from classical prescriptivism and that Cummins’s Threshold Hypothesis, which incorporates the semilingualism thesis, should be abandoned on empirical, theoretical, and moral grounds. An alternative account of the descriptive facts Cummins sought to explain is presented, and implications for education are discussed.

Codeswitching and generative grammar: A critique of the MLF model and some remarks on “modified minimalism”

This article presents an empirical and theoretical critique of the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model (Myers-Scotton, 1993; Myers-Scotton and Jake, 2001), and includes a response to Jake, Myers-Scotton and Grosss (2002) (JMSG) critique of MacSwan (1999, 2000) and reactions to their revision of the MLF model as a “modified minimalist approach”. The author argues that although a new structural definition of the Matrix Language (ML) makes the MLF model falsifiable, its empirical predictions are inconsistent with the facts of codeswitching (CS). The author also identifies significant theoretical problems associated with the MLF model, and suggests that it be rejected on empirical and theoretical grounds, and on grounds of scientific parsimony. In addition, the author contends that JMSGs critique of the Minimalist approach to CS rests on conceptually significant misreadings of published research in CS and in the theory of syntax, and that JMSG fail to motivate their central claim, namely, that a Minimalist approach to CS cannot succeed without incorporating the ML construct. It is further shown that an analysis of the CS facts which JMSG consider as their test case may be straightforwardly pursued within the Minimalist Program without appealing to the ML construct or any other aspect of the MLF model. The author concludes with the recommendation that research on CS depart from the formulation of general CS-specific constraints like the MLF model and engage in the task of analyzing language contact phenomena in terms of independently motivated constructs of linguistic theory.

Learning English Bilingually: Age of Onset of Exposure and Rate of Acquisition Among English Language Learners in a Bilingual Education Program

Abstract This article asks whether children enrolled in a bilingual education program learn English in a reasonable amount of time, and whether older children learn English faster than younger children. Children (N = 89) were found to achieve parity with native English speakers in a range of 1 to 6.5 years and in an average of 3.31 years on measures of English language. Indirect comparisons with other data suggest that children in bilingual education programs learn English as fast as or faster than children in all-English programs, and an ANOVA analysis indicates that older school-age children in the sample learn English faster than younger children, F(4, 84) = 9.037, p < .001, adjusted R 2 = .268. The evidence supports the underlying rationale of bilingual education programs; in addition, the authors argue that English-only programs may inhibit successful learning of academic subject matter.

Do Some School-Age Children Have No Language? Some Problems of Construct Validity in the Pre-LAS Espanol.

Abstract This article reports the existence of a large group of students identified as “non-nons,” Spanish-background school-age children living in the United States who are reported to be non-verbal in both English and Spanish, and brings the validity of the “non-non” construct into question. In particular, the authors assess the validity of the Pre- Language Assessment Scales Español (Pre-LAS Español), an oral language assessment that purports to measure oral native language ability in children ages 4 to 6. A dataset of 38,887 students who took the Pre-LAS Español in a large urban school district in 1997 is examined, and questions are raised from internal and external evidence regarding the test’s validity. The authors conclude that there are serious concerns regarding the validity of the test, characterize the “non-non” label as an artifact of poor assessment, and recommend that districts and states reconsider current policy requiring or recommending routine oral native language assessment of language minority students.

Reexamining Identification and Reclassification of English Language Learners: A Critical Discussion of Select State Practices

Abstract In this article, the authors report select results of a national survey of state requirements and recommendations regarding identification and reclassification of English Language Learners (ELLs) conducted in academic year 2001–2002, called the Survey of State Policies for Identification and Reclassification of Limited English Proficient Students. The purpose of the State Survey was twofold: (1) to obtain data regarding current state practices with respect to identification and reclassification of ELLs; and (2) to raise questions regarding the appropriateness of three dominant practices, namely, (a) the use of academic achievement tests for the purpose of identification, (b) routine assessment of childrens oral nativelanguage ability, and (c) the use of cutoff scores in determining identification or reclassification of ELL status. It is argued that such practices may lead to errors in identification and reclassification of ELLs, which in turn may have negative consequences for students.

Modularity and the Facilitation Effect: Psychological Mechanisms of Transfer in Bilingual Students.

This article draws upon recent work in the cognitive neurosciences to suggest that the facilitation effect follows naturally within current psychological theory. A view of the mind as consisting of discrete mental modules, called psychological modularity, is defended with case study evidence of double dissociation. It is argued that transfer of academic subject knowledge occurs in bilingual settings as an epiphenomenon of mental architecture: Because content knowledge is independent of linguistic knowledge, it is accessible to any language or languages a person happens to know. As such, transfer should be seen as a metaphor for a process; it is simply a natural consequence of our mental architecture. Cummins’s developmental interdependence hypothesis, threshold hypothesis, and common underlying proficiency model are discussed. It is concluded that the facilitation effect is derived by the modularity thesis within a framework in which language is viewed as a cognitive domain separate from literacy and school subject matter knowledge.

A Multilingual Perspective on Translanguaging

Translanguaging is a new term in bilingual education; it supports a heteroglossic language ideology, which views bilingualism as valuable in its own right. Some translanguaging scholars have questioned the existence of discrete languages, further concluding that multilingualism does not exist. I argue that the political use of language names can and should be distinguished from the social and structural idealizations used to study linguistic diversity, favoring what I call an integrated multilingual model of individual bilingualism, contrasted with the unitary model and dual competence model. I further distinguish grammars from linguistic repertoires, arguing that bilinguals, like monolinguals, have a single linguistic repertoire but a richly diverse mental grammar. I call the viewpoint developed here a multilingual perspective on translanguaging.

Naturalistic and Elicited Data in Grammatical Studies of Codeswitching

Abstract The authors discuss the merits of naturalistic and elicited data in the study of grammatical aspects of codeswitching. Three limitations of naturalistic data are discussed, including the problems of negative evidence, induction, and unidentified performance error. The authors recommend the use of language surveys as a tool for overcoming limitations of elicited grammaticality judgment data.

GCS: A grammatical coding system for natural language data

This article presents a rationale and description of GCS, or Grammatical Coding System. GCS is a general-use grammatical coding system designed for research on the language of normal and language-impaired children or adults and is especially useful for studies in which a relatively large number of participants are involved. It implements recent theoretical developments in linguistics to characterize development and/or language disorder in children and adults. In addition to the coding system, a computerized method for reading coded transcripts and calculating relevant descriptive statistics is presented. A full coded transcription is included in the Appendix. A detailed GCS manual may be downloaded fromwww.psychonomic.org/archive.