Michael Daller

Transfer of conceptualization patterns in bilinguals: The construal of motion events in Turkish and German

In the present article we provide evidence for the occurrence of transfer of conceptualization patterns in narratives of two German–Turkish bilingual groups. All bilingual participants grew up in Germany, but only one group is still resident in Germany (n = 49). The other, the returnees, moved back to Turkey after having lived in Germany for thirteen years (n = 35). The study is based on the theoretical framework for conceptual transfer outlined in Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008) and on the typology of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages developed by Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000a, b) and Slobin (1987, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006). In the present study we provide evidence for the hypothesis that language structure affects the organization of information structure at the level of the Conceptualizer, and show that bilingual speakers’ conceptualization of motion events is influenced by the dominant linguistic environment in both languages (German for the group in Germany and Turkish for the returnees). The returnees follow the Turkish blueprints for the conceptualization of motion, in both Turkish and German event construals, whereas the German-resident bilinguals follow the German blueprints, when speaking German as well as Turkish. We argue that most of the patterns found are the result of transfer of conceptualization patterns from the dominant language of the environment.

Vocabulary Studies in First and Second Language Acquisition

This book presents recent original research on vocabulary that explores common themes and current issues in both first and second language over a wide range of ages and stages. A key feature is that, in every case, the issues have implications for educational practice and policy.

Language dominance in Turkish–German bilinguals: methodological aspects of measurements in structurally different languages

The purpose of this study is to establish measures of language dominance in bilinguals who speak structurally different languages, in our case German and Turkish, with tools that are based on fluency and oral proficiency. A ‘balanced’ bilingual with equal proficiency in two (or more) languages is hardly ever found (e.g. Grosjean, 1982; Olsson, & Sullivan, 2005) but the identification of the dominant language is a huge methodological problem, especially in studies of structurally different languages (see Daller, van Hout, & Treffers-Daller, 2003). The participants in the present study are a group of Turkish—German bilinguals who grew up in Germany and returned to Turkey during their school career, the so-called ‘returnees’ (n = 60), and a group of Turkish secondary school students who grew up in Turkey and learned German as an L2, the so-called control group (n = 55). We firstly establish the language dominance of the two groups with a C-test. We then use oral picture descriptions in both languages to measure a variety of fluency measures, both manually and using scripts written in ‘Praat’ (Boersma & Weenink, 2007). On the basis of these scores, we are able to develop measures of fluency that correlate highly with the C-test scores and have a highly predictive value in a logistic regression in the prediction of group membership (returnee or member of the control group). We conclude that this corroborates the validity of the measures. Overall we conclude that it is possible to develop measures of language dominance based on fluency and overall oral proficiency.

Predicting international student study success

Abstract More and more students study outside their own countries and by 2020 a rise to 7 million international students is predicted world-wide. The present study investigates the level of language proficiency that is necessary for international students to study successfully at universities in English-speaking countries and how this proficiency can be measured. Standardized tests such as the International English Language Test System (IELTS) or the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are carefully developed and constantly scrutinized by the research community, and they provide a valid cut-off point for entry to university, but they do not seem to be good predictors of study success on their own. This is mainly due to the fact that most students who enter universities with these tests have similar scores which leave researchers with a truncated sample where correlations between these test scores and study success, e.g. marks obtained after one year, are necessarily low. The present study investigates alternative measures of language proficiency that can predict the study success of international students. In a longitudinal study with 74 international students a battery of language tests was used at the beginning of the academic year to predict the average marks that the students obtained at the end of the academic year. Several multiple regressions show that between 33% and 96% of the marks can be predicted with tests based mainly on vocabulary knowledge. The findings of the present study have implications for decisions on admission criteria and for language support provision in addition to subject specific learning. There may be many factors other than language proficiency that influence study success of international students such as cultural factors, motivation and familiarity with the subject area. However, our findings indicate that language proficiency and especially vocabulary knowledge is the key factor that explains in some cases almost entirely the final marks that the students achieve.

Vocabulary Knowledge and Academic Success: a Study of Chinese Students in UK Higher Education

The number of Chinese students undertaking international education has been increasing steadily over the past decade, and this upward trend is still ongoing (Goh, 2007; TEIU, 2008). Study failure is obviously a major concern for both international students themselves and universities in host countries. Previous attempts to relate the study success of overseas students to their English language proficiency have used scores from standardized tests such as the International English Language Test System (IELTS) or the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Whilst such tests are valid tools as entry tests (Rosenfeld, Oltman and Sheppard, 2004; Taylor and Falvey, 2007), they do not seem to be good predictors of academic success on their own. We therefore tried to find other measures to complement the information provided by IELTS by using data from 23 overseas students from China in the present study. Apart from their IELTS scores, we used two measures of lexical diversity (D and Guiraud) and two measures of lexical sophistication (Lexical Frequency Profile and Guiraud Advanced) based on their written essays. In addition, we employed C-tests which focus on vocabulary but also measure other aspects of foreign language proficiency (Eckes and Grotjahn, 2006). The correlations we found clearly showed that the C-tests focused on lexical sophistication rather than diversity. The present study revealed the C-test to be a powerful tool in that it allowed us to predict over one-third of the variance in the modules failed by the students during their first year in UK higher education (HE).

Ultimate attainment in the use of collocations among heritage speakers of Turkish in Germany and Turkish-German returnees

In this paper we show that heritage speakers and returnees are fundamentally different from the majority of adult second language learners with respect to their use of collocations (Laufer & Waldman, 2011). We compare the use of lexical collocations involving yap- “do” and et- “do” among heritage speakers of Turkish in Germany (n = 45) with those found among Turkish returnees (n = 65) and Turkish monolinguals (n = 69). Language use by returnees is an understudied resource although this group can provide crucial insights into the specific language ability of heritage speakers. Results show that returnees who had been back for one year avoid collocations with yap- and use some hypercorrect forms in et-, whilst returnees who had been back for seven years at the time of recording produce collocations that are quantitatively and qualitatively similar to those of monolingual speakers of Turkish. We discuss implications for theories of ultimate attainment and incomplete acquisition in heritage speakers.

The measurement of bilingual proficiency: introduction:

The focus of this special issue is on the measurement of bilingual ability in bilinguals who speak structurally different languages. Measuring bilingual ability is of crucial importance for researchers working on almost any topic in bilingualism, for example for studies of bilingual first-language acquisition, language processing in bilinguals, code-switching or of crosslinguistic influence in bilinguals and L2-users. Most researchers working in these areas want to know whether their informants are balanced bilinguals or dominant in one or the other of their languages, as language ability affects, for example, the processes engaged during the planning of utterances (Kroll, Bobb, & Wodnieczka, 2006, p. 128), the processes involved in lexical retrieval (Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2008), the type and directionality of code-switching (Lanza, 2004), and the directionality of transfer in bilinguals or L2-users (Daller, Treffers-Daller, & Furman, 2011). For these reasons, several researchers have recently called for more detailed information on bilinguals’ ability in their languages and for tests to measure this. Dunn and Fox Tree (2009), for example, developed a short questionnaire that can be used to place participants on a gradient scale of language dominance, which is an important contribution to the field, as they show the questionnaire to be a viable measure of participants’ production and comprehension in their two languages. For many studies it is however necessary to operationalize language dominance in more detail and to obtain precise measurements of particular aspects of informants’ ability, for example, a measure of their vocabulary, of their syntactic knowledge or of informants’ fluency to complement the information that can be obtained through a questionnaire. Operationalizing language dominance is highly relevant in a number of areas such as educational research, applied linguistics and psycholinguistics but it is notoriously difficult to achieve since many bilinguals, in particular those living in an immigrant setting, use in their everyday life two or more languages with large structural differences (e.g. French/Arabic, English/Mandarin, Dutch/Turkish and other pairs). It is a particular challenge to measure bilingual ability in these language pairs, because it is difficult to ensure that measures of, for example, syntactic proficiency are comparable across the languages. A thorough methodological approach is necessary in order to avoid flawed measures, which could have severe consequences for bilingual subjects in their school or academic career. The authors of this special issue face this challenge and argue for reliable and valid measures from very different angles: Special issue introduction

The Threshold Hypothesis revisited: Bilingual lexical knowledge and non-verbal IQ development

Aims and objectives: The threshold hypothesis is one of the most influential theoretical frameworks on the relation between bilingualism and cognition. This hypothesis suggests a bilingual cognitive disadvantage at a low proficiency level and a cognitive advantage at a high proficiency level in both languages. The aim of our study is to contribute to the operationalisation of the threshold hypothesis by analysing parental support for L1 and its influence on the cognitive development of bilingual children. Data and analysis: We analyse data from 100 Turkish–English successive bilingual children and from their parents, and investigate the relation between bilingualism and cognition. The data from the children are scores on receptive and productive vocabulary tests and a non-verbal intelligence test (Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices). In addition, the parents filled in a questionnaire on language use at home and a questionnaire on language dominance. Findings and conclusions: Our study shows a bilingual advantage for those children whose parents use more L1 at home and have higher dominance scores for L1. These children outperform the monolingual control groups in our study in terms of non-verbal intelligence scores. Originality: The originality of the present study resides in the fact that, to our knowledge, for the first time parental support for L1 and dominance in L1 is linked to the cognitive development of the children. Significance and implications: In this way, we can operationalise the threshold hypothesis and get further insights in the relation between bilingualism and cognition. This will allow informed decisions on the use and support for L1 in bilingual families. Limitations: One limitation of the present study is the fact that our sample is only from middle-class families, and conclusions about other bilingual settings are therefore limited.

Predicting study success of international students

Abstract The study success of international students in Higher Education (HE) in English speaking countries has been a major concern for both the students and the host universities. However, studies on the predictive validity of established language tests, such as IELTS, are inconclusive (for an overview see Daller and Phelan 2013, Predicting international student study success. Applied Linguistics Review 4(1). 173–193). The present study explores the predictive validity of new test formats that could be used in the admissions process alongside the established tests to identify students who are at risk. In the long-term these new test formats have the potential to form the basis of a stand-alone admissions test. The formats under investigation are a gap-filling test (C-test) as test of general language proficiency and several measures of lexical richness (Guiraud, Guiraud Advanced, “D”; see also methodology). All measures were taken at the beginning of an academic year to predict the average grades at the end of the academic year (General Points Average/ GPA). In total 107 international students, mainly from China, with a wide range of subjects participated in the study. A multiple regression analysis including hierarchical models shows that the C-test and “Guiraud” have the highest predictive validity. Given the fact that these two measures can be administered quite easily in a short period of time, we conclude that they have clear advantages over IELTS in the prediction of international student’s study success.