Tina Hickey

Identifying formulas in first language acquisition

With the increase in interest in formulas, or apparently non-productive utterances in childrens speech, a range of definitions has emerged and sometimes conflicting criteria have been proposed for their identification. These definitions of formulas are compared, and the criteria of Brown (1973), Wong Fillmore (1976), Peters (1983) and Plunkett (1990) for the recognition of formulas are reviewed. A preference rule system is proposed, which distinguishes necessary, typical and graded conditions for the recognition of formulas. Using these conditions, some of the formulas found in the data of one child acquiring Irish between 1;4 and 2;1 are examined. Issues such as length of units, frequency of occurrence and appropriateness of use are discussed. The methods developed in this study could be used to assess the importance of formulas in the language acquisition of other children.

Children’s Language Networks in Minority Language Immersion: What Goes In May Not Come Out

A central tenet of two-way immersion has been that the minority language children benefit from mother-tongue support in addition to instruction and interaction in the majority language (usually English) with their peers in high prestige programmes, while the English speakers gain valuable opportunities for peer interaction in their L2 with native speakers. Such mixing of L1 and L2 learners of the target language also occurs in minority language immersion programmes. This paper presents a qualitative study of L1 minority language children’s output in such mixed groups by examining their language networks and use of the target language, Irish, in Irish-medium preschools or naíonraí where they are interacting with L2 learners of Irish. Such networks are particularly interesting in the informal setting of preschool, where children have more freedom to move around and choose their interlocutor than in formal classrooms. This exploration of the children’s output and their language choices raises pertinent questions about the needs of minority language children for direct L1 enrichment. This leads to an examination of aspects of the teachers’ input to these minority language children in light of their linguistic needs and the evidence of contact phenomena in their output.

The Psychological Well-Being and Sociocultural Adaptation of Short-Term International Students in Ireland

This article reports on an empirical study of the psychosocial adaptation of international students in Ireland. Using measures of social support, loneliness, stress, psychological well-being, and sociocultural adaptation, data were obtained from international students and a comparison sample of Irish students. The study found that, although international students had high levels of social support and low levels of loneliness and stress, students were experiencing high levels of sociocultural adjustment difficulties and psychological distress. Significant differences invariables were reported across time, whereas differences between international and Irish students were also discovered. Suggestions for further research and for individuals working with international students are proposed.

How Deep Is Your Immersion? Policy and Practice in Welsh-Medium Preschools with Children from Different Language Backgrounds.

A challenge noted in a number of endangered language contexts is the need to mix second-language (L2) learners of the target language with first-language (L1) speakers of that language in a less planned way than is found in the two-way immersion approach. Such mixing of L1 speakers of the target language with L2 learners arises from the difficulty of making separate provision for the dwindling L1 minority. The issue of how to manage the range of language proficiency in such mixed groups is relevant to a number of language contexts. This paper explores data gathered in Wales from educators in Welsh-medium preschool nursery groups (cylchoedd meithrin). Particular attention is given to issues relating to the grouping of Welsh L1 and L2 children and to policies and practices pertaining to the teaching and learning of Welsh in these groups. Survey data were collected from 162 cylchoedd Leaders in areas where such mixing of L1 speakers and L2 learners regularly occurs. The Leaders’ skills, attitudes and approaches to developing the language of the children in such mixed groups are examined, as well as the issues of differentiated input and pedagogical adaptation to address those needs, in an exploration of how policy and practice can diverge in dealing with this challenge. The study aims to develop a fuller understanding of the needs of these early immersion Leaders, in order to support them and maximise their effectiveness, by recognising that they are striving, not only to promote language maintenance/enrichment in L1 minority language speakers and L2 acquisition among L2 learners, but also to provide high-quality early years’ education.

Parents and Early Immersion: Reciprocity between Home and Immersion Pre-school.

This study examines the importance of parental support for early immersion in the context of a study of Irish-medium pre-schools or naionrai. Data were collected from all of the major participants in this early immersion model, including parents, teachers, classroom assistants and inspectors, in addition to detailed tests of 225 three-year-old children. This allows an analysis, not only of the effect of the parents’ support for the child’s early learning in the naionra, but also of the impact of the child’s target language learning on the language use in the home. Focusing here on the results from parents allowed the development of a profile of those choosing early immersion in Irish, based on socioeconomic and educational data. Parents’ reasons for choosing this type of preschooling are examined, as well as their satisfaction with their child’s experience. Multivariate analyses of children’s test results show the significant influence of parents’ ability in the target language on their children’s language scores. Finally, parents’ requirements are examined in order to target ways of increasing their active support for their children’s language acquisition. Overall, these data indicate an urgent need to involve parents as partners in order to maximise the effectiveness of early immersion.

Parent report of early lexical production in bilingual children: a cross-linguistic CDI comparison

ABSTRACT This paper compared the vocabulary size of a group of 250 bilinguals aged 24–36 months acquiring six different language pairs using an analogous tool, and attempted to identify factors that influence vocabulary sizes and ultimately place children at risk for language delay. Each research group used adaptations of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Sentences and a specially designed developmental and language background questionnaire to gather information on risk factors for language impairment, demographic and language exposure variables. The results showed a wide range in vocabulary development which could be somewhat attributed to mothers’ education status, parental concerns about language development and amount of exposure to the second language. We looked at those children performing below the 10th and above the 90th percentile to determine what factors were related to their vocabulary size. Features of the entire group of lower performing children were fewer than 50 words and the absence of two-word combinations by 24 months, lower levels of parental education and parental concerns about language development. The implications for identifying bilingual children at risk for language impairment as well as the language enrichment that might be needed for young bilinguals are outlined.

Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages: Is there a cross-linguistic order of words?

We present a new set of subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro-Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations and (2) to assess differences caused by the exact form of the target question (when did you learn vs. when do children learn this word); (3) to compare the ratings obtained in our study to those of previous studies; and (4) to assess the validity of our study by comparison with quasi-objective AoA norms derived from the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). All 299 words were judged as being acquired early (mostly before the age of 6 years). AoA ratings were associated with the raters’ social or language status, but not with the raters’ age or education. Parents reported words as being learned earlier, and bilinguals reported learning them later. Estimations of the age at which children learn the words revealed significantly lower ratings of AoA. Finally, comparisons with previous AoA and MB-CDI norms support the validity of the present estimations. Our AoA ratings are available for research or other purposes.

‘You’re looking at this different language and it freezes you out straight away’: identifying challenges to parental involvement among immersion parents

There is now consensus among researchers and educators that parental involvement in education is related to childrens academic and social success at school. However, less is known about the reasons why some parents choose to become involved and others do not. In recent years, there has been a move towards developing theoretical models which can be used to explore parents’ motivations for involvement. However, little research has focused on how such models might apply in alternative educational models, such as immersion education. Immersion parents have been given little opportunity to share their unique and valuable insights into what parental involvement means in a context where the language of the school and the language of the home differ. The present study utilised qualitative methods to explore the experiences of involvement of parents with children in Irish immersion schools. Here, findings are presented relating to parents’ perceptions of challenges to their becoming successfully involved. These findings were derived from two datasets: a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 immersion parents and from responses (n = 84) to open-ended questions on a large-scale parental involvement survey. Implications of the findings for future research, and suggestions for policy and practice in immersion schools, are considered.

Language, education, and society in a changing world

Language and education language and society langauge planning bilingualism translation discourse analysis cultural awareness second language/second language acquistion L1/L2 literacy.

Irish orthography: what do teachers and learners need to know about it, and why?

Irish has significant State support, but lacks a research base to support the teaching of Irish reading. Current approaches to teaching Irish reading are presented, and outcomes summarised. Issues of consistency and complexity in Irish orthography are discussed in light of an analysis of a corpus of early reader texts, and the formulation of rules for discriminating between words which are regular by letter-sound and grapheme-sound rules is outlined. While the most frequent words show a high level of regularity, underlying rules are very complex. The need to target decoding skills early is discussed. Recommendations regarding the teaching of aspects of Irish orthography are presented.