This keynote article proposes a new model of language development based on processing, the sole mechanism of acquisition for the Acquisition by Processing Theory (APT). The language module – adapted from Jackendoff's distinction between integration (building complex structures) and interface (facilitating information transfer at the intersections of the sub-modules) – has phonological, syntactic and conceptual processors that interact with each other, working memory and lexical entries. On the one hand, the application of Jackendoff's model to language learning bridges a gap between syntactic theory and processing. On the other hand, its breadth sometimes brings together strange bedfellows, as, for example, minimalist syntax and APT's ‘clear affinities with connectionism’ (p. 17). In order to explore this hybrid model within a focused area, I will limit my comments to a discussion of features of I(nflection), Case and thematic (theta) roles, highlighting the question of how much syntactic theory APT needs. I will suggest that the model could profit from a greater exploitation of morphological input and its role in parameter setting.

English is imposed as the language of instruction in multiple linguistically diverse societies where there is more than one official language. This might have negative educational consequences for people whose first language (L1) is not English. To investigate this, 47 South Africans with advanced English proficiency but different L1s (L1-English vs. L1-Zulu) were evaluated in their listening comprehension ability. Specifically, participants listened to narrative texts in English which prompted an initial inference followed by a sentence containing an expected inference or an unexpected but plausible concept, assessing comprehension monitoring. A final question containing congruent or incongruent information in relation to the text information followed, assessing the revision process. L1-English participants were more efficient at monitoring and revising their listening comprehension. Furthermore, individual differences in inhibitory control were associated with differences in revision. Results show that participants’ L1 appears to supersede their advanced English proficiency on highly complex listening comprehension.

Semantic feature-based treatments (SFTs) are effective rehabilitation strategies for word retrieval deficits in bilinguals with aphasia (BWA). However, few studies have prospectively evaluated the effects of key parameters of these interventions on treatment outcomes. This study examined the influence of intervention-level (i.e., treatment language and treatment sessions), individual-level (baseline naming severity and age), and stimulus-level (i.e., lexical frequency, phonological length, and phonological neighborhood density) factors on naming improvement in a treated and untreated language for 34 Spanish–English BWA who completed 40 hours of SFT. Results revealed significant improvement over time in both languages. In the treated language, individuals who received therapy in their L1 improved more. Additionally, higher pre-treatment naming scores predicted greater response to treatment. Finally, a frequency effect on baseline naming accuracy and phonological effects on accuracy over time were associated with differential treatment gains. These findings indicate that multilevel factors are influential predictors of bilingual treatment outcomes.

Researchers have taken great interest in the assessment of text readability. This study expands on this research by developing readability models that predict the processing effort involved during first language (L1) and second language (L2) text reading. Employing natural language processing tools, the study focused on assessing complex linguistic features of texts, and these features were used to explain the variance in processing effort, as evidenced by eye movement data for L1 or L2 readers of English that were extracted from an open eye-tracking corpus. Results indicated that regression models using the indices of complex linguistic features provided better performance in predicting processing effort for both L1 and L2 reading than the models using simple linguistic features (word and sentence length). Furthermore, many of the predictive variables were lexical features for both L1 and L2 reading, emphasizing the importance of decoding for fluent reading regardless of the language used.

Compound words consist of two or more words which combine to form a single word or phrase that acts as one. In English, the head of compound words is usually, but not always, the right-most root (e.g., “paycheck” is a noun because the head, “check,” is a noun). The current study explores the effects of head position on language control by examining language switching performance through electroencephalography (EEG). Twenty-one pairs of Chinese (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals performed cued language switching in a simultaneous production and comprehension task. The results showed that bilinguals recognized the head position earlier both in production and comprehension. However, the language control of the head position during production occurred in the middle stage (N2), but in the late stage (LPC) during comprehension. These findings indicate that the head position in compound words exerts differential influences on language control.

Emmorey, Giezen and Gollan (Emmorey, Giezen & Gollan) in their Key Note article review data bearing on language control in bimodal bilinguals and provoke questions critical to theoretical advance. I consider here two interrelated questions: one on multimodal synchrony and one on the control of serial order.

Prosody refers to stress and intonation patterns in a language. Previous studies have found that prosodic sensitivity (PS) and executive functions can affect reading comprehension in first (L1) and second languages (L2). The current study examined these factors among a group of L1 Mandarin speakers learning L2 English who participated in a series of tasks measuring phonological awareness, Mandarin tone sensitivity, English PS, along with three specific executive functions – namely, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory. The results demonstrated that Mandarin tone sensitivity and cognitive flexibility mediated English PS and reading. A simple slope analysis showed that PS positively predicted word reading for readers with higher but not lower cognitive flexibility. These results imply that PS in L2 reading is affected by both prosodic transfer of L1 tone sensitivity and cognitive flexibility.

In 1939, NYU Professor of German, Murat Roberts warned readers about the potentially harmful effects of societal bilingualism: “When two languages come to be spoken by the same society for the same purposes, both of these languages are certain to deteriorate. The sense of conflict disturbs in both of them the basis of articulation, deranges the procedure of grammar, and imperils the integrity of thought. The representation of the mind is divided into incongruous halves; and the average speaker, being no linguistic expert, finds it difficult to keep the two media apart. Confusion follows. The contours of language grow dim as the two systems collide and intermingle” (23). Roberts’ warnings about the threat of bilingualism are a thin cloak over the assumption that monolingualism is the norm. But even without dire predictions, conceptions of language representation and use derived from the study of bilinguals have been slow to enter the mainstream. The relation between language representation and control (Abutalebi & Green, 2007) and the dynamic nature of grammatical knowledge across the lifespan (Linck, Kroll & Sunderman, 2009) should change the way we conceptualize all language processing, whether monolingual, bilingual or multilingual.

Bullock and Gerfen show that two of the last speakers of French in Frenchville, Pennsylvania, systematically replace the French front mid round vowel (in words like deux, neuf) with the rhoticized schwa of American English, their dominant language. As the authors argue, it is unlikely that this sound change would have arisen in the speech of French speakers who were not bilingual in English.

Research on bilingualism has documented profound brain plasticity by which the bilingual experience reconfigures the cognitive system. These effects include temporary as well as more enduring ones, and parallel activation of a bilingual's two languages may well be a key factor at the root of these observed changes. Recent recommendations (Green, 2011) have emphasized that research on code-switching in particular could provide a fruitful avenue for investigating the nature of how a bilingual speaker selects words and ultimately produces an utterance. Findings to date illustrate that if anything, the reach of co-activation is more extensive than previously thought, extending to the phonology and syntax of languages. While the degree of permeability may compound the perceived difficulty of the selection process, it is also a testament to the documented mental agility of bilinguals.

Code-switching is generally dispreferred at points of non-shared word order across a bilingual's two languages. In priming studies, this dispreference persists even following exposure to a code-switched non-shared-word-order utterance. The present study delves deeper into the scope of code-switching priming by investigating whether lexical repetition across target and prime, a factor known to boost structural priming, can increase code-switching at points of word order divergence. Afrikaans–English bilinguals (n=46) heard prime sentences in which word order, lexical repetition, and switch position were manipulated and subsequently produced code-switched picture descriptions. The results show that lexical repetition boosts the priming of code-switching in a non-shared word order. The findings demonstrate that code-switching in production is affected by a dynamic interplay between factors both language-internal (i.e., word order) and language-external (i.e., priming, and specifically lexical repetition).

The Editors and members of the Editorial Board wish to thank the following guest consultants for having reviewed manuscripts submitted to the journal this past year.

Early bilingual language experience can enhance children's social-cognitive skills for effective communication. This study examined whether individual variability in bilingual language diversity, measured by language entropy, influenced 3- to 5-year-old children's engagement of contextual information in their selective trust strategies. One-hundred-and-forty Singaporean children (58 girls, Mage = 53.64 months, 97.1% Asian) were presented with an informant who provided either accurate or inaccurate information in a context with either adequate or limited information access. Bilingual children with greater language diversity, compared to those with less language diversity, were more likely to adapt their accuracy-based selective trust strategy to the informant's circumstances (i.e, information access). Results provide new insights into the role of diverse linguistic experiences in shaping children's social cognitive development.