The role of stress processing abilities in the development of bilingual reading

French and Dutch differ regarding the manifestations and lexical functions of the stress pattern of words. The present study examined group differences in stress processing abilities between French‐native and Dutch‐native listeners, thus extending previous cross‐linguistic comparisons involving Spanish‐native and French‐native adults. The results show that Dutch‐native first‐graders significantly outperformed French monolinguals, and that French‐native listeners schooled in Dutch produced intermediary performances, suggesting that stress‐processing abilities are a learnable set of skills. The present study also examined the contribution of stress processing abilities to reading development in Dutch, a stress‐based language, compared to that in French, a syllable‐based language. Although the expected correlation between stress processing abilities and reading was not observed in the Dutch monolinguals, such correlation was observed in the French‐native bilinguals schooled in Dutch and not in the Dutch‐native bilinguals schooled in French. This suggests that stress processing abilities influence reading development in a second, stress‐based, language. Moreover, the monolinguals and bilinguals schooled in Dutch showed significant associations between lexical development and stress processing abilities. Ways in which prosody might be involved in lexical and reading development are explored and discussed.     

French immersion in Canada: Theory and practice

French immersion programs are rapidly becoming an integral part of the Canadian education system. Its educational and linguistic achievements have been the subject of an abundant literature that continues to grow. The popularity of the program has helped it expand at a phenomenal rate. From one school and a handful of students in the experimental classes 25 years ago, there are now more than 17,000 schools offering French immersion instruction to close to 250,000 students in all major Canadian cities.The major theoretical foundations on which French immersion was explicitly and sometimes implicitly based may be summarized as follows:

Continuity and Change in the Home Literacy Environment as Predictors of Growth in Vocabulary and Reading

One hundred and ten English‐speaking children schooled in French were followed from kindergarten to Grade 2 (M_age: T1 = 5;6, T2 = 6;4, T3 = 6;11, T4 = 7;11). The findings provided strong support for the Home Literacy Model (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002 ) because in this sample the home language was independent of the language of instruction. The informal literacy environment at home predicted growth in English receptive vocabulary from kindergarten to Grade 1, whereas parent reports of the formal literacy environment in kindergarten predicted growth in children's English early literacy between kindergarten and Grade 1 and growth in English word reading during Grade 1. Furthermore, 76% of parents adjusted their formal literacy practices according to the reading performance of their child, in support of the presence of a responsive home literacy curriculum among middle‐class parents.     

Development of Gender Typicality and Felt Pressure in European French and North African French Adolescents

Trajectories of gender identity were examined from Grade 6 (M_age = 11.9 years) to Grade 9 in European French (n = 570) and North African French (n = 534) adolescents, and gender and ethnic group differences were assessed in these trajectories. In Grade 6, boys of both ethnic groups reported higher levels of gender typicality and felt pressure for gender conformity than girls. European French girls and boys and North African French girls reported decreasing gender typicality from Grade 6 to Grade 9, whereas North African French boys did not change. Felt pressure decreased among girls, did not change in European French boys, and increased in North African French boys. Ethnic and gender differences in gender identity development are discussed.     

English phonological specificity predicts early French reading difficulty in emerging bilingual children

The purpose of the present study was to examine the predictive value of a dynamic test of English and French lexical specificity on at-risk reading classification in 13 at-risk and 44 not at-risk emerging English (L1)–French (L2) bilingual Grade 1 children (M = 75.87 months, SD = 3.18) enrolled in an early French immersion program in Canada. Lexical specificity was assessed with a computerized word learning game in which children were taught new English (e.g., “foal” and “sole”) and French (e.g., bac “bin” and bague “ring”) word pairs contrasted by minimal phonological differences. The results indicated that the dynamic test of lexical specificity in English contributed significantly to the prediction of children’s French at-risk reading status at the end of Grade 1 after controlling for French phonological awareness and nonverbal reasoning skills. However, French lexical specificity did not predict children’s reading risk classification in French after controlling for French phonological awareness. Thus, it may be feasible to identify at-risk status in emerging bilinguals using dynamic measures in their stronger language.     

Facebook-Induced Motivation Shifts in a French Online Course

This study explores the effects of instructor’s self-disclosure using the Facebook social networking online platform on students’ motivation types in an online language course. The participants were 104 beginning French students enrolled in an online French course at a major research university in the southeast U.S. The participants were divided into a Facebook group, where they could access the instructor’s Facebook profile throughout the semester, and a control group. The Academic Motivation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clement, & Vallerand, 2003) was used for determining whether the participants were intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, anchoring this research within the Self-Determination Theory model (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Post-treatment results indicated that participants assigned to the Facebook group experienced a significant shift in motivation type that research has determined as being beneficial for language learning (Gardner, 1985). No such shift occurred in students assigned to the control group. This shift is of particular importance in an online course environment where the instructor’s Facebook profile was the only means of teacher’s self-disclosure unlike a face-to-face environment where teacher self-disclosure can occur spontaneously.     

多媒体资源在法语跨文化教学中的运用

本文对跨文化教学的必要性及法语跨文化教学的主要方法进行了论述,重点探讨了基于多媒体方法、电视节目、网络资源以及配套教学光盘等多媒体资源在法语跨文化教学中的运用,并阐述了多媒资源运用于法语跨文化教学的优点。     

二外法语教学现状浅析

二外法语是英语专业的一门比较重要的专业必修课,由于法语自身的难度较大,现有的课程设置学时不足和学生兴趣不高等原因,现在英语专业学生的二外法语学习并不理想。该文旨在针对现有的二外法语教学所存在的问题进行分析,并且尝试提供相应的改进措施以便达到提升教师教学效率和学生学习兴趣的目的。     

Literacy practices of primary education children in Andalusia (Spain): A family-based perspective

Primary school children develop literacy practices in various domains and situations in everyday life. This study focused on the analysis of literacy practices of children aged 8–12 years from the perspective of their families. 1,843 families participated in the non-experimental explanatory study. The children in these families speak Spanish as a first language and are schooled in this language. The instrument used was a self-report questionnaire about children's home-literacy practices. The data obtained were analysed using categorical principal components analysis (CATPCA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results show the complex relationship between literacy practices developed by children in the domains of home and school and the limited development of a literacy-promoting ‘third space’. In conclusion, the families in our study had limited awareness of their role as literacy-promoting agents and thought of literacy learning as restricted to formal or academic spaces.     

Cajun French,Sociolinguistic Knowledge,and Language Loss in Louisiana

This study uses Foucault's work on knowledge and power to show that the politics of language and the politics of researching it are closely related. As a discipline, sociolinguistics has barely begun to investigate the relationship between academia and issues of power and the different ways it ultimately may reinforce the interests of a dominant linguistic group. Language loss studies tend to emphasize demographic and economic factors over other social issues. This study about Cajun French, a fast-eroding French dialect still spoken by around 250,000 people in Louisiana, argues that language loss is a social as well as a discursive process and that academic knowledge and discourse both play a significant role in language politics. The study advocates the use of local knowledge to enhance our understanding of sociolinguistic issues involving unequal power relationships.     

Linguistic awareness skills in grade one children in a French immersion setting

This study examined the ability of children in French immersion and English programs to analyze the internal structure of spoken words in relation to their early reading and spelling abilities in English. Thirty-two children in the first grade were given a modified version of the Auditory Analysis Test, and reading and spelling tasks that included both real words and non-words. Results indicated that French immersion children were more proficient than their English program peers at explicitly analyzing spoken words and that the groups did not differ when reading and spelling orthographically regular real words and non-words. The English program children performed better than their French program peers only when reading orthographically irregular English words. These results demonstrate that second language learning enhances metalinguistic awareness and help to explain why children in immersion programs do not experience long-term difficulty in acquiring English written language skills.     

A school-based phonological awareness intervention for struggling readers in early French immersion

The current intervention study investigated the sustained effectiveness of phonological awareness training on the reading development of 16 children in French immersion who were identified as at-risk readers based on grade 1 English measures. The intervention program provided children from three cohorts with supplemental reading in small groups on a withdrawal basis. Children in the experimental group (n = 5) received English phonological awareness training in combination with letter-sound correspondence instruction twice per week for 18 consecutive weeks, while those in the control condition (n = 7) engaged in English vocabulary-building activities. Significant gains were made after the training and maintained for 2 years on both French phonological awareness and French word reading skills for the experimental group. Results suggest that a phonologically based intervention in English can effectively address phonological awareness deficits and facilitate reading acquisition for French immersion children who may be at-risk for later reading difficulties.     

Improving second language skills of immigrant students: A field trial study evaluating the effects of a summer learning program

Immigrant students’ school success is often hampered by limited second language (L2) proficiency, yet the effectiveness of different approaches to L2 support is unclear. Using a summer camp setting, we tested effects of (1) implicit support focusing on meaning of language by engaging students in language-intensive activities without drawing their attention to rules (operationalization: theatre program) and (2) combined implicit and explicit support focusing students’ attention on both meaning and form of language (operationalization: theatre program and instruction in German as L2). A baseline group received no support. N = 149 third-graders with German as L2 participated. There was no effect for the implicit condition on L2, yet children in the combined condition performed significantly better in grammar and reading after the treatment than the baseline group. The difference for vocabulary did not reach significance. Three months later, a significant effect for the combined condition was only found for reading.     

法语的历史变迁和语言地位

法语和法兰西民族历史同步开始。法语的起源、发展和演变进程贯穿在民族发展史中。民族历史不同时期的政殆变革和社会文化对法语的变迁及其语言地位的兴衰产生深远的影响。今天,法国仍然为维护和发扬法语而不懈努力,体现了法语和法兰西民族源远流长、休戚与共的关系。     

Reliability and prevalence of an atypical development of phonological skills in French-speaking dyslexics

In the present study, conducted with French-speaking children, we examined the reliability (group study) and the prevalence (multiple-case study) of dyslexics’ phonological deficits in reading and reading-related skills in comparison with Reading Level (RL) controls. All dyslexics with no comorbidity problem schooled in a special institution for children with severe reading deficits were included in the study (N = 15; Chronological Age [CA]: 111 ± 8 months; RL: 80 ± 3 months). For the group study, the 15 dyslexics were matched pairwise on reading level, non-verbal IQ, and gender to 15 younger RL controls (CA: 85 ± 4 months). For the multiple-case study, the RL control group included 86 average readers (CA: 83 ± 4 months; RL: 85 ± 5 months). To assess the relative efficiency of the sublexical (or phonological) and lexical reading procedures, we relied on two comparisons: pseudowords vs. high-frequency regular words (the comparison mainly used in languages with a shallow orthography); and pseudowords vs. high-frequency irregular words (the comparison mainly used with English-speaking dyslexics), pseudowords and irregular words being either short or long. The dyslexics’ skills in the domains supposed to explain their reading deficit were also examined: phonemic awareness, phonological short-term memory and rapid naming. In the group study, the dyslexics lagged behind the RL controls only when they were required to read long pseudowords. The results of the multiple-case study indicated that the prevalence of this deficit was high (the accuracy scores of all but two of the 15 dyslexics being more than 1 SD below the RL control mean), and that deficits in phonemic awareness were more prevalent (seven cases) than deficits in phonological memory (one case) and in rapid naming (two cases). Three unexpected results were observed in the group study: the difference between regular words and pseudowords (to the detriment of pseudowords) was not greater for the dyslexics; the difference between irregular words and pseudowords (to the benefit of pseudowords) was more significant for the RL controls; and there were no significant differences between the groups in reading-related skills. To explain these results, the severity of the dyslexics’ reading deficit and the remediation they have benefited from must be taken into account. In addition, the fact that the outcomes of the comparison between pseudoword vs. regular or irregular word reading were not the same will make it possible to understand some discrepancies between studies carried out either in English or in a language with a shallower orthography (French, for instance).

Linguistic analysis and reading skills of first graders in partial French and Hebrew immersion programs

This study compared the performance of 45 first graders in partial French immersion, partial Hebrew immersion, and traditional English programs on measures of linguistic analysis ability and early reading skills in English. A modified version of the Auditory Analysis Test (Rosner and Simon, 1971) established that both French and Hebrew immersion children were more proficient than their English program peers at explicity analyzing the internal structure of spoken words. Subjects in the Hebrew program read non-words more successfully than either of the other two groups, and read orthographically regular real words better than the control subjects. These results suggest that second language learning, even in a partial immersion setting, enhances linguistic awareness. The potential implications for reading skill acquisition are discussed.This research was funded by Grant A2008 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Discourses of Linguistic dominance: A Historical Consideration of French Language Ideology

The paper offers a historical perspective on the linguistic and cultural imperialism embedded in the struggle to maintain French as a leading international language. France was the nation-state where the ideology of national language was first clearly formulated and directly extended to overseas colonies. This shows the close relationship between linguistic nationalism and imperialism. It was believed that French was the language of universal human reason and had the power to civilize people who spoke it. This myth of the "clarté française" and the "mission civilisatrice" had a strong influence on various kinds of metalinguistic discourses that created the taken-for-granted representation of French as dominant language. It is the essential strategy of language dominance to establish the hierarchy of languages as if it were natural order of things. When French was obliged to yield the status of international language to English, there emerged the ideology of "Francophonie" which tried to defend its privilege against the monopoly of English, but the same ideology is also directed against minorities' claims for their own linguistic human right. It could be said that these discourses form a recursive prototype of language dominance whose variations are to be found in other shapes almost all over the world.     

Discourses of Linguistic dominance: A Historical Consideration of French Language Ideology

The paper offers a historical perspective on the linguistic and cultural imperialism embedded in the struggle to maintain French as a leading international language. France was the nation-state where the ideology of national language was first clearly formulated and directly extended to overseas colonies. This shows the close relationship between linguistic nationalism and imperialism. It was believed that French was the language of universal human reason and had the power to civilize people who spoke it. This myth of the "clarté française" and the "mission civilisatrice" had a strong influence on various kinds of metalinguistic discourses that created the taken-for-granted representation of French as dominant language. It is the essential strategy of language dominance to establish the hierarchy of languages as if it were natural order of things. When French was obliged to yield the status of international language to English, there emerged the ideology of "Francophonie" which tried to defend its privilege against the monopoly of English, but the same ideology is also directed against minorities' claims for their own linguistic human right. It could be said that these discourses form a recursive prototype of language dominance whose variations are to be found in other shapes almost all over the world.     

Validity of the Simultaneous Approach to the Development of Equivalent Achievement Tests in English and French

The evidence gathered in the present study supports the use of the simultaneous development of test items for different languages. The simultaneous approach used in the present study involved writing an item in one language (e.g., French) and, before moving to the development of a second item, translating the item into the second language (e.g., English) and checking to see that both language versions of the item mean the same. The evidence collected through the item development stage suggested that the simultaneous test development method allowed the influence and integration of information from item writers representing different language and cultural groups to affect test development directly. Certified English/French translators and interpreters and the French Immersion students confirmed that the test items in French and English had comparable meanings. The pairs of test forms had equal standard errors of measurement. The source of differential item functioning was not attributable to the adaptation process used to produce the two language forms, but to the lack of French language proficiency as well as other unknown sources. Lastly, the simultaneous approach used in the present study was somewhat more efficient than the forward translation procedure currently in use.