TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lago, Sol
A1  - Garcia, Anna Stutter
A1  - Felser, Claudia
T1  - The role of native and non-native grammars in the comprehension of possessive pronouns
JF  - Second language research
N2  - Previous studies have shown that multilingual speakers are influenced by their native (L1) and non-native (L2) grammars when learning a new language. But, so far, these studies have mostly used untimed metalinguistic tasks. Here we examine whether multilinguals’ prior grammars also affect their sensitivity to morphosyntactic constraints during processing. We use speeded judgment and self-paced reading tasks to examine the comprehension of German possessive pronouns. To investigate whether native and non-native grammars differentially affect participants’ performance, we compare two groups of non-native German speakers with inverse L1–L2 distributions: a group with L1 Spanish – L2 English, and a group with L1 English – L2 Spanish. We show that the reading profiles of both groups are modulated by their L1 grammar, with L2 proficiency selectively affecting participants’ judgment accuracy but not their reading times. We propose that reading comprehension is mainly influenced by multilinguals’ native grammar, but that knowledge of an L2 grammar can further increase sensitivity to morphosyntactic violations in an additional language.
KW  - comprehension
KW  - English
KW  - gender agreement
KW  - German
KW  - multilingualism
KW  - Spanish
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658318770491
SN  - 0267-6583
SN  - 1477-0326
VL  - 35
IS  - 3
SP  - 319
EP  - 349
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Maluch, Jessica Tsimprea
A1  - Kempert, Sebastian Benjamin
T1  - Bilingual profiles and third language learning: the effects of the manner of learning, sequence of bilingual acquisition, and language use practices
JF  - International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
N2  - This study investigates the effect of bilingualism on learning English as a foreign language (L3), examining the impact of manner and sequence of bilingual acquisition and learning as well as language use practices in language minority children. With a sample of 1295 German eighth and ninth graders (bilingual: n = 456, monolingual: n = 839), we examined if certain aspects of bilingualism present an advantageous condition for learning English as a foreign language in bilingual language minority students. Controlling for socio-economic status, indicators of cultural capital, and gender, the regression analyses revealed higher L3 listening and reading outcomes for bilinguals who received formal instruction in their minority language, had acquired both languages in their first three years, and switched more often between their two languages, when compared to their other bilingual and monolingual peers. The discussion focuses on the importance for bilingual children in immigrant communities to have high proficiencies in both majority and minority languages in order to develop advantages in foreign language learning.
KW  - Bilingualism
KW  - language minority learners
KW  - foreign language learning
KW  - multilingualism
KW  - third language acquisition
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2017.1322036
SN  - 1367-0050
SN  - 1747-7522
VL  - 22
IS  - 7
SP  - 870
EP  - 882
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Coetzee-Van Rooy, Susan
A1  - Peters, Arne
T1  - A portrait-corpus study of language attitudes towards Afrikaans and English
JF  - Language matters : studies in the languages of Africa
N2  - Language portraits are useful instruments to elicit speakers' reflections on the languages in their repertoires. In this study, we implement a "portrait-corpus approach" (Peters and Coetzee-Van Rooy 2020) to investigate the conceptualisations of the languages Afrikaans and English in 105 language portraits. In this approach, we use participants' reflections about their placement of the two languages on a human silhouette as a linguistic corpus. Relying on quantitative and qualitative analyses using WordSmith, Statistica and Atlas.ti, our study shows that Afrikaans is mainly conceptualised as a language that is located in more peripheral areas of the body (for example, the hands and feet) and, hence, is perceived as less important in participants' repertoires. The central location of English in the head reveals its status as an important language in the participants' multilingual repertoires. We argue that these conceptualisations of Afrikaans and English provide additional insight into the attitudes towards these languages in South Africa.
KW  - language attitudes
KW  - language portraits
KW  - portrait-corpus approach
KW  - multilingualism
KW  - South Africa
KW  - Afrikaans
KW  - English
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2021.1942167
SN  - 1022-8195
SN  - 1753-5395
VL  - 52
IS  - 2
SP  - 3
EP  - 28
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -