TY  - JOUR
A1  - Czapka, Sophia
A1  - Klassert, Annegret
A1  - Festman, Julia
T1  - Executive functions and language
BT  - their differential influence on mono- vs. multilingual spelling in primary school
JF  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - We aimed at unveiling the role of executive functions (EFs) and language-related skills in spelling for mono- versus multilingual primary school children. We focused on EF and language-related skills, in particular lexicon size and phonological awareness (PA), because these factors were found to predict spelling in studies predominantly conducted with monolinguals, and because multilingualism can modulate these factors. There is evidence for (a) a bilingual advantage in EF due to constant high cognitive demands through language control, (b) a smaller mental lexicon in German and (c) possibly better PA. Multilinguals in Germany show on average poorer German language proficiency, what can influence performance on language-based tasks negatively. Thus, we included two spelling tasks to tease apart spelling based on lexical knowledge (i.e., word spelling) from spelling based on non-lexical strategies (i.e., non-word spelling). Our sample consisted of heterogeneous third graders from Germany: 69 monolinguals (age: M = 108 months) and 57 multilinguals (age: M = 111 months). On less language-dependent tasks (e.g., non-word spelling, PA, intelligence, short-term memory (STM) and three EF tasks testing switching, inhibition, and working memory) performance of both groups did not differ significantly. However, multilinguals performed significantly more poorly on tasks measuring German lexicon size and word spelling than monolinguals. Regression analyses revealed that for multilinguals, inhibition was related to spelling, whereas switching was the only EF component to influence word spelling in monolinguals and non-word spelling performance in both groups. By adding lexicon size and other language-related factors to the regression models, the influence of switching was reduced to insignificant effects, but inhibition remained significant for multilinguals. Language-related skills best predicted spelling and both language groups shared those variables: PA for word spelling, and STM for non-word spelling. Additionally, multilinguals’ word spelling performance was also predicted by their German lexicon size, and non-word spelling performance by PA. This study offers an in-depth look at spelling acquisition at a certain point of literacy development. Mono- and multilinguals have the predominant factors for spelling in common, but probably due to superior language knowledge, monolinguals were already able to make use of EF during spelling. For multilinguals, German lexicon size was more important for spelling than EF. For multilinguals’ spelling these functions might come into play only at a later stage.
KW  - bilingualism
KW  - spelling
KW  - literacy acquisition
KW  - executive functions
KW  - lexicon size
KW  - primary school
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00097
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 10
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Patterson, Clare
A1  - Trompelt, Helena
A1  - Felser, Claudia
T1  - The online application of binding condition B in native and non-native pronoun resolution
JF  - Frontiers in psychology
KW  - pronoun resolution
KW  - binding
KW  - sentence processing
KW  - eye-movement monitoring
KW  - bilingualism
KW  - English
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00147
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 5
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stone, Kate
A1  - Lago, Sol
A1  - Schad, Daniel
T1  - Divergence point analyses of visual world data
BT  - applications to bilingual research
JF  - Bilingualism : language and cognition
N2  - Much work has shown that differences in the timecourse of language processing are central to comparing native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers. However, estimating the onset of experimental effects in timecourse data presents several statistical problems including multiple comparisons and autocorrelation. We compare several approaches to tackling these problems and illustrate them using an L1-L2 visual world eye-tracking dataset. We then present a bootstrapping procedure that allows not only estimation of an effect onset, but also of a temporal confidence interval around this divergence point. We describe how divergence points can be used to demonstrate timecourse differences between speaker groups or between experimental manipulations, two important issues in evaluating L2 processing accounts. We discuss possible extensions of the bootstrapping procedure, including determining divergence points for individual speakers and correlating them with individual factors like L2 exposure and proficiency. Data and an analysis tutorial are available at https://osf.io/exbmk/.
KW  - divergence point analyses
KW  - non-parametric approaches
KW  - bootstrapping
KW  - visual world eye-tracking
KW  - bilingualism
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728920000607
SN  - 1366-7289
SN  - 1469-1841
VL  - 24
IS  - 5
SP  - 833
EP  - 841
PB  - Cambridge Univ. Press
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -