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"Meisel, M."
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Bilingual children : a guide for parents
\"Are you raising your child bilingually, or planning to do so in the future, but are unsure how to proceed? Using a question-and-answer format, this practical and reassuring guide will enable you to make informed decisions about how to raise your child with two or more languages. To grow up bilingually is a necessity or an opportunity for more children today than ever before. However, parents are frequently uncertain about what to do, or even fear that they may be putting their child's development at risk. Disentangling fact from myth, it shows that a child can acquire more than one 'first' language simultaneously and that one language need not have negative effects on the other. Each chapter is devoted to a question typically asked by parents in counseling sessions, followed by a concise answer, summaries of the evidence and practical tips\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Early child second language acquisition: French gender in German children
This study investigates the acquisition of grammatical gender in French by German L1 children (age of onset of acquisition (AO) 2;8-4,0). The analysis of spontaneous production data of 24 children gathered longitudinally and a gender assignment test administered to 8 of these children at ages 6;7-8;3 and to 9 children (AO 2,11-3;8) at ages 3;2-5;1 revealed that some of them resembled L1 learners whereas others behaved like adult L2 learners. The turning point is at around AO 3;6. AO is thus a crucial factor determining successive language acquisition.
Journal Article
First and Second Language Acquisition : Parallels and Differences
\"Infants and very young children develop almost miraculously the ability of speech, without apparent effort, without even being taught - as opposed to the teenager or the adult struggling without, it seems, ever being able to reach the same level of proficiency as five year olds in their first language. This useful textbook serves as a guide to different types of language acquisition: monolingual and bilingual first language development and child and adult second language acquisition. Unlike other books, it systematically compares first and second language acquisition, drawing on data from several languages. Research questions and findings from various subfields are helpfully summarized to show students how they are related and how they often complement each other. The essential guide to studying first and second language acquisition, it will be used on courses in linguistics, modern languages and developmental psychology\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
The weaker language in early child bilingualism: Acquiring a first language as a second language?
Past research demonstrates that first language (L1)-like competence in each language can be attained in simultaneous acquisition of bilingualism by mere exposure to the target languages. The question is whether this is also true for the “weaker” language (WL). The WL hypothesis claims that the WL differs fundamentally from monolingual L1 and balanced bilingual L1 and resembles second language (L2) acquisition. In this article, these claims are put to a test by analyzing “unusual” constructions in WLs, possibly indicating acquisition failure, and by reporting on analyses of the use of French by bilinguals whose dominant language is German. The available evidence does not justify the claim that WLs resemble L2. Instead, it shows that WL development can be delayed, but does not suggest acquisition failure. Finally, reduced input is unlikely to cause acquisition failure. The fundamental issue at stake is to explore the limits of the human language making capacity.
Journal Article
On beyond a million : an amazing math journey
Explores counting by powers of ten all the way up to the largest numbers that exist.
Book
Shrinking structures in heritage languages: Triggered by reduced quantity of input?
This commentary is a response to Maria Polinsky and Gregory Scontras's paper \"Understanding heritage languages\" (same journal issue).
Journal Article
Optimisation of inverse Compton Scattering through spatiotemporal tailoring of the scattering beam
All-optical high-energy X-ray (HEX) sources based on Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) are a promising and innovative alternative to conventional sources, such as X-ray tubes and synchrotrons, enabling the generation of X-ray beams with percent-level bandwidth. Although HEX sources with low bandwidth are essential for many applications, current all-optical ICS sources still exhibit bandwidths of tens of percent. The implementation of a spatio-temporal shaping technique, called ‘Flying Focus’, allows the high-intensity region of the laser to interact with the electron beam over distances beyond previously published limits. In this scheme, a chirped laser pulse is sent through a chromatic focusing system, which can reduce the X-ray bandwidth and potentially increase the photon yield. In this work, we present the design, implementation, and experimental characterisation of a chromatic Flying Focus. The optical system is designed through a detailed analytical study of chromatic aberrations and transport matrices, enabling precise control of the focal elongation and chromaticity. Experimental results confirm that the system realizes the intended Flying Focus characteristics.
Journal Article
FLASHForward: plasma wakefield accelerator science for high-average-power applications
The FLASHForward experimental facility is a high-performance test-bed for precision plasma wakefield research, aiming to accelerate high-quality electron beams to GeV-levels in a few centimetres of ionized gas. The plasma is created by ionizing gas in a gas cell either by a high-voltage discharge or a high-intensity laser pulse. The electrons to be accelerated will either be injected internally from the plasma background or externally from the FLASH superconducting RF front end. In both cases, the wakefield will be driven by electron beams provided by the FLASH gun and linac modules operating with a 10 Hz macro-pulse structure, generating 1.25 GeV, 1 nC electron bunches at up to 3 MHz micro-pulse repetition rates. At full capacity, this FLASH bunch-train structure corresponds to 30 kW of average power, orders of magnitude higher than drivers available to other state-of-the-art LWFA and PWFA experiments. This high-power functionality means FLASHForward is the only plasma wakefield facility in the world with the immediate capability to develop, explore and benchmark high-average-power plasma wakefield research essential for next-generation facilities. The operational parameters and technical highlights of the experiment are discussed, as well as the scientific goals and high-average-power outlook. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Directions in particle beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration’.
Journal Article
Bilingual language acquisition and theories of diachronic change: Bilingualism as cause and effect of grammatical change
Children acquiring their first languages are frequently regarded as the principal agents of diachronic change. The causes and the precise nature of the processes of change are, however, far from clear. The following discussion focuses on possible changes of core properties of grammars which, in terms of the theory of Universal Grammar, can be characterized as reflecting different settings of parameters. In such cases, learners develop grammatical competences differing from those of speakers of the previous generation who provided the primary data serving as input for the developmental processes. It has been argued that reanalyses of this type must be conceived of as instances of transmission failure. Yet acquisition research has demonstrated that the human Language Making Capacity is extraordinarily robust, thus leading to the question of what might cause unsuccessful acquisition. Changing frequencies in use or exposure to data containing ambiguous or even contradictory evidence are unlikely to suffice as causes for this to happen. Language acquisition in multilingual settings may be a more plausible source of grammatical reanalysis than monolingual first language development. The study of contemporary bilingualism can therefore contribute to an explanation of diachronic change. Yet one such insight is that simultaneous acquisition of two languages (2L1) typically leads to a kind of grammatical knowledge in each language which is qualitatively not different from that of the respective monolinguals, obliging us to look for other sources of transmission failure. 2L1 acquisition in settings where one language is “weaker” than the other has been claimed to qualify as such. But I will argue that even such problematic cases do not provide convincing evidence of reanalysis. If, on the other hand, children receive sustained input from second language learners, or if their onset of acquisition is delayed, this can indeed lead to incomplete acquisition. I conclude that successive acquisition of bilingualism plays a crucial role as a source of grammatical change. In order for such changes to happen, however, grammar-internal and language-external factors may have to concur.
Journal Article