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Background/purpose. Indonesian uses Latin script, so students whose first language background (L1) is a non-Latin language will experience difficulties in understanding it. The purpose of this study is to explore the similarities and differences in the problems faced by Indonesian students (L2) with a non-Latin background (L1) and students with a Latin background (L1). Materials / Methods. The research design used is qualitative and exploratory. Data were collected through observation and interviews to find initial data, which was then continued with a literature study to compare the findings of problems faced by non-Latin L1 (non-Latin mother tongue) students with Latin students in learning Indonesian (L2). Results. The results of the study show that Indonesian as a second language (L2) students with a non-Latin first language (L1) background, especially Mandarin speakers, experience various difficulties both from linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. From the linguistic side, the main challenges include mispronunciation of certain letters, use of punctuation, writing Latin letters, and understanding the morphological structure of the Indonesian language. From the non-linguistic side, problems were found, such as low learning motivation, limited learning time, lack of social interaction in Indonesian, and difficulty in adjusting to Indonesian norms and culture. Conclusion. Differences in first language background (Latin vs. non-Latin) significantly affect the type and level of difficulty in learning Indonesian. Therefore, strategies for teaching Indonesian as a foreign language need to be specifically adjusted to the characteristics and needs of each group of students to optimize learning outcomes.

In the audio-visual Stroop matching task, participants compare one Stroop stimulus dimension (e.g., the color of a written word) to a second stimulus (e.g., a spoken word) and indicate whether these two stimuli match or mismatch. Slower responses on certain trials can be due to conflict which occurs between color representations ( semantic conflict ) or due to conflict between responses evoked by task comparisons ( response conflict ). The contribution of these conflicts has been investigated with color word distracters. This is the first study which explores how two types of first- and second-language words affect audio-visual matching. Native French speakers performed a bilingual Stroop matching task with intermixed French (L1) and English (L2) color words (Experiment 1) and color associates (Experiment 2) presented in congruent and incongruent colors simultaneously with spoken French color words. Participants were instructed to indicate whether the spoken word “matches” or “mismatches” the font color, while ignoring written word meaning. Interestingly, the results were similar for the critical “mismatch” trials for both French and English words. The responses were the fastest on trials in which task comparisons activate fewer response alternatives, supporting the assumption of the response conflict account.

Bilinguals usually select the right language to speak for the particular context they are in, but sometimes the nontarget language intrudes. Despite a large body of research into language selection and language control, it remains unclear where intrusion errors originate from. These errors may be due to incorrect selection of the nontarget language at the conceptual level, or be a consequence of erroneous word selection (despite correct language selection) at the lexical level. We examined the former possibility in two language switching experiments using a manipulation that supposedly affects language selection on the conceptual level, namely whether the conversational language context was associated with the target language (congruent) or with the alternative language (incongruent) on a trial. Both experiments showed that language intrusion errors occurred more often in incongruent than in congruent contexts, providing converging evidence that language selection during concept preparation is one driving force behind language intrusion.

Speaking more than one language demands a language control system that allows bilinguals to correctly use the intended language adjusting for possible interference from the non-target language. Understanding how the brain orchestrates the control of language has been a major focus of neuroimaging research on bilingualism and was central to our original neurocognitive language control model (Abutalebi & Green, 2007). We updated the network of language control (Green & Abutalebi, 2013) and here review the many new exciting findings based on functional and structural data that substantiate its core components. We discuss the language control network within the framework of the adaptive control hypothesis (Green & Abutalebi, 2013) that predicts adaptive changes specific to the control demands of the interactional contexts of language use. Adapting to such demands leads, we propose, to a neural reserve in the human brain.

Purpose: The study examined the contributions of Spanish and English oral narrative skills to English reading among 95 early elementary dual language learners (DLLs) from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States. This sample of first- and third-grade DLL children attended Spanish-English dual language immersion programs and received language and literacy instruction in both English and Spanish. Method: All participants completed a storytelling task in both languages and two English reading tests in decoding and reading comprehension. The story narratives were analyzed for microstructures (number of different new words, lexical diversity [D], mean length of utterance, subordination index [SI]) using the Computerized Language ANalysis program. The narrative samples were also evaluated for macrostructures (i.e., discourse-level features) using the Narrative Scoring Scheme. Results: Grade, English D, and Spanish SI significantly predicted English reading. Grade level was the strongest predictor of the three for both decoding and comprehension. However, Spanish SI was more robust than English D for decoding whereas English D was a stronger predictor than Spanish SI for comprehension. Conclusions: Young DLL children's oral narrative skills in English as well as in their home language Spanish contributed to their English reading outcomes. The study further specified the contributions of narrative elements to different reading skills. Microstructural elements appeared to play a stronger role in English reading than macrostructural elements for DLLs in dual language programs in early elementary grades. The results provided support for the \"simple view of reading\" and the \"linguistic interdependence hypothesis.\" The results also implicated that maintaining young DLL children's home language skills may be beneficial, rather than harmful, to their English reading development.

Twenty-eight Albanian-Greek bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder and 28 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder but no language impairment, along with 28 typically-developing, age-, Performance IQ- and socioeconomic status-matched bilingual children were asked to produce two expository texts which were coded for spelling (phonological, grammatical, orthographic) errors, stress and punctuation use. The children’s expressive vocabulary, current language use and home language history were also measured. The results show that the bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder were particularly vulnerable to spelling errors, while their bilingual peers with Autism Spectrum Disorder were rather challenged by stress and punctuation. The evidence speaks in favor of distinct patterns of writing impairment across the bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Sixteen meta-analyses were conducted to examine relations of typically developing bilingual immigrant-background children's oral language proficiency in their first and second language with the school outcomes of early literacy (k = 41), reading (k = 61), spelling (k = 9), mathematics (k = 9), and academic achievement (k = 9). Moderate to strong within-language relations were found for all school outcomes (.22 < r < .43), and cross-language relations for early literacy and reading (.12 < r < .22). Within-language relations were stronger than cross-language relations (.14 < d < .35). Only 6 out of 96 moderator effects tested were significant. Based on our findings, we propose a task-dependent bidirectional transfer hypothesis: The strength of cross-language transfer depends on the type of language proficiency task and the type of school outcome. Stimulating oral language proficiency in both languages can be a key factor in improving school outcomes of bilingual immigrant background children.

Purpose: This study examined working memory in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The overarching goal of this work was to integrate three primary processing-based hypotheses of DLD, (a) limited verbal working memory, (b) slowed processing speed, and (c) inefficient inhibition of interference, by using the serial-order-in-a-box--complex span (SOB-CS) computational model as our theoretical framework. We also examined the role of domain in working memory performance by varying the domain of interference and recall (i.e., verbal vs. nonverbal) task demands. Method: Participants were 55 school-age children, 21 children with DLD and 34 age-matched typically developing (TD) peers (9-13 years old). Results: Findings indicated that verbal and nonverbal working memory performance was poorer in the DLD than TD group. There was a modest benefit of dispersing interference and recall task demands across domains relative to task demands being within one domain, yet verbal interference affected performance to a greater degree than nonverbal interference in the DLD group. Conclusions: Overall findings supported a role for each of the processing-based hypotheses of DLD, albeit an incomplete role. In contrast, the SOB-CS model accounted for interrelationships among these processing-based factors and provided an explanation across patterns of findings. Thus, the SOB-CS model represents a useful step forward in explaining processing in children with DLD.

Although researchers argue that studying semantically related words simultaneously (semantic clustering) inhibits vocabulary acquisition, recent studies have yielded inconsistent results. This study examined the effects of semantic clustering while addressing the limitations of previous studies (e.g., confounding of semantic relatedness with other lexical variables). Furthermore, the study investigated the effects of spacing because spacing might facilitate the learning of semantically related items by alleviating interference. In this study, 133 Japanese university students studied 48 English-Japanese word pairs under two conditions: massed and spaced. Half the words were semantically related to each other while the other half were not. Although there were no significant differences between semantically related and unrelated items in posttest scores, semantically related items led to more interference errors than unrelated items. Furthermore, contrary to the authors’ hypothesis that spacing is particularly beneficial for semantically related items, spacing benefited unrelated items more than it did related items.

This paper examined the interaction between narrative performance, language exposure, and standardized measures of morphosyntax and semantics, in bilingual children tested two times, 1 year apart. We aimed to 1) identify the factor structure of oral narrative measures, and 2) examine the direction and strength of the effects of (i) language exposure and (ii) the relationship between language domains and narrative production. A total of 143 Spanish (L1)-English (L2) bilingual children completed a battery of oral narrative and oral language proficiency assessments in Spanish and English at two time points (kindergarten and Grade 1). Factor analyses yielded an identical two-factor structure of bilingual oral narrative measurements, namely productivity (word production) and complexity (sentence structure), in both Spanish and English across the two time points. Cross-lagged analysis showed that narrative production predicted semantics and morphosyntax performance in Spanish and English one year later. Cross-language transfer from L1 to L2 on the complexity of narrative was noted. Language exposure predicted only Spanish narrative production, but not English. These results suggest within- and cross-language transfer, highlighting the importance of L1 language development. In addition, current findings highlight the importance of language exposure for L1 in early school-age children.