Connie Summers

The number of Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs) in the United States continues to increase every year. In the absence of developmental language norms for DLLs it is important to learn more about typical language production characteristics to distinguish typical from atypical language characteristics. An area of language production with conflicting results in the literature is the production of mazes. Mazes are interruptions in the forward flow of language in the form of interjections, repairs or revisions of words and phrases. At elevated rates, mazes may interrupt the communication process. A common practice in classroom settings is to provide support for DLLs through small group activities such as language enrichment. It is unknown if maze patterns may change as a result of structured language input meant to increase linguistic skills. This preliminary case study explored maze patterns in four Spanish-English DLLs between the ages of 5;4 and 6;1 before and after two structured language enrichment sessions in English. Pretest and posttest narratives in English and Spanish were analyzed for maze patterns and measures of language productivity using conventional language sample analysis metrics. Maze patterns yielded mixed results. Certain maze types increased from pre to posttest while some decreased. Participants exhibited increases in measures of language productivity in English and Spanish. Language productivity and maze patterns demonstrated changes after two structured language enrichment sessions. Implications for further study of maze patterns in Spanish-English DLLs are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to assess the use of an adapted picture description task described by Eisenberg and Guo toexplore the morphosyntactic error patterns of EnglishSpanish preschool simultaneous bilingual learners. Language sampleswere collected from 28 bilingual preschool children aged 3 to 5 years. Language samples were elicited in both English andSpanish using a series of pictures and elicitation questions/prompts. Twenty-one participants produced a language samplein only one language (16 in English and 5 in Spanish) and seven participants produced language samples in both languages.Language samples were analyzed for grammaticality and error types. There were a higher number of fragments, tensemarker, and grammatical morphemes errors in English. In Spanish, the children demonstrated more argument structureand pronominal form errors than in English. The adapted picture description task demonstrated sensitivity to commonerrors in English and Spanish and shows promise for use with bilingual populations.

Cross-linguistic influence has been observed across all domains of language. However, nothing is known about the role of cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers use of vocal fry. Several recent studies have identified an upsurge in the use of vocal fry among female speakers of American English. We sought to identify cross-linguistic influence in vocal fry use by women living in the US and exposed to both English and Spanish. Participants were categorized as functionally monolingual in English (n = 25), functionally monolingual in Spanish (n =23) and relatively balanced bilingual (n = 10) based on responses to language experience questionnaires. Participants repeated two-, three-,and four-syllable English and Spanish nonwords. Each syllable was analyzed perceptually for the presence of vocal fry. Results showed that the functionally monolingual in Spanish group demonstrated crosslinguistic influence on the use of vocal fry, but the other groups did not. Early exposure to a language appeared more important than high language proficiency in blocking cross-linguistic influence of vocal fry use.