Chapter 9

Question 1

Adaptive control hypothesis

Answer 1

A proposal suggesting that bilinguals’ constant need to monitor and control their languages leads to benefits in nonverbal cognition

Question 2

Age of arrival

Answer 2

The time when the learner receives the first intensive exposure to the second language in the country where it is spoken

Question 3

Balanced bilingual

Answer 3

A person who grows up speaking two languages and can communicate equally well in either language

Question 4

Bilingual

Answer 4

Someone able to speak two or more languages

Question 5

Bilingual accommodation

Answer 5

Sensitivity to the identity or ethnic background of the interlocutor in selecting a language to use

Question 6

Bilingual disadvantage

Answer 6

The observation that bilinguals have smaller vocabularies in each of their languages and more difficulty retrieving words compared with monolinguals

Question 7

Cerebral plasticity

Answer 7

The brain’s ability to modify its structure in response to new experiences

Question 8

Codeswitching

Answer 8

A change from one language to another within a single interaction

Question 9

Cognates

Answer 9

Words in two languages that have similar form and meaning

Question 10

Cognitive reserve

Answer 10

The notion that engaging in stimulating mental or physical activity on a regular basis helps maintain cognitive functioning as we age and protects against dementia

Question 11

Critical period hypothesis

Answer 11

The idea that children have a biological predisposition to learn languages that they lose around puberty

Question 12

Cross-language priming

Answer 12

The situation in which a word in one language aids the retrieval of a word with a related meaning in another language

Question 13

Dominant language

Answer 13

The language of political and economic power within a bilingual society

Question 14

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Answer 14

An area of the brain involved in executive control

Question 15

English language learners

Answer 15

Children entering school whose native language is not English

Question 16

Executive control

Answer 16

The management of cognitive resources to perform tasks efficiently

Question 17

First language attrition

Answer 17

The situation where a bilingual favors the second language to the extent that first language ability is lost

Question 18

Flanker task

Answer 18

An experimental procedure in which participants respond to the direction of the central arrow in an array, regardless of direction the other arrows are pointing

Question 19

Heritage language

Answer 19

The language spoken in an immigrant’s country of origen

Question 20

Incomplete first-language acquisition

Answer 20

The failure to attain full native-speaker proficiency of the first language

Question 21

Interference hypothesis

Answer 21

The proposal that the bilingual disadvantage can be explained in terms of interference from translation equivalents in the unused language

Question 22

Interference inhibition

Answer 22

The ability to ignore distracting or misleading information

Question 23

Interlingual homographs (False cognate)

Answer 23

Words in two languages that have similar form but different meanings

Question 24

Language negotiation

Answer 24

A process in which bilingual interlocutors work together to decide which language to use

Question 25

Length of residence

Answer 25

The number of years the learner has lived in the country where the second language is spoken

Question 26

Lingua franca

Answer 26

A second language in common to all ethnic groups in a given region

Question 27

Mental flexibility

Answer 27

The ability to rapidly switch from one cognitive task to another

Question 28

Metalinguistic awareness

Answer 28

An understanding about how language works

Question 29

Monolingual

Answer 29

The ability to speak only one language

Question 30

Mutual intelligibility

Answer 30

The degree to which speakers of two different languages or dialects can understand each other

Question 31

One-language-at-home-one-language-outside approach

Answer 31

A strategy for raising bilingual children in which the heritage language is learned from family members and the societal language is learned at school

Question 32

Receptive bilingualism

Answer 32

The ability to understand a second language without being able to speak it

Question 33

Revised hierarchical model

Answer 33

A theory of bilingual language processing that assumes separate lexicons for each language connected by a common underlying conceptual level

Question 34

Selective attention

Answer 34

The ability to direct and focus attention on the current task

Question 35

Semantic categorization task

Answer 35

An experimental procedure that asks participants to name members of a given category

Question 36

Sense model

Answer 36

A theory of bilingual language processing that takes into account the fact that most words have multiple meanings that do not fully overlap across languages

Question 37

Sensitive period

Answer 37

The time early in life when language learning is more likely to be successful

Question 38

Simon task

Answer 38

An experimental procedure that requires participants to respond to the color of a stimulus regardless of its location

Question 39

Societal language

Answer 39

The language spoken by the majority of people in a given society

Question 40

Speech learning model

Answer 40

The proposal that a foreign accent is the result of an imbalance between the amounts of time spent usung the first and second languages

Question 41

Transitional program

Answer 41

A form of bilingual education that is intended to assimilate heritage-language students into the mainstream language and culture

Question 42

Translation equivalents

Answer 42

Words in two different languages that refer to the same concept

Question 43

Two-way immersion program

Answer 43

A form of bilingual education that is intended to develop fully bilingual and biliterate students

Question 44

Ultimate attainment

Answer 44

Second language acquisition that typically falls short of full mastery

Question 45

Unbalanced bilingual

Answer 45

A person who has limited ability in a second language

Question 46

Weaker links hypothesis

Answer 46

The proposal that the bilingual disadvantage can be explained in terms of lower word frequencies