Transfer of Language Skills from one Language to Another Prof. Salim Abu-Rabia University of Haifa

Main Points of This Talk Theories of Second/F language acquisition Superiority of bilingualism over monolingualism in learning a third language Diglossia! Is it really an obstacle? Cognitive Retroactive Transfer of language skill (CRT) among bilingual Arabic-English Readers CRT among Bilingual Hebrew-English Readers CRT among Trilingual Arabic-Hebrew and English Readers

Literature Review Interdependence Hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 1981, 1989) Script-Dependent Hypothesis (Liberman et al., 1985) Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (Frost, 1994: Katz & Frost, 1992) Psycholinguistic Grain Size Theory (Ziegler & Goswami, 2005) Cognitive Retroactive Transfer of language skills (CRT)

Effects of Bilingualism

The Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) Model of Bilingual Proficiency

The Interdependence Hypothesis (1978) To the extent that instruction in Lx is effective in promoting proficiency in Lx, transfer of this proficiency to Ly will occur provide there is adequate exposure to Ly (either in school or environment) and adequate motivation to learn Ly.

Types of Cross-Linguistic Transfer Transfer of concepts (e.g. understanding the concept of photosynthesis); Transfer of strategies for efficient learning (e.g. strategies of note-taking, use of visuals, mnemonic devices, vocabulary acquisition strategies, etc.); Transfer of specific linguistic elements; Transfer of phonological awareness (ability to analyze and manipulate the sounds that make up the oral and written language);

Abu-Rabia & Sanitsky (2010). Bilingual Research Journal

Superiority of bilinguals over monolinguals in learning a third language Abu-Rabia & Sanitsky (2010) The MANOVA procedures indicated stronger English skills among the native Russian speakers compared to the native Hebrew speakers almost on all measures. However, both groups showed similar proficiency on Hebrew measures. Our findings give more support to the nation that knowledge of several different orthographies enhances rather than diminishes L1 and L2 proficiency.

Diglossia Eviatar & Ibrahim (2002) Effects of language experience and age on tests of metalinguistic awareness and vocabulary

Diglossia Eviatar & Ibrahim (2002) Effects of language experience and age on tests of metalinguistic awareness and vocabulary

Diglossia Eviatar & Ibrahim (2002) Effects of language experience and age on tests of metalinguistic awareness and vocabulary

Diglossia Eviatar & Ibrahim (2002) Effects of language experience and age on tests of metalinguistic awareness and vocabulary

Diglossia – Results Eviatar & Ibrahim (2002) The results of the metalinguistic skills and vocabulary measures suggest that preliterate and literate Arab children function as bilinguals as a result of having to deal with two forms of Arabic. The Russian-Hebrew bilinguals showed the expected pattern resulting from exposure to two languages: higher performance levels in the metalinguistic tests and lower performance levels in the vocabulary measure, as compared to Hebrew monolinguals. The Arab children’s performance levels mimicked those of Russian-Hebrew bilinguals for the most part, suggesting that exposure to literary Arabic may require the same intensive language analyses as children who are exposed to two languages.

Abu-Rabia, Shakkour & Siegel Cognitive Retroactive Transfer (CRT) of Language Skills Among Bilingual Arabic-English Readers Abu-Rabia, Shakkour & Siegel

Abu-Rabia, Shakkour & Siegel (2013). Bilingual Research Journal

Cognitive retroactive transfer of language skills

A Study into the Results of an Intervention Program of Linguistic skills in English (L2) and Its Effect on Hebrew (L1) among Poor Readers: An Examination of the Cognitive-Retroactive Transfer (CRT) Hypothesis Abu Rabia & Bluestein- Danon (2012). Journal of Modern Linguistics

In other words, transfer of skills does not occur only among regular or/and good readers but also among poor readers during their early stages of language acquisition, provided that curricula designers keep teaching direct, systematic, and well constructed.

Cognitive Retroactive Transfer (CRT) of Language Skills among Trilingual Arabic-Hebrew and English Learners Abu-Rabia & Shakkour Email: Salimar@construct.haifa.ac.il

Table 1. Means (max 30), standard deviations in all language skills for English, Arabic, and Hebrew before and after the intervention in the treatment group, and the covariance analysis values of one-way multivariate (MANOVA-One Way).

Table 2. Means (max 30), standard deviations in all language skills for English, Arabic, and Hebrew before and after the intervention period in the control group, and the covariance analysis values of one-way multivariate (MANOVA-One Way).

Conclusions Transfer of skills occurs for L1 to L2/FL and vice versa, regardless of orthography type. Transfer of skills occurs among all type of readers: poor and dyslexics. In order to ensure transfer of skills, reading experiences and exposure to the specific orthography should occur. The orthographic depth hypothesis & the psycholinguistic grain size theory explain the process of reading in different orthographies in the initial stages, however they are not relevant once readers have developed some adequate decoding skills. The more orthographies languages we master, the higher metalinguistic abilities we possess. Language teachers should work together.

The End Thank You