Papers by Tamara Vorobyeva
Previous research has demonstrated the difficulty of the grammatical gender category for L2 learn... more Previous research has demonstrated the difficulty of the grammatical gender category for L2 learners and bilingual speakers. The main goal of this study is to investigate the gender agreement by 30 young L1 heritage speakers of Russian (aged 7-11) who’s other dominant languages (L2s) are Spanish and Catalan. To address this issue, production and comprehension experiments were carried out revolving around the knowledge of gender of inanimate nouns in different agreement constructions. Overall, this research reveals that the heritage speakers’ knowledge of gender agreement depends on a conglomerate of various factors. Namely, for the masculine gender value, the “default” strategy is applied. In the case of the feminine gender, heritage speakers are sensitive to formal gender marking. The knowledge of the neuter gender seems to be negatively interfered with by crosslinguistic transfer from L2. Also, results reveal that heritage speakers can attain a native-like level of gender knowledg...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa), Nov 24, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Language Contact, 2021
This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers ... more This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers of Russian living in Spain and examines factors that have been claimed to promote heritage language proficiency, namely, age, gender, age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use. A group of 30 Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilingual children aged 7–11 participated in the study. In order to measure heritage language proficiency (L1 Russian), oral narratives were elicited. The results demonstrated a significant relationship between L1 proficiency and three sociolinguistic variables (age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use). Additionally, the multiply regression model demonstrated that the only significant variable affecting language proficiency was family language use and it accounted only for 33% of the variation of children’s language proficiency. The study raises the question about what are the other, yet unknown factors, which can affect heritag...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers ... more This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers of Russian living in Spain and examines factors that have been claimed to promote heritage language proficiency, namely, age, gender, age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use. A group of 30 Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilingual children aged 7-11 participated in the study. In order to measure heritage language proficiency (L1 Russian), oral narratives were elicited. The results demonstrated a significant relationship between L1 proficiency and three sociolinguistic variables (age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use). Additionally, the multiply regression model demonstrated that the only significant variable affecting language proficiency was family language use and it accounted only for 33% of the variation of children's language proficiency. The study raises the question about what are the other, yet unknown factors, which can affect heritage language proficiency.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Working with bilingual children requires teachers, firstly, to be aware that a particular languag... more Working with bilingual children requires teachers, firstly, to be aware that a particular language is inextricably linked with the culture of the people who speak it, and, secondly, to be able to transfer this knowledge to children in a vibrant, exciting and accessible way. “Discoveries” in education that await us in our work with natural bilinguals may help us to raise artificial bilinguals.
The Council of Europe is actively developing the concept of multilingualism. Its essence is not in declaring that people need to know several languages, but in raising the number of languages it proposes should be learned, in increasing opportunities to study more languages, and in limiting the dominant role of English in international communication. In this respect, it is important that the individual does not “store” new languages and cultures apart from one another, but develops a multi-language communicative competence with the help of the system of formal and informal education.
Teaching a language as a non-state language in communities is crucial for solving the problems of education in the multicultural expanse of Europe. The higher the level of linguistic and communicative competence of the teacher working with bilingual pre-school children in groups that differ in age and ethnic composition, and the more knowledgeable the teacher is about the specific features of a bilingual child’s mastering a language as non-native/another native, the better the child’s education and speech development will be. Therefore, the training of kindergarten teachers requires them to have an extensive professional outlook, knowledge of current trends in socio-linguistic situations, an understanding of the role of languages and cultures in a multi-ethnic society, and a command of the methodology fundamentals of teaching a language as a non-native (another native) language.
The purpose of this concept is to provide further training for educators in bilingual and multicultural kindergartens and similar educational organisations teaching bilingual children aged from 1.5 to 5 years, by means of developing their professional competence in teaching the language as a non-native (another native) language.
The programme also aims to broaden the professional horizons of participants, to enable them to attain a shared understanding, and to resolve educational problems related to the specificities of the bilingual/multicultural educational centre and the region of residence, as well as to secure special conditions for training, teaching and the formation of a multi-cultural linguistic identity.
The objectives of the concept are defined by its purpose and the specificity of the group of participants - pre-school teachers and teachers in early primary education (for example, in Spain from the age of 3 years) with basic general and specific professional competence in the subject areas “native language” and “native language methodology” (less frequently “foreign language” and “foreign language methodology”).
The tasks of this concept are to provide participants with the tools for developing existing competencies and for mastering the full range of professional skills and knowledge that would prepare and enable them to teach and develop a bilingual, bicultural individual.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Conference Presentations by Tamara Vorobyeva
GENDER AGREEMENT IN YOUNG RUSSIAN HERITAGE SPEAKERS IN SPAIN
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Do heritage speakers have any difficulties with gender agreement as compared to their monolingual... more Do heritage speakers have any difficulties with gender agreement as compared to their monolingual peers? If so, what gender category is the most problematic? RQ2: Does transparency in gender marking influence gender knowledge? In what way? RQ3: Is there any effect of the L2s gender features (congruency) on gender production in L1 Russian? RQ4: Is there any difference between agreement constructions (i.e., on adjectives and verbs?
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The current work provides results of 27 questionnaires administered to the parents of young Russi... more The current work provides results of 27 questionnaires administered to the parents of young Russian heritage speakers (age range=5-12, n=27) who attend classes in a community-based school in Barcelona. The main goal is to present a social, economic, and linguistic profile of young Russian heritage speakers and their families analyzing such social, economic, and linguistic factors as household income and level of education, language competences of parents and children, language use in families, quantity and quality of children's exposure to different languages and other factors. In addition, such sociocultural aspects as parental attitudes and motivation towards Russian language learning also were evaluated.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This paper evaluates the lexical knowledge of young L1 heritage speakers (HSs) of Russian whose o... more This paper evaluates the lexical knowledge of young L1 heritage speakers (HSs) of Russian whose other dominant languages (L2s) are Spanish and Catalan. Such speakers are often referred to as ‘incomplete learners,’ ‘early bilinguals,’ ‘attriters’ (Polinsky, 2005) and their L1 skills usually rank lower on the proficiency scale than in their L2. The fact that so little is known about heritage speakers (Benmamoun, et al., 2013) and especially about their lexical knowledge makes this area worth investigating.
This study focuses on the productive vocabulary size, lexical richness, and receptive vocabulary size of such HSs in Russian. Benmamoun, et al. (2010) stated that HSs are typically less competent in their L1 than their monolingual peers. In addition, investigating bilingual children Oller, et al. (2007), Yan & Nicoladis (2009), and Bialystok, et al. (2010) discovered a delay in receptive and productive vocabularies of bilinguals in comparison with monolingual speakers. Moreover, Zareva, et al. (2005) and Golkar & Mortaza (2007) argued for a high correlation between the learners' vocabulary knowledge and proficiency level. From these prior findings we hypothesize that (1) in all measures HSs will demonstrate lower results than their monolingual peers, (2) monolingual controls will outperform HSs in receptive and productive vocabulary sizes, (3) a high proficiency HSs group will have higher scores than a low proficiency HSs group but lower scores than a monolingual group.
The participants of our study were two groups of primary school-aged children: the experimental group of 12 Russian-Spanish/Catalan trilingual children at the age of 6;8-10;0 (mean = 9;3), of different proficiency levels in Russian, who were attending weekend classes at ‘Raduga’, a Russian weekend school in Barcelona, and the control group of 12 Russian monolingual children, attending classes in Moscow, of comparable age (6;7-10;1; mean = 9;3). All participants were required not to have any speech, cognitive, or neurological deficits.
To evaluate productive vocabulary size and lexical richness, we collected written fictional narratives based on describing a picture. Six parameters were calculated (Types, Tokens, Type Token Ratio, TTR Content, TTR Functional, and Lexical Density) and analyzed with the help of CLAN programs (MacWhinney, 2000). The receptive vocabulary assessment was based on a Russian-adapted version of the TEVI (Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes, 1996) using a picture identification task: participants were asked to identify the picture which corresponded to the word said by an examiner. The test consisted of 60 subsets of four pictures, each with a total of 60 words. Correct and incorrect responses were calculated and analyzed.
The results are discussed in regards to proficiency levels of HSs. The inferential statistics did not reveal a significant difference between the groups in lexical richness. A difference was, however, found between the two proficiency-level groups in receptive vocabulary, but there was no difference in productive vocabulary. Tentatively, it can be suggested that proficiency level affects receptive vocabulary knowledge but not productive vocabulary knowledge. In conclusion, bearing in mind the novelty of the topic, more detailed testing should be undertaken in order to understand better differences in lexical abilities of HSs.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Tamara Vorobyeva
The Council of Europe is actively developing the concept of multilingualism. Its essence is not in declaring that people need to know several languages, but in raising the number of languages it proposes should be learned, in increasing opportunities to study more languages, and in limiting the dominant role of English in international communication. In this respect, it is important that the individual does not “store” new languages and cultures apart from one another, but develops a multi-language communicative competence with the help of the system of formal and informal education.
Teaching a language as a non-state language in communities is crucial for solving the problems of education in the multicultural expanse of Europe. The higher the level of linguistic and communicative competence of the teacher working with bilingual pre-school children in groups that differ in age and ethnic composition, and the more knowledgeable the teacher is about the specific features of a bilingual child’s mastering a language as non-native/another native, the better the child’s education and speech development will be. Therefore, the training of kindergarten teachers requires them to have an extensive professional outlook, knowledge of current trends in socio-linguistic situations, an understanding of the role of languages and cultures in a multi-ethnic society, and a command of the methodology fundamentals of teaching a language as a non-native (another native) language.
The purpose of this concept is to provide further training for educators in bilingual and multicultural kindergartens and similar educational organisations teaching bilingual children aged from 1.5 to 5 years, by means of developing their professional competence in teaching the language as a non-native (another native) language.
The programme also aims to broaden the professional horizons of participants, to enable them to attain a shared understanding, and to resolve educational problems related to the specificities of the bilingual/multicultural educational centre and the region of residence, as well as to secure special conditions for training, teaching and the formation of a multi-cultural linguistic identity.
The objectives of the concept are defined by its purpose and the specificity of the group of participants - pre-school teachers and teachers in early primary education (for example, in Spain from the age of 3 years) with basic general and specific professional competence in the subject areas “native language” and “native language methodology” (less frequently “foreign language” and “foreign language methodology”).
The tasks of this concept are to provide participants with the tools for developing existing competencies and for mastering the full range of professional skills and knowledge that would prepare and enable them to teach and develop a bilingual, bicultural individual.
Conference Presentations by Tamara Vorobyeva
This study focuses on the productive vocabulary size, lexical richness, and receptive vocabulary size of such HSs in Russian. Benmamoun, et al. (2010) stated that HSs are typically less competent in their L1 than their monolingual peers. In addition, investigating bilingual children Oller, et al. (2007), Yan & Nicoladis (2009), and Bialystok, et al. (2010) discovered a delay in receptive and productive vocabularies of bilinguals in comparison with monolingual speakers. Moreover, Zareva, et al. (2005) and Golkar & Mortaza (2007) argued for a high correlation between the learners' vocabulary knowledge and proficiency level. From these prior findings we hypothesize that (1) in all measures HSs will demonstrate lower results than their monolingual peers, (2) monolingual controls will outperform HSs in receptive and productive vocabulary sizes, (3) a high proficiency HSs group will have higher scores than a low proficiency HSs group but lower scores than a monolingual group.
The participants of our study were two groups of primary school-aged children: the experimental group of 12 Russian-Spanish/Catalan trilingual children at the age of 6;8-10;0 (mean = 9;3), of different proficiency levels in Russian, who were attending weekend classes at ‘Raduga’, a Russian weekend school in Barcelona, and the control group of 12 Russian monolingual children, attending classes in Moscow, of comparable age (6;7-10;1; mean = 9;3). All participants were required not to have any speech, cognitive, or neurological deficits.
To evaluate productive vocabulary size and lexical richness, we collected written fictional narratives based on describing a picture. Six parameters were calculated (Types, Tokens, Type Token Ratio, TTR Content, TTR Functional, and Lexical Density) and analyzed with the help of CLAN programs (MacWhinney, 2000). The receptive vocabulary assessment was based on a Russian-adapted version of the TEVI (Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes, 1996) using a picture identification task: participants were asked to identify the picture which corresponded to the word said by an examiner. The test consisted of 60 subsets of four pictures, each with a total of 60 words. Correct and incorrect responses were calculated and analyzed.
The results are discussed in regards to proficiency levels of HSs. The inferential statistics did not reveal a significant difference between the groups in lexical richness. A difference was, however, found between the two proficiency-level groups in receptive vocabulary, but there was no difference in productive vocabulary. Tentatively, it can be suggested that proficiency level affects receptive vocabulary knowledge but not productive vocabulary knowledge. In conclusion, bearing in mind the novelty of the topic, more detailed testing should be undertaken in order to understand better differences in lexical abilities of HSs.
The Council of Europe is actively developing the concept of multilingualism. Its essence is not in declaring that people need to know several languages, but in raising the number of languages it proposes should be learned, in increasing opportunities to study more languages, and in limiting the dominant role of English in international communication. In this respect, it is important that the individual does not “store” new languages and cultures apart from one another, but develops a multi-language communicative competence with the help of the system of formal and informal education.
Teaching a language as a non-state language in communities is crucial for solving the problems of education in the multicultural expanse of Europe. The higher the level of linguistic and communicative competence of the teacher working with bilingual pre-school children in groups that differ in age and ethnic composition, and the more knowledgeable the teacher is about the specific features of a bilingual child’s mastering a language as non-native/another native, the better the child’s education and speech development will be. Therefore, the training of kindergarten teachers requires them to have an extensive professional outlook, knowledge of current trends in socio-linguistic situations, an understanding of the role of languages and cultures in a multi-ethnic society, and a command of the methodology fundamentals of teaching a language as a non-native (another native) language.
The purpose of this concept is to provide further training for educators in bilingual and multicultural kindergartens and similar educational organisations teaching bilingual children aged from 1.5 to 5 years, by means of developing their professional competence in teaching the language as a non-native (another native) language.
The programme also aims to broaden the professional horizons of participants, to enable them to attain a shared understanding, and to resolve educational problems related to the specificities of the bilingual/multicultural educational centre and the region of residence, as well as to secure special conditions for training, teaching and the formation of a multi-cultural linguistic identity.
The objectives of the concept are defined by its purpose and the specificity of the group of participants - pre-school teachers and teachers in early primary education (for example, in Spain from the age of 3 years) with basic general and specific professional competence in the subject areas “native language” and “native language methodology” (less frequently “foreign language” and “foreign language methodology”).
The tasks of this concept are to provide participants with the tools for developing existing competencies and for mastering the full range of professional skills and knowledge that would prepare and enable them to teach and develop a bilingual, bicultural individual.
This study focuses on the productive vocabulary size, lexical richness, and receptive vocabulary size of such HSs in Russian. Benmamoun, et al. (2010) stated that HSs are typically less competent in their L1 than their monolingual peers. In addition, investigating bilingual children Oller, et al. (2007), Yan & Nicoladis (2009), and Bialystok, et al. (2010) discovered a delay in receptive and productive vocabularies of bilinguals in comparison with monolingual speakers. Moreover, Zareva, et al. (2005) and Golkar & Mortaza (2007) argued for a high correlation between the learners' vocabulary knowledge and proficiency level. From these prior findings we hypothesize that (1) in all measures HSs will demonstrate lower results than their monolingual peers, (2) monolingual controls will outperform HSs in receptive and productive vocabulary sizes, (3) a high proficiency HSs group will have higher scores than a low proficiency HSs group but lower scores than a monolingual group.
The participants of our study were two groups of primary school-aged children: the experimental group of 12 Russian-Spanish/Catalan trilingual children at the age of 6;8-10;0 (mean = 9;3), of different proficiency levels in Russian, who were attending weekend classes at ‘Raduga’, a Russian weekend school in Barcelona, and the control group of 12 Russian monolingual children, attending classes in Moscow, of comparable age (6;7-10;1; mean = 9;3). All participants were required not to have any speech, cognitive, or neurological deficits.
To evaluate productive vocabulary size and lexical richness, we collected written fictional narratives based on describing a picture. Six parameters were calculated (Types, Tokens, Type Token Ratio, TTR Content, TTR Functional, and Lexical Density) and analyzed with the help of CLAN programs (MacWhinney, 2000). The receptive vocabulary assessment was based on a Russian-adapted version of the TEVI (Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes, 1996) using a picture identification task: participants were asked to identify the picture which corresponded to the word said by an examiner. The test consisted of 60 subsets of four pictures, each with a total of 60 words. Correct and incorrect responses were calculated and analyzed.
The results are discussed in regards to proficiency levels of HSs. The inferential statistics did not reveal a significant difference between the groups in lexical richness. A difference was, however, found between the two proficiency-level groups in receptive vocabulary, but there was no difference in productive vocabulary. Tentatively, it can be suggested that proficiency level affects receptive vocabulary knowledge but not productive vocabulary knowledge. In conclusion, bearing in mind the novelty of the topic, more detailed testing should be undertaken in order to understand better differences in lexical abilities of HSs.