Age of Bilingual Onset Shapes the Dynamics of Functional Connectivity and Laterality in the Resting-State.

Bilingualism is known to enhance cognitive function and flexibility of the brain. However, it is not clear how bilingual experience affects the time-varying functional network and whether these changes depend on the age of bilingual onset. This study intended to investigate the bilingual-related dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) based on the resting-state functional magnetic resonance images, including 23 early bilinguals (EBs), 30 late bilinguals (LBs), and 31 English monolinguals. The analysis identified two dFC states, and LBs showed more transitions between these states than monolinguals. Moreover, more frequent left-right switches were found in functional laterality in prefrontal, lateral temporal, lateral occipital, and inferior parietal cortices in EBs compared with LB and monolingual cohorts, and the laterality changes in the anterior superior temporal cortex were negatively correlated with L2 proficiency. These findings highlight how the age of L2 acquisition affects cortico-cortical dFC pattern and provide insight into the neural mechanisms of bilingualism.

Cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese students in the United States: Acculturation strategies, sociocultural, psychological, and academic adaptation.

This study was conducted with the primary purpose to gain a comprehensive understanding of Chinese students' acculturation by examining the effects of their acculturation strategies, sociocultural, psychological adaptation on the academic adaptation. The total number of 315 international Chinese students studying in the United States participated in an online survey. The mid-point split method was used to classify the four acculturation strategies among Chinese students. The results of a Chi-square test, ANOVA analyses and hierarchical regressions reveal that separation was the most preferred acculturation strategy by the Chinese students while marginalization was the least desirable. Chinese students did the best in sociocultural adaptation but the worst in academic adaptation. However, students who achieved a good sociocultural adaptation encountered unexpected problems with their psychological adaptation. Findings also indicate that international Chinese students' preference for separation and marginalization was associated with a better psychological and academic adaptation while integration and assimilation strategy was associated with a better sociocultural adaptation. Their academic adaptation can be predicted significantly by their psychological adaptation, not by their sociocultural adaptation.

Chinese English Learners' Strategic Competence.

The present study aims to investigate Chinese English learners' ability to use communication strategies (CSs). The subjects are put in a relatively real English referential communication setting and the analyses of the research data show that Chinese English learners, when encountering problems in foreign language (FL) communication, are characterized by the frequent use of substitution, approximation, circumlocution, literal translation, exemplification, word-coinage, repetition, and the infrequent use of cultural-knowledge and paralinguistic CSs. The rare use of paralinguistic strategies is found to be typical of Chinese English learners. The high frequency of literal translation, one first language (L1)-based strategy in our study sample, suggests that FL learners' use of L1-based CSs may depend more upon the developmental stage of their target language than the typology distance between L1 and the target language. The frequency of repetition reveals one fact that the Chinese English learners lack variety and flexibility in their use of CSs. Based on these findings, it was indicated that learners' use of CSs is influenced by a variety of factors, among which the development stage of their interlanguage and their cultural background are identified as two important factors. Some implications are finally suggested for the English foreign language teaching practice in China.