The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between parental acculturation attitudes and second language (L2) skills and acquisition in immigrant children and to identify the mechanisms that potentially mediate between parental acculturation attitudes and children’s L2 skills and acquisition. Our longitudinal study is based on a sample of 252 children with German as L2 (age t₁: M = 41 months; t₂: M = 57 months) and their parents. Research Findings: Results revealed that parental acculturation attitudes toward the country of origin negatively correlated with children’s L2 skills at t₁ and at t₂. Furthermore, time spent in early childcare predicted L2 skills at t₁ and at t₂. Parental L2 proficiency and children’s contact with German language speakers outside of childcare were related to children’s L2 skills at t₁. Parental L2 proficiency mediated the relationship between parental acculturation attitudes and children’s L2 skills. Practice or Policy: The findings support the importance of early childcare attendance and parental acculturation for L2 skills and acquisition in children with an immigrant background.

Purpose: Both monolingual and bilingual children use learning constraints and heuristics to acquire new words from their environment. Overall, fast mapping abilities seem to be similar in both populations, but monolinguals rely more than bilinguals on the mutual exclusivity strategy. Our study probes the robustness of these results in a large group of children learning different language combinations, with a newly devised language-fair task that relies as little as possible on previous linguistic knowledge, in order to avoid disadvantaging bilingual children. Method: We tested 138 3- to 5-year-old mono- and bilingual children in their dominant language (German, French, Italian, or Turkish) in a computerized task starting with a fast mapping phase, followed by a mutual exclusivity phase, using only invented nonobjects and nonwords. Results: As hypothesized, monolingual and bilingual children showed similar results during the initial fast mapping stage, but monolinguals relied significantly more on the mutual exclusivity strategy than their bilingual peers. Conclusions: The language-fair design of our task supports the idea that differences in mutual exclusivity strategy use between mono- and bilingual children really stem from their specific linguistic background, and not from potential familiarity differences with respect to the test words. We discuss the implications of our results for bilingual language assessment in clinical or educational contexts. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20669214

This study examines cultural value alignment in large language models (LLMs) byanalyzing how Gemini, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek prioritize values from Schwartz’s valueframework. Using the 40 items Portrait Values Questionnaire, we assessed whetherDeepSeek, trained on Chinese-language data, exhibits distinct value preferencescompared to Western models. Results of a Bayesian ordinal regression model show thatself-transcendence values (e.g., benevolence, universalism) were highly prioritized acrossall models, reflecting a general LLM tendency to emphasize prosocial values. However,DeepSeek uniquely downplayed self-enhancement values (e.g., power, achievement)compared to ChatGPT and Gemini, aligning with collectivist cultural tendencies. Thesefindings suggest that LLMs reflect culturally situated biases rather than a universalethical framework. To address value asymmetries in LLM, we propose multi-perspectivereasoning, self-reflective feedback, and dynamic contextualization. This study contributesto discussions on AI fairness, cultural neutrality, and the need for pluralistic AI alignmentframeworks that integrate diverse moral perspectives.

Phonemic processing is largely influenced by how stimulus-specific characteristics of a language are computed, but person-level variables represent important moderators as well. The current study investigates how such characteristics, in parallel, affect receptive-level phonemic processing across the preschool age, and whether these effects are comparable across different languages. Using a child-friendly ‘odd-man-out’ discrimination task, we examined 239 monolingual German- and French-speaking preschoolers, aged three to five. Results revealed that phonotactic probability-based syllable frequency, nonword length, and mismatching nonword positioning effects explained independent variance components of phonemic processing. Age significantly affected how memory-related, but not linguistically relevant, stimulus characteristics were utilized for phonemic processing. Additionally, cross-language differences in rhythmic structure between German and French influenced which nonword segments received more attention focus. These findings provide novel insights into critical determinants of phonemic processing in preschoolers and highlight the need for further research to explore these effects over time and within varying language backgrounds.

Zusammenfassung: Frühzeitige Sprachscreenings sind entscheidend, um bei Kindern mit nicht-deutscher Familiensprache einen möglichen Sprachförderbedarf festzustellen. Der „Deutsch als Zweitsprache – Elternfragebogen“ (DaZ-E) wird in der Schweiz seit über einer Dekade 18 Monate vor dem verpflichtenden Kindergarteneintritt eingesetzt und bildet die Grundlage für Entscheidungen über kompensatorische Deutschfördermaßnahmen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war es, die psychometrischen Eigenschaften des DaZ-E nach mehr als zehn Jahren Einsatz, seine Vergleichbarkeit über Sprachversionen und Erhebungsmodi, die Relevanz einer Altersnormierung sowie seine kriteriale Validität und den Einfluss elterlicher Deutschkenntnisse zu untersuchen. In Studie 1 wurden populationsweite Sprachstanderhebungen in Basel-Stadt von 2013–2024 ( N = 12,698; M _Alter = 36 Monate, SD _Alter = 3.6 Monate; 48% Mädchen) analysiert, um die Stabilität der Messstruktur über Zeit, Sprachversionen und Erhebungsmodi zu untersuchen. Konfirmatorische Mehrgruppenanalysen für ordinale Daten zeigten eine stabile Messstruktur. Zudem ergaben sich kleine, konsistente Alterseffekte, die sich bei zusätzlicher Berücksichtigung der Dauer des Sprachgebrauchs im Deutschen deutlich reduzierten. Studie 2 analysierte explorativ anhand einer Teilstichprobe aus dem Jahr 2023 ( n = 55; M _Alter = 37 Monate, SD _Alter = 3.7 Monate; 47% Mädchen) den Zusammenhang mit einem externen, altersnormierten Referenzmaß (IDS-P), die Einordnung des Cut-off-Werts sowie den Einfluss elterlicher Deutschkenntnisse. Es zeigten sich substanzielle Zusammenhänge zwischen DaZ-E und IDS-P. Der Cut-off deutet auf eine eher spezifitätsorientierte Klassifikationsstrategie hin, ist jedoch aufgrund der kleinen Stichprobe als explorativ zu interpretieren. Zudem ergaben sich Hinweise auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen den Deutschkenntnissen der Eltern und den DaZ-E-Einschätzungen, auch unter Kontrolle der IDS-P-Werte. Insgesamt zeigen die Befunde, dass der DaZ-E nach mehr als einer Dekade und unter veränderten Einsatzbedingungen weiterhin zufriedenstellende psychometrische Eigenschaften aufweist. Gleichzeitig weisen die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass Kontextfaktoren bei der Interpretation berücksichtigt werden sollten. Eine separate Betrachtung von Sprachkompetenz- und Gebrauchsindikatoren sowie der Einfluss elterlicher Sprachkompetenzen stellen potenzielle Ansatzpunkte für eine Weiterentwicklung dar.