Elin Thordardottir
Biographic Data
| ID | 4173069 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elin Thordardottir |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elin |
| FAMILY NAME | Thordardottir |
| SIGNATURE | THORDARDOTTIR E |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0102-9679 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
How multilingual adolescents use connectives in argumentative texts
Does incidental English impact the L1 and L2 acquisition of a micro-language? The language exposure and proficiency of Icelandic students with different home language backgrounds
La prise en compte du bilinguisme lors d’un dépistage en orthophonie
L’identification d’un trouble développemental du langage (TDL) des enfants bilingues par les orthophonistes est un défi, car les enfants bilingues au développement typique (DT) évalués dans une seule langue peuvent avoir une performance plus basse que celle de leurs pairs unilingues. Le présent projet vise à évaluer les effets d’une adaptation des points de repère selon les domaines langagiers, et selon le niveau d’exposition au français des enfa…
National language in a globalised world
Language acquisition and Language Maintenance (LM) both depend on ample opportunity and motivation. Currently, many national language societies are undergoing Language Shift (LS) to English, impacting their acquisition as first (L1) and possibly even more as second (L2) language. This study interviewed 44 adolescents, including 24 L1 and 20 L2 speakers of Icelandic, on their views on the importance of Icelandic and English, whether Icelandic is h…
Verbal fluency in bilingual school-age children
Aims: The sparse available evidence on verbal fluency in bilingual children shows them to perform lower than monolinguals on semantic fluency (taken as indicating vocabulary) but on par or better on phonemic fluency (taken as indicating executive functioning). This study takes a more detailed look at verbal fluency skills in bilingual children by examining their search strategies, the extent to which verbal fluency skills are related to bilingual…
Are background variables good predictors of need for L2 assistance in school? Effects of age, L1, amount, and timing of exposure on Icelandic language and nonword repetition scores
In response to the recent sharp increase of L2 students in Reykjavik schools, allocation criteria for special L2 services were adopted that were based on length of residence and on whether children’s home language was tonal or not tonal. This study set out to evaluate the appropriateness of these criteria, and to replicate previous findings of a smaller scale study of the Icelandic and nonword repetition performance of L2 learners of Icelandic.Pa…
Amount trumps timing in bilingual vocabulary acquisition
Objectives: This study examined the extent to which the language performance of school-age bilingual children is impacted by the amount of language exposure they have received in each language versus the timing of this exposure in terms of the age of first exposure (AoE). Methods: Receptive and expressive vocabulary and word morphology measures were administered in both languages to school-age simultaneous and sequential learners of French (other…
Icelandic as a second language
School-age children (n=39) acquiring Icelandic as a second language were tested yearly over three years on Icelandic measures of language knowledge and language processing. Comparison with native speaker norms revealed large and significant differences for the great majority of the children. Those who scored within the normal monolingual range had a mean length of residence (LOR) of close to 8 years and had arrived to the country at an early age.…
The relationship between bilingual exposure and vocabulary development
The relationship between amount of bilingual exposure and performance in receptive and expressive vocabulary in French and English was examined in 5-year-old Montreal children acquiring French and English simultaneously as well as in monolingual children. The children were equated on age, socio-economic status, nonverbal cognition, and on minority/majority language status (both languages have equal status), but differed in the amount of exposure …
A working memory, not bilingual advantage, in controlled attention
We explored the relationship between working memory (WM) and visually controlled attention (CA) in young bilingual and monolingual children. Previous research has shown that balanced bilingual children outperform monolinguals in CA. However, it is unclear whether this advantage is truly associated with bilingualism or whether potential WM and/or language differences led to the observed effects. Therefore, we examined whether bilingual and monolin…
Bilingual assessment
It is generally recommended that bilingual children be assessed in both of their languages. However, specific procedures for such bilingual assessment and for interpretation of the results are lacking. Normally developing French – English bilingual preschool-age children were compared to monolingual children (n = 28) on expressive and receptive measures of vocabulary and syntax. Results indicated that when measured in one language only, as well a…
Continuity in lexical and morphological development in Icelandic and English-speaking 2-year-olds
Accounts of language development vary in whether they view lexical and grammatical development as being mediated by a single or by separate mechanisms. In a single mechanism account, only one system is required for learning words and extracting grammatical regularity based on similarities among stored items. A strong non-linear relationship between early lexical and grammatical development has been demonstrated in English and, more recently, in I…
Mean length of utterance and other language sample measures in early Icelandic
Adaptations of the widely used MLU measure have been developed in several languages. Such adaptations require numerous modifications, especially in languages that are highly inflected. This study involved the development of a systematic procedure for coding language samples from Icelandic toddlers. Results are reported in terms of mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU), total vocabulary, total number of different words and type-token ratio (…
Language assessment via parent report
National language in a globalised world
Language acquisition and Language Maintenance (LM) both depend on ample opportunity and motivation. Currently, many national language societies are undergoing Language Shift (LS) to English, impacting their acquisition as first (L1) and possibly even more as second (L2) language. This study interviewed 44 adolescents, including 24 L1 and 20 L2 speakers of Icelandic, on their views on the importance of Icelandic and English, whether Icelandic is h…
Language assessment via parent report
Mean length of utterance and other language sample measures in early Icelandic
Adaptations of the widely used MLU measure have been developed in several languages. Such adaptations require numerous modifications, especially in languages that are highly inflected. This study involved the development of a systematic procedure for coding language samples from Icelandic toddlers. Results are reported in terms of mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU), total vocabulary, total number of different words and type-token ratio (…
Continuity in lexical and morphological development in Icelandic and English-speaking 2-year-olds
Accounts of language development vary in whether they view lexical and grammatical development as being mediated by a single or by separate mechanisms. In a single mechanism account, only one system is required for learning words and extracting grammatical regularity based on similarities among stored items. A strong non-linear relationship between early lexical and grammatical development has been demonstrated in English and, more recently, in I…
Bilingual assessment
It is generally recommended that bilingual children be assessed in both of their languages. However, specific procedures for such bilingual assessment and for interpretation of the results are lacking. Normally developing French – English bilingual preschool-age children were compared to monolingual children (n = 28) on expressive and receptive measures of vocabulary and syntax. Results indicated that when measured in one language only, as well a…
A working memory, not bilingual advantage, in controlled attention
We explored the relationship between working memory (WM) and visually controlled attention (CA) in young bilingual and monolingual children. Previous research has shown that balanced bilingual children outperform monolinguals in CA. However, it is unclear whether this advantage is truly associated with bilingualism or whether potential WM and/or language differences led to the observed effects. Therefore, we examined whether bilingual and monolin…
The relationship between bilingual exposure and vocabulary development
The relationship between amount of bilingual exposure and performance in receptive and expressive vocabulary in French and English was examined in 5-year-old Montreal children acquiring French and English simultaneously as well as in monolingual children. The children were equated on age, socio-economic status, nonverbal cognition, and on minority/majority language status (both languages have equal status), but differed in the amount of exposure …
Icelandic as a second language
School-age children (n=39) acquiring Icelandic as a second language were tested yearly over three years on Icelandic measures of language knowledge and language processing. Comparison with native speaker norms revealed large and significant differences for the great majority of the children. Those who scored within the normal monolingual range had a mean length of residence (LOR) of close to 8 years and had arrived to the country at an early age.…
Amount trumps timing in bilingual vocabulary acquisition
Objectives: This study examined the extent to which the language performance of school-age bilingual children is impacted by the amount of language exposure they have received in each language versus the timing of this exposure in terms of the age of first exposure (AoE). Methods: Receptive and expressive vocabulary and word morphology measures were administered in both languages to school-age simultaneous and sequential learners of French (other…
Are background variables good predictors of need for L2 assistance in school? Effects of age, L1, amount, and timing of exposure on Icelandic language and nonword repetition scores
In response to the recent sharp increase of L2 students in Reykjavik schools, allocation criteria for special L2 services were adopted that were based on length of residence and on whether children’s home language was tonal or not tonal. This study set out to evaluate the appropriateness of these criteria, and to replicate previous findings of a smaller scale study of the Icelandic and nonword repetition performance of L2 learners of Icelandic.Pa…
Verbal fluency in bilingual school-age children
Aims: The sparse available evidence on verbal fluency in bilingual children shows them to perform lower than monolinguals on semantic fluency (taken as indicating vocabulary) but on par or better on phonemic fluency (taken as indicating executive functioning). This study takes a more detailed look at verbal fluency skills in bilingual children by examining their search strategies, the extent to which verbal fluency skills are related to bilingual…
National language in a globalised world
Language acquisition and Language Maintenance (LM) both depend on ample opportunity and motivation. Currently, many national language societies are undergoing Language Shift (LS) to English, impacting their acquisition as first (L1) and possibly even more as second (L2) language. This study interviewed 44 adolescents, including 24 L1 and 20 L2 speakers of Icelandic, on their views on the importance of Icelandic and English, whether Icelandic is h…
Does incidental English impact the L1 and L2 acquisition of a micro-language? The language exposure and proficiency of Icelandic students with different home language backgrounds
La prise en compte du bilinguisme lors d’un dépistage en orthophonie
L’identification d’un trouble développemental du langage (TDL) des enfants bilingues par les orthophonistes est un défi, car les enfants bilingues au développement typique (DT) évalués dans une seule langue peuvent avoir une performance plus basse que celle de leurs pairs unilingues. Le présent projet vise à évaluer les effets d’une adaptation des points de repère selon les domaines langagiers, et selon le niveau d’exposition au français des enfa…
How multilingual adolescents use connectives in argumentative texts
Language Development and Disorders (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (10 works) · Icelandic (7 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (7 works) · Vocabulary (7 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · First language (6 works) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (6 works)