The Fate of the Native Language in Second Language Learning

母语在第二语言学习中的命运

• 批准号: 1535124
• 负责人: Paola Dussias
• 金额: $ 14.69万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1535124&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fate; Native; Language; Second; Learning

Adults often find it difficult to learn a second language. Some adult learners do manage to successfully achieve native-like performance in a second language, but how that occurs or what helps the learner is still unknown. The planned studies will investigate a new hypothesis that proposes that successful adult learners are individuals who are able to tolerate change in their native language. The changes that may be required to enable successful adult language learning may involve processing costs that initially slow the native language and make native language performance more error prone, make learners less sensitive to some features of the native language, and that open the native language to the influences of the language being learned. The project asks whether some adults are better able to accommodate the changes to the native language and, as a result, are more likely to succeed in mastering a second language.Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, the investigators will examine learners at different levels of proficiency in typical classroom learning contexts, immersed in English in the US or in Spanish in Spain. Changes to the native language will be examined at the level of the lexicon and the grammar, comparing comprehension and production, using behavioral measures of speed and accuracy, eye tracking measures during reading, and electrophysiological measures that examine the earliest time course of language processing. The research has a number of broader implications for improving adult second language learning. It can also inform educational issues in a society in which many learners, e.g., immigrant adolescents, are faced with the task of acquiring a second language past the earliest stages of childhood and for whom failure in this task is associated with poor academic, social, and economic outcomes. The research will contribute to the training of a diverse group of cognitive scientists by involving both undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom are bilinguals or second language learners themselves, and will foster an international scientific collaboration.

成年人常常发现学习第二语言很困难。 一些成人学习者确实成功地在第二语言中实现了类似母语的表现，但这是如何发生的或对学习者有什么帮助仍然未知。计划中的研究将调查一个新的假设，该假设提出，成功的成人学习者是能够容忍母语变化的人。成功的成人语言学习可能需要进行一些改变，这些改变可能涉及处理成本，这些成本最初会减慢母语的速度，使母语的表现更容易出错，使学习者对母语的某些特征不太敏感，并使母语向其他人开放。所学语言的影响。该项目询问一些成年人是否能够更好地适应母语的变化，从而更有可能成功掌握第二语言。研究人员将使用横断面和纵向设计来检查不同学习阶段的学习者。在典型的课堂学习环境中的熟练程度，在美国沉浸于英语或在西班牙沉浸于西班牙语。母语的变化将在词汇和语法层面进行检查，比较理解和表达，使用速度和准确性的行为测量，阅读过程中的眼动追踪测量，以及检查语言处理最早时间过程的电生理测量。该研究对于改善成人第二语言学习具有许多更广泛的影响。它还可以为社会中的教育问题提供信息，在这个社会中，许多学习者（例如移民青少年）面临着在童年早期阶段之后习得第二语言的任务，而对他们来说，这项任务的失败与学业、社交、生活水平不佳有关。和经济成果。该研究将通过本科生和研究生（其中许多人本身就是双语或第二语言学习者）的参与，有助于培训多元化的认知科学家群体，并将促进国际科学合作。