Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cross-language Interactions in Beginning Adult Bilinguals

博士论文研究：初级成人双语者的跨语言互动

基本信息

批准号：
1823955
负责人：
Phillip Holcomb
金额：
$ 1.81万
依托单位：
San Diego State University Foundation
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2018-08-01 至 2020-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1823955&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Doctoral Dissertation Research Cross language

项目摘要

The United States lags far behind other countries in terms of foreign language success rates, which has far-reaching implications for our engagement, safety, and growth in an increasingly global world. One reason for this lag might be that American students are first introduced to a second language relatively late, often not until high school or college. Learning a second language at these ages can be quite challenging, in part because of the extensive linguistic knowledge that young adults already have in their native language. The goal of the present research is to better understand how different types of native language knowledge influence second language word learning: How does the native language help or hinder second language word learning in young adults and why? Understanding these interactions will further our understanding of how the new second language words are represented in the brain and how they are connected up to the existing linguistic system. The extent to which involvement of the native language differs as a function of learning methodology will also be tested. These studies will help form the foundation for the development of more effective, evidence-based foreign language teaching practices.More specifically, the proposed studies use event-related potentials (ERPs) to track second language word learning among monolingual college students in a laboratory setting. ERPs measure the electrical activity of the brain on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis, which makes them useful for tracking how rapid word recognition processes unfold over time. The focus is on two specific types of native language words and how their relative importance changes over learning time. Aim 1 considers how newly learned second language words (e.g., lait is the French word for 'milk') interact with the mental representations of neighboring native language words (e.g., laid, last), which overlap in form. Aim 2 considers the connections between the second language word representations (e.g., lait) and their native language translation equivalents (e.g., milk), which overlap in meaning. Both types of words play prominent roles in theoretical models of second language learning and processing; however, their specific roles differ substantially across models. Thus, the field is in need of empirical evidence that will adjudicate between these various models and advance our understanding of how newly learned words are integrated with the native language lexicon. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms of second language word learning is a prerequisite to developing evidence-based teaching practices and improving foreign language outcomes among young adult students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国在外语成功率方面远远落后于其他国家，这对我们在日益全球化的世界中的参与、安全和增长具有深远的影响。造成这种滞后的一个原因可能是美国学生第一次接触第二语言的时间相对较晚，通常要到高中或大学才开始。在这些年龄段学习第二语言可能相当具有挑战性，部分原因是年轻人已经掌握了丰富的母语语言知识。本研究的目的是更好地了解不同类型的母语知识如何影响第二语言单词学习：母语如何帮助或阻碍年轻人的第二语言单词学习？为什么？了解这些相互作用将进一步了解新的第二语言单词如何在大脑中表示以及它们如何与现有的语言系统联系起来。还将测试母语参与程度随学习方法的不同而变化的程度。这些研究将有助于为开发更有效、循证的外语教学实践奠定基础。更具体地说，拟议的研究使用事件相关电位（ERP）来跟踪实验室环境中单语大学生的第二语言单词学习情况。 ERP 以毫秒为单位测量大脑的电活动，这使得它们有助于跟踪单词识别过程随时间的推移如何快速展开。重点是两种特定类型的母语单词以及它们的相对重要性如何随着学习时间的变化而变化。目标 1 考虑新学习的第二语言单词（例如，lait 是法语单词“牛奶”）如何与形式重叠的相邻母语单词（例如，laid、last）的心理表征相互作用。目标 2 考虑第二语言单词表示（例如，lait）与其母语翻译等效项（例如，牛奶）之间的联系，它们在含义上重叠。这两类词在第二语言学习和处理的理论模型中都发挥着重要作用；然而，它们的具体角色在不同模型中存在很大差异。因此，该领域需要经验证据来在这些不同的模型之间进行裁决，并促进我们对新学习的单词如何与母语词典整合的理解。了解第二语言单词学习的神经认知机制是发展循证教学实践和提高年轻成人学生外语成绩的先决条件。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和能力进行评估，被认为值得支持。更广泛的影响审查标准。