U.S.-Western Europe Regional Cooperative Research: Analyses of Code Accessibility and Acquisition in Children Across Multiple Signed, Spoken, and Written Languages

该奖项部分资助了宾夕法尼亚州立大学的Keith Nelson教授和Philip Prince z教授与汉堡大学的Siegmund Prillwitz教授和斯德哥尔摩大学的Inger Ahlgren、Lenore Arnberg和Peter Arnberg教授在语言学方面的合作研究。他们正在合作进行研究，旨在加深我们对儿童利用可用语言输入的过程的理解，以便在不同的语言模式(口语、书面和手语)中分析和获得新的规则和技能。美国联合首席调查员先前和继续进行的实验和观察研究表明，当回复将儿童的意思重塑为相关但更复杂的句子结构时，儿童很容易处理和利用对他们自己的言语和手势话语的回复。这一效应在手语和口语的习得中都有所体现。假设当儿童获得新的文本技能(如阅读和写作)和第二语言技能时，类似的习得过程和输入成分的影响(如重铸)也参与其中。这项合作将结合对多种手语(德语、瑞典语和美语)的研究，以及儿童的阅读和写作习得，这些儿童的第一语言可能是这些手语中的任何一种，也可能是相应国家的主要或少数人说的语言。这种主体的多样性将允许对过程假设进行更严格的测试，而不是只专注于美国的美国英语。合作将包括通过使用微型计算机进行理解和反应时间测试，对新获得的技能进行详细的过程分析，使用任何儿童都可以访问的各种代码。将对不同代码掌握水平的跨语言异同进行分析。美国研究人员和他们的欧洲合作者正在进行的和之前的工作为在这些研究主题上的交流和合作提供了丰富的基础。在对语言习得机制的普遍性作出结论之前，必须进行跨语言研究。在美国、FRG和瑞典的协调研究可能会导致合作者在获取多个通信代码的过程中的跨语言和跨文化有效性的相当大的扩展。尽管这项研究是以过程为导向的，但在特殊教育、第二语言学习和识字技能培训领域，预计会相当迅速地将理论进步转化为教育程序的进步。计算机动画符号和图形等研究技术的使用和改进有望使其他研究团队受益于视觉语言刺激。

This award partially supports Professors Keith Nelson and Philip Prinz of Pennsylvania State University for collaborative research in linguistics with Professors Siegmund Prillwitz of the University of Hamburg and Inger Ahlgren, Lenore Arnberg and Peter Arnberg of the University of Stockholm. They are collaborating in research designed to further our understanding of the processes by which children utilize available language input in order to analyze and acquire new rules and skills in different linguistic modes (spoken, written and signed). Prior and continuing experimental and observational research by the American co-principal investigators has demonstrated that children readily process and make use of replies to their own speech and sign utterances when the replies recast the child's meanings into related but more complex sentence structures. This effect has been seen in the acquisition of sign language as well as spoken language. It is hypothesized that similar acquisition processes and effects of input components (such as recasts) are involved when children acquire new text skills (such as reading and writing) and second language skills. This collaboration will combine studies of multiple sign languages (German, Swedish and American) and reading and writing acquisition by children whose first language may be any of these sign languages or a dominant or minority spoken language in the corresponding countries. Such diversity of subjects will allow more rigorous testing of process assumptions than could possibly be achieved by concentrating on American English in the United States alone. The collaboration will include close process analyses of newly acquired skills through comprehension and reaction time testing using microcomputers, in the various codes that are accessible to any individual child. Analyses of cross linguistic similarities and differences at varied levels of code mastery will be pursued. The ongoing and prior work of the American investigators and their European collaborators provide a rich foundation for exchange and collaboration on these research topics. Cross-linguistic work is necessary before conclusions can be drawn about the universality of language acquisition mechanisms. Coordinated research in the U.S., the FRG, and Sweden may lead to a considerable expansion of the cross-language and cross-cultural validity of the collaborators' work on the processes of acquiring multiple communication codes. Although the research is process oriented, rather rapid conversion of theoretical advances to advances in educational procedures is expected in the areas of special education, second language learning, and literacy skill training. The use and refinement of research techniques such as the computer-animated signs and graphics promises to benefit other research teams that work with visual language stimuli.