Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Psycholinguistic Approach to Second Language Reading

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Under the direction of Dr. Judith Kroll, Ms. Ana Schwartz will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Her research will examine reading in a second language. For many bilinguals, reading proficiency in a second language does not reach the same level of fluency as in the first language. One reason for this might be that word recognition processes are not as automatic in the second language as they are in the first language. Further, when reading in a second language, bilinguals are unable to "turn off" some information from their first language. The competition between the two languages makes it difficult for the second language reader to ignore first language influences. Ms. Schwartz will investigate how bilingual readers use sentence context to negotiate the competition between their two languages. One set of experiments uses response time measures to ask what type of information is available during reading in the second language. A second set of experiments uses eye movement measures to ask when that information is available. These experiments will involve English-Spanish and Spanish-English bilinguals, as well as a monolingual comparison group. An additional set of measures will assess the degree to which the answers to these research questions are affected by individual differences in the ability to allocate cognitive resources during reading. This research contributes to the development of more comprehensive models of the reading process. It also has important implications for how reading is taught in multi-lingual classrooms. Given the increasing number of students in American schools whose first language is not English, and the central importance that reading holds for academic success, it is critical to understand the cognitive characteristics of second language reading.