Examining Development and Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Processing: An ERP Investigation

成人第二语言习得的主要问题是探索学习者在语言学习的初始任务中带来了什么能力，第二语言是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以及是否有可能达到母语水平。最近，这些问题已经从神经语言学的角度得到了解决，允许对第二语言学习者在线理解的过程进行细粒度的表征。几项针对高水平晚期学习者的研究报告了类似于母语的句法处理效果，但我们仍然对类似于母语的成就的限制知之甚少，因为许多这些研究调查了第一语言和第二语言的相似特性。此外，对非常早期学习者的研究表明，母语和目标语之间的相似性调节了母语效应的出现，但我们仍然很少了解是形态句法特征的相似性还是表面形态中特定形态句法特征实现方式的相似性促进了习得。本项目解决了这些突出的问题，利用事件相关电位（erp）来研究英语成人西班牙语学习者对性别和数字一致的处理。第一项研究考察了三个熟练程度的学习者，调查了母语的作用和在不同发展阶段一致元素之间的结构距离的作用，并研究了当第一语言和第二语言的特性不同时，是否有可能获得像母语一样的成就。第二项是纵向研究，跟踪学习西班牙语第一年的学生，以检查大脑反应在三个不同时间点的发育变化。本研究调查了学习者在早期阶段是否对协议异常敏感，并考察了这种敏感性在多大程度上受到母语特性和同意元素之间的结构距离的调节。在采用横断面和纵向方法时，该项目检查了与母语相似的成就的限制和发展过程中神经生理效应的出现方式，关键是调查了在整个习得过程中影响发展的因素。因此，该研究将揭示成人第二语言习得的发展过程，并将引入一个新的框架来研究第二语言在不同学习阶段面临的最大挑战，为成人学习者的教学方法提供信息。此外，研究成人第二语言习得的性质和范围为探索成人认知系统的重组提供了一个高度受限的、假设驱动的测试案例。因此，这种研究第二语言习得的方法将为更广泛地了解大脑可塑性的本质提供新的见解。该项目还将用于培养第二语言习得和神经语言学领域的下一代语言学本科生和研究生。

The leading questions in adult second language acquisition explore what capacities the learner brings to the initial task of language learning, how the second language develops over time, and whether native-like attainment is possible. Recently these questions have been addressed from the perspective of neurolinguistics, allowing a fine-grained characterization of the processes underlying online comprehension in second language learners. Several studies of high-proficiency late learners have reported native-like effects for syntactic processing but we still have little understanding of the constraints on native-like attainment, as many of these studies have investigated properties that are similar in the first and second languages. In addition, studies of very early learners have shown that similarity between the native and target language modulates the emergence of native-like effects, but we still have little understanding of whether it is similarity in the inventory of morphosyntactic features or similarity in the way in which a given morphosyntactic feature is realized in the surface morphology that facilitates acquisition. The present project addresses these outstanding issues, utilizing event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the processing of gender and number agreement by English-speaking adult learners of Spanish. The first study examines learners at three proficiency levels, investigating both the role of the native language and the role of structural distance between the agreeing elements at different stages of development and examining whether or not native-like attainment is possible when properties differ in the first and second language. The second, longitudinal study, tracks students enrolled in their first year of Spanish in order to examine developmental changes in brain responses at three different points. This study investigates whether learners are sensitive to agreement anomalies at early stages and examines to what extent this sensitivity is modulated by the properties of the native language and the structural distance between the agreeing elements. In adopting both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal approach, the project examines both the constraints on native-like attainment and the way neurophysiological effects emerge during development, crucially investigating what factors affect development throughout acquisition. The study will thus shed light on the developmental process of adult second language acquisition and will introduce a new framework for investigating the components of the second language that present the biggest challenge throughout different stages of learning, informing pedagogical approaches for adult learners. Furthermore, investigating the nature and scope of adult second language acquisition provides a highly-constrained, hypothesis-driven test case for probing the reorganization of a cognitive system in adulthood. Thus, this approach to examining second language acquisition will provide new insights regarding the nature of brain plasticity more broadly. The project will also serve to train the next generation of linguistics undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of second language acquisition and neurolinguistics.