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

检查第二语言处理的发展和最终成就：ERP 调查

• 批准号: 0951900
• 负责人: Alison Gabriele
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2015-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0951900&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Examining; Development; Ultimate; Attainment; Second

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.

成人第二语言习得的首要问题是探讨学习者在语言学习的初始任务中获得了什么能力，第二语言是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以及是否有可能获得像母语一样的语言习得。最近，这些问题从神经语言学的角度被解决，使得对第二语言学习者潜在的在线理解过程的细粒度描述成为可能。一些关于高水平后进生的研究已经报道了母语对句法加工的影响，但我们仍然对母语习得的制约因素知之甚少，因为这些研究中的许多都考察了第一语言和第二语言中相似的特性。此外，对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相似效应的出现，但我们仍然很少了解它是在形态句法特征清单中的相似性，还是在给定的形态句法特征在表层形态中实现的方式的相似性，从而促进习得。本项目解决了这些悬而未决的问题，利用事件相关电位(ERPs)来考察说英语的成年西班牙语学习者对性别和数字一致的加工。第一项研究考察了三个水平的学习者，调查了母语的作用以及在不同发展阶段的一致因素之间的结构距离的作用，并考察了当第一语言和第二语言的性质不同时，是否有可能获得类似于母语的成就。第二项是纵向研究，跟踪学习西班牙语一年级的学生，以考察三个不同时间点的大脑反应的发育变化。本研究调查了学习者在早期阶段是否对协议异常敏感，并考察了母语的性质和协议元素之间的结构距离在多大程度上调节了这种敏感性。通过采用横断面和纵向的方法，该项目既考察了对原住民习得的限制，也考察了发育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哪些因素影响了发育。因此，这项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的组成部分，这些成分在不同的学习阶段构成了最大的挑战，为成人学习者提供了教学方法。此外，调查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、受假设驱动的测试案例。因此，这种考察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。该项目还将用于培训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。