Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Early Exposure and Language Dominance on Bilingualism

本论文的研究将调查传统语言使用者的双语能力，以确定双语语言发展的时间和经验的相对重要性。传统（韩语）和主导（英语）语言功能都将被检查，包括实时处理词汇，检测语法错误以及区分相似但不同的语音的能力。主要目标是消除歧义的贡献早期曝光（韩国）和输入优势（英语）早期双语能力。第二个目标是确定哪些语言领域最容易出现语言损失/不完全习得，以及哪些因素有助于平衡语言能力的发展。词汇实验旨在确定在成人第二语言学习者中观察到的不对称掩蔽启动效应（仅L1-L2）是否被传统说话者复制。本文采用语法性判断任务考察了传统语言使用者在习得方位词替换和量词浮动时是否解决了可学性问题。语音感知实验将测试区分/sta~suta/对比的能力，这对韩国人来说很难，以及对英语母语者来说很难的韩语对比（/s~ss/）。 除实验数据外，还将收集传记信息和能力验证结果。这些集体研究结果应该会对该领域做出一些重要的知识和社会贡献。在智力上，它将有助于消除早期经验和语言优势的影响，这两者在以前的研究中经常被混淆。在社会上，这些数据对于那些可能正在努力理解传统语言发展以及希望帮助移民发展英语和维护传统语言的教师和家长来说是非常宝贵的。其他社会科学家，教育工作者，家长和政策制定者也将受益于本论文的研究结果，因为其结果可以为美国的普通双语教育提供信息。

This dissertation research will investigate the bilingual abilities of heritage language speakers, in order to determine the relative importance of timing and experience in bilingual language development. Both heritage (Korean) and dominant (English) language features will be examined, including the ability to process vocabulary in real-time, detect grammatical errors, and distinguish similar but different speech sounds. The primary goal is to disambiguate the contributions of early exposure (to Korean) and input dominance (of English) to early bilingual competence. A secondary goal is to identify which linguistic domains are most vulnerable to language loss/incomplete acquisition, as well as which factors contribute to the development of balanced language proficiency. The vocabulary experiment is designed to determine whether the asymmetric masked priming effect (L1-L2 only) observed in adult second language learners is replicated by heritage speakers. A grammaticality judgment task is employed to examine whether heritage speakers resolve the learnability problem (Pinker, 1989) in the acquisition of locative alternation and quantifier float. The speech perception experiment will test the ability to distinguish the /sta~suta/ contrast, something difficult for Koreans, as well as Korean contrasts that are difficult for English native-speakers (/s~ss/). In addition to experimental data, biographical information and proficiency test results will be collected. The collective findings should make several important intellectual and social contributions to the field. Intellectually, it will help disambiguate the effects of early experience and language dominance, both of which have often been confounded in previous studies. Socially, such data are invaluable for teachers and parents who might be struggling to understand heritage language development and who want to help immigrants with English language development and heritage language maintenance. Other social scientists, educators, parents, and policymakers will also benefit from the research findings of this dissertation as the results can inform general bilingual education in the U.S.