Doctoral Dissertation Research: Age Differences and Cognitive Aptitudes in Ultimate Second Language Attainment

博士论文研究：最终第二语言成就的年龄差异和认知能力

• 批准号: 1124126
• 负责人: Michael Long
• 金额: $ 1.07万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1124126&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Age; Differences

Very high-level, functional ability in foreign languages is increasingly important in many walks of life -- from business and science to diplomacy and national security. It is also very rare, and an early start and/or a special talent, or aptitude, for languages is believed to be necessary. Language aptitude is defined as a combination of cognitive/perceptual abilities measurable on a standardized test and advantageous in second language (L2) acquisition. Language aptitude has been related to variation in ultimate attainment (i.e., long-term differences in acquisition) in both classroom and immersion settings. This research will investigate the extent to which aptitude for explicit language learning, defined as "language analytic ability," and implicit language learning, defined as "sequence learning ability," are differentially important, as measured by performance on tasks that involve either controlled or automatic use of L2 knowledge. There will be three groups of subjects: a control group of Spanish native speakers, and two groups of Chinese immigrants, long-term residents of Spain, who learned Spanish (a typologically very different L2) naturalistically, and whose first sustained exposure was either as children (ages 3 and 6) or adults (after 15). Previous studies have relied on single measures of aptitude, weighted heavily in favor of cognitive abilities that allow for explicit learning (thought to be the primary adult learning process, as opposed to implicit learning by children), and single measures of attainment that favored controlled use of L2 knowledge. To correct for this, a metalinguistic knowledge test and a word-monitoring task, as well as four grammaticality judgment tests, will be used to assess the Chinese learners' Spanish under different conditions of time pressure (pressured/unpressured) and modality (visual/auditory). The results will help clarify the relative importance of starting age and type of language aptitude (explicit or implicit) for learners who need to achieve advanced L2 proficiency.

在各行各业中，从商业和科学到外交和国家安全，外语的高水平实用能力越来越重要。这也是非常罕见的，早期的开始和/或特殊的天赋，或天资，语言被认为是必要的。语言能力倾向被定义为在标准化测试中可测量的认知/感知能力的组合，并且在第二语言（L2）习得中具有优势。语言能力倾向与最终成就的变化有关（即，长期差异的收购）在课堂和沉浸设置。本研究将探讨在何种程度上的显式语言学习的能力，定义为“语言分析能力”，和隐式语言学习，定义为“序列学习能力”，是不同的重要性，作为衡量的任务，涉及控制或自动使用的L2知识的表现。将有三组受试者：一组以西班牙语为母语的对照组，以及两组中国移民，西班牙的长期居民，他们自然地学习西班牙语（一种类型上非常不同的L2），第一次持续接触是在儿童（3岁和6岁）或成人（15岁后）。以前的研究都依赖于单一的能力倾向的措施，偏重于认知能力，允许外显学习（被认为是主要的成人学习过程，而不是儿童的内隐学习），和单一的措施，有利于控制使用的L2知识的成就。为了纠正这一现象，本研究采用元语言知识测试和词汇监控任务，以及四个语法判断测试来评估中国学习者在不同时间压力（有压力/无压力）和情态（视觉/听觉）条件下的西班牙语水平。研究结果将有助于阐明起始年龄和语言能力类型（显性或隐性）对于需要达到高级L2水平的学习者的相对重要性。