Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using eye-tracking to study auditory comprehension in codeswitching: Evidence for the link between production and comprehension

在其他双语者在场的情况下，双语者从事一种称为代码转换的语言技能，其定义为在同一对话中两种或两种以上语言之间的流畅交替(例如“厄尔尼诺现象”)。三十年的研究表明，密码转换是系统性的，而不是随机性的，一度被认为是两种语言都缺乏能力的标志。以往的研究主要从理论和社会语言学的角度研究语码转换的产生，而对语码转换言语的理解研究较少。然而，这对理解系统来说是有严重后果的。虽然生产是在说话人的控制下进行的，但听者必须实时无缝地整合多种语言，才能成功地理解代码切换的语音。豪尔赫·瓦尔德·S·克罗夫在保拉·杜西亚斯和奇普·格芬博士的指导下，将进行一系列实验，以调查在生产中出现频率更高的代码开关是否更容易被双语者理解。他们将利用语码转换名词短语中存在的语法性别来研究这个问题，并将使用一种被称为视觉世界范式的眼球跟踪方法。参与者被展示在视觉场景中的对象，同时听着命名其中一个对象的短语。通过研究眼球运动的模式，研究人员能够对语音理解的时间过程做出推断。这一系列研究通过具体测试语言使用和接触对理解系统如何处理语言有关键影响的假设，为检验产生和理解之间的联系提供了理想的测试基础。此外，对美国西班牙语-英语双语者的关注将为我们社会中这一比例极低但越来越明显的群体提供重要信息，并对教育和认知领域的语言政策产生影响。

Bilinguals in the presence of other bilinguals engage in a linguistic skill known as codeswitching, defined as the fluid alternation between two or more languages within the same conversation (e.g. "El niño está reading el book"). Once thought to be a sign of lack of competence in either language, three decades of research has revealed that codeswitching is systematic and not random. Previous research has mainly studied the production of codeswitching both from theoretical and sociolinguistic perspectives, leaving the comprehension of codeswitched speech an understudied area of inquiry. Yet there are critical consequences for the comprehension system. Whereas production is under the control of the speaker, a listener must seamlessly integrate multiple languages in real time in order to successfully comprehend codeswitched speech. Jorge Valdés Kroff, under the supervision of Drs. Paola Dussias and Chip Gerfen, will conduct a series of experiments to investigate whether codeswitches that are more frequent in production are easier to comprehend for bilinguals. They will capitalize on the presence of grammatical gender in codeswitched noun phrases to investigate this question and will use an eye-tracking methodology known as the visual world paradigm. Participants are shown objects in a visual scene while listening to a phrase that names one of the objects. By examining the pattern of eye movements, researchers are able make inferences on the timecourse of comprehension of speech. This line of research provides an ideal testing ground for examining the link between production and comprehension by specifically testing the hypothesis that language use and exposure have critical consequences for how the comprehension system processes language. Furthermore, the focus on Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S. will provide important information on a vastly underrepresented yet increasingly visible sector of our society with implications for language policy in education and cognition in general.