Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using ERPs to Track the Scope of Inhibition in Bilingual Speech

博士论文研究：利用 ERP 追踪双语言语的抑制范围

• 批准号: 1226471
• 负责人: Judith Kroll
• 金额: $ 1.78万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2015-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1226471&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Using; ERPs

With National Science Foundation support, Ms. Rhonda McClain will collect data for her doctoral dissertation under the direction of Dr. Judith Kroll and Dr. Eleonora Rossi. Speaking fluently in a second language is a notoriously difficult skill to develop as a late learner, presumably because the second language competes for selection with the native language. Current research demonstrates that bilinguals experience persistent activation of both languages even when speaking one language alone. A critical question is how bilinguals prevent speaking the more dominant or native language when trying to speak the second language. Recent studies have reported that the native language becomes inhibited, or suppressed, in order to speak in the second language. However, little is known about what type of information becomes inhibited in the native language. One possibility is that all of the words in one language are suppressed. Alternatively, a network of words that bear resemblance in meaning to each other become active or inhibited together. Another possibility is that specific words that had been spoken in the other language are inhibited. It is also unclear whether inhibition is momentary or long lasting. The planned experiments will test the scope of inhibition (what is inhibited) its time course (the duration of inhibition) by using electrophysiological measures that may provide a more sensitive index of the earliest moments of speech planning. A comparison of bilinguals and monolinguals will also determine whether the repeated requirement for bilinguals to inhibit their native or more dominant language confers expertise in the realm of inhibitory control relative to monolingual speakers.The funded research has a number of broader implications. It will contribute important foundational knowledge about multilingualism that will inform educational issues in a society in which many learners are faced with the task of acquiring a second language past the earliest stages of childhood and at risk for academic failure unless they acquire the second language rapidly. The inhibitory processes that are the target of the planned investigation hold implications for better understanding the ability of bilinguals to maintain the two languages under conditions that may support the use of only one language. The research will also contribute to the training of an increasingly diverse group of language scientists by including undergraduate research students who are themselves bilingual.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Rhonda McClain女士将在Judith Kroll博士和Eleonora Rossi博士的指导下收集其博士学位论文的数据。众所周知，用第二种语言说流利是一种很难发展的技巧，大概是因为第二语言竞争母语的选择。当前的研究表明，即使仅说一种语言，双语者也会经历两种语言的持续激活。一个关键的问题是，在试图说第二语言时，双语者如何阻止说更占主导地位或母语。最近的研究报告说，母语被抑制或抑制，以便用第二语言发言。但是，对于母语抑制了哪种类型的信息，知之甚少。一种可能性是一种语言中的所有单词都被抑制了。另外，具有相似意义的单词网络彼此变得活跃或抑制。另一种可能性是抑制了用其他语言说的特定词。尚不清楚抑制是短暂的还是持久的。计划的实验将通过使用可能提供最早的语音计划时刻更敏感指数的电生理学措施来测试其时间过程（抑制持续时间）的抑制范围（抑制持续时间）。双语者和单语言的比较还将决定双语者抑制其本地语言的重复要求是否赋予相对于单语言者的抑制控制领域的专业知识。资助的研究具有许多更广泛的含义。它将为多种语言做出重要的基础知识，这将在一个社会中为教育问题提供依据，在这个社会中，许多学习者面临着在童年的最早阶段获得第二语言的任务，除非他们迅速获得第二语言，否则就会有学术失败的风险。计划调查的目标的抑制过程具有更好地理解双语者在可能仅支持一种语言的条件下维护两种语言的能力的含义。这项研究还将通过包括本科本身是双语的本科生研究学生来为越来越多的语言科学家培训。