IBSS: Communication in the Global University: A Longitudinal Study of Language Adaptation at Multiple Timescales in Native and Non-Native Speakers

这个跨学科的研究项目将考察英语为母语和非英语为母语的人如何适应口音、语言知识和交流实践，这些口音、语言知识和交流实践在大型公立大学的背景下可能与他们自己的口音有明显的不同。该项目将探索大学课堂中交流的本质，在大学课堂中，大部分教学（特别是在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域）都是由非英语母语的教师提供的。该项目将提高以英语为母语和非英语为母语的人在社会交往中对基本语言表示、处理和使用的理解。该项目将通过解决与非母语人士发音相关的问题，以及一种语言的母语人士和非母语人士相互理解和适应的本质，为人类交流和语言发展的灵活适应过程提供新的信息和见解。该项目将有助于促进英语母语者和非英语母语者之间的交流。项目的研究结果将有助于那些从事开发和实施项目的人，以提高那些将作为教师的沟通技巧，他们可能有助于提高学生的能力，以更好地了解那些母语与自己不同的人，从而提高学生的学业成功和准备参加现代劳动力。虽然一个直接的目标是加强在大学课堂上的沟通，项目的发现将适用于任何情况下，其中跨文化沟通是至关重要的。调查人员将对大约150名新到美国的国际学生和1000多名以英语为母语的美国本科生进行纵向研究。该项目将以一个理论框架为基础，该框架认为成功的沟通从根本上说是协作的。目的是衡量、跟踪和提高国际助教的英语交流能力，以及本科生对外国口音英语的理解和适应能力，以及他们学习将一种口音的经验转移到另一种口音的能力。为了反映美国大学国际研究生的构成，研究中超过一半的国际助教将以中文为母语，其余的则以韩语、俄语和其他亚洲和欧洲语言为母语。多种分析方法将包括民族志观察和访谈、心理语言学和对话实验、自发和引出语言的语言分析、感知的电生理学研究、语言处理的眼动追踪研究和调查。数据将在多个时间尺度（通过对话、课堂、学期和国际助教在美国的头两年）和多个层面（从发音和对音段的感知，到词汇和句法的使用，到话语线索和策略，到交际规范、偏好和态度）从同一个人收集。我们将进行系统的比较，以了解哪些经验和互动可以促进英语母语者和非英语母语者之间的交流。从这个项目中得到的数据将为科学家们研究外语学习、语言加工和交际策略发展的长期影响提供新的机会。本项目由美国国家科学基金会跨学科行为与社会科学研究（IBSS）竞赛资助。

This interdisciplinary research project will examine how native and non-native speakers of English adapt to accents, linguistic knowledge, and communication practices that may differ markedly from their own in the context of a large public university. The project will explore the nature of communications in college classrooms, where much of the instruction (particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields) is provided by instructors who are not native speakers of English. The project will enhance understanding of basic language representations, processing, and use by native and non-native speakers of English engaged in social interaction. The project will generate new information and insights regarding the flexible adaptive processes that underlie human communication and language development by addressing issues associated with pronunciation by non-native speakers as well as the nature of mutual intelligibility and adaptation on the part of both native and non-native speakers of a language. The project will inform efforts to facilitate communication between native and non-native speakers of English. Project findings will be useful for those engaged in developing and implementing programs to improve communications skills of those who will serve as instructors, and they may help improve capabilities of students to better understand those whose native languages differ from their own, thereby improving the students' academic success and preparation to participate in the modern workforce. While an immediate aim is to enhance communication in the college classroom, project findings will be applicable to any situation in which cross-cultural communication is crucial.The investigators will conduct a longitudinal study involving approximately 150 international students newly arrived in the United States and more than 1,000 native-English-speaking American undergraduates. The project will be grounded in a theoretical framework that views successful communication as fundamentally collaborative. The goal is to measure, track, and improve not only the international teaching assistants' developing communication skills in English, but also the undergraduates' understanding of and adaptations to foreign-accented English as well as their ability to learn to transfer their experience of one accent to another. Reflecting the composition of international graduate students at U.S. universities, over half of the international teaching assistants in the study will be native speakers of Chinese, with the rest being native speakers of Korean, Russian, and other Asian and European languages. Multiple methods of analysis will include ethnographic observations and interviews, psycholinguistic and dialog experiments, linguistic analyses of spontaneous and elicited speech, electrophysiology studies of perception, eye tracking studies of language processing, and surveys. Data will be collected from the same individuals at multiple timescales (over conversations, class sessions, semesters, and international teaching assistants' first two years in the U.S.) and at multiple levels (from pronunciation and perception of phonetic segments, to use of vocabulary and syntax, to discourse cues and strategies, to communicative norms, preferences, and attitudes). Systematic comparisons will be made in order to learn which kinds of experiences and interactions can lead to enhanced communication between native and non-native English speakers. The data resulting from this project will provide new opportunities for scientists to examine long-term effects in foreign language learning, language processing, and the development of communicative strategies. This project is supported through the NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (IBSS) competition.