Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dynamics of language processing and the consequences for new language learning

随着美国的经济、社会和文化继续参与更大的全球文化，学习其他国家的语言以及改善对抵达美国的家庭教授英语作为第二语言的方法变得越来越重要。儿童似乎比成年人更擅长学习新语言，而成年人在最终学习一门新语言的效果方面却有很大的不同。几十年来，研究一直试图了解为什么成年人在学习新语言时遇到更多困难，以及与不太成功的语言学习者相比，好的语言学习者的特征是什么，以便我们可以利用这些信息来改进教学方法。从这项研究中，我们已经了解了某些因素如何影响新语言学习的结果，但大部分的可变性仍然没有得到解释，这表明仍然缺少一块拼图。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Kinsey Bice女士将在Judith Kroll博士的指导下研究学习中的个体差异如何影响新的第二语言学习模式。目前的项目将研究以前的语言经验如何与一般认知资源相结合，以影响新语言学习的轨迹。先前的研究已经确定了母语处理方式的差异，这些差异可能有助于新语言学习的轨迹（即，快速和缓慢的语言学习者），并且这也可能受到说话者如何运用认知的各个方面（例如，工作记忆，模式抽象）处理他们的母语时。这个项目将研究这些差异在熟练的语言处理预测新的语言学习的轨迹，以及是否差异与非语言能力的变化。双语者已经有学习一种新语言的经验，并且不像单语者那样使用任何一种语言，以前曾被发现更善于学习新语言，但双语者在许多方面都不同，影响他们的语言学习成果。这个项目将比较单语者和双语者如何处理他们熟练的语言以及他们如何学习新语言。行为方法和脑电位将被用来确定大脑是否反映了一些仅在行为中不明显的学习过程。测试的双语者将是典型的正在上高级外语课程的大学生，以及在讲西班牙语的家庭长大但接受英语教育的传统西班牙语使用者。这两组双语者代表了美国公民自己经常遇到的语言体验，而单语组将从美国不同地区招募，这些地区的外语环境暴露水平不同。

As the economy, society, and culture of the United States continue to take part in a larger global culture, it is becoming more important to learn languages spoken in other countries, as well as to improve the methods for teaching English as a second language to the families arriving to the United States. Children appear to be better at learning new languages than adults, who instead have very mixed outcomes in how well they ultimately learn a new language. For decades, research has attempted to understand why adults experience more difficulty in learning new languages and what characterizes good language learners compared to less successful language learners, so that we can use this information to improve teaching methods. From this research, we have learned how certain factors contribute to the outcomes in new language learning, but much of the variability remains unaccounted for, suggesting that there is still a piece of the puzzle missing. With National Science Foundation support, Ms. Kinsey Bice, working under the direction of Dr. Judith Kroll, will investigate how individual differences in learning may shape patterns of new second language learning.The current project will examine how previous language experience combines with general cognitive resources to affect the trajectory of new language learning. Previous research has identified differences in the way that the native language is processed that may contribute to the trajectory of new language learning (i.e., fast and slow language learners), and that may also be affected by how speakers recruit various aspects of cognition (e.g., working memory, pattern abstraction) when processing their native language. This project will examine how these differences in skilled language processing predict the trajectory of new language learning, as well as whether the differences are related to variation in non-language abilities. Bilingual speakers, who already have experience with learning a new language and who do not use either language exactly as monolingual speakers do, have previously been found to be better at acquiring new languages, but bilinguals differ from each other in many ways that affect their language learning outcomes. This project will compare both monolingual and bilingual speakers in how they process their skilled languages and how they learn new languages. Behavioral methods and brain potentials will be used to determine whether the brain reflects some learning processes that are not apparent in behavior alone. The bilinguals tested will be typical college students who are taking advanced foreign language classes, as well as heritage Spanish speakers who are raised in Spanish-speaking homes but then educated in English. These two groups of bilinguals represent language experiences that American citizens often encounter themselves, while the monolingual groups will be recruited from parts of the United States that differ in the levels of ambient exposure to foreign languages.