Mechanisms to support word learning in a non-native language

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在俄勒冈大学的Melissa M. Baese-Berk博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家研究影响成年后语言学习的过程。我们可以毫不费力地将kvetch和谷歌这样的新词融入到母语结构中，但在学习成人语言中的单词结构时，我们要困难得多。像阿拉伯语这样的语言对于说英语的人来说是一个特别的挑战，因为它的构词过程与英语截然不同：例如，book和cat在英语中变成了books和cats， kitaab（书）和qitta（猫）在阿拉伯语中变成了kutub（书）和qitaat（猫）。哪些因素会影响我们成年后学习这些语言模式的效果？通过更多地了解影响成人词汇学习的因素，并探索成人在学习语言的早期阶段所犯的错误类型，我们可以对语言学习在完全发育的成年人大脑中是如何发生的有更细致的看法。这项研究还将为语言习得中的一个关键理论问题提供见解：为什么我们能够在一生中继续学习和整合母语中的新单词，但在我们成年后习得的语言中却很难学习像母语一样的单词结构特征？本文提出的三种操作方法利用了二语课堂中常见的技巧和局限性，以便更好地将现有的加工心理语言学文献与现有的二语习得和教育学文献联系起来。提出的项目使用人工语法学习范式，该范式包含不同的构词法模式，同时测试了不同的学习场景。这将为我们提供关于哪种情景对单词学习最有效的进一步知识，并可以纳入课堂教学法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Melissa M. Baese-Berk at the University of Oregon, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating processes that affect language learning as an adult. We effortlessly incorporate new words like kvetch and Google into our native language structure, but we have much more difficulty learning how words are structured in the languages we learn as adults. Languages like Arabic present a particular challenge for English speakers to learn due to its word formation processes being dramatically different from English: for example, while book and cat become books and cats in English, kitaab (book) and qitta (cat) become kutub (books) and qitaat (cats) in Arabic. Which factors affect how well we learn these patterns in languages that we learn as adults?By knowing more about the factors that influence adult word learning and exploring the types of errors that adults make in the early stages of learning a language, we can develop a more nuanced view of how language learning happens in the fully developed adult mind. This research will also provide insight into one of the key theoretical questions in language acquisition: Why are we able to continue learning and integrating new words in our primary language throughout our lifespan, but have difficulty learning nativelike structural properties of words in languages we acquire as adults? The three proposed manipulations take advantage of common techniques and limitations in the second language classroom to better connect the existing psycholinguistics literature in processing and the existing second language acquisition and pedagogy literature. The proposed project uses an artificial grammar learning paradigm that incorporates different word formation patterns while different learning scenarios are tested. This will provide us with further knowledge about which of the scenarios are most effective for word learning, and can be incorporated into classroom pedagogy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.