Mechanisms to support word learning in a non-native language

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。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职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在俄勒冈大学梅丽莎·M·贝斯-伯克博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位早期职业科学家，他研究成年后影响语言学习的过程。我们毫不费力地将kvetch和google等新词融入到我们的母语结构中，但我们在学习成年后学习的语言中的单词结构方面要困难得多。阿拉伯语等语言对英语使用者的学习带来了特别的挑战，因为它的构词过程与英语截然不同：例如，在英语中，book和cat变成了book和cat，而kitaab(Book)和qitta(Cat)在阿拉伯语中变成了Kutub(Book)和qitaat(Cat)。哪些因素会影响我们在成人学习的语言中学习这些模式的效果？通过更多地了解影响成人单词学习的因素，并探索成年人在学习语言的早期阶段犯下的错误类型，我们可以对语言学习是如何在完全发育的成年人大脑中发生的产生更微妙的看法。这项研究还将为语言习得中的一个关键理论问题提供洞察：为什么我们能够在一生中继续学习和整合母语中的新词，但在成年后掌握的语言中的词的本土化结构特征却难以学习？这三种操作方法利用了第二语言课堂中常见的技巧和局限性，更好地将已有的心理语言学文献与已有的第二语言习得和教育学文献联系起来。拟议的项目使用了一种人工语法学习范式，该范式在测试不同的学习情景时结合了不同的构词模式。这将使我们进一步了解哪些情景对单词学习最有效，并可以纳入课堂教学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.