NSF-BSF: The Dominance Shift in Mixed-Language Production vs. Comprehension

根据美国人口普查局的数据，美国大约五分之一的人在家里说英语以外的语言。随着技术的发展，掌握一门以上语言的价值变得越来越重要，美国工业与世界各地的个人建立了联系，即使只是一个手持设备。会说多种语言的人有更大的潜力与更广泛的受众或客户群建立联系，会说多种语言通常是经济，教育和专业领域成功的关键因素。因此，非常需要了解人们如何获得，维护和熟练地在语言之间切换。学习另一种语言显然需要学习新的单词、声音和规则，但也需要学习控制用第一种语言或主导语言思考和说话的自动倾向。该研究项目直接考察说话者是否、何时以及在多大程度上主动抑制他们的主导语言，以使他们能够说一种他们不太熟练的语言。 有待检验的假设是，更多的抑制需要双语扬声器与一个更明显的优势语言和/或当较少的线索，以帮助语言选择。为了验证这些假设，研究人员详细介绍了一系列行为实验，这些实验比较了不同的西班牙语-英语与希伯来语-英语双语者，因为他们产生和/或理解图片，名称，单个单词和完整的句子。每个演讲者的反应时间，口语持续时间和眼球运动将在单一和混合语言的情况下进行测量。这些任务之间的关系将有助于澄清抑制控制和双语语言水平之间的联系。在拟议的研究中获得的见解将有助于双语语言处理的理论模型，奠定基础，需要改善理论驱动的方法，第二语言习得和教学，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估来支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about one in five people in the US speak a language other than English at home. The value of knowing more than one language is becoming increasingly relevant as technology develops and US industry connects with individuals all over the world, even with just a handheld device. People who speak multiple languages have greater potential to connect with a broader audience or customer base and speaking more than one language is often a key component for success in economic, educational, and professional realms. Hence, there is a great need to understand how people acquire, maintain, and proficiently switch among languages. Learning another language obviously requires learning new words, sounds, and rules, but it also requires learning to control the automatic tendency to think and speak in the first-learned or dominant language. This research program directly examines whether, when, and by how much speakers actively inhibit their dominant language to enable speaking a language in which they are less proficient. Hypotheses to be tested are that more inhibition is required for bilingual speakers with one more clearly dominant language and/or when fewer cues are present to aid language selection. To test these hypotheses, the investigators detail a series of behavioral experiments that compare different Spanish-English vs. Hebrew-English bilingual speakers as they produce and/or comprehend pictures, names, single words, and full sentences. Each speaker's response times, spoken word durations, and eye movements will be measured in single and mixed-language contexts. Relationships among these tasks will help clarify links between inhibitory control and bilingual language proficiency. The insights gained in the proposed studies will contribute to theoretical models of bilingual language processing, laying the groundwork needed to improve theory-driven approaches to second language acquisition and teaching, and for assessment and treatment of cognitive and linguistic abilities in diverse types of bilinguals.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.