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

根据美国人口普查局的数据，大约五分之一的美国人在家说英语以外的语言。随着科技的发展，以及美国工业与世界各地的人们联系在一起，即使只有一个手持设备，掌握一门以上语言的价值也变得越来越重要。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，而且会说多种语言通常是在经济、教育和专业领域取得成功的关键因素。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。学习另一门语言显然需要学习新的单词、声音和规则，但它也需要学习控制用第一门语言或主导语言思考和说话的自动倾向。这个研究项目直接考察了说话者是否、何时以及在多大程度上主动抑制他们的主导语言，以使他们能够说一门他们不太熟练的语言。需要测试的假设是，双语者在掌握一种更明显的主导语言和/或在帮助选择语言的线索更少的情况下，需要更多的抑制。为了验证这些假设，研究人员详细地进行了一系列行为实验，比较了不同的西班牙语-英语和希伯来语-英语双语者在产生和/或理解图片、名字、单个单词和完整句子时的表现。每个说话者的反应时间、说话时长和眼球运动将在单一语言和混合语言的语境中进行测量。这些任务之间的关系将有助于阐明抑制控制与双语语言能力之间的联系。在这些研究中获得的见解将有助于建立双语语言处理的理论模型，为改进第二语言习得和教学的理论驱动方法，以及评估和治疗不同类型双语者的认知和语言能力奠定基础。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。

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.