Mechanisms underlying the impact of dialect mismatch on spoken language comprehension

项目摘要/摘要 口语理解要求语言信息与交际信息相结合 意图和社会文化信息(说话人身份)。这一过程通常相对容易展开，但可以 被语音信号中的可变性(例如，背景噪声)和社会文化差异(例如， 演讲者竞赛)。正是这种干扰是演讲学生面临的挑战的特征 在家里学习非裔美国人英语(AAE)，但在学校必须理解通用美国英语(GAE)。 在家说AAE的学生经历了方言不匹配，存在语言差异 AAE和教学方言，几乎总是GAE。方言不匹配已显示为 对口语理解有负面影响，但这种关系的基础机制仍然存在 不清楚。这些后果传统上被解释为信号退化，在这种情况下 感知分析比较困难(感知成本假说)。然而，口语 理解不仅仅是感性的分析。另一种解释，认知信任假说 假设方言不匹配对口语理解的影响也源于社会文化 对话伙伴之间的差异。本研究的主要目的是评估效度。 认知性信任假说。 使用视觉世界范式，方言不匹配和群体成员关系对 7-9岁学习AAE或AAE的儿童将评估对字面意义和意图意义的理解 盖伊。为了评估方言不匹配对口语理解的影响，孩子们将听到 用熟悉和陌生的英语方言造句。为了评估认知信任的作用，句子将 与不同种族演讲者的视觉形象配对，以传达组内或组外成员身份。目标 1考察了方言和组员对语义预测的影响。目标2考察了 方言和群体成员对儿童语用推理技能的影响，特别是对标量含义的影响。 总的来说，这两项研究创新性地回答了方言不匹配如何影响的问题 口语理解能力。传统的解释侧重于感知成本，这导致了 发展方言转换课程。然而，口语理解不仅仅是感性的 分析并需要集成说话人的意图，当既有方言又有 社会文化差异。所提出的研究直接检验了认知信任假说的有效性。如果这个 假设得到支持，那么这将表明也考虑认知性信任的课程可能更好 适合于解决与方言不匹配相关的教育后果。

Project Summary/Abstract Spoken language comprehension requires the integration of linguistic information with communicative intent and sociocultural information (speaker identity). This process usually unfolds with relative ease but can be disrupted by variability in the speech signal (e.g., background noise) and sociocultural differences (e.g., speaker race). It is these kinds of disruptions that characterize the challenges faced by students who speak African American English (AAE) at home, but have to comprehend General American English (GAE) at school. Students who speak AAE at home experience dialect mismatch, the presence of linguistic differences between AAE and the dialect of instruction, which is almost always GAE. Dialect mismatch has been shown to negatively impact spoken language comprehension, but the mechanisms that underlie this relationship remain unclear. These consequences have been traditionally explained in terms of signal degradation, in which perceptual analysis is more difficult (perceptual costs hypothesis). However, spoken language comprehension is more than perceptual analysis. An alternative explanation, the epistemic trust hypothesis posits that the effects of dialect mismatch on spoken language comprehension also arise from sociocultural differences between conversational partners. The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the validity of the epistemic trust hypothesis. Using the visual world paradigm, the effects of dialect mismatch and group membership on the comprehension of literal and intending meaning will be evaluated in 7- to 9-year-old children learning AAE or GAE. To evaluate the effects of dialect mismatch on spoken language comprehension, children will hear sentences in a familiar and unfamiliar dialect of English. To evaluate the role of epistemic trust, sentences will be paired with visual images of speakers of different races to convey in-group or out-group membership. Aim 1 examines the effect of dialect and group membership on semantic prediction. Aim 2 examines the effect of dialect and group membership on children’s pragmatic inferencing skills, specifically, scalar implicatures. Collectively, these two studies innovatively respond to the question of how dialect mismatch impacts spoken language comprehension. Traditional explanations focus on perceptual costs, which has resulted in the development of dialect-shifting curricula. However, spoken language comprehension is more than perceptual analysis and requires integration of speaker intent, which may be harder to do when there are both dialect and sociocultural differences. The studies proposed directly test the validity of the epistemic trust hypothesis. If this hypothesis is supported, then this would suggest that curricula that also consider epistemic trust may be better suited to address educational consequences associated with dialect mismatch.