Behavioral and Neuroimaging Studies of Bilingual Reading

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的首要目标是了解阅读-以及双语儿童和成人阅读的核心认知，语音和句法过程的发展。在这里，我们调查的神经发育，神经系统和功能神经解剖学的双语阅读和伴随的认知能力，使用国家的最先进的神经影像学和行为技术。在教育、科学和双语家庭中，（什么年龄）让幼儿接触两种语言，什么时候以及如何最好地教这些孩子在他们的两种阅读系统中阅读，我们在这里解决：（1）双语接触是否会带来伴随的认知优势（如选择性地增强注意力和抑制能力），它的基础是什么，它是否积极地转移到其他学习领域，如阅读？(2)教双语儿童两种阅读系统是依次进行（先一种，然后另一种）还是同时进行（同时进行）最好？(3)双语儿童和成人的认知注意和抑制、语音和句法加工形成了他们两种语言中每一种阅读的核心，其神经发育的时间进程、功能神经解剖学和神经系统是什么？为了以最广泛的方式回答这些问题，我们的研究涉及美国和加拿大4个不同地区的儿童和成人，他们使用5种不同的世界语言，包括手语。这些研究的结果将提供基本的“循证”知识的众多变量（认知，语音，句法）的基础上熟练的阅读收购在年轻的双语和这些重要变量的发展轨迹预测更好的阅读的结果。这些研究可能会直接受益于教师，临床医生和双语儿童的父母，告诉我们什么时候以及如何最好地教年轻的双语儿童阅读，他们可能会从根本上影响美国阅读教学的教育政策。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching aim of the proposed research is to understand READING--and the development of the core cognitive, phonological, and syntactic processes that underlie reading-in BILINGUAL children, and adults. Here we investigate the neurodevelopment, neural systems, and functional neuroanatomy of bilingual reading and concomitant cognitive abilities using state-of-the-art neuroimaging and behavioral techniques. Much controversy exists in education, science, and bilingual homes regarding when (what age) to expose young children to two languages and when and how best to teach such children to read in each of their two reading systems, which we address here: (1) Does bilingual language exposure give rise to concomitant cognitive advantages (such as select enhancement of attention and inhibition abilities), what is its basis, and does it positively transfer to other domains of learning such as reading? (2) Is it best to teach bilingual children their two reading systems sequentially (first one, then the other) or at the same time (simultaneously)? (3) What is the neurodevelopmental time course, functional neuroanatomy, and neural systems underlying bilingual children and adults' cognitive attention and inhibition, phonological and syntactic processing that form the heart of reading in each of their two languages? To answer these questions in a manner that is most widely generalizable, our studies involve children and adults across 4 distinct regions of the United States and Canada, whom use among 5 different world languages, including sign languages. The results of these studies will provide fundamental "evidence-based" knowledge about the multitude of variables (cognitive, phonological, syntactic) underlying skilled reading acquisition in young bilinguals and the developmental trajectories of these important variables to predict better reading outcome. These studies may directly benefit teachers, clinicians, and parents of bilingual children by informing us about when and how best to teach reading to young bilinguals, and they may fundamentally impact educational policy on the teaching of reading in the United States.