Spontaneous Code Switching

描述(申请人提供)：许多精通双语的人会自发地进行代码转换，在相互交谈时流畅地在两种语言之间交替。研究双语者语言转换的实验方法一致地揭示了转换的成本(即更长的命名时间)。实验证据与两种语言在自发语码转换中的无缝整合和使用频率不一致。这项建议旨在研究支持在说和听过程中整合两种语言能力的认知和神经过程。在这样做的过程中，我们将开发一种新的fMRI方法，它利用与实验者-邦联成员的参考沟通任务。英语单语者的发展阶段将提炼和优化新方法的方法参数和分析。实验1将使用这种新的对话范式来测试同时也是美国拉丁裔人口的西班牙语-英语双语者。双语受试者将与来自同一人群的双语实验者完成参照交际任务，从而为自发的语码转换设置合适的对话语境。分析将探讨自发语码转换的产生和理解的神经关联。在实验2中，相同的双语个体也将使用fMRI完成一项线索语言转换任务。实验1和实验2的结果将被用来比较自发代码转换和线索语言转换之间的神经重叠。一种专注于双语者自发对话的新的神经成像技术的发展将极大地促进语言研究人员普遍可用的方法论工具，更重要的是，它将把研究重点扩大到在语言科学中一直被低估的少数民族语言和方言言语行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many highly proficient bilinguals engage in spontaneous code-switching, fluidly alternating between their two languages when conversing with each other. Experimental methods that have investigated language switching in bilinguals consistently reveal costs (i.e. longer naming times) to switching. The experimental evidence stands at odds with the seamless integration and frequency of use of both languages in spontaneous code-switching. This proposal aims to investigate the cognitive and neural processes that support the ability to integrate both languages during speaking and listening. In so doing, we will develop a new fMRI method that makes use a referential communication task with an experimenter-confederate. A developmental phase with English monolinguals will refine and optimize the methodological parameters and analyses of the new method. Experiment 1 will use this new conversational paradigm to test Spanish-English bilinguals who are also members of the U.S. Latino population. Bilingual subjects will complete the referential communication task with a bilingual experimenter from the same population thus setting an appropriate conversation context for spontaneous code-switching. Analyses will investigate the neural correlates of the production and comprehension of spontaneous code-switching. In Experiment 2, the same bilingual individuals will complete a cued language switching task also with fMRI. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 will be analyzed to compare the neural overlap between spontaneous code-switching and cued language switching. The development of a new neuroimaging technique that focuses on spontaneous conversation in bilinguals will significantly contribute to the methodological tools available to language researchers generally, and more importantly, it will broaden the research focus to minority language and dialect speech acts that have been underrepresented in the language sciences.